NEWSLETTERS

Modern Homesteading Movement

Newsletter 4-5-05

1) Limits
2) News Bits
a) Melting Ice?
b) Gambling Revenues
c) Atrazine Herbicide - Deformed Frogs?
d) Psychiatric Drugging
e) Maple Sugar Industry Moving North
3) Reader Feedback: Peak Oil, Private Testing for Genetic Mutations, Interest-only Loans

1) Limits

It is possible to grow enough food to feed a family on less than 1.6 acres if you have healthy soil, water, and seeds. You'll need a good-sized poultry house with outdoor run, plenty of rabbit hutches, and a garden that is all garden (no "row" spaces between plants), maybe 80 by 60 feet. If I were writing zoning rules, I'd insist that a yard must always be bigger than the house. Houses are being built too big, yards too small.

I suggest that you start practicing family food production now. Find a place to grow a garden--your land, or your friend's, or? Then start gardening. You learn by doing. Don't wait until food becomes scarcer and more expensive to start learning to garden. Allow yourself about five years of serious practice gardening. Then you will know what you're doing.

In our area, there is now no free food except a bit of powdered milk from the feds and some free produce that's on the verge of spoiling. The other food that used to be given away is now sold in discount stores--food in dented tins and paper produts in broken packages. It's way cheaper than in the grocery store, but not free any more. Shopping at discount food stores is one way to quickly, affordably build up your food storage.

I really get annoyed with the notion, popular in certain political circles, that the answer to potential long-term problems with the food supply is to encourage buying at local "farmer's markets." The overly simple logic is that if more people go to markets who are willing to spend money on homegrown stuff, more homegrown stuff will appear. Those buyers are kidding themselves. Some homegrown stuff may appear, but never enough to take the place of the supermarkets. It's just too hard to grow food the old-fashioned way for the needs of more than a few people to be met that way. It's hard on the back. Two gardeners dropped out this year from one local farmer's market, both due to back trouble.

A fellow came to me at the market and wanted to buy 20 lb. of organic spinach per week at a wholesale rate for some big restaurant. McDonald's? I laughed. To grow spinach I plant seeds. When they get big enough to move, I transplant each plant to give it enough space of its own to thrive. I weed and water. Spinach grows slowly. When, finally, it gets big enough, I harvest the leaves by selectively cutting off the biggest, nicest ones, leaving the rest of the plant to grow more. It isn't humanly possible for me to produce 20 lb. of that stuff every week in the size of garden I have. I'd need more space, more labor, more fertilizer--and more profit than a "wholesale" price. Furthermore, spinach only does well in early spring. If that restaurant wants to buy greens at a farmer's market, they'd have a better chance shopping for Swiss chard. It's more productive and has a longer season.

The Farmer's Markets get raided about every six months by the health department people. Three out of four of the food vendors, being illegal, get fined, if caught. Others see the problem coming and fade away, give it up. The inspector came to our food market. The hot dog and softdrink vendor got an "Excellent" rating. All our other food vendors were illegal. The word spread like lightning, carried by a heavy-set female Paul Revere who covered the ground with amazing quickness. All the really good, healthy, organic, homemade-type food vanished. Maybe it won't be back. Too much risk.

The amount of food you can grow on a piece of ground is limited by the amount of manure or plant compost you have previously applied to that ground. I can't take much produce to the market because my sandy desert ground was poor in humus to start with and quickly loses nutrients to leaching even when I add them. I'm constantly struggling against limits. Limits to my strength. Why should an arthritic old lady who requires a full 60 seconds to struggle from the position of sitting on the ground to standing up be working (for about $3 per hour) to produce food for people who mostly don't want it anyway? My produce isn't as big as the store stuff. It isn't as uniform. Often, it isn't a familiar species. (Swiss chard? Ruby chard? Curly kale?)

I garden for love. Right now, that's the best reason I have. I love the plants. I love being surprised by what I find every day when I go out to toil in that living, daily-changing, jungle of greenery. (Today's surprise was two baby almond trees. Last year, I planted some seeds from a store packet of almonds to see what would happen. They grew!)

I don't think the high muckety-mucks at McDonald's, or any other fast food chain, understand that if agribusiness (fossil-fuel fertilized) food supplies were to dwindle, there wouldn't be enough animals around to fertilize the ground that would produce food for everybody. My vegetables are grown using manure (chicken, rabbit, mule). My second garden grows our personal food supply. We fertilize that one with humanure. If McDonald's were to supply me all their humanure, and if it were legal to use it, I could come closer to providing them with that 20 pounds of spinach. But they wouldn't and it isn't. The more manure I have to put on the ground, the more food I can grow. Poor ground grows a short stalk of corn with one ear on it. Rich ground grows a tall stalk of corn with six or so ears of corn on it. That's why it has been such a boon to world agriculture to be able to dump nitrogen ("chemical") fertilizer on the ground to make crops grow.

Most people don't know how to grow their own food any more, most don't have a big enough source of fertilizer to grow their entire family's food supply year after year, and most don't have a place to grow it. Over 90% of Americans live in an urban area. Over 50% of them live in an "inner city." My working definition of "inner city" is a place where you can't grow any food, plant or animal. My definition of "outer city," suburbia, is that maybe there's a place to garden some, but you're not allowed to have animals. (Rabbits hide well.) So you're stuck with secret rabbit and secret humanure. True country living means that you have a place where it's legal to grow plants, and animals, and to do what you please with the manure.

Don't expect to grow a family food garden from grocery store seed packets. That's a joke. There are only enough seeds in one of those store packets for a child's pretend garden. If you want to freeze or can peas for a family, for example, start with a pound, or two, or more, of seed peas--not with a store packet of seed peas. A wonderful little-known fact is that for the price of several store packets of seeds, you could buy a whole pound of them from a place like Morgan County Seeds. Get your onion sets by the bushel. Buy all your basic seeds in bulk. If you plant on that scale, and if you nourish that ground enough, you'll grow FOOD! Enough for you, plus some to give away, or sell. I usually choose open-pollinated varieties. Personal seed saving is another big topic.

The folks at Morgan County are Mennonite (or Amish?). They have no website, but they do have a phone (if you can get past the busy signal): 1-573-378-2655. Or Voice Link 1-888-266-0014, then 2, Box #8475. The best way to contact them is to write. They give very good service when you do it the old-fashioned way. Write and ask for their wonderful catalog. Tell them Carla sent you! Then mail your order to them: Morgan County Seeds, 18761 Kelsay Rd, Barnett, MO 65011-3009. You'll receive your seeds very soon.

2) News Bits
a) Melting Ice?

"Scientists studying the aftermath of the Larsen-B ice shelf collapse in Antarctica say it will very likely have unpleasant implications for the rest of us. The collapse of the Larsen-B and its smaller northern neighbors, the Larsen-A and Wordie Ice shelves, in the face of warmer summer temperatures has caused the vast glaciers and ice sheets behind them to begin sliding into the sea at a remarkable pace." By Colin Woodward. (There's a flaw in the electronic transmission of this article. If you're like me, you see a question mark wherever you should see a single quotation mark, or a double one.)
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?2302


b) Gambling Revenues

Gambling revenues have now become a critical stream of income for states, in some cases surpassing the corporate income tax.

c) Atrazine Report

Here's a chilling report on another problem herbicide: atrazine.

http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20050331.dv.html


d) Psychiatric Drugging
"Given the ineffectiveness of current drug-based psychiatric treatments, it is amazing that the number of 'mentally disabled' persons receiving social security benefits has doubled over the past 15 years. The fiscal effect of the introduction of psychiatric drugging paid for with public money will be to accelerate the bankruptcy of medicare, medicaid and the medical care system in general." Comments by N.S. Lehrman, M.D.

e) Maple Sugar Industry Moving North

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0406/p11s01-sten.html?s=hns

3) Reader Feedback

Thanks Don and Carla,
My parents think we're all nuts and that oil has not peaked and won't for several decades, but instead it's only the oil companies want us to believe it has so they can keep gouging us. I'm still working on them, in several areas. On the positive side they are now proud, instead of ashamed of our little homestead. They even praise our wanting to raise all our own produce and animals naturally. We are raising broilers with whole organic grains, weeds, alfalfa and herbs. We already have the first batch of 40 started, of which my folks ordered 20. Once the first batch is moved out of the brooder coop and into the finishing coop with chicken tractors, we will start a second batch of 40. Thank you again for this newsletter.
Blessings,
Kelle in MT

Congratulations, Kelle, on your growing chicken business, and also on the milk cow and draft horses. We should all have your gumption.

Carla,
You might also be interested in DNADirect.com where you can explore genetic testing for mutations such as the mutation that increases breast cancer risk. The fees are similar to what you would pay at a local doctor's that offers genetic counseling (available by phone at DNA Direct) except you have the option of ordering it yourself and of it never becoming part of your permanent medical record.
Have a great day,
Anne

Thanks, Anne. Some reader is going to be grateful for that info.

Carla... Enjoy your newletter. Thanks for encouraging everyone to get out of debt. We have had our house paid off nearly a decade now and it has made a huge difference. I have recently become aware that you can now get a home mortgage where you pay interest only. You pay NOTHING towards principal. They are pushing this as payments are much lower on a huge loan, but this is a very dangerous practice. Thanks, also, for letting people know how the Chinese are buying up mortgages. Think of all the property they could potentially own in this country if people default on loans.
Connie

Hi, Connie. Congratulations on having a paid-for home. These days, not many people do. I hadn't heard of the interest only "mortgage." You're right, that's TERRIBLE!
Carla

The worst thing about gas and oil prices going up is that the cost of gas and oil affects everything else. Almost everything in our country is shipped using gas and oil. Cars are shipped by train or truck. What do they burn? How is food shipped? Building products? Clothes? Etc. You get the picture. Most companies want to make a 30% profit margin. The cost of doing business has just gone up for them so they will pass on that inflated price. Then they will tack on more to make their required profit margin. Let’Äôs look at a new car. You’Äôre not just looking at the cost of shipping the car, but also the increase in cost of every component that goes into the car and the cost of getting that part to the car manufacturer.

When their cost of living goes up but not their wages, what happens to an average couple living on two minimum-wage jobs who are just barely making ends meet now? Theft increases. That causes costs of goods to go up. Rising cost of living also causes more people to seek public assistance, so guess what happens to the deficit and taxes? Someone may say, tell them to move to the country where it costs less to live.... it takes 1.6 acres to support a person. You must have money to buy land. Some places, land is so expensive only the very rich can afford to buy it. We are in trouble and those who are barely hanging in there are about to be turned upside down. Our friends and neighbors will need us more than ever or visa versa. Melissa

Hi, Melissa. Thanks for that thoughtful analysis. You're absolutely right that rising petro prices will fuel inflation.
Gratefully,
Carla

Great article. Oh, how I long to be self-sufficient!! Growing up in the city didn't help much. We buy our chicken feed from Armada Grain, but now this has me wondering about their feed too. I thought it was illegal to put hormones in chickens. I have some friends who go to Canada to buy their chicken meat because their laws are stricter...
See you soon, Leslie Goch

Answer: U.S. commercial growers of poultry generally use feeds that contain arsenic, a chemical which enhances the bird's appetite. Arsenic in animal feed is allowed by the F.D.A., but it is illegal in Europe and, apparently also in Canada. That's one of the good arguments for raising your own and feeding them a home-devised diet. That's one reason why home-grown poultry tastes so much better.

You night not remember me. I E'd you a few years ago about your book.. I have been fighting cancer again. I'm back to "work" again now. I would love to show off your book at a church meeting in Live Oak , the meeting is in April. How much is your book now? Do you still have the same address? Can they order direct from you? I hope everything is going well with you...
as always love you and your book.
Phyllis

Hello, Phyllis! My address is PO Box 133, San Simon, Arizona 85632. A new edition of my Encyclopedia of Country Living came out in March of 2003, the Updated 9th Edition--costs $29.95. They can send me a check or money order and I'll send the book, or they can buy it online at www.carlaemery.com, using PayPal.
Thanks for asking. God be with you in your health problems.