Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Like the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the New Farmer’s Almanac offers long range weather forecasts, full moon dates, sunrise and sunset times, best planting dates, crop advice, tides tables, riddles, games, recipes, songs, and folk wisdom.
The discovery of new lands to exploit, and new energy sources, helped reinforce the notion that human societies can always find a way around limitations upon its growth.
You know that when energy in agriculture is discussed, the paradigm is energy production in the form of biofuels. But the idea of biofuels manufactured from agricultural products is monumentally wrong.
Lime burning, is a now-forgotten industry that sustained many agrarian communities before energy became cheap. Explore the Irish countryside and you occasionally find lime kilns in the form of a stone cylinder, as much as several metres high and wide.
“I don’t believe for one minute that all Albertans believe that oil and gas is the only way to live in this province,” says Ronalie Campbell. “Alberta wasn’t built on oil and gas,” says Shawn, “Alberta was built on agriculture. Alberta was started with a plow, and horseback, and cattle.
Large farms are increasingly dominating crop production in the United States. In the early 1980s, most farms produced crops on less than 600 acres, but the majority of today’s farms grow crops on at least 1,100 acres. And many farms are ten times that size.
From the Mother Earth News Fair, we hear about Life on the "Farmstead." Lisa Kivirist turns her dreams of small-scale food into a real living in Wisconsin. Lisa has tips for us all.
I have ruminated enough times on this blog about climate change that it should no longer pop up its ugly head, and yet it never ceases to amaze me as to how well it lends itself to a quick article. As homesteaders, so many of our daily activities lead to the out-of-doors, and therefore keeps us connected to nature and all her changing faces.
After more than a year of craziness, build up and drama, Election 2012 is now behind us. It was a multi-multi Billion Dollar spectacle. It was a booming time for the media due to all of the spending on ads for the federal and local races. It was an exciting time with lots of interesting rhetoric and promises. Now, we have to sort out what it all means.
