Organics and organic growing,what and why?

2008-01-30T03:20:00.000-08:00

The crux of the matter is regulation and the mind-set of those setting the regulations.The basic concept of organic farming goes back to a time before rules other than those of nature,to a time where people understood the order of things.Very unscientific but leaving the science behind and being able to "read the land" and go with natures flow gave us the pure food that is now labeled "organic". The science of agriculture with all its chemicals,advisors and experts has no place in an organic farming world. Commercial farming and mass production of course needs all of this back-up and the added costs in terms of inputs ,disease and lowering of quality.
In Europe after the last war food shortages (which did not go away just because the shooting stopped) meant that almost any bit of ground became a farm,even city dwellers took pride in growing the "tastiest " cabbages or carrots or whatever and "secret" composts were concocted and it was all done without any rules or regulations.But it was not as hapazard as it looked as ,for example, the seeds were all sourced locally and were of varieties which had been grown for generations and were perfectly suited to the surroundings.The composts were not made to a chemical formula,they were made from whatever was to hand and as the ingredients were organic to start with they had a cargo of bacteria already working away at releasing the goodies needed to recycle the nutrients.The words "good husbandry" mean little these times where you can call in an advisor to tell you which pesticide or herbicide that you need to apply after you have buggered things up playing with your chemistry set.Good husbandry means crop rotation,cleanliness ,tending to the condition of the soil and avoiding monoculture as you would avoid catching a naughty social disease.
Lets first take a look at the soil,as this is where its all happening on the veggie front.Unless this has been macerated by machinery and dosed to death with chemicals its composition and texture will vary from one square foot to the next and of course it will vary in the vertical plane as well.Why in God's name would you want to pull a massive plough [plow in American speak Smile ]through this? Forget please modern industrial farming,we are talking organic here.What does mechanical ploughing do ? It turns the soil but it doe's so in a savage and indiscriminate fashion and it puts all your nutrient down deep and puts crappy hungry subsoil up on top.Crappy subsoil with the texture of wet concrete mostly,subsoil that floods and compacts and dries out and gets hard and is a pain in the butt for growing.But it has minerals and trace elements and silica and other goodies so whats to do? As little as possible ,thats what to do,and thats not being lazy.Consider what happened to soil before we gave up catching our food and instead started to grow it in holes in the ground.Worms and bacteria thats what happened.
Now a lot of traffic has traveled over our lovely soil since the last ice age [which helped in its own way] and much of it is compacted not the ideal home for a free range carrot of tender disposition so we have to lend a hand,not interfere,just lend a hand and this where we have to decide to dig or not,or to use a horse-plough just once to open up new ground or to use a powered rotovator.
Why the slow ploughing[if you really have to]? So that you can watch the soil as it turns and see what you have before you bury the good or whatever.While you can see what you are doing you can decide to continue to plough or to leave well enough alone .You can on smaller bits just dig or double dig [or use piggies,more of which later].Double digging may be required where the soil is compacted or has a hard pan,you are aiming for 2 feet or just over half a meter of good soil for your veggies AND YOU ARE NEVER ,EVER GOING TO WALK ON OR DIG OR MESS WITH THIS SOIL AGAIN.EVER.
As far as I can remember it has been shown in laboratory tests that 90-93% or thereabouts of a plants growth can be attributed to photosynthesis so why worry about soil? Well for starters you are growing in the field,not a bloomin test tube and secondly I can't recall any ways of controlling how sunlight works so that leaves us with our soil to work with.That why you must do your very best if you wish to be good at growing veggies.Aim for a soft crumbly black tilt into which you can plunge your arm up to the elbow and as you are never going to walk on the soil again you make the veggie beds just wide enough so that you can reach into the center easily and just long enough so that you don't have to far to walk between chores.I have settled for 20X4 feet as my ideal size.And if you make raised beds then you wont have to bend so much.This of course requires lots of soil to fill up so you will now have to make lots of compost or buy some.This part is up to each person to sort out for themselves.There are many sources of manures and leaves and waste foodstuffs and it is up to you to find them.You will be surprised at how helpful folks in supermarkets ,factories etc can be if you ask nicely about taking away their waste products and if you are not too far from farms many of them will kiss you if you offer to take away the surplus manures.I found one farmer who had mountains of cow dung to give away as he had no use for it and it was taking up space.Another source was a place making timber windows and doors who had to pay to get rid of shavings and sawdust.What about newpaper and cardboard? And you only need the large imports until you get going and have your own compost heaps to top up your veggie beds.
So OK now you are worried about chemicals etc in the imported wastes.Don't. Unless your source are from a toxic dump then all you need to do is wait a while for things to balance out,unless you treat organics as a religion rather than a process of growing food.If you are religious about it then I can't help you.Example.When the dingbat from the Soil Association in my old locality came calling she bemoaned my use of sawdust and shavings as "this was destroying the rain-forest".Aside from the fact that the covers on the timber as delivered to my source all stated"Sustainable etc", was I not preventing tons of stuff going to landfill?[The big covers BTW were great for covering stuff on my car-trailer when going door to door and could be used to cover cars in frosty weather] But here is the crux,is wood organic or not?Are discarded veggies organic or not? is newspaper organic?would you refuse to use Pravda or the Times or the Hindustan? If your material ever lived then it is organic,get a grip on that idea and get on with life.
Most certifying agencies make you to wait 3-4 years before you can sell your produce as organic but personally I think that your ground should be OK after 2 max.for home use and if you consider what might be in the crap from your supermarket then you will probably be happy to eat your own veggies as soon as they are big enough

Biodiesel and clean electricity not Green enough for Ireland?

2008-01-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

A proposal to build a plant for the "anaerobic digestion" to break animal by-products generated by the Irish meat-processing industry into "biogas" which would then be used to create "green" electricity for the national grid is being examined by Bord Pleanala [the Irish Government planning/zoning appeals board]Tallow (fat) from the rendered animal waste would be used to make biodiesel fuel for use in cars etc.
The "antis" include local politicians plus a powerful lobby from the bloodstock industry and farming groups.They claim that
"Trucking huge volumes of waste into Ireland's most pristine and valuable agricultural environment makes no sense ,could pose a risk to local water supplies , and cause "noxious smells"
Sounds like a reasonable point until you consider that the animal by-products come from farms and that the resident's of Ireland's most pristine and valuable agricultural environment are happy enough to profit from farming as long as other people handle the wastes.Some of this waste currently has to be exported for incineration because of a lack of treatment options in Ireland and proposed new incinerators [which are badly needed] are all in or near to heavily populated areas.Of course racehorses are more important than other folks children.This plant which would be located 6 miles from Clonmel,appears to fail the "Green" test in the eyes of local bigwigs and their political lackies.Recycling is for poor people !!

Chickens and hens,free-range or barn?

2008-01-29T13:11:00.000-08:00

Do you really have to ask? I raised both chickens for the table and for egg laying and never did I have a customer question the merits of the free range produce that I supplied.Properly raised and fed birds produce better tasting meat and eggs and no closed-in birds can possible match this.Why? You are what you eat ,do you agree? So how can the diet of a bird raised indoors be complete?

Outside chickens and hens eat worms and earwigs and spiders and grass and weeds and so on and of course they get a ration of grain to boost this.They take dust baths which keeps blood-sucking mites away so they don’t suffer debilitating blood loss.They get vitamins from the sun and minerals from the soil and pick up the tiny stones which the use to grind up their food in their gizzards and the acids in the digestive system remains balanced as they eat when they feel like it and not when forced to.

Inside birds get a “balanced diet” from a bag . No bugs or grass,no sun-bathing,no fun.No taste.

Did you know that the colour of the egg yoke varies in free range birds? Usually it is rich and dark depending on the diet.

Did you know that you can order feed for locked in birds from a colour chart so you can choose the colour of the egg yolk,just like you order paint.

There is a photo of a Welsommer rooster and hen on the photo link.There is also a photo of their eggs which are a beautiful mahogany colour although I believe that our American friends have a preference for eggs with white shells

forfi's

Mud ,Bacteria and Carbon

Organics and organic growing,what and why?

Biodiesel and clean electricity not Green enough for Ireland?

Chickens and hens,free-range or barn?