Transplanting tree seedlings
I have a hunch that readers thought I was joking when I wrote recently about growing tree seedlings in roof gutters. The picture proves that it works.
Food
Editor’s picks – August 2010
Too much to read? Try these picks from the EB co-editors.
Peak Moment 178: Beyond back yard sustainability
Four years ago (in episode 51, “An Experiment in Back Yard Sustainability”), Scott McGuire asked “how much food can I grow in my back yard to feed my family?” In this episode, we learn the results, and that food supply is not an individual project — it takes a community to feed one another. Scott’s garden later became a CSA (community-supported agriculture) for eight families.
Transition Cities on Colorado TV special
PBS station in Colorado takes a look at the Transition Cities movement that is working for a way of life that is environmentally friendly, supports the local economy and conserves natural resources. (Video)
McMansions and chicken coups
Interview with urban homesteader and somatic psychotherapist Rachel Kaplan in Petaluma, California. “For a typical urban permaculture project, a can do attitude is essential. A willingness to experiment, make mistakes, and keep trying. … you also need to have a willingness to challenge yourself on some things which are just not accepted in our culture–composting your own poop, for example–and living in a way that others might find odd, challenging, disrespectful, messy or intimidating. You have to care more about the world you want to live in than the world we live in now.”
Armchair farming
Phil-the-Housemate asked me recently for advice on getting his dissertation done. He’s ABD, and having a tough time getting down to it. Asking me seems odd to me – I eventually baled about 1/2 way through my doctoral dissertation, due to a combination of childbearing, agriculture, slackdom and change of focus. But I did write three books in 2 1/2 years, so I do know a little something about finally giving up the slacker habits, I suppose.
The care and feeding of time machines
The backyard organic gardens central to the current series of posts on The Archdruid Report — and equally central to most strategies for relocation in the face of looming energy shortages — have a lot of work to do in the period between the last frosts of spring and the first frosts of fall. Stretching that interval, by way of “time machines” drawn from appropriate technology, can help make growing part of one’s own food a more viable proposition.
Biodiesel, biochar & biodiversity in Costa Rica: An example of small-scale, locally-appropriate action
As global change related to resource depletion and climate change becomes increasingly severe, the ineffectiveness of world governments as well as mainstream environmental organizations and movements is obvious…Instead of relying on these approaches, it seems the safest and most secure adaptive route is the introduction of decentralized, local alternative energy and environmental solutions.
Reviving anarchy for the sake of sustainability
One thing that fascinates me about political theorist Murray Bookchin’s writing is how prescient it is. His essay, “Ecology and Revolutionary Thought,” was written in 1965, six years before Earth Day, and almost a half-century before now. Yet its content is as relevant as ever, if not more so, given society’s increasing interest in all things “green.” Bookchin even references future ramifications of climate change, long before many had even considered it.
Deconstructing Dinner: Climate Friendly Eating (Conscientious Cooks VIII)
On this part 8 of our Conscientious Cooks series, we listen in on a really interesting panel discussion hosted in 2008 by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (or CUESA) located in San Francisco, California. The panel was themed around the concept of Climate Friendly Eating.
Good agriculture fosters good art, and vice-versa
People in Monet’s day saw much more than just the beauty of a haystack when they looked at one. They saw survival. As long as haystacks dotted the horizon every fall, society knew that it would survive until the next growing season. I wonder if even today, people look at those hay bales dotting a field and instinctively realize the same thing.
Save it for the combine
I have been visiting A2R Farms outside of Corvallis Oregon all year. They are a former conventional grass seed farm transitioning to organic seed crops, primarily for local distribution. I watched as they planted the fields and as the crops grew–flax, chick peas, sunflowers and wheat. And as harvest season approached I looked over at the combines and asked my friend Clinton Lindsey, “Which one am I driving?”
