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Thread: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

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    Canada Avalon Member DeDukshyn's Avatar
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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    The Geenhouse is almost ready to start planting! Did some patchwork on the roof, got the dirt all turned over, peat moss added, etc. Started several plants inside earlier (short summers in Canada), so far, habenero peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, tomatoes, chard, spinach, and a few others already starting. Peas, carrots, turnips can be planted soon. Also growing turmeric and ginger from some roots I got at the grocery store that started to sprout. Those two will probably have to be house plants though. Potatoes will go outside the greenhouse since the deer don't eat those.

    I also have to do a full roof replacement on the greenhouse in the next few days here ... the patchwork was just temporary until we could get it cleaned out and ready to go for the season.
    When you are one step ahead of the crowd, you are a genius.
    Two steps ahead, and you are deemed a crackpot.

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Thanks EFO another tip for your melons is to plant them in 1 lit pots and (as you know melons don't like wet stems) them cut the bottom off the pot and stand it onto of your 10lit pot and voila no more wet melon stems when you water.

    So pleased you managed to get some heirloom varieties this year they will make a big difference to your seed saving abilities.

    Thanks for the offer of help with the tomatoes and I do plant some outside every year just to see what happens. We always seems to get a cold spells during the summer which means the tomato skin end up tough and hard, not nice. I have tried the soluble aspirin trick and the sodium bicarbonate, oil and organic dishwashing soap trick. I'd rather grown them under cover and I still get plenty to share, eat and 'can'.

    I am always happy to share and talk x




    Quote Posted by EFO (here)
    Dear Earth Girl,

    As a gardener to an other gardener we have to help each other,not only with ideas,but also in physical plane,were available.For example,this year,after many years of growing hybrids (we only have potatoes,garlic and peach trees as pure species),finally this year we found gardeners who grow old species of tomatoes,different paprika,watermelons and melons,carrots,cucumbers and for the first time we'll grow Luffa.
    Our potatoes we have the potato taste we were used in the childhood,while the villagers are "infused" every year with all kind of potatoes,of which I tried them,and as me they are complaining that the potatoes don't boil or can't be fried and even if that happened they have no taste at all.With garlic is the same,they lost the "seeds" and now they buy it and having that particular slightly bitter-ish taste instead of slightly sweet taste among its natural garlic taste.As per peach trees,they are so pure that they sprouted from their own seeds.

    And you gave me a great idea of growing melons in pots.Thank you!

    We're also living in a very humid area (hills shadow,mist or fog,a lot of dew,rains and a large river - practically we live in a corridor of permanent moisture),so humid that every year we have to fight with tomatoes fungi until we found different variants not to kill the fungi,but to highly reduce their influence over tomatoes using copper sulfate for soil and plants,peroxide and sodium bicarbonate among others more or less.So we have to find together a solution for you to be able to grow outside your tomatoes.We have to talk.

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    I'd be interested to hear how you get on DeDukshyn, as the crow flies position wise on this earth we are probably not that far off latitude wise, but because we have the influence of the Gulf Stream we seems to be warmer. Although this year has proved to be very cold and like you we have limited growing time as regards light, temp etc.


    Quote Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
    The Geenhouse is almost ready to start planting! Did some patchwork on the roof, got the dirt all turned over, peat moss added, etc. Started several plants inside earlier (short summers in Canada), so far, habenero peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, tomatoes, chard, spinach, and a few others already starting. Peas, carrots, turnips can be planted soon. Also growing turmeric and ginger from some roots I got at the grocery store that started to sprout. Those two will probably have to be house plants though. Potatoes will go outside the greenhouse since the deer don't eat those.

    I also have to do a full roof replacement on the greenhouse in the next few days here ... the patchwork was just temporary until we could get it cleaned out and ready to go for the season.

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  7. Link to Post #104
    Canada Avalon Member DeDukshyn's Avatar
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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Quote Posted by EarthGirl (here)
    I'd be interested to hear how you get on DeDukshyn, as the crow flies position wise on this earth we are probably not that far off latitude wise, but because we have the influence of the Gulf Stream we seems to be warmer. Although this year has proved to be very cold and like you we have limited growing time as regards light, temp etc.


    Quote Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
    The Geenhouse is almost ready to start planting! Did some patchwork on the roof, got the dirt all turned over, peat moss added, etc. Started several plants inside earlier (short summers in Canada), so far, habenero peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, tomatoes, chard, spinach, and a few others already starting. Peas, carrots, turnips can be planted soon. Also growing turmeric and ginger from some roots I got at the grocery store that started to sprout. Those two will probably have to be house plants though. Potatoes will go outside the greenhouse since the deer don't eat those.

    I also have to do a full roof replacement on the greenhouse in the next few days here ... the patchwork was just temporary until we could get it cleaned out and ready to go for the season.
    I'll keep this thread updated through the summer with some pics! I'll watch for yours here as well.
    When you are one step ahead of the crowd, you are a genius.
    Two steps ahead, and you are deemed a crackpot.

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Quote Posted by EarthGirl (here)
    Thanks EFO another tip for your melons is to plant them in 1 lit pots and (as you know melons don't like wet stems) them cut the bottom off the pot and stand it onto of your 10lit pot and voila no more wet melon stems when you water.

    So pleased you managed to get some heirloom varieties this year they will make a big difference to your seed saving abilities.

    Thanks for the offer of help with the tomatoes and I do plant some outside every year just to see what happens. We always seems to get a cold spells during the summer which means the tomato skin end up tough and hard, not nice. I have tried the soluble aspirin trick and the sodium bicarbonate, oil and organic dishwashing soap trick. I'd rather grown them under cover and I still get plenty to share, eat and 'can'.

    I am always happy to share and talk x




    Quote Posted by EFO (here)
    Dear Earth Girl,

    As a gardener to an other gardener we have to help each other,not only with ideas,but also in physical plane,were available.For example,this year,after many years of growing hybrids (we only have potatoes,garlic and peach trees as pure species),finally this year we found gardeners who grow old species of tomatoes,different paprika,watermelons and melons,carrots,cucumbers and for the first time we'll grow Luffa.
    Our potatoes we have the potato taste we were used in the childhood,while the villagers are "infused" every year with all kind of potatoes,of which I tried them,and as me they are complaining that the potatoes don't boil or can't be fried and even if that happened they have no taste at all.With garlic is the same,they lost the "seeds" and now they buy it and having that particular slightly bitter-ish taste instead of slightly sweet taste among its natural garlic taste.As per peach trees,they are so pure that they sprouted from their own seeds.

    And you gave me a great idea of growing melons in pots.Thank you!

    We're also living in a very humid area (hills shadow,mist or fog,a lot of dew,rains and a large river - practically we live in a corridor of permanent moisture),so humid that every year we have to fight with tomatoes fungi until we found different variants not to kill the fungi,but to highly reduce their influence over tomatoes using copper sulfate for soil and plants,peroxide and sodium bicarbonate among others more or less.So we have to find together a solution for you to be able to grow outside your tomatoes.We have to talk.
    Dear EarthGirl,

    I need your help,guidance,details and advice regarding melon-ing

    We have a few buckets of 5 liters with sprouted melons and in each bucket are more or less 15 young plants.My questions for you are:
    1-How many plants should I left in the 5 liters bucket?
    2-The bigger bucket housing the 5 liters bucket need to me filled with soil or water or should be let it empty and watering only the 5 liter bucket?

    Many thanks in advance for your guidance and time to reply.

    As a side note,we started plating tomatoes and this year for the first time we used zeolite.After plating them we watering them with a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide already used before with very good results among other things
    "Your planet is forbidden for an open visit - extremely aggressive social environment,despite almost perfect climatic conditions.Almost 4 billion violent deaths for the last 5000 years and about 15000 major military conflicts in the same period."

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    I have decided to use Humic acid on my soil in the Polytunnel this year. I tinkered with it last year but feel that the soil could use a real boost. Its a brown powder and I can either place a tiny amount into the base of plants when planting or I can water it in as it is water soluble. I am also putting it into my comfrey and nettle barrel as it will pull more nutrients out and make them more available. I have not tried Zeolite but do use Rockdust. Why are you using Zeolite EFO?



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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Hi EFO for example I have attached a photo so that you can see what I mean.

    This is an old picture and just for illustration.

    Both pots are filled with soil, and make it as rich as you can. This year mine will have well rotted cow manure as well as whatever you want to add to the pot to feed the plant.

    Melons are greedy feeders and as I use pots I don't expect more than 1 or 2 melons per plant.

    Each plant will need as a minimum at least 10 lit of compost. If you can give them more great.

    The first flowers that will appear are the males flowers and once the plant feels happy the female (melon bearing) flowers will appear. If nature doesn't help you then wait for at least 2 female flowers to appear and then use a male flower to hand pollinate both of them.

    For some reason when confined to pots if only one female flower has appeared and is pollinated then the plant will put all it's energy into the one fruit. It took ages for me to pollinate a second fruit.

    Once the melon has set, you will see if it takes within a week.

    Once the fruit starts to grow I feed them every other day, as I said they are greedy feeders.

    And they love heat, put them in the hottest place in your polytunnel/greenhouse.

    I hope this makes sense?


    Name:  IMG_7869.jpg
Views: 687
Size:  26.9 KB

    As for zeolite I have never heard of it, I shall have to look it up.




    Dear EarthGirl,

    I need your help,guidance,details and advice regarding melon-ing

    We have a few buckets of 5 liters with sprouted melons and in each bucket are more or less 15 young plants.My questions for you are:
    1-How many plants should I left in the 5 liters bucket?
    2-The bigger bucket housing the 5 liters bucket need to me filled with soil or water or should be let it empty and watering only the 5 liter bucket?

    Many thanks in advance for your guidance and time to reply.

    As a side note,we started plating tomatoes and this year for the first time we used zeolite.After plating them we watering them with a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide already used before with very good results among other things [/QUOTE]

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    I'll have to look at the vid thanks Trisher.

    Are you finding it a cold start to the season? We haven't had a night when the temp has been over 10c yet and we haven't had any rain for 6wks... I though we might get some today but the clouds parted and it went either side of me...


    Quote Posted by Trisher (here)
    I have decided to use Humic acid on my soil in the Polytunnel this year. I tinkered with it last year but feel that the soil could use a real boost. Its a brown powder and I can either place a tiny amount into the base of plants when planting or I can water it in as it is water soluble. I am also putting it into my comfrey and nettle barrel as it will pull more nutrients out and make them more available. I have not tried Zeolite but do use Rockdust. Why are you using Zeolite EFO?



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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    I am trying something different. I am planting in hay! I have my first hay bale planted so I will see how this goes!
    "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” William Blake

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    If you are confident the hay has not been exposed to a herbicide it can work very well with a little potting soil.

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Quote Posted by Trisher (here)
    I have decided to use Humic acid on my soil in the Polytunnel this year. I tinkered with it last year but feel that the soil could use a real boost. Its a brown powder and I can either place a tiny amount into the base of plants when planting or I can water it in as it is water soluble. I am also putting it into my comfrey and nettle barrel as it will pull more nutrients out and make them more available. I have not tried Zeolite but do use Rockdust. Why are you using Zeolite EFO?


    Dear Trisher,we are using zeolite for our health for some years now and I "discovered" a Romanian company which exploit zeolite ore for different purposes and if zeolite is good for health,I thought why shouldn't be also good for Earth/soil and plants.We already plated half of our tomatoes plants (about 350) and only 4 have some "problems,compared with previous years when about half of total plants have to be replaced because they died.So,for me is a more than a huge progress,not only because we have less work to do by replacing,but also the plants continue to live,which is more important than our work.

    Here is what the company said about the product I bought it from them:
    https://translate.google.com/transla...m/zeco-ground/

    I will update.
    "Your planet is forbidden for an open visit - extremely aggressive social environment,despite almost perfect climatic conditions.Almost 4 billion violent deaths for the last 5000 years and about 15000 major military conflicts in the same period."

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Karen, I look forward to hear how your hay bale planting goes.

    I would also like to try the double potting method next season in the green house Earthgirl as it is a cooler planting district here, and sometimes the seasons can be short.

    Anka and EFO glad to hear your tomatos are doing so well and I will keep an eye for your updates.

    I have Humic acid in a natural liquid fertiliser, I hope your humic acid in the poly tunnel work out well Trisher.

    Also I will look forward to your pictures DeDukshyn🍃🍀

    I've been gathering seeds and making grape jelly and preserving apples this week.

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Quote Posted by EarthGirl (here)
    Hi EFO for example I have attached a photo so that you can see what I mean.

    This is an old picture and just for illustration.

    Both pots are filled with soil, and make it as rich as you can. This year mine will have well rotted cow manure as well as whatever you want to add to the pot to feed the plant.

    Melons are greedy feeders and as I use pots I don't expect more than 1 or 2 melons per plant.

    Each plant will need as a minimum at least 10 lit of compost. If you can give them more great.

    The first flowers that will appear are the males flowers and once the plant feels happy the female (melon bearing) flowers will appear. If nature doesn't help you then wait for at least 2 female flowers to appear and then use a male flower to hand pollinate both of them.

    For some reason when confined to pots if only one female flower has appeared and is pollinated then the plant will put all it's energy into the one fruit. It took ages for me to pollinate a second fruit.

    Once the melon has set, you will see if it takes within a week.

    Once the fruit starts to grow I feed them every other day, as I said they are greedy feeders.

    And they love heat, put them in the hottest place in your polytunnel/greenhouse.

    I hope this makes sense?


    Attachment 46636

    As for zeolite I have never heard of it, I shall have to look it up.




    Dear EarthGirl,

    I need your help,guidance,details and advice regarding melon-ing

    We have a few buckets of 5 liters with sprouted melons and in each bucket are more or less 15 young plants.My questions for you are:
    1-How many plants should I left in the 5 liters bucket?
    2-The bigger bucket housing the 5 liters bucket need to me filled with soil or water or should be let it empty and watering only the 5 liter bucket?

    Many thanks in advance for your guidance and time to reply.

    As a side note,we started plating tomatoes and this year for the first time we used zeolite.After plating them we watering them with a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide already used before with very good results among other things
    [/QUOTE]

    Thank you EarthGirl for your more than crystal clear explanation and your time.You're a TREASURE!All your infos are diamonds!
    "Your planet is forbidden for an open visit - extremely aggressive social environment,despite almost perfect climatic conditions.Almost 4 billion violent deaths for the last 5000 years and about 15000 major military conflicts in the same period."

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Just an update about my Luffas...after one month after planting.We added different quantities of zeolite up to none.The soil is the same in all pots.

    Click image for larger version

Name:	LUFFAS.jpg
Views:	33
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    "Your planet is forbidden for an open visit - extremely aggressive social environment,despite almost perfect climatic conditions.Almost 4 billion violent deaths for the last 5000 years and about 15000 major military conflicts in the same period."

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    Yesterday we bought 2 adorable little fig trees about a foot and a half high (with little figs on them already) from a farmers son who walks the neighborhoods selling plants out of a wheelbarrow. He also had cintronella plants for mosquito prevention, so we bought 2 of those. I have never liked citronella essential oil but these plants smell a lot better! :-)
    It's great hearing about and seeing all your plants!

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    I have recently enjoyed some of my home grown Swiss Chard and Silverbeet Spinach but because I planted a bit late this year most of the other stuff is not yet ready... but not too long now I hope.

    On the way is Eggplant, Chilli, Tomatoes & plum tree, lemon tree and lime trees are all very full..

    Herbs are doing great with lemon thyme, parsley, rosemary and holy basil looking very happy.

    Given recent shortage concerns as well as unwanted tweaking with what is on our shelves I am most definitely going to try go self sufficient.

    Would appreciate anyone's tips/suggestions or what you've had success with growing during Winter & Autumn (Fall) months.. Where I live in Adelaide we have a nice mix of all 4 seasons, nothing too extreme.

    To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. -Lao Tzu

    I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.

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    Avalon Member Peace in Oz's Avatar
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    Quote Posted by Ankle Biter (here)
    Would appreciate anyone's tips/suggestions or what you've had success with growing during Winter & Autumn (Fall) months.. Where I live in Adelaide we have a nice mix of all 4 seasons, nothing too extreme.
    https://www.theseedcollection.com.au/ has sowing charts based on region and season. There are hundreds of vegetables, herbs and flowers listed:

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    @Peace in Oz. You're a legend mate.

    That's perfect!
    To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. -Lao Tzu

    I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    This was the first year that I dehydrated apples. I sprinkled them with cinnamon and then vacuum packed them. It was a great way to use apples that may have been really small or had a small portion that was uneatable. I am planning to expand this with other fruits and veggies. The vaccuum bags are reusable albeit a bit smaller each time.

    I do freeze all that I can but as the trees get larger there is more fruit to deal with. I do like to leave certain fruits for the animals. The birds go crazy over pears!!! I live near the ocean so the gulls come in and just devour whatever they can get!

    I know I have said it many times over the years on the forum and maybe on this thread earlier, but sprouting is a wonderful way to always have fresh veggies. All you need are the sprout seeds and and a jar with a lid that can drain water. You can travel and bring them with you. My staples are mung beans (for their protein") and alfalfa seeds. You can literally sprout any seeds. They really are and inexpensive way to keep the live food available for those of us that live in climates where growing year round is not very easy.

    I love the knowledge on this thread.

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    Default Re: What did you plant today? Garden and Farming for FOOD SECURITY.

    How to Grow Food in the Worst of Conditions
    3/7/22
    https://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...rid=1425915160
    Annual Update for Regenerative Agriculture Week
    by Dr. Joseph Mercola
    March 06, 2022


    Source: https://www.bitchute.com/video/TmCPtISInycV/


    "Despite not having wells or rainfall eight months of the year, arid, barren Mexico is growing green vegetables year-round and restoring the environment. This is how they're doing it, including the use of 'air layering' to grow trees 7x faster.

    STORY AT-A-GLANCE
    The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is a family of organizations that include Regeneration International. The Regeneration International research farm in Miguel de Allende, Mexico, has started a reforestation project using mesquite trees and agave plants
    Agave leaves (which have always been discarded and considered useless) and mesquite pods can be fermented and turned into nutritious animal feed that costs one-third to one-quarter of the price for alfalfa
    Donations made to the OCA during Regenerative Agriculture Week will be matched dollar for dollar by Mercola.com
    My team and I are even creating access to biodynamic practices and better food sources through Solspring®, an authentic food brand that offers Demeter Certified Biodynamic® and organic ingredients from across the globe

    It's our annual Regenerative Agriculture Week again, and to give you an update, I interviewed Ronnie Cummins, co-founder and international director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). OCA is one of the nonprofits we donate a portion of our revenues to each year.

    While giving out information is important, we also want to make sure we can pave the way to make it easier for you to actually implement healthy changes such as switching to an organic diet. That's hard to do unless organic foods are readily available, and OCA is wholly dedicated to that mission.

    About the OCA
    The OCA is actually a family of organizations that include Regeneration International, which has a research farm in Mexico. It's staffed by about 50 people, mainly agronomists and farm workers. They also have a research farm in Minnesota that operates primarily during growing season. In the winter, they grow foods in a specially designed solar powered greenhouse.

    "There is a way to grow green vegetables year-round, but we have to stop prioritizing GMO soybeans and corn in the Midwest and start prioritizing food for real people if we're going to do that," Cummins says.

    "In Mexico, it's a totally different situation. We're in a semi-desert area near San Miguel de Allende. Our research on regenerative and organic food here is focused on how you can grow a bunch of food and basically restore the environment when you don't have wells and you don't have rainfall eight months a year.

    We only get rain three or four months a year, so it's necessary to use all these permaculture type practices. In a good year, we get 20 inches [of rainfall].

    So, we have ponds where we catch millions of liters of water from the mountains. We have cisterns below all the buildings. We catch the water on the roofs and put it into the cisterns. We have composting toilets, recycled shower water, and we try to grow crops and trees that are adapted to low moisture."

    The 75-acre farm needs to collect and store about 12 million liters or 3 million gallons of water during the rainy season, which then has to last the rest of the year.

    Crops that work well in this semi-desert and have low water requirements include native desert plants and trees like agave and mesquite. Growing these has allowed the farm to re-green the desert landscape and produce fermented animal feed that's both inexpensive and healthy.

    Air Layering Project to Begin
    The regenerative farm in Mexico is now gearing up for a new reforestation project. By taking a limb from a healthy mesquite tree, adding some natural hormones and wrapping the branch with a bag filled with compost, you will, after three to four months, have a small tree ready for planting as new roots grow into the compost-filled bag. At that point, you can either plant it into a container, or directly into the soil. This process is known as "air layering."

    "Our 1-year-old mesquite trees are as big as a 7-year-old mesquite tree from a seed," Cummins says. "It's a method that we're really excited about. People in the Southwestern U.S., Texas and the Southwest, are very familiar with mesquite because there's so many of them.

    Texas, I believe, has 55 million acres of mesquite. The bean pods on the trees are highly nutritious. You can make flour and bake with it. Animals also love the pods as an animal feed."

    The roots of the mesquite tree can burrow hundreds of feet down in search of water, and they in turn provide nutrition for other plants. As explained by Cummins, they exchange liquid carbon from the tree for the nutrients from the soil.

    "The combination of the native agaves and these types of nitrogen fixing trees is the real key to restoring the environment," Cummins says. "Originally, 400 years ago, this was a savanna. It had oak trees. It had lots of mesquite trees. It had a different climate.

    The timber was valuable, though. The Spaniards basically deforested much of Mexico over the years, because they needed charcoal for the silver mines. In Europe, they loved the mesquite trees and the oak trees for building purposes — building ships, houses and so on. Once they deforested large swaths of Mexico ... it changed the climate.

    Now, the native trees need human intervention to reforest. But if you can come up with a system, which we have, that rewards the small farmer or the rancher right away — in this case because they get low-cost animal feed that's much cheaper than alfalfa or corn silage — you can get people to start adopting this [strategy].

    We've planted about 350,000 agave seedlings in the last two years, and we're seeing the popularity of this system now starting to spread. We're actually getting inquiries from all over the world now, including ranchers in Texas who would like to improve their pastures and their ecosystems in general."

    Creating a Win-Win Situation
    When you hear "agave," chances are your mind goes straight to tequila. As explained by Cummins, the state of Jalisco grows 500 million blue agave plants for the tequila industry. The problem is, they're being grown as a monoculture. All preexisting vegetation is cut down to make room for the agave. They also use chemical fertilizers, typically RoundUp. Together, it degrades the landscape rather than improves it.

    Forty percent of the world is arid or semi-arid, and is in danger of reverting to outright desert where nothing will grow. But we can reverse this process using native plants and organic and permaculture techniques. ~ Ronnie Cummins
    What OCA and Regenerative International are doing is organic, regenerative and biodynamic. It preserves biodiversity and makes use of the natural potential of the plants. The big breakthrough came when a local farmer figured out that the leaves of the agave plant, which are huge biomass, can be fermented and turned into nutritious animal feed.

    A single agave leaf can weigh 40 to 80 pounds, and these leaves were always discarded. "For thousands of years they were considered junk," Cummins says. What they found was that you can place finely chopped leaves in a closed container and ferment them.

    To that, you can also add mesquite pods. Cummins has been using a mix of 80% to 90% agave leaf and 10% to 20% mesquite pods. This mix is superior to alfalfa in terms of nutrition, but costs only a third or a quarter of the price.

    Cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens and even sheepdogs, enjoy it. A big part of the cost-savings is from the reduced water consumption. Alfalfa needs about 26 times more water than agave and mesquite. Most of the animals on the farm eat the natural vegetation and get the agave mash as a supplement. However, by adding garbanzo beans — another low-water crop — you could produce a feed that the animals could live on exclusively.

    "We think it's a good idea to graze the animals," Cummins says, "even in the dry season when there's not much vegetation. But we graze them a lot less than has become the custom over the last 100 years.

    Sixty percent of Mexico, like the Southwestern U.S., is semi-desert arid, and it's been over-grazed. So, we need to get back to a regenerative grazing situation where you partly rest the land, you're reforesting it and using contours to help retain the rainwater.

    Forty percent of the world is arid or semi-arid, and is in danger of reverting to outright desert where nothing will grow. But we can reverse this process using native plants and organic and permaculture techniques that modern organic farmers have developed over the last 50 to 100 years.

    Alfalfa is a great perennial if you have plenty of water and you're not draining the aquifer. But that's not the way it's being done. In Southern California, the giant dairy farms, the giant feed lots that are feeding alfalfa to the animals across the Southwest, these areas do not have the water availability to be doing this. We've got to stop that and start looking at the long-term water resources we have."

    Bringing the Rain
    The amazing thing about reforestation is that it can actually change the climate and improve rainfall. Regenerative ranchers in Northern Mexico, in the Chihuahuan Desert, who have added 1 million acres of rotational grazing, report getting 15% to 20% more rainfall than their neighbors who haven't regenerated their land.

    "You can literally bring back rain to a level that was traditionally there, if you regenerate the landscape," Cummins says. "You do this not just with human ingenuity and stewardship, but the animals are totally necessary to speed up this process. We need animals grazing in areas, even the semi-arid arid areas, but we don't want them to over-graze ...

    We need to use their natural behavior in conjunction with what we're doing to restore the environment. And we can do that."

    New Market Opportunities
    Cummins laid out a plan for transforming the U.S. through regenerative practices in his 2020 book, "Grassroots Rising." In the U.S., market demand is one of the primary factors driving regenerative farming and ranching. There is a bigger demand for grass fed meat and animal products now than there was 10 years ago, but it's not growing fast enough.

    Feed lots and factory farming still dominate, in part because that's what our government subsidizes. Changing the farming subsidies to prioritize regenerative farming would go a long way to changing the status quo. Encouraging private investors to put their money where their mouth is, is another possibility.

    "I'm pretty excited about this. There's a new type of asset being developed on the stock exchange. The rules are being written up by the Securities and Exchange Commission. These are called Natural Asset Stocks, or Natural Asset Corporations.

    This is a type of stock different from anything we've seen up until now. The government of Costa Rica, for example, is putting all the lands that the government owns, the forests and the farmlands, into a Natural Asset Corporation.

    So, if you're a manager of a pension fund, or an investor, or a corporation, you can invest in one of these natural assets. You don't own the land, you're not having a lien on any of the income that comes from this land. What you own are the ecosystem services that the land provides.

    For example, you've got this system of agave and mesquite trees. We are incorporating now to where someone can own the environmental services. In other words, the amount of water that we're saving, the amount of carbon that we're sequestering, the amount of methane that our animals are releasing — they're releasing less when they eat this fermented silage.

    Instead of going to a corporation or a foundation and looking for a donation, what you do is you say, 'Would you like to invest in a natural asset?' And then over time, as the forest matures, as the system matures, as you regenerate the soil, your asset is worth more money. If you choose to sell that asset, you can actually make money off of it.

    This is very appealing to Wall Street at this point. They're really worried about their reputation, as they should be, but they also are not going to change overnight what they're doing. But this is a way that they can pull some of their assets out of financial assets and put them into ecosystem assets, and still get a return on their money.

    But this is like organic certification. You can't just say that you're doing a benefit to the environment and then get people to invest in this benefit. You have to be able to prove it. We've developed a system of verification that is quite accurate scientifically. It involves measuring things like the numbers of plants, the size of the plants. You do soil analysis and so on, the traditional things you would look at.

    But then with modern technology, it's possible to fly a drone over the area and take photographs. And then you compare your measurements on the ground with what the drone is seeing through their multiple cameras.

    And then you develop an algorithm and progressions to where you can then fly the drone over another area that you haven't measured on the ground, and you get the readings on how much carbon biomass is in the environment. You get a reading on other ecosystem services."

    Reasons to Be Hopeful
    They're also using a blockchain accounting system to verify the calculations and make it very difficult to cheat. So, anyone who invests in a natural asset will be able to verify, several years down the road, at a very low cost, whether the asset has improved or degenerated.

    "When people ask, 'Are you really greening the desert?' 'Are you really restoring the environment?' 'Are you conserving water?' 'Are you producing important food for animals and humans?' you'll be able to prove it one package.

    There's $125 trillion out there invested in financial assets. Most of this is degenerating the planet. But there's $125 trillion-worth of natural assets that are not valued right now. We believe that approximately 1% of the financiers and the corporate money managers and pension managers right now are quite concerned about the environment, the same way we are, and are ready to start moving a portion of their assets.

    We only need to move 1% in the next decade to get the ball rolling. The benefits of regenerative food and farming are far beyond even just the ecosystem benefits. As we've seen during the pandemic, sales of organic food have grown substantially.

    Sales of dietary supplements have grown substantially. A lot of people have learned the joys of cooking at home again, instead of going out to restaurants. We've got a potential market demand. We just need to get the ball rolling."

    The Regenerative Network
    Regenerative International, incorporated in 2014, has since built a global network of regenerative farmers and ranchers, with some 400 affiliates in 60 countries. You can find a map of these regenerative farms on RegenerationInternational.org.

    Much of the energy over the past seven years has been spent on educating the world about the importance of regenerative farming practices, including its ability to improve climate, preserve water and improve nutrition. Today, most people have at least heard about regenerative farming.

    The primary focus now is to seek out the best practices and make sure they're shared, publicized and duplicated. The fermented agave idea, for example, came from a local farmer who visited the Regeneration International farm in Mexico. He asked if they'd heard of fermenting the leaves for animal feed. He'd been doing it for 12 years, yet no one had ever heard of this strategy.

    As it turns out, it's a fantastic solution that solves several problems at once. There may be other solutions out there that people just don't know about, and Regeneration International aims to find them and share them, worldwide.

    It's our annual Regenerative Agriculture Week again, and to give you an update, I interviewed Ronnie Cummins, co-founder and international director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). OCA is one of the nonprofits we donate a portion of our revenues to each year.

    While giving out information is important, we also want to make sure we can pave the way to make it easier for you to actually implement healthy changes such as switching to an organic diet. That's hard to do unless organic foods are readily available, and OCA is wholly dedicated to that mission.

    About the OCA

    The OCA is actually a family of organizations that include Regeneration International, which has a research farm in Mexico. It's staffed by about 50 people, mainly agronomists and farm workers. They also have a research farm in Minnesota that operates primarily during growing season. In the winter, they grow foods in a specially designed solar powered greenhouse.

    "There is a way to grow green vegetables year-round, but we have to stop prioritizing GMO soybeans and corn in the Midwest and start prioritizing food for real people if we're going to do that," Cummins says.

    "In Mexico, it's a totally different situation. We're in a semi-desert area near San Miguel de Allende. Our research on regenerative and organic food here is focused on how you can grow a bunch of food and basically restore the environment when you don't have wells and you don't have rainfall eight months a year.

    We only get rain three or four months a year, so it's necessary to use all these permaculture type practices. In a good year, we get 20 inches [of rainfall].

    So, we have ponds where we catch millions of liters of water from the mountains. We have cisterns below all the buildings. We catch the water on the roofs and put it into the cisterns. We have composting toilets, recycled shower water, and we try to grow crops and trees that are adapted to low moisture."

    The 75-acre farm needs to collect and store about 12 million liters or 3 million gallons of water during the rainy season, which then has to last the rest of the year.

    Crops that work well in this semi-desert and have low water requirements include native desert plants and trees like agave and mesquite. Growing these has allowed the farm to re-green the desert landscape and produce fermented animal feed that's both inexpensive and healthy.

    Air Layering Project to Begin
    The regenerative farm in Mexico is now gearing up for a new reforestation project. By taking a limb from a healthy mesquite tree, adding some natural hormones and wrapping the branch with a bag filled with compost, you will, after three to four months, have a small tree ready for planting as new roots grow into the compost-filled bag. At that point, you can either plant it into a container, or directly into the soil. This process is known as "air layering."

    "Our 1-year-old mesquite trees are as big as a 7-year-old mesquite tree from a seed," Cummins says. "It's a method that we're really excited about. People in the Southwestern U.S., Texas and the Southwest, are very familiar with mesquite because there's so many of them.

    Texas, I believe, has 55 million acres of mesquite. The bean pods on the trees are highly nutritious. You can make flour and bake with it. Animals also love the pods as an animal feed."

    The roots of the mesquite tree can burrow hundreds of feet down in search of water, and they in turn provide nutrition for other plants. As explained by Cummins, they exchange liquid carbon from the tree for the nutrients from the soil.

    "The combination of the native agaves and these types of nitrogen fixing trees is the real key to restoring the environment," Cummins says. "Originally, 400 years ago, this was a savanna. It had oak trees. It had lots of mesquite trees. It had a different climate.

    The timber was valuable, though. The Spaniards basically deforested much of Mexico over the years, because they needed charcoal for the silver mines. In Europe, they loved the mesquite trees and the oak trees for building purposes — building ships, houses and so on. Once they deforested large swaths of Mexico ... it changed the climate.

    Now, the native trees need human intervention to reforest. But if you can come up with a system, which we have, that rewards the small farmer or the rancher right away — in this case because they get low-cost animal feed that's much cheaper than alfalfa or corn silage — you can get people to start adopting this [strategy].

    We've planted about 350,000 agave seedlings in the last two years, and we're seeing the popularity of this system now starting to spread. We're actually getting inquiries from all over the world now, including ranchers in Texas who would like to improve their pastures and their ecosystems in general."

    Creating a Win-Win Situation

    When you hear "agave," chances are your mind goes straight to tequila. As explained by Cummins, the state of Jalisco grows 500 million blue agave plants for the tequila industry. The problem is, they're being grown as a monoculture. All preexisting vegetation is cut down to make room for the agave. They also use chemical fertilizers, typically RoundUp. Together, it degrades the landscape rather than improves it.

    Forty percent of the world is arid or semi-arid, and is in danger of reverting to outright desert where nothing will grow. But we can reverse this process using native plants and organic and permaculture techniques. ~ Ronnie Cummins
    What OCA and Regenerative International are doing is organic, regenerative and biodynamic. It preserves biodiversity and makes use of the natural potential of the plants. The big breakthrough came when a local farmer figured out that the leaves of the agave plant, which are huge biomass, can be fermented and turned into nutritious animal feed.

    A single agave leaf can weigh 40 to 80 pounds, and these leaves were always discarded. "For thousands of years they were considered junk," Cummins says. What they found was that you can place finely chopped leaves in a closed container and ferment them.

    To that, you can also add mesquite pods. Cummins has been using a mix of 80% to 90% agave leaf and 10% to 20% mesquite pods. This mix is superior to alfalfa in terms of nutrition, but costs only a third or a quarter of the price.

    Cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens and even sheepdogs, enjoy it. A big part of the cost-savings is from the reduced water consumption. Alfalfa needs about 26 times more water than agave and mesquite. Most of the animals on the farm eat the natural vegetation and get the agave mash as a supplement. However, by adding garbanzo beans — another low-water crop — you could produce a feed that the animals could live on exclusively.

    "We think it's a good idea to graze the animals," Cummins says, "even in the dry season when there's not much vegetation. But we graze them a lot less than has become the custom over the last 100 years.

    Sixty percent of Mexico, like the Southwestern U.S., is semi-desert arid, and it's been over-grazed. So, we need to get back to a regenerative grazing situation where you partly rest the land, you're reforesting it and using contours to help retain the rainwater.

    Forty percent of the world is arid or semi-arid, and is in danger of reverting to outright desert where nothing will grow. But we can reverse this process using native plants and organic and permaculture techniques that modern organic farmers have developed over the last 50 to 100 years.

    Alfalfa is a great perennial if you have plenty of water and you're not draining the aquifer. But that's not the way it's being done. In Southern California, the giant dairy farms, the giant feed lots that are feeding alfalfa to the animals across the Southwest, these areas do not have the water availability to be doing this. We've got to stop that and start looking at the long-term water resources we have."

    Bringing the Rain
    The amazing thing about reforestation is that it can actually change the climate and improve rainfall. Regenerative ranchers in Northern Mexico, in the Chihuahuan Desert, who have added 1 million acres of rotational grazing, report getting 15% to 20% more rainfall than their neighbors who haven't regenerated their land.

    "You can literally bring back rain to a level that was traditionally there, if you regenerate the landscape," Cummins says. "You do this not just with human ingenuity and stewardship, but the animals are totally necessary to speed up this process. We need animals grazing in areas, even the semi-arid arid areas, but we don't want them to over-graze ...

    We need to use their natural behavior in conjunction with what we're doing to restore the environment. And we can do that."

    New Market Opportunities

    Cummins laid out a plan for transforming the U.S. through regenerative practices in his 2020 book, "Grassroots Rising." In the U.S., market demand is one of the primary factors driving regenerative farming and ranching. There is a bigger demand for grass fed meat and animal products now than there was 10 years ago, but it's not growing fast enough.

    Feed lots and factory farming still dominate, in part because that's what our government subsidizes. Changing the farming subsidies to prioritize regenerative farming would go a long way to changing the status quo. Encouraging private investors to put their money where their mouth is, is another possibility.

    "I'm pretty excited about this. There's a new type of asset being developed on the stock exchange. The rules are being written up by the Securities and Exchange Commission. These are called Natural Asset Stocks, or Natural Asset Corporations.

    This is a type of stock different from anything we've seen up until now. The government of Costa Rica, for example, is putting all the lands that the government owns, the forests and the farmlands, into a Natural Asset Corporation.

    So, if you're a manager of a pension fund, or an investor, or a corporation, you can invest in one of these natural assets. You don't own the land, you're not having a lien on any of the income that comes from this land. What you own are the ecosystem services that the land provides.

    For example, you've got this system of agave and mesquite trees. We are incorporating now to where someone can own the environmental services. In other words, the amount of water that we're saving, the amount of carbon that we're sequestering, the amount of methane that our animals are releasing — they're releasing less when they eat this fermented silage.

    Instead of going to a corporation or a foundation and looking for a donation, what you do is you say, 'Would you like to invest in a natural asset?' And then over time, as the forest matures, as the system matures, as you regenerate the soil, your asset is worth more money. If you choose to sell that asset, you can actually make money off of it.

    This is very appealing to Wall Street at this point. They're really worried about their reputation, as they should be, but they also are not going to change overnight what they're doing. But this is a way that they can pull some of their assets out of financial assets and put them into ecosystem assets, and still get a return on their money.

    But this is like organic certification. You can't just say that you're doing a benefit to the environment and then get people to invest in this benefit. You have to be able to prove it. We've developed a system of verification that is quite accurate scientifically. It involves measuring things like the numbers of plants, the size of the plants. You do soil analysis and so on, the traditional things you would look at.

    But then with modern technology, it's possible to fly a drone over the area and take photographs. And then you compare your measurements on the ground with what the drone is seeing through their multiple cameras.

    And then you develop an algorithm and progressions to where you can then fly the drone over another area that you haven't measured on the ground, and you get the readings on how much carbon biomass is in the environment. You get a reading on other ecosystem services."

    Reasons To Be Hopeful
    They're also using a blockchain accounting system to verify the calculations and make it very difficult to cheat. So, anyone who invests in a natural asset will be able to verify, several years down the road, at a very low cost, whether the asset has improved or degenerated.

    "When people ask, 'Are you really greening the desert?' 'Are you really restoring the environment?' 'Are you conserving water?' 'Are you producing important food for animals and humans?' you'll be able to prove it one package.

    There's $125 trillion out there invested in financial assets. Most of this is degenerating the planet. But there's $125 trillion-worth of natural assets that are not valued right now. We believe that approximately 1% of the financiers and the corporate money managers and pension managers right now are quite concerned about the environment, the same way we are, and are ready to start moving a portion of their assets.

    We only need to move 1% in the next decade to get the ball rolling. The benefits of regenerative food and farming are far beyond even just the ecosystem benefits. As we've seen during the pandemic, sales of organic food have grown substantially.

    Sales of dietary supplements have grown substantially. A lot of people have learned the joys of cooking at home again, instead of going out to restaurants. We've got a potential market demand. We just need to get the ball rolling."

    The Regenerative Network
    Regenerative International, incorporated in 2014, has since built a global network of regenerative farmers and ranchers, with some 400 affiliates in 60 countries. You can find a map of these regenerative farms on RegenerationInternational.org.

    Much of the energy over the past seven years has been spent on educating the world about the importance of regenerative farming practices, including its ability to improve climate, preserve water and improve nutrition. Today, most people have at least heard about regenerative farming.

    The primary focus now is to seek out the best practices and make sure they're shared, publicized and duplicated. The fermented agave idea, for example, came from a local farmer who visited the Regeneration International farm in Mexico. He asked if they'd heard of fermenting the leaves for animal feed. He'd been doing it for 12 years, yet no one had ever heard of this strategy.

    As it turns out, it's a fantastic solution that solves several problems at once. There may be other solutions out there that people just don't know about, and Regeneration International aims to find them and share them, worldwide.



    My team and I are even creating access to biodynamic practices and better food sources through Solspring®, an authentic food brand that offers Demeter Certified Biodynamic® and organic ingredients from across the globe.

    Not only are we making it easier for the average person to shop, cook and consume biodynamic products they can trust, we're also supporting farmers worldwide by offering a premium price for their harvests. From the U.S. to India, we strongly support their transition to biodynamic practices, and building healthier, more diverse farmlands.

    OCA Is Paving the Way
    Since its inception in 1998, OCA has worked to educate people about organic, biodynamic, regenerative food. Cummins spent a couple of decades fighting for the organic industry before that as well. They've also educated the public to realize that farming does have a big impact on the environment.

    "If you care about clean water, for example, you better care about regenerative agriculture," he says. "If you care about animals, you better care about how factory farming is an abomination, and so on. We've created, I believe, the potential market demand.

    We simply have to have the products available, and we have to stop governments from subsidizing degenerate food and farming. The market has the potential to correct a lot of the problems out there, if we work together to do that."

    Today's your chance to help us achieve that mission. Every dollar you donate, I will match during this fundraiser. As explained by Cummins, all funds raised are used to further the mission of OCA and Regenerative International.

    "Most groups in the world that care about regenerative food and farming are strapped for cash. For example, we have 50 people at this research farm in Mexico. Most of them are graduate students from agronomy schools. We provide housing. We pay them a wage. It costs money to do this, and it costs money to pay for the school buses that come with kids on them, and the small farmers who come in to see what we're doing.

    OCA has always tried to be an international organization, so part of the money we raise goes to our international staff. We have one staff person in Africa. We've got one in Southern France, one in Australia, one in Argentina. This is what we use our money for.

    I spend half my time exposing the bad stuff ... and the other half on positive solutions. You get frustrated after 50 years in the organic movement of asking the government to please stop allowing cheating of standards. Lo and behold, we're getting to the point where we're going to be able to measure a lot of these things scientifically, and verify them. If USDA organic seal isn't enough, we'll have another seal that you can get behind.

    In this day and age, you can know where each piece of meat came from, each fish, each vegetable. That's what we're going to have to move to. We need organic standards that are truthful. We have unfinished business in the U.S. because the government's special interests have blocked mandatory labeling of GMOs.

    They're not requiring labels on nanotechnology. They're lying about pesticide residues, and so on. We have to keep fighting the battle for truthful labeling and transparency, [and] thank goodness, we're at a point where we're going to be able to have a better method, not only of farming, but of proving that [organic, regenerative methods] are being employed.

    So, please consider making a donation to the OCA today! I'll match all donations, dollar for dollar during this weeklong fundraiser."
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  40. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Ankle Biter (6th April 2022), Bill Ryan (7th March 2022), Harmony (8th March 2022), Trisher (8th March 2022), Victoria (7th March 2022)

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