Humanure?
Maybe. In my travels around the country, some of the most beautiful gardens I’ve visited were fertilized all, or in part, with humanure. My host in Elk Falls, Kansas, uses a compost toilet. When he cleans out the toilet the humanure goes into a corner of his large, wonderful garden. There, together with the goat and chicken manure from his barn, he covers it with hay or straw--and let’s it rot. I met a little lady in Washington state who always potties on her compost heap--and you should see her garden! I met a certified organic fruit grower in Wisconsin who uses a technique still used by Swiss fruit growers. He saves all his urine (in barrels, keeps them in the greenhouse). In the spring, before the buds come out (he stressed that timing), he strains the urine, then sprays it on his fruit trees. He says they grow green and lush and he does no more spraying before harvest.

There’s more on this subject in my “How to Grow the Greatest Garden of Your Life”--and lots more in The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure (Emphasizing Minimum Technology and Maximum Hygienic Safety). J.C. Jenkins is scholarly, funny, practical, and has created a basic reference work on a subject that most authors wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. He’s into some Buddhist-type thinking. Those are countries that made humanure use an expert technology. It’s an interesting and useful book.

Urine plant food: 1/3 part urine plus 2/3 water. Let age two or three weeks. Pour on ground near plant (not on house plants, and not directly on the leaves of a plant).

The Garden Parade Coloring Book and Sewing Instructions
In Maine, I discovered a wonderful book of vegetable costumes published as a club fund raiser for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and their big annual farmer’s market, the Common Ground Country Fair. It is wholesome, cute, and would be useful if you need a costume for an iris, worm, apple, sunflower, tomato, garden slug, praying mantis, broccoli, potato, wheat stalk, flying ant, bat, corn, lettuce, robin, caterpillar (for two children), eggplant, butterfly, ladybug, chickens, bee, peapod, strawberry, turnip, radish, pumpkin, compost heap (no kidding!), aphids, pig, calf, apple tree, toad, brussel sprout, mosquito, squash, caterpillar (for three children), flower, frog, marigold, crow, cutworm, cucumber beetle, and more. There is one good illustration of each costume. The sewing instructions are minimal, but for people who have some experience with stitchery, they will work.

Trends in the Nation’s Food Supply - Audiotape

How to Grow the Greatest Garden of Your Life
“How to Grow the Greatest Garden of Your Life” is a basic orientation for any beginning gardener--and great fun for an experienced one. The six secrets of successful family food production, which are described, are useful too! You’ll learn how to keep critters out of your garden, why a rototiller may be a practical investment, which methods offood preservation best preserve nutrition, and how to prepare for the electricity to be off for a week!

These two talks are now available either as audios or videos. I recommend that you view (or listen to) them as a set. “Trends” is on the bleak side, although the information is potentially very useful. “How to” is a good antidote which tells what you can do to make a real difference.

How to Grow the Greatest Garden of Your Life! - Audiotape

Set of Trends in the Nations Food Supply and How to Grow
Both Story Sets: Trends and How to Grow - Audiotapes (2)

The Stories of My Life
So many of you have wanted to hear more of the stories of my life. One lady wrote me, “I want you to know it was a great joy to meet you. You are just like your book and I love you both. Your stories are so good. I wish I could hear them all. You have such a gift of making everything you say live and move and touch the very heart and depth of a soul. At least, you reached mine.” Kenna Jean Joustra, Sheridan, Michigan.

Now, I have more of those stories on tape for you! Tape 1 contains stories from The Writing Workshop: how a non-articulate, “retarded” child became a speaker and a writer; how an old horse saved a foolish child’s life; and how two devastating personal losses taught a wanna-be writer hard, important lessons about finishing the job, and having the courage to share. Tape 2 covers the history of how I first wrote the Encyclopedia of Country Living, how I became a Christian, my mother’s loss--and return to me, how I made a career in show business, and then turned my back on it for the greater goal of being the best wife and mother I could.

(1) Childhood: Mute child, Shorty Bill, Brown Paper Bag - Audiotape

(2) Adulthood: Mother lost (and regained), Writing of a Book, etc. - Audiotape

Both Story Sets: Childhood and Adulthood - Audiotapes (2)