Food resources

[vesta]

Hi,

just another thought though minor.

Perhaps as you are out for a drive/picnic/on your way to work you can practice the art of 'seed bombing'! Friends of mine are currently doing this in order to establish organic veges on major & minor traffic/pedestrian routes at the very moment. They are purchasing seed & fertiliser, mixing it into ball type shapes and placing them were they will be fed by run-off or rain water and then grow and self-sow while waiting for someone to come along and discover this free vege haven.

You can do this and it won't impinge on anybody, just take a little time and effort on your part to make and locate. You can also mark on maps were this has been done for future reference. One of my friends also puts a flower bomb nearby since she can't live without beautiful flowers in her life as well but is mindful of not using any that will overtake the native bush flora. Also serves as a marker to the fact that there is a vege patch located nearby and to keep an eye out for it.

Cheers,

Vesta.

[Chameleon Walker]

i don't know if you have seen the following movie: "The world according to Monsanto". If not I greatly recommend it.

Link:
http://100777.com/node/1805
or
http://www.celsias.com/article/the-w...g-to-monsanto/

[houman]

I just bought $300 worth of (organic) seeds
http://www.organicaseed.com/
(always wanted to, Miriam reminded me of that (now is the time I guess) ... may also turn out to be a better investment than Gold and Silver...)
Houman

[Lance]

Originally Posted by vesta

Hi,

just another thought though minor.

Perhaps as you are out for a drive/picnic/on your way to work you can practice the art of 'seed bombing'! Friends of mine are currently doing this in order to establish organic veges on major & minor traffic/pedestrian routes at the very moment. They are purchasing seed & fertiliser, mixing it into ball type shapes and placing them were they will be fed by run-off or rain water and then grow and self-sow while waiting for someone to come along and discover this free vege haven.

You can do this and it won't impinge on anybody, just take a little time and effort on your part to make and locate. You can also mark on maps were this has been done for future reference. One of my friends also puts a flower bomb nearby since she can't live without beautiful flowers in her life as well but is mindful of not using any that will overtake the native bush flora. Also serves as a marker to the fact that there is a vege patch located nearby and to keep an eye out for it.

Cheers,

Vesta.

Seedballs for fun and food!
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathpro...eedballs.shtml

[pineal-pilot-in merkabah]

survivalseeds.com is no longer shipping outside the usa .. oops too late nvm ;/

[Lance]

Originally Posted by pineal-pilot-in merkabah

survivalseeds.com is no longer shipping outside the usa .. oops too late nvm ;/

Forget bulk seed companies from wherever. Find a local seedsman and buy cultivars that will work time in and time out in YOUR area. I sometimes order exotics from http://seedman.com/ but those are more for fun. In Canada, there are soooo many microclimates its quite nutty. For instance, I live in canada's second best growing region which is Zone 8b, if you drive 4 miles up, it's Zone 7. This makes a huge difference to planting times, plant hardiness etc.

Now http://www.survivalistseeds.com/ is in Toronto Kansas...I don't know what their USDA zone is, but I have had nothing but problems buying seeds from the Prairies in Canada, they don't finish correctly. Spend the time on line to find distributors of seeds near by where you live is better advice. Take the time to call them and ask them what in their stock is heirloom, you'll be surprised, seed people are wholesome.

I buy from these folks http://www.saltspringseeds.com/
These folks http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/ not because they live near by, but because they are close friends with hardy perennial food plants.
These people http://www.westcoastseeds.com/
And a smattering of others. Lately I've taken to producing my own. I have enough quinoa seeds to do 20 acres next year...and only have 1 acre in vegetable garden space...hmmmm, anyone wanna buy some acclimatized quinoa seeds?!

[bilderburger w/cheese]

seeds are a great idea, but does anyone (lance?) have any suggestions as which seeds to buy with respect to:

(a) the nutritional spectrum (vitamins, minerals, etc.) of what we need as humans
(b) best yield (per seed-- i.e., best bang for your buck)
(c) easiest to care (least concern)

do organically grown and conventional seeds (but not GM seed) really have any difference? if you grow a conventional seed and treat it organically, does that make the fruit/vegetable organic when ripe?

[munkey]

Originally Posted by bilderburger w/cheese

seeds are a great idea, but does anyone (lance?) have any suggestions as which seeds to buy with respect to:

(a) the nutritional spectrum (vitamins, minerals, etc.) of what we need as humans
(b) best yield (per seed-- i.e., best bang for your buck)
(c) easiest to care (least concern)

do organically grown and conventional seeds (but not GM seed) really have any difference? if you grow a conventional seed and treat it organically, does that make the fruit/vegetable organic when ripe?

To be honest, everything you grow from seed yourself will have far more nutritional value than even organically purchased food,
nothing is fresher than picked from home and eaten that day.
even if you buy the best seeds in the world, if your soil is poor, so will be your yield, plenty of organic material in the soil and avoid any artificial fertilizers.
man made fertilizers will get rid of worms from the soil.

remember to make a compost area to recycle the vegie scraps, avoid onion and citrus from the compost as worms really don't like the acids from them.

A very good practice is called permiculture which teaches the basics of companion planting (planting one plant next to another to keep pests away)

If I had a little more time I would post more information.
Experience: over 25 years in horticulture.
even started a little herb garden from cut herbs from the supermarket

[bilderburger w/cheese]

munkey, that does help. theres a thread started by seva regarding permaculture with a link to an ebook which ive perused, so i have an inkling about it. lots of useful information on there.

im mainly interested in what to grow... for example, planting corn isnt worth the effort when i could grow, say, tomatos and get a higher yield of product plus a higher nutritional yield.

is there anything that can be grown indoors?

[munkey]

I would say that probably every vegtable really needs to be grown outside, trying to do it in doors requires grow lights which are expensive to run.

Peas and beans can have a high yield in a small area, also beets germinate very quick.
variety is what you want, you don't want to limit yourself to just tomatoes in case you get a soil fungus which could destroy your entire crop.
peas and beans are good because they restore nitrogen back into the soil, broccoli is very good for you, but takes up a lot of room.
Avoid things like lettuce as most are reletavely low in nutrients, the advantage of things like corn is that it can also be ground up into flour.
also they can be dried and rehydrated later.
you can get tomatoes that will grow up lattice which again takes up little room, potatoes are also a good crop for fixing the soils nitrogen again and also the ease of growing them.
Remember a lot of choices will be determined by location and climate.
I live in the tropics so paw paw (papaya) grow easily from seeds, just like weeds as well as bananas just about growing wild in public parks.
If you have the room. you should plant an orange tree and if you have a gardening friend, they could even graft a lemon tree onto it so now your tree produces oranges and lemons. (it is possible to grow many different citrus varieties on the one tree).

feel free to ask questions, we are here to help each other after all