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Title: The Barn Yard
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Published: Jun 21, 2015
Author: A K A Stone
Post Date: 2015-06-21 23:13:04 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 6203
Comments: 35
Things have been getting out of hand. Myself included. Lets get back on track to making this place respectful. If you have a beef with someone. Take it to the barn yard.
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 19.
#17. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Let me try some things on for size: Moo. That could work. Or perhaps "Meuh". That's the sound French cows make. Oink Oink? Meh. Baa. Baa. Could fit. Woof! WooF! French dogs say "Ouaf, ouaf". Perhaps "Meow". French cats say "Miao". Also, over there refer to the vocalization of women during reproductive activities as her "Miao, miao". I know what works best for me: Cock-a-doodle-do, from the dung-heap. French roosters say "Cocorico". So, that's it. Vicomte13 here, reporting from the barnyard, atop my very own dungheap; Cocorico! Cocorico! It's morning! Wake up sleepy heads! Cocorico! Cocorico! I'm the best! Look at me, such pretty plumage! Cocorico! Pay attention! Here! Here! Here! Cocorico! (Pulls at the straw with claws and cocks head angrily.) Cocorico! It's somebody else's barnyard, but I am the loudest! Cocorico! I like the barnyard.
Otis approves!
Excellent. So, let's talk about crowdfunding my agricultural visions. Right here on LF there are some folks who have farms, or at least acreage. They have time on their hands and want to do something...but what? Well, first of all, we've got to make it all low-impact. Sure, tons of capital could be raised to buy combines, yadda yadda, but that's been done before. Gotta do something new. Well, for starters, let's go low low on the food chain. Animals take work. But the plants just grow themselves. "But you've got to PLANT them!" Do you, now? No you don't. See, here's the thing. Farmers have always been really, REALLY conservative - not in the political sense, but in the sense of the "tried and true". Historically, do something stupid and you all starve. Industrial farmers do things with heavy capital, but we're talking about small farms and old would-be farmers here. We only started the scientific genetic fiddling in the past couple of decades. Before that, though, there were only a few crops bred and cross-bred for eons. And once it was bred in one place, it got brought elsewhere with civilization. Local stuff that could be eaten was ignored and replaced with what the settlers brought with them, because people do what they know. That was then, and it was survival for them. But this is now, and now older men with plots of land are retirees with Social Security, etc. They're economically secure because of transfer payments from the larger economy. The land they sit on is really for esthetics. So, we have a class of gentleman country farmer we didn't have in the past. Our ancestors couldn't sit back and think things through, because of the pressures to eat. They didn't have universities that had created giant plant databases, and access to a whole world of info, but we do. So instead of looking at that land and thinking furrows and plows and crops, first look at what's already growing on it. Start with the grasses, especially the tender weeds. Most of it is edible, most of it tastes like your generic salad green. And SOME of it, like lambsquarters and stinging nettle, is a bit more nutritious than the most nutritious domesticated vegetables: spinach and kale. And it's just right THERE for the taking. So, the guy with a plot of land needs to hire some botanist/naturalist student from the local collage to walk through the whole property with a camera and take pictures, season by season, to categorize all the plants ALREADY on the land, the stuff that's growing there without effort. Categorize it, consider the edibility, pull up the nutritional profiles. And right there, ilico presto, without ANY cultivation or labor, just application of botanical knowledge, a guy with an acre will find salad bowls and stews full of fresh, healthy weed-greens that are more than enough to eat every day all summer and much of the fall. Fresh veg is expensive - and this is more nutritious and free. And when you're picking it, you can pick extra and invite the neighbors in...because if they like it they'll eat it or even let you just take the weeds from their plots too. Waste land suddenly becomes a nutritious source of lots of free food. Cost so far: a little time, and the cost of the botanist a few times a year. Call it $2000. Step 2: Do the same thing for the trees. Eventually, trees win out over grass. There is usually something to eat from the major trees. The Cree Indians practically lived on acorns. They made it into a paste and made bread out of it. Maple spinners are like edamame, and of course there's the sap which isn't just a good source of syrup, it's also a good source of WATER. That's right. If you've got a bunch of maples, you can get gallons of nutritious and clean plant-filtered water from them every year. People pay $4 for a pint of coconut water. They'll pay for Maple Water too. Beech trees have beech nuts. Pine needle tea has more vitamin C than oranges, and there are edible seeds in pinecones. My point, there is a lot of edible stuff from the trees. Instead of focusing on using labor and sweat, use brainpower and go deep with each plant. Again, get the wild-foods gurus out to show you how to harvest and cook the stuff. Don't let the Hippies have the monopoly of eating right off the green. Now, think of what you get from knowing all of the plants on your plot. Practically 90% of them are edible somehow. With that knowledge, it would take you a long time to starve in the woods, if you thrown to it. And you'll save a ton of cash. Now, that goes so far: greens and a replacement for citrus and nuts, really. You're still not getting protein, starch or B-12. To raise cash, the next thing is mushrooms. Mushrooms are easy to grow - and they want to grow. Harvest what you've got and don't be afraid to plant more. When it's time for the animals, again: think native. Domesticate wild turkeys - our local bird. Big eggs. Meat. And then we can talk about the Queen of it all: Deer dairy. Be sure to get down the use of furs: roadkill isn't food, but the fur is useable. Where does the crowdfunding come in? If you stay individual, it doesn't. If you want to step up and get more focused on farming, it comes next.
#20. To: Vicomte13, redleghunter (#19)
I kept reading until I found it. I knew you had to mention it. : )
Smaller farm animals like sheep and goats are not hard at all to raise. We could even "hire them out" for extra income to "mow" and weed rich people's exterior acreage. They can eat the rough areas and fertilize as they do so. My buddy has goats and the soil where they poop all day is rich and has the greenest grass growing. Plus as you no doubt know goats are always procreating. Which means loads of goats milk:) Texas is ideal. Great climate year around and two harvest seasons. Great aquifer system as well. Now since we have crops and some easy to maintain livestock, we will need my son to train some good dogs to help shepherd the flock.
You might be interested in a book titled "Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture," written in 1950 by J. Russell Smith. It's in the public domain, here is a link to a pdf copy. I originally read the online version, and liked it so much I bought a copy, which I happen to be reading for the 3rd time. It's a fascination book, the main thrust is using trees to provide forage for animals, the man had a poetic style of writing too, so it is not a dry read. I don't have much time to read nowadays, so I only read it when I'm with my wife during her chemo, a few chapters each visit. The interesting thing is that one of the drugs is derived from a tree, a tree that for many years had been considered a trash tree, the Pacific Yew. I don't no many gifts God has left for us in nature like this, it could be an amazing smorgasbord of possibilities.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestThe Barn Yard.
#18. To: Vicomte13 (#17)
I like the barnyard.
#19. To: redleghunter (#18)
Replies to Comment # 19. And then we can talk about the Queen of it all: Deer dairy.
#22. To: Vicomte13 (#19)
#35. To: Vicomte13 (#19)
Step 2: Do the same thing for the trees. Eventually, trees win out over grass. There is usually something to eat from the major trees. The Cree Indians practically lived on acorns. They made it into a paste and made bread out of it. Maple spinners are like edamame, and of course there's the sap which isn't just a good source of syrup, it's also a good source of WATER.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 19.
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