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Joel Salatin: Folks This Ain’t Normal

I just finished the latest book, Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World, by farmer/author/educator extraordinaire Joel Salatin. This book is overflowing with the type of contemplative life wisdom you'd expect from a Buddhist monk. Ponder this little gem: "In our Western Greco-Roman compartmentalized fragmented systematized linear reductionist individualized disconnected parts-oriented thinking, we tend to disassociate the seen from t...

Straw Bale Worm Composting

Worms are industrious, tireless workers. Did you know worms never sleep?  They eat our garbage and turn it into productive soil. Worms can be kept in a small bin with no odor in an apartment or small space. They are part of the solution to our collective nature deficit disorder.  It's no wonder that Charles Darwin spent almost 40 years of his life learning from worms. They are super amazing creatures. One of the schools I taught gardening at this summer had set up a straw bale worm composting...

As Plants Migrate North, USDA Revisits Hardiness Zones

The USDA has come out with new map of plant hardiness zones for 2012. Last updated in 1990, the map divides the United States, including Puerto Rico, into 13 separate zones representing regions of minimum average winter temperatures. The map is divided into 10˚F zones. Zone boundaries in the new map have shifted as many warmer zones trek farther north in many parts of the United States and two new zones have been added. As the map shows, winters aren't as cold as they used to be in most p...

Food for Thought: A Brunch with Joel Salatin

Yesterday was the 5th of May, Cinco de Mayo, a big celebration in Northern New Mexico, as you can imagine. It was also the 350.org 's Connect the Dots event with actions going on worldwide like this one of firefighters in the Santa Fe Forest remembering the largest wildfire in New Mexico history that was connected to climate change. My family and I spent our day at another lower profile, albeit just as important event, the Food for Thought brunch at the Camino de Paz School and Farm in San...

On the Farm at Finca Luna Nueva

The Sacred Seed Sanctuary project brings together the wisdom of the ethnobotanists along with the shamans and abuelas to preserve this sacred knowledge for humanity. Steven Farrell, who runs the operations at Finca Luna Nueva, told me that it can take up to six years to establish a plant in the Sacred Seed garden. For many neo-tropical medicinals, there are no written records. To establish a plant from the jungle to the Sanctuary often involved studying it to determine its botany and how it ...

Biodiversity on a Fair Trade Coffee Farm in Costa Rica

On a recent visit to Monteverde, Costa Rica, I met Victor, a small coffee farmer and member of the  Coopesanta Elena. Made up of 75 small coffee producers, the cooperative members are committed to growing their crops in harmony with nature. Victor's farm is in fact teeming with biodiversity. From sloths hanging out in trees to a baby hummingbird nest in the middle of  a row of arabica coffee plants, the farm feels alive and in-sync with the larger ecosystem around it. Stingless honeybees c...

Seed Saving Viability Chart

How long do seeds last? As a rule of thumb, germination rates of seeds decrease every year. But some seeds are known to live far longer, especially if they are stored in a cool dry place. Here is a table of average seed viability taken from a UF publication. Vegetable Seed  Years Viable Vegetable Seed  Years Viable  Asparagus  3 Leek  1  Bean  3 Lettuce  5  Beet  4 Muskmelon  5  Broccoli  5 Mustard  4  Brussels sprout  5 Okra  2  Cabb...

100% Compostable Sun Chip Bag?

This photo is of the Sun Chips "World's First 100% Compostable Chips Package" over one year after being composted in my Solar Cone aerobic digester in hot and humid South Florida. Everything else in the digester composted, including chicken bones, but the bag is still intact and looking as vibrant as the day we picked it up in the store. According to Sun Chips testing, the bag should have been gone in 12-16 weeks maximum. Who's tests are more accurate, try it yourself to see. Related ...

Principles of Edible Education from the Edible Schoolyard Garden

I love Alice Waters' book, Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea. Worth noting (below) are the principles of Edible Education that she lays out in the book. Food is an Academic Subject A school garden, kitchen, and cafeteria are integral to the core academic mission of the school, so that ecology and gastronomy help bring alive every subject, from reading and writing to science and art. School Provides Lunch for Every Child From preschool through high school, every child is served a wholesome,...

Combating Nature-Deficit Disorder in the Garden

According to author Richard Louv, the greatest increase in childhood obesity in our history has occurred in the same two decades that the greatest increase in organized sports for children in our history. "Pediatricians are now saying that this generation of children may be the first to have a lower life expectancy than their parents and its because of this sedentary lifestyle." Studies show that kids connected to nature have Better Concentration Less Stress More Creativity and...