Most Farmers in the Great Plains Don’t Grow Fruits and Vegetables. The Pandemic is Changing That.

Civil Eats ^ | 5-12-2020 | Daphne Miller

[Ellendra]

A twist on cover crops. It probably wouldn't compete with the efficiency of normal vegetable growing practices, but as a method of weed control I find it interesting.

Not to mention it's a way of using up excess seeds.

[Ellendra]

Gardening ping!

[Vigilanteman]

I love it. This is GREAT news. It will make it that much harder for the ruling class to starve us into submission.

[untenured]

What a fascinating idea! The farmer gets his weeds cleared with fewer chemicals, locals get more food, and perhaps a greater variety of local food too, for folks who are into that. People can be so creative when they are allowed to.

[RasterMaster]

Bookmarked.

[CatOwner]

Good idea for the nation, since California seems hell-bent on continuing to redirect water away from what was once the best growing region on the planet.

[datura]

Excellent news - thanks for posting!!

Note to China: Learn to feed yourselves. The food supply chain is changing AWAY from you.

[circlecity]

I just do a small backyard garden but we finally got the vegetables planted and the flowers.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“But COVID-19 has the potential to change everything.”

I sure hope so! Even though I was hardly inconvenienced by all of this, as we live rural and are pretty much homebodies anyway, I would LOVE to see areas of Positive Change come from all of Mother Government’s soft, palatable, easy-to-swallow-in-small-bites brand of Tyranny!

Yes, I hear myself! I sound like a Hippie, but I’ve always been a Crunchy Conservative, and my Inner Libertarian Girl has been throwing a tantrum for weeks, now. ;)

Cross-Ping to the Weekly Garden Thread Gang.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We have a Weekly Garden Thread. A new post will be coming on Saturday. Come join us and join our Ping List if you’d like. (Just message me or ping me in the thread.)

This week’s thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3843189/posts?page=155

[WakeUpAndVote]

Good read but, then I started looking at the site it came from.

Leftyville.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I REALLY love this idea, as I’m sure do others that grow their own and KNOW how to cook for themselves.

The ONLY problem I see is the one that already exists: when you give fresh fruits and vegetables to Food Pantries, they are usually the last things taken because no one knows how to cook from scratch!

We need someone at the distribution level assisting with that aspect of it.

Maybe a charity like Newman’s Own could fill that gap and process some of the food to be donated into packaged foods of some sort? Not Soylent Green...though that WOULD be an awesome marketing ploy.

OR - maybe it could be sold to that club you and I belong to, or to various CSAs in the area to supplement what they already grow? I’ve seen CSAs that add weekly cutting flowers and baked goods. People that belong to CSAs like to cook and know how to...but then, that’s not getting it into the hands of hungry people who don’t/can’t/won’t cook.

HELP!

[asinclair]

Southern Illinois University has for years had an experimental farm, called the Small Fruits Station, in Southern Illinois. On plots of land around Carbondale IL, the researchers they were growing blueberries, blackberries (especially “thornless stickerbushes”), and other fruits that require water and sun. In addition to hybridizing plants to do well and have high yields at latitude 37.7 North, the researchers there were also experimenting with automated picking methods.

Other experimental farms were working on zero-till production of crops, to reduce the cost per acre growing corn and other staples.

[Qiviut]

..... my Inner Libertarian Girl has been throwing a tantrum for weeks, now.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ditto - I’m really rather angry about it all, to tell the truth.

[Texas resident]

I have been growing 10-12 fruits an vegetables for years. I had a deal with a neighbor where I would trade vegetables for venison. It also taught my kids how to grow their own.

My 25 year old son is now growing a bunch of his own.

[milagro]

The way your post is written reminded me of the way Spectrum ads are written, specifically the current one with the guy standing over the volcano waiting to become a sacrifice “for the people”.
Would love to see Trump (and/or the RNC) do one with a farmer standing in a field suggesting we plant the kind of food crops you write about and which we now need, while having his idea pooh-poohed by his Democrat (or maybe Chinese) “friend”!

[Born to Conserve]

There should be a law that every farm may have a farm stand out front by the road with cute farm kids selling lots of fresh farm stuff; and a gallows behind the barn for any politicians that enact regulations against farm stands.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Why not appreciate/implement a good idea whatever the source?

I’ve always been a Crunchy Conservative. This publication doesn’t bother me in the least and I can ‘guarandamntee’ you that those Midwest Farmer’s are NOT lefties and THEY came up with the idea in the first place. ;)

‘The Midwest’ and ‘The Heartland’ or whatever you want to call ‘Flyover Country’ is the ONLY thing saving America from the Full Frontal Communism the Socialist Democrats crave.

[metmom]

Love it.

Thanks for the ping

[metmom]

Still, sometimes they can have good ideas.

Being left doesn’t be default preclude it, but it does make it far less likely.

But I do give them credit for having more concern for protecting our planet than many conservatives do.