Is Recession Preparing a New Breed of Survivalist? [Survival Today

I think you will understand though when I say that daddy’s family always seemed like “hollow people” to me as a child. They didn’t tell the stories of heritage and didn’t have skills to pass on. Even as a child I knew I should be recieving something from them but they were empty. Nice folks, just no depth.<<<

Yes, we have some of those in my family, odd how people seem to be able to go through life and not be touched by it.

Few in my family understand why I bother to keep learning, even knowing that my time is limited.

Learning always excited me.

The only time that I ever wanted to be a ‘liberated ‘ woman, was when some people would come to visit and the men would go off and talk mining and ranching, and I was stuck with the wife, helping her relive each child’s birth and every time “he” did something wrong, or how much money they spent on ‘stuff’.

I tried recipes and got lots of Hamburger Helper type answers.

Not like the San Diego County Gardening society lunches, where I once made a pig out of myself, with a hamburger/macaroni dish that had a tomato sauce.

I asked the cook why I was eating so much of it, as I am not a hamburger fan......her answer was simple “When you put the tomatoes in a dish, you must also add Cumin, Fennel, Oregano and Basil, plus the normal garlic and onions.

Something that I still do today.

http://www.whfoods.com/foodadvisor.php

Food Advisor Helps You Find the Foods that are Right for You

Answering our short questionnaire will help analyze your nutritional status and provide you with information regarding the nutrients which may be found deficient in your diet as well as recommendations for which foods and recipes will help fulfill your nutritional needs. The results are as accurate as your responses to the questions. Be sure to fill out the questionnaire as accurately as possible and avoid underestimating your food intake.

We’ve created a questionnaire that is different from what you might expect. Many of the foods that you might currently be eating - especially processed foods, fast foods, desserts, treats, and snacks - are not even included in the questionnaire. The only foods we’ve listed are what we call the World’s Healthiest Foods. These foods are unusually rich in nutrients. Part of the reason we call them the World’s Healthiest Foods is that you don’t have to eat large amounts of them to obtain a significant amount and variety of nutrients.

Our belief at the World’s Healthiest Foods is that the more you can rely on the foods we list to provide your nourishment, the healthier you will become. Our Food Advisor will go on to suggest which nutrients are most likely to be deficient in your current meals, and to provide recommendations for obtaining these nutrients from foods and recipes. When the Food Advisor provides these recommendations, it is able to take into account your gender, age, and ethnicity if you have provided this information. In this way, the Food Advisor can give you a personalized set of food recommendations from a short questionnaire and move you along your way to a healthier meal plan!

Health Benefits of Honey and Cinnamon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q. What is the only food that doesn’t spoil?
A. Honey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is found that a mixture of Honey and Cinnamon cures most of the diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Ayurvedic as well as Yunani medicine have been using honey as a vital medicine for centuries. Scientists of today also accept honey as a very effective medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases. Today’s science says that even though honey is sweet, if taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm diabetic patients.

Weekly World News, a magazine in Canada, on its issue dated 17 January, 1995 has given the following list of diseases that can be cured by Honey and Cinnamon as researched by western scientists.

HEART DISEASES: Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread, chappati, or other bread, instead of jelly and jam and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack. Also those who already had an attack, if they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack.

Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heartbeat. In America and Canada, various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as age the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalizes the arteries and veins.

INSECT BITES: Take one part honey to two parts of lukewarm water and add a small teaspoon of cinnamon powder, make a paste and massage it on the itching part of the body slowly. It is noticed that the pain recedes within a minute or two.

ARTHRITIS: Arthritis patients may take daily, morning and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured.

In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week out of the 200 people so treated practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.

HAIR LOSS: Those suffering from hair loss or baldness, may apply a paste of hot olive oil, one tablespoon of honey, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder before bath and keep it for approx. 15 min. and then wash the hair. It was found to be effective even if kept on for 5 minutes.

BLADDER INFECTIONS: Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.

TOOTHACHE: Make a paste of one teaspoon of cinnamon powder and five teaspoons of honey and apply on the aching tooth. This may be applied 3 times a day till the tooth stops aching.

CHOLESTEROL: Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder
mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, given to a cholesterol patient, was found to
reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10% within 2 hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, if taken 3 times a day, any Chronic cholesterol is cured. As per information received in the said journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.

COLDS: Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for 3 days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold and clear the sinuses.

http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/honeyandcinnamon.html

Yep, she was 14. And she was wanting to grow up. and out.<<<

Laughing with you, she will kill you if she ever finds your post.

I wonder if it would make a goats bag larger?

Eating an herb that is good for you, is a better idea than my daughters bright idea.

She took all my silk head and neck scarves and stuffed them in her blouse.

LOL, she came home from school and I asked why my scarf’s were showing at the top of the blouse and she did not think it was funny at all.

Traverse the settling of the United States with the Bell Family. Follow them from just after the Revolution, over the Trail of Tears to the 1849 Gold Rush of California, through battles of the Civil War in Indian Territory and Arkansas.<<<<

That will be an interesting book, thanks for the link, I have bookmarked it.

I did not see my family names, but did see some that I have known in the past.

Ingredients

* 1/4 cup mayonnaise
* 1/4 cup minced onion
* 2 eggs, lightly beaten
* 1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
* 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1 lb lump crabmeat, picked over
* 1 cup finely crushed soda cracker
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* lemon wedge, for serving

Directions

1.

In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise, onion, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, salt and cayenne pepper. Fold in the crabmeat and 1/4 cup of the cracker crumbs. Shape the mixture into 16 cakes about 1 inch thick. Coat the crab cakes with the remaining cracker crumbs and transfer to a baking sheet lined with wax paper.
2.

In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in 2 tablespoons of the oil. When the foam subsides, add half of the crab cakes and cook over moderate heat until golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Drain the crab cakes on paper towels and keep them warm in a low oven. Cook the remaining crab cakes in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons oil. Serve with lemon wedges.

” Whatever Floats Your Boat” Brownies!
Ingredients

* 1/2 cup butter, melted
* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla
* 1/2 cup flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT

* 1-2 cup chocolate chips (semisweet, white, butterscotch, peanut butter) or raisins or chopped maraschino cherry or chopped nuts or M&M’ or Reese’s pieces or miniature marshmallow

Directions

1.
1
Preheat oven to 350°F.
2.
2
Grease an 8 inch square pan or line with foil.
3.
3
In a medium bowl combine melted butter and cocoa and stir until cocoa is dissolved.
4.
4
Add sugar and mix well.
5.
5
Add eggs one at a time and stir until well combined.
6.
6
Stir in vanilla, flour and salt until you no longer see any flour (do not overmix).
7.
7
Fold in “WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT”!
8.
8
Spread in pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes.
9.
9
DO NOT OVER-BAKE — your brownies will come out dry. Adjust time/temp accordingly for your oven. If you do the knife/toothpick test, it should come out with moist crumbs, not clean.
10.
10
Cool completely before cutting into squares.
11.
11
For vegetarian omit the marshmallows.
12.
12
For double recipe, bake in 9x12 pan and add 5 minutes to baking time.

I won’t take the “which food is good for you test”, as I am happy to get food and to add any special requirements to the shopping that I ask Scott to do, might be the final straw.

He hates shopping and once the basket is full, he is done, forget the rest of the list.

I used honey on the goats udders, if they got it cut, it heals in a hurry and does not leave chemicals in their milk.

I will try the honey and cinnamon on toast, as I have always like cinnamon toast.

Thanks for the info.

I might try that combo myself :)

I took the test only to find out I’m not eating properly. LOL

As someone who has personal chef/caterer on her resume I hate cooking at home.

[My favorite kind, I read the Ruth Stout books many years ago.
granny]

http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/

No Dig Gardens
Clean, green and chemical free
No dig gardens are the quickest, easiest way to get home grown vegetables on your dinner table.

No dig gardening or a raised garden bed, consists of layering organic materials on top of the soil to create a nutrient rich environment for your plants, in this case, vegetables.
Sun smiling

No matter what your location, no dig vegetable gardens are an option for you.

The garden literally composts the materials while feeding the plants.

Monthly tips and gardening advice
February’s Diggers Rest now online!
Join the Diggers Rest online newsletter and get the latest information on how
to grow (almost) anything you want to eat under the sun. There’s also a great recipe on how to use your garden produce in each issue.

A raised garden bed means that it doesn’t matter what sort of soil you currently have. Simply layer materials over the top of your surface and start growing!

Benefits of a no dig garden or raised garden bed:

# They’re easy to build (a morning’s work!)

# They’re virtually maintenance free.

# They mirror nature to create a rich, organic environment for your plants.

# They can be built anywhere, any time to any design.

Gardening is sublime. It’s where you can enjoy the wonder of nature close up and personally... no matter where you are. Don’t let the current
quality of your soil hold you back.

You will need a sunny space and a flat surface. Beyond that, just add a few ingredients and you’re on your way.

So let’s get growing!

Web no-dig-vegetablegarden.com

Plan a Vegetable Garden
Take the time to properly plan a vegetable garden for maximum success. Climate, growing season and aspect will all have an impact.

Building a vegetable garden
Simple instructions on building a vegetable garden for success no matter where you live or the condition of your soil. Fresh veggies from garden to table in as little as 8 weeks.

Vegetable seedlings
A guide to preparing vegetable seedlings for the no dig vegetable garden. Seeds need air and water to germinate.

Sowing guides
Calendar sowing guides for the most popular vegetables in both the northern and southern hemispheres!

List of Vegetables
This list of vegetables to grow shows you how to plant vegetables and all the tips needed for growing vegetable plants and seed varieties.

Container Vegetable Gardens
Guidelines for how to create container vegetable gardens for those with no yard.

Raised Vegetable Garden
Simply a fabulous, natural short cut; that’s what a raised vegetable garden is, and it includes: no-dig, no-till, lasagna, straw bale, and square foot gardening.

Crop Rotation
A quick guide on the benefits of crop rotation in the vegetable garden and a sample outline plan.

Growing Herbs
Use no dig gardening methods for growing herbs. Get an instant herb garden with great results

Other Gardens
How to use no dig gardening methods for other gardens such as flowers and fruit.

Gardening for Kids
Some quick and easy gardening for kids projects to inspire the gardeners of tomorrow!

Composting
Close the nature loop by composting your vegetable waste into new garden material.

Companion Planting
Companion planting is all about which plants help each other in the garden. Find out which combinations work to control pests and increase yields.

Organic Garden Pest Control
Organic garden pest control is safe and easy when you use these natural, biological and non-toxic solutions.

Beneficial Garden Insects
Here’s how beneficial garden insects can really help your garden. Encouraging good garden bugs brings great rewards

Vertical Gardens
If you have a space problem in your garden, vertical gardens could be the answer.

Garden Tools
Some tips on purchasing and maintaining the best garden tools to suit you.

Preserves
You can make preserves from your home grown vegetables by canning, freezing or dehydrating them allowing you to use them in a whole range of ways.

Vegetable Recipes
Quick and easy vegetable recipes for your fresh garden produce in a range of styles.

Vegetable Gardening Tips
A growing resource of vegetable gardening tips and tricks contributed by other gardeners.

Reflections on Nature
There are things that happen in the garden and our world that are not always able to be explained. Reflections on Nature looks at some of them and offers... some reflections.

Best Gardening Books
The best gardening books I’ve found for growing vegetables, herbs and everything to do with organics.

Diggers Rest
Opt-in ezine subscription page for no dig vegetable gardening.

These herbal posts are great!!

http://permaculture.org.au/

http://permaculture.org.au/2009/02/05/colony-collapse-disorder-a-moment-for-reflection/#more-1072

Colony Collapse Disorder - a Moment for Reflection
Biodiversity, Food Shortages, GMOs, Health & Disease, Insects — by Craig Mackintosh

Preamble: The issue of massive bee die-offs was hot in the mainstream media news last year, but now it seems they’ve moved on to more ‘interesting’ things…. Despite the lack of recent coverage, this extremely serious issue is not going away. About a year and a half ago I wrote the article below, and since the content of the post is still very relevant, and as it attracted a lot of attention at the time (before the administrators lost them all through website adjustments, it had attracted more than 200 comments - from beekeepers, scientists, gardeners and other interested people), I thought I’d post it again here to bring some attention back to this subject. The beautiful thing about Permaculture is it is completely holistic in nature. Industry and reductionist science tend to look at things in isolation, thus never seeing the bigger picture. The article below is an attempt to join the dots. Unless we take a broad view of the impacts of our industrial systems, we will never find solutions to such potentially cataclysmic problems as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Our previous posts on the mysterious bee disappearances have been a very interesting exercise. We’ve had great feedback from farmers, amateur and professional beekeepers, scientists, and dozens of other interested/concerned observers. In the meantime, accumulating reports tell us that the problem is not constrained to the U.S. alone - but that, to one degree or another, empty hives are becoming common in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Poland, and now the UK.

Personally, I believe situations like this are an opportune moment for reflection - a time to humbly consider a few realities, and perhaps learn a few lessons. Of significance to me is the fact that scientists haven’t got this figured out as yet. It begs the question - which is easier, when dealing with the infinitely complex interactions of nature: 1) predicting specific consequences to our ‘tinkering’ before they occur, or 2) understanding how something happened after-the-fact? I would have thought the latter was the easiest - you know the old saying, “hindsight is a wonderful thing”. Looking back at the results, following the trail of clues, is a lot less challenging than postulating over what could happen. Or, to put it into a framework that might be better understood - if Sherlock Holmes, expert in crime scene deductions, were to turn his attention to predicting crimes rather than solving them, how would he have fared? Short of the kind of psychic predictive skills seen in Minority Report-type science fiction movies, I don’t expect he’d fare so well.

What am I on about, you ask? Simply this - too many people hand scientists the keys to the car, as it were, and bid them take it wherever their employer wishes. Our governments do this, and too many either encourage it, or stand by and let it happen. When the PR departments that front these scientists portray a glorious new world where man manages to, with perfect and meticulous coordination, juggle all the intricacies of the natural world in one hand, whilst cashing in on it and providing world peace and equality with the other - we believe it. Yet, how can we have so much confidence in their ability to read the future, when they are unable to decipher the past and present - a task that should be a damned sight simpler, no?

As Australians are benefiting from an export boom in bees to the U.S., and while the best recommendations from the groups that have been tasked with finding solutions to these problems are to advise which chemicals to use and which not to (PDF), I will list some of the possible causes for the present pollination crisis below (I call it a pollination crisis here, rather than a honeybee crisis, because there are other pollinators that would be lending us a hand - if we hadn’t already driven them into exile):

* Lack of diversity: This point, above all others, is a critical cause of natural imbalance. Diversity is stability. Mono-crop farming creates vulnerability. In fact, the dependence of our agricultural systems on just one species of bee for pollination is a perfect example of this vulnerability in action. In complete contrast to the natural order, where diversity is the rule, we plant gigantic fields of just one crop, leaving minimal borders, or ‘bio-corridors’ (woodlands, shrubs, wildflowers, hedges, etc.), for beneficial insects to take up residence, or none at all. Integrated bio-diversity is the future of farming.

* Pesticides & Herbicides: Crops (and even hedges, verges, and woodlands, where they remain), are often sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. These chemicals are the practical extension of an exasperating belief that nature is our enemy. Pouring poison on our food is a very simplistic way of dealing with our problems, and ignores the root causes. New genetically modified crops, designed to be immune to certain pesticides and herbicides, have resulted in the increased usage of these chemicals. Pesticides, particularly Bayer’s imidacloprid, a nicotine-based product marketed under the names Admire, Provado, Merit, Marathon and Gaucho, have been concretely implicated in the destruction of bee populations before. That other bees and insects are not raiding deserted hives to feed on the honey, as they normally would, lends some credence to the theory of toxic overload.

* GM Crops: GM Crops are widespread in the U.S., in particular, as is unintended contamination through horizontal gene transfer. Creating plants with built-in pesticides will kill insects. Bees, by the way, are insects. Additionally, it is known that inserted genes can combine in host DNA molecules to create unexpected proteins - that can be toxic or allergenic. It is impossible to know all the implications of how pollen from such plants will interact with the organisms they are in contact with.

* Direct Stress: Transportation, lack of natural food, and natural food diversity, pesticides sprayed directly into hives, antibiotics and GMOs in feed. Bees today are ‘factory farmed’ much in the way hens are. We take too much of their honey, replacing it with sugary water instead, and, like hens, stifle their instinctive habits - like swarming. These things, and other environmental factors, can cause a general weakening of pollinators’ immune systems. The few dead bees that have been located are often found to contain multiple pathogens and diseases - indicative of an AIDS-like syndrome.

* Varroa mites: Although some like to pin the blame on these mites, I’m dubious, and I’m not alone: “Many bee experts assumed varroa mites were a major cause of the severe die-off in the winter of 2005. Yet when researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, traveled to Oakdale, California, where Anderson and a number of his fellow beekeepers spend winter and spring, they could find no correlation between the level of varroa mite infestation and the health of bee colonies. “We couldn’t pin the blame for the die-off on any single cause,” says Jeff Pettis, a research entomologist at the lab.- The Vanishing. However, treatments against mites may be leaving hives open to the onslaught of powerful pathogens, much in the same way the overuse of antibiotics lead to super bugs in our hospitals.

* Artificial Insemination: “Rudolf Steiner gave lectures to the workers at the Goetheanum in 1923 in Dornach, Switzerland. Among the workers was a professional beekeeper, Mr Müller, who contributed to these lectures in the form of insights and questions. However, Mr Müller rebelled vehemently and showed no understanding when Steiner explained the intricacies of the queen bee, mentioning that the modern method of breeding queens (using the larvae of worker bees, a practice that had already been in use for about fifteen years) would have long-term detrimental effects, so grave that: “A century later all breeding of bees will cease if only artificially produced bees are used (November 10). . . . It is quite correct that we can’t determine this today; it will have to be delayed until a later time. Let’s talk to each other again in one hundred years, Mr Müller, then we’ll see what kind of opinion you’ll have at that point”. Seventy-five years have passed and the kind of queen breeding Steiner spoke of has not only continued, but has become the standard, and is now supplemented with instrumental insemination.” - Gibson, commenting on Celsias

* Weather: The hotter, dryer summers and wetter winters brought about by global warming.

* Mechanistic Mindsets: Last, but by no means the least, is the problem of our mechanistic mindset - reducing an infinitely complicated world of interactions to an overly simplistic viewpoint. This is the root cause of several of the issues outlined above. Where, in mathematics (adding numbers or inanimate objects) 1 + 1 = 2, in biology (i.e. the combination of two life forms), 1 + 1 may equal 3, or a billion and three. The term bio-engineering itself is a contradiction in terms - they are entirely juxtaposed. ‘Bio’ equates to ‘life’. ‘Engineering’ refers to design and manufacture, a blueprint of exactness. Biological forms (i.e. life-forms) can never be ‘engineered’ - i.e. predictably controlled or manipulated. Unlike a sheet of metal that can be machined with consistent results, organisms in natural systems are ever changing and adjusting. This makes ‘bio-engineering’, in the best-case scenario, a futile exercise and an enormous misallocation of human and environmental resources, and, in the worse case scenario, an ecological catastrophe with no chance for a product recall.

* Navigational Hindrances: There was also a miscontrued study on cellphone radiation and its effects on the bees ability to navigate - which turned out to be an over-zealous knee-jerk reaction by The Independent. CCD is occuring even in locations with no cell phone coverage. Some have also mentioned other navigational hindrances such as UV radiation, shifting magnetic fields and even quantum physics.

Researchers are desperately seeking the ’cause’ of colony collapse disorder. The reductionist mindset would be tempted to pull a single root cause out from amongst those above, but, I would propose that the items listed above, in combination, constitute a great load on the camel’s back - with one or two of the above being the final straw that broke it.

And, again, when considering the plight of the bee - let’s remove our blinders, and look around a little more. How are other creatures (some of them also pollinators, like butterflies and birds) being affected by our pesticides, our mechanisation, and our specialist systems? We focus on the honeybee only because of its direct and immediate threat to our livelihoods, and indeed our food supply - but, there’s a whole other world out there that’s suffering under our (mis)management. We’re just not paying attention.

Speaking before the U.S. House of Representatives, the head of the Illinois Department of Entomology had this to say:

It is an unfortunate consequence of benign indifference to the precarious nature of an overwhelming reliance on a single species that few alternative actively managed species are currently available for use. And despite evidence of their efficacy as crop pollinators, wild species are not being exploited to any significant extent. While efforts to monitor honey bees are inadequate, efforts to monitor the status of wild pollinators in North America are essentially non existent…. There is reliable evidence that some North American pollinator species have gone extinct, become locally extirpated, or have declined in number. At least two bumble bee species, one of which is a crop pollinator, could face imminent extinction, and several other pollinators have declined significantly. For some species, there is no evidence of population decline because their populations have never been monitored over time; there is seldom a historical baseline with which contemporary data can be compared.

The committee noted that, while systematic, thorough monitoring programs in Europe have revealed dramatic declines in native pollinator abundance and diversity, there are no comparable North American programs….

… Beyond agriculture, pollinators are crucial to maintaining the quality of American life. They serve as keystone species in most terrestrial ecosystems in that the services they provide allow most plants to reproduce and maintain genetic diversity. These plants in turn provide food and shelter for animals; fruits and seeds produced by insect pollination are a major part of the diet of approximately 25 percent of birds and of mammals ranging from red-backed voles to grizzly bears. In some areas, pollinator-supported plant communities prevent erosion by binding the soil—thereby conserving an important resource and keeping creeks clean for aquatic life.

Phalanxes of economists devote many hours to estimating and calculating our energy reserves but there has been no comparable effort to calculate our pollination reserves. Human technological innovation has not, in most cases, replaced or even improved upon animal pollinators and is unlikely to do so in the immediate future. “The birds and the bees” remain an essential fact of life; as long as plants depend on pollinators, so will people and it behooves us to shepherd them wisely. - Colony Collapse Disorder and Pollinator Decline, Statement of May R. Berenbaum, Professor and Head, Department of Entomology University of Illinois before the Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture Committee on Agriculture, U.S. House of Representatives, March 29, 2007

If enough spokes in a wheel get bent or broken, the wheel will eventually collapse (there’s that word again). From appearances, at the moment, the livelihoods of beekeepers, farmers and agricultural industries are the immediate concern (estimates of 15 billion dollars worth of agricultural produce is at risk in the U.S. alone), but even this will become inconsequential if the problem progresses into a biological meltdown. Insects, plants and animals, are all interdependent, and we rely on them (despite popular belief, and contrary to the PR broadcasts of the chemical companies). If pollinators are indicators of the health of our environment - our current canary-in-the-cage, so to speak - then isn’t it time we moved to safety?

My seeds are at the mailbox I just have to go into town and get them. When I’m off I don’t want to go anywhere unless I have to go to the big city for special things.

It’s supposed to rain which is an unusual event here lately. We’ve been in a drought for months.

They’re penalizing Dale Jr. for yesterday’s incident with Vickers??? Huh?

Dale Jr. is so easygoing, I really admire that kid. He had better protest such a move.

I did not have time to participate in the NASCAR thread yesterday, I hope I can on the next one. Fontana, right?

http://permaculture.org.au/2009/02/14/our-seeds-seeds-blong-yumi/#more-1097

Our Seeds: Seeds Blong Yumi
Biodiversity, Seeds — by Michel Fanton

3 Minute Trailer [on site]

“Our Seeds: Seeds Blong Yumi” is a fifty-seven minute film shot in eleven countries and made for Pacific audiences that celebrates traditional foods and the plants they grow from. The film introduces to the people of the Pacific the varied people who save seeds and stand at the source of humanity¹s diverse food heritage.

This is a David and Goliath story where resilience and persuasive logic triumph over seemingly invincible giant corporations.

Pacific islanders face great challenges to their way of life, their culture and their traditional cultivation methodologies. They fall into the trap of replacing resilient food crop varieties with modern hybrids that require pesticides and chemical fertilisers. They replace innumerable varieties of root staples with imported low quality starch such as white rice, biscuits and noodles.

This film seeks to reverse this trend.

Seed Savers directors, Michel and Jude Fanton shot 195 hours in eleven countries: Spain, France, Italy, India, Sri Lanka, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The documentary includes instructive motion graphics and a rich sound track, mostly indigenous music recorded in the making of the film.

Audio options are original English soundtrack and Pacific Pigin. Subtitle options are English and French.

The documentary can be purchased here

http://permaculture.org.au/2009/01/31/bamboo-in-permaculture-design/#more-1048

Bamboo in Permaculture Design
Food Plants - Perennial, Plant Systems, Trees — by Rick Valley

PIJ # 55, 1995 page 24 - 26

Author’s Note: I am a firmly rooted (if transplanted) north-westerner (USA) and this article reflects my years of experience with mostly hardy running bamboos and a few genera of hardy clumping bamboos. My experience with bamboos in other climates is limited, but I feel this information is still useful to readers form different regions.

People tell me bamboo “takes over” and can pierce and destroy pavement, foundations, and ultimately, Western civilization. We call these people bambusaphobes.
Nonetheless, despite its reputation, bamboo is not conquering the world. At the other extreme are people who plant any bamboo they can get anywhere.

Looking carefully at the nature of the plant helps us find a middle ground. Bamboo does like to occupy unused space – edges and clearings. Bamboo is a monocot, and monocots (grasses, lilies, palms, etc) do not have cambium, that is, unlike trees, they do not increase in girth. When a runner finds its way through a crack, unlike a tree root, it will not spread the crack wider over time. Similarly, pipe clogging is not much problem; I have seen cases where a bamboo benefited from a septic tank for years and caused no problem.

On my first major planting, my friend was putting P. Nigra Henon along the edge of his yard for privacy, next to his neighbour’s garden. He went to his neighbour to reassure him that he would keep the bamboo contained. The neighbour (Korean) misunderstood my friend’s purpose, and repeatedly said “Do not worry, we will not eat your bamboo!” Who would plant a rose bush without realizing that pruning is in store?

Culture and placement is very important. Bambuseros, those, who are working with bamboo for people, don’t introduce bamboo if there won’t be a receptive human culture to use it.

Site

Almost any soil will do, though many varieties do not enjoy salty irrigation water, such as is the case in southern California.

The most difficult site is the one that is exposed, windy, and dry. Bamboos are water-loving plants and may require some help in an exposed site or an area of low summer rainfall. Bamboos do well on floodplain, on streambanks and next to ponds. Floods will not kill bamboo and bamboo can slow erosion and cause deposition of rich silt.

But remember, it’s all relative to local climate and conditions.

Soil

Bamboo generally prefers dirt, though I have seen it do well in bark or on black plastic or asphalt.

To prepare the soil, put mulch in the surface and let the worms do the digging, unless you’ve got an extreme case of abuse or disturbance. You only need to loosen the soil in the immediate vicinity of the plant to ensure that you’ve got the complete root mass in contact with soil, with no gaps or voids.

Planting

Plant the potted bamboo just slightly deeper in the ground than it is in its pot. As the bamboo spreads it will find its own best level. Tall bamboos should be staked or tied until established. A new plant will also appreciate a bit of shade and shelter from the wind. You might use some pruned tree branches to do this.

Irrigation

Water is critical the first year, and 1”/week (25mm) is a good rough minimum. Bamboo will follow water in a dry area, and will tend to grow into an area watered by a soaker hose or drip system.

Containment

In considering building containment for running bamboos, it’s important to remember the example of the Maginot Line. Ultimately no method may be really foolproof. Bamboo runners are very pointed, and actually moisten the ground ahead of themselves for better penetration. Runners can slim through narrow cracks or pierce through plastic pots and weed barriers. Concrete slab-patio, sidewalk or what have you, is just a convenient covered highway to spots where the shoots can pop up unannounced. There are some situations where bamboo will not be a problem. It won’t cross permanent or semi-permanent water, nor will it manage to invade a pasture where animals are kept. A well-used, compacted road will also stop bamboo. Allow the bamboo a reasonable space, and don’t try to grow a zillion different kinds!

I consider barriers a last resort but will give some clues to their use. The first rule is to slope the barrier away from the bamboo so that the runners will not be deflected downward and under, but up where you can see them. These barriers must be inspected regularly. The necessary barrier depth is a tricky question, depending on soil type and whether or not the soil has been disturbed. In a heavy clay soil, 18 inches (45cm) may be adequate while in a deep, soft, river bottom loam, 3-4 feet (90-120 cm) may be necessary. Barrier materials include concrete, conveyor belt rubber, aluminium and plastics (heavy gauge is very good).
I recommend consulting with a local bamboo lover before you decide on whether you can use bamboo on your land and which species are best.

Rick’s Rules of Bamboo order

1. Don’t crowd your plant too close to a house, valuable plants, rock garden, etc. Keep a space around it that can be dug in, wide enough for you to walk through.
2. Thin your bamboo regularly – take out all canes three to four years old, and any that don’t look good. Give new growth space to grow.
3. You may only need a partial barrier – along the driveway, or along your neighbour’s property line.
4. If shoots come up where you don’t want them, cut them down deep in the ground with a narrow hoe-type tool (and eat ‘em!) because that will minimize regrowth and the sharp stubs that result from, say, using your lawn mower on shoots.
5. Don’t plant bamboo into a rock garden, next to a low deck, or next to a patio without realizing it will infiltrate throughout, under and around, coming up where it can.
6. In humid climates, bamboos planted next to rivers can be spread downstream by floods tearing off clumps. If you are introducing a species, choose wisely.

The Endless Uses of Bamboo

Many bamboo enthusiasts groan when you ask about the uses of bamboo. The reason being the list is so long. Far preferable, they say to ask “What cannot you do with bamboo?”

It is difficult though to resist mentioning some of its uses, as many people, especially in the West, are ignorant of its great role in many civilizations present and past. So, to say it can be used as food, material for buildings, musical instruments and fences, as a hedge, erosion controller, to make household utensils, or as a creator of soothing white noise, is a small beginning.

The following quote gives further life to the question of bamboo uses:

“Tao Chich (plum blossom bamboo) is useful, as well as beautiful. It adorns the landscape, offers shade on a warm day; supplies materials for mats; so that we may sleep in comfort; and provides a staff of support for old age.” - Kuo Fu

Tips on Selecting Bamboos
by Hans Erken

* Carefully chosen bamboo species can make the greatest contribution as a resource at the household or local level.

* Bamboo plants, both clumping and running forms, use ever-more space over time.

* Uses and maintenance: Bamboo is incredibly useful as food, as a construction material, and to reduce nutrient, erosion and noise problems. However, a bamboo clump or grove will become increasingly dense if not harvested regularly, creating the risk of fire and rodent infestation.

* Design and species selection guides for warm temperate to tropical climates:
- Choose bamboo species that have a proven track record somewhere in the world. There are about 1200 bamboo species worldwide. Of these possibly less than 100 are commercially important. China has about 500 species, most of which are endemic. However, 80 percent of the total area occupied by bamboo is a single cultivated species - Phyllostachys heterocycle var. pubescens. In Japan this species is known as ‘Moso’ and is widely cultivated for its shoots and timber as well as its placement in ornamental gardens.
- Basically, the larger species with bigger culms or poles and shoots which are easier to prepare are more useful.

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I am a certified Bamboo lover! To date I have resisted the temptation to plant my beautiful Bamboo in the ground and have lovingly maintained them in pots. I feel my resolve to continue to do this slipping daily and will do some more ‘digging’ to discover how best to manage the varieties I have if I do put them out. Thank you so much for a wonderfully informative and inspirational article.

Comment by Cate Ferguson — January 31, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
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Great stuff! Inspired to go and raid some local bamboo clumps that grow wild along the river Minho in Northern Portugal where I live now, and plant them near a wee river we have. Interesting they don’t like dry spaces though. Because up near the house can be dry in summer. Maybe use some grey water to keep them happy… hmmm

Comment by Magnus — February 10, 2009 @ 10:46 am

http://permaculture.org.au/2008/08/11/a-refrigerator-that-runs-without-electricity/#more-540

[see photos]

A Refrigerator that Runs Without Electricity
Community Projects, Processing & Food Preservation — by Craig Mackintosh

Sometimes there are simple solutions to universal needs that don’t require coal fired electricity, fossil fuels, or even solar panels or wind turbines.

Around a third of the world’s population have no access to electricity. If you’re like me, you’ve spent your entire life being able to plug in. Do we ever give a thought to what life would be like if the various appliances we’ve come to rely on were to suddenly stop working? One of the most energy guzzling appliances in our carbon footprint portfolio is the refrigerator. But, unplug it, and the quality of your life will suddenly deteriorate. Take that thought, and imagine living in a hot dry country in Africa, without electricity, where food quickly wilts and rots in the sun, aided by onslaughts of flies.

One modern day genius, mindful of this basic need to preserve food, has solved the problem for many. Mohammed Bah Abba, a Nigerian teacher, invented the ‘device’ — a refrigerator that doesn’t require electricity!

From a family of pot-makers, Mohammed has made ingeniously simple use of the laws of thermodynamics to create the pot-in-pot refrigerator, called a Zeer in Arabic.

Here’s how it works.

You take two earthen pots, both being the same shape but different sizes, and put one within the other. Then, fill the space between the two pots with sand before pouring water into the same cavity to make the sand wet. Then, place food items into the inner pot, and cover with a lid or damp cloth. You only need to ensure the pot-in-pot refrigerator is kept in a dry, well-ventilated space; the laws of thermodynamics does the rest. As the moisture in the sand evaporates, it draws heat away from the inner pot, cooling its contents. The only maintenance required is the addition of more water, around twice a day.

To give an idea of its performance, spinach that would normally wilt within hours in the African heat will last around twelve days in the pot, and items like tomatoes and peppers that normally struggle to survive a few days, now last three weeks. Aubergines (eggplants) get a life extension from just a few days to almost a month.

Inventing the refrigerator in 1995, Mohammed distributed thousands around Nigerian communities during the late 1990s (initially for free to get the word out, then later at just production-cost price), and subsequently won the Rolex Award for Enterprise in the year 2000. It has improved the lives and health of thousands. Less work can translate into more education for children, and small farmers who were before losing large proportions of their harvest are now able to earn a better income. Another knock-on benefit is improved health due to better preservation of vitamins, as well as a reduction in health problems like dysentery due to the separation of food and flies.

It seems that not all the answers to life’s needs have to come with a plug and instruction book.

Originally published on Celsias

He was penalized for his tire just barely touching the white line on pitroad putting him a lap down. Then he was trying to get his lap back and Vickers came down to block him and pushed him to the grass at 190 mph. Jr came back up trying to get back on the track in line and bumped Vickers spinning him out - Vickers said he should have been penalized. The Nascar thread wound up with the usual Jr bashers at the end. They lurk and offer no comments on the thread until something happens with Jr then they show up to bash. Sad really, they must be oddball individuals. There’s actually quite a few on FR sadly.

Laughing with you, she will kill you if she ever finds your post.

Serves her right for not getting on here and posting. She is signed up!

http://permaculture.org.au/2008/09/05/strange-fruit/#more-600

Strange Fruit
Consumerism, Food Plants - Perennial, Health & Disease, Processing & Food Preservation, Trees — by George Monbiot

A hard commercial logic dictates that the only way to get good fruit today is to grow your own.

by George Monbiot - journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist

I feel almost shy about writing this column. It contains no revelations, no call to arms. No one gets savaged: well, only mildly. The subject is almost inconsequential. Yet it has become an obsession which, at this time of year, forbids me to concentrate for long on anything else.

Though we still subsist largely on junk, even bilious old gits like me are forced to admit that the quality and variety of most types of food sold in Britain has improved. But one kind has deteriorated. You can buy mangoes, papayas, custard apples, persimmons, pomegranates, mangosteens, lychees, rambutans and god knows what else. But almost all the fruit sold here now seems to taste the same: either rock hard and dry or wet and bland. A mango may be ambrosia in India; it tastes like soggy toilet paper in the UK. And the variety of native fruits on sale is smaller than it has been for 200 years.

Why? Most people believe it’s because the supermarkets select for appearance not taste. This might be true for vegetables, but for fruit it’s evidently wrong. Green mangoes, Conference pears, unripe Bramley, Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples look about as appealing as a shrink-wrapped stool. Appearance has nothing to do with it. What counts to the retailer is how well the variety travels.

Take the Egremont Russet, for example. It’s a small apple that looks like a conker wrapped in sandpaper. But it has one inestimable quality. It can be dropped from the top of Canary Wharf, smash a kerbstone and come to no harm. This means it can be trucked from an orchard at Land’s End to a packing plant in John O’Groats, via Sydney, Washington and Vladivostock, then back to a superstore in Penzance (this is the preferred route for most of the fruit sold in the UK) and remain fit for sale. The supermarkets must have had some trouble shifting it because of its strange appearance, so they promoted it as a connoisseur’s apple. Such is our suggestibility that almost everyone believes this, though a dispassionate tasting would show you that it’s as sweet and juicy as a box of Kleenex.

For the same reason, we are assaulted with Conference pears, most of which resemble some kind of heavy ordnance, rather than any one of a hundred exquisite varieties such as the Durondeau, Belle Julie, Urbaniste, Glou Morceau, Ambrosia, Professeur du Breuil or Althorp Crasanne. It is because these pears are so delicious that they cannot be marketed. They melt in the mouth, which means they would also melt in the truck before it left the farm gate. As the best pears, plums, peaches and cherries are those which go soft and juicy when ripe, the grocers ensure that we never eat them.

To compound the problem, the supermarkets demand that fruit is picked long before it ripens: it doesn’t soften until it rots. This makes great commercial sense. It also ensures that no one in his right mind would want to eat it. But, happily for the retailers, we have forgotten what fruit should taste like. The only way to find out is either to travel abroad or (the low-carbon option) to grow your own. I find myself becoming a fruit evangelist, a fructivist, whose mission is to show people what they are missing.

When I lived in Oxford, at a time when allotments were underused, I spent a week in the Bodleian library reading Hogg and Bull’s Herefordshire Pomona, a massive book of apples and pears, written in the 1870s (you can now buy it on CD from the Marcher Apple Network). Then I cleared two and a half plots and planted the best varieties I could find. I left just as the trees were ready to fruit. But land here in mid-Wales is cheap. I bought half an acre and have started planting a second orchard.

When I first tried to place an order, I caused great excitement among the nurseries I phoned. Where had I seen these apples? Who recommended them? Two of them, I discovered, had been extinct for at least 50 years. So I have had to settle for second best, by which I mean breeds which still exist. I began by planting a Ribston Pippin and an Ashmead’s Kernel. These apples, both exquisite when fully ripe, can be stored from October till May. To spread the fruit as far through the year as possible, I have ordered an apple called the Irish Peach, which ripens in early August; a St Edmund’s Pippin (September) and a Wyken Pippin (December to April). After a long search I think I have pinned down the apple I once tasted and loved in a friend’s garden. I’m pretty confident that it was a Forfar, also know as the Dutch Mignonne, so I’ve bought one of those too. If I’d had more space, I would also have planted a Catshead, a Boston Russet, a Sturmer Pippin and a Reinette Grise.

I have bought two pears - a Seckle and a Beurre Rance - a green plum (the Cambridge Gage), a fig, a medlar, a peach, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, loganberries and blueberries. But what excites me most are the suggestions made by a man called Ken Fern. Once a London bus driver, Fern has spent most of his life cataloguing and growing the edible species of fruit and vegetable which can survive in this country. His list now extends to 7000, some of which are featured in his book Plants for a Future. I’ve decided to buy an Arnold Thorn (Crataegus arnoldiana), which belongs to the same genus as the hawthorn, but grows sweet juicy fruits the size of cherries, and to replace my hedge with Eleagnus x ebbingei, which produces sweet red berries with edible seeds, in (uniquely) April and May. This means, if it works out, that I can eat fresh fruit all the year round. I can store apples and Beurre Rance pears until the Eleagnus fruits, then my strawberries should be ready more or less when it stops. One day when I can afford it I will buy more land and plant a few dozen of the weird species Fern has found.

Most people have less space than I do, but even a tiny garden can support half a dozen apple trees, if you grow them as cordons (single stems with short spurs) 80cm apart against a wall. If you have room for only a couple of pots, you could grow blueberries, strawberries, cranberries or some of the little shrubs Ken Fern recommends, such as Vaccinium praestans and Gaultheria shallon. Or you could become a guerilla planter or guerilla grafter, growing fruit on roadsides, on commons and in parks and wasteland. Apple twigs of any kind can be grafted onto crab trees. Medlars and one breed of pear (a delicious variety called Josephine des Malines) can be grafted onto hawthorn. Kiwi fruit, passion fruit and a vine called Schisandra grandiflora will climb into trees of any kind.

It’s not just the produce I love. When you start growing fruit, you enter a world of recondite knowledge, accumulated over centuries of amateur experiments. You must choose the right rootstocks and pollinators and learn about bees, birds and caterpillars. But above all you must learn patience. Growing fruit forces you to think ahead, to imagine a sweeter future and then to wait. Perhaps it is this, as much as the forgotten flavours, that I have been missing.

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Right on!
We got suckered into letting the corporations feed us and ended up eating waste products and factory farmed produce to maximize their profits and keep food affordable for the masses. I grew up with hobby-hippy parents on 5 acres but since left I that garden of eden 15 years ago I’ve been a city living turd consumer. I’ve finally got my priorities straight and a great job in the country and I’m off in a few days. The fresh food there is awesome, the land is affordable and the traffic is non existent. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Comment by Jo — September 5, 2008 @ 8:52 am
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Hello,

Sadly the rural lifestyle with its common ally the car is less environmentally sustainable than a city apartment dwellers. As to taste you can be a city bushman and collect from the trees overhanging fences or edible weeds such as chickweed for salads. In fact my ultra urban lifestyle is much healthier and sustainable than the one I had as a founding director of the Permaculture Institute in the late ’70’s.

Fond regards,
Cymon Fjell