What we grow, and a slight digression

Lisa L. asked if we could share what all we are growing in 2009. These are the food crops we are planting in the garden. We are also planting 1/2 acre of feed oats and 1/2 acre of feed wheat. I have listed an estimated yield as well, but these numbers are specific to the condition of our garden soil as well as our gardening zone (Zone 4b). Our best ground has only been worked and amended for two years, after being turned from tired pastures that had been cut for hay but not grazed or fertilized for at least 15 years. The grains are going into the pasture where we strip grazed our chickens, and turned and worked last summer.

Sorry I'm not yet web savvy enough to put this into a table using html, it was a lot more readable that way...

Vegetable: variety; Row ft or Sq ft; Expected Yield
Potato: Gold Rush (russet); 120'; 150 lb

Potato: Yukon Gold; 240'; 300 lb

Potato: Norland (red); 120'; 150 lb

Potato: Hermosa (early white); 120'; 150 lb

Potato: Purple; 120'; 150 lb

Beet: Lutz (winter keeper); 100'; 125-150 lb

Carrot: Scarlet Nantes; 200'; 350-400 lb

Parsnip: Andover; 100'; 100 lb

Turnip: Golden Ball; 100'; 125-150 lb

Garlic: Chesnook Red; 128'; 12 lb

Leek: Lancelot; 20'; 15 lb

Onion: Stutgarter; 350'; 200 lb

Broccoli: Early Italian; 45' (30 plants); 10 lb heads, 2 lbs sprouting seed

Brussels Sprouts: Jade; 12' (8 plants); 5 lb

Cabbage: Jersey Wakefield (summer); 12' (8 plants); 12 lb

Cabbage: Bartolo (storage) 36'' (24 plants); 75-100 lb

Cauliflower: Symphony; 12' (8 plants); 12 lb

Kale: Blue Curled Scotch (summer); 10'; fresh summer greens

Kale: Winterbor; 10'; fresh greens into December

Chard: Rainbow; 15'; fresh greens

Lettuce: Simpson & Optima; 20'; fresh greens

Mesculun: Mild Mix; 50'; fresh greens

Spinach: Bloomsdale; 30'; fresh greens

Cucumber: Garden Sweet; 6' (2 plants); 40 lb slicing

Cucumber: Pickles; 12' (4 plants); 80 lb pickling

Pumpkin: Naked Seeded; 48' (16 plants); 240 lb (5 lb Pumpkin seed)

Winter Squash: Sweet Kuri; 48' (16 plants); 200 lb

Zucchini: Black; 18' (6 plants); 60-120 lb

Ground Cherry: Aunt Molly's; 60' (20 plants); 80-100 lb (10-12 lb dried)

Tomatillo; 6' (2 plants); 20 lb

Tomato: Roma (canning); 30' (10 plants); 100 lb

Tomato: Cherry Fox; 12' (4 plants); 40 lb (5 lb dried)

Tomato: Latah (early slicing); 12' (4 plants); 40 lb

Tomato: Yellow Plumb; 6' (2 plants); 20 lb

Pepper: Long Red Cayenne; 24' (12 plants); 6-10 lb

Pepper: Carmen Sweet; 24' (12 plants); 6-10 lb

Green Beans: Provider; 360'; 150 lb

Pole Beans: Kentucky Wonder; 120'; 30 lb Green Beans, 10 lb Dry Beans

Baking Beans: Jacob's Cattle; 120'; 10 lb Dry Beans

Shelling Peas: Thomas Laxton; 200'; 40 lb Shelled Peas

Dry Peas: St. Hubert; 120'; 25 lb Dry Peas

Chickpeas: n/a; 600'; 60 lb

Lentils: Green; 600'; 60 lb
Grain and Seed Crops; Row ft or Sq ft; Expected Yield

Hard Red Spring Wheat: Hoffman; 1/8 acre or 5500 sq ft; 400 lb

Hulless Oats; 1/8 acre or 5500 sq ft; 250 lb

Spelt; 1500 sq ft; 75 lb

Hulless Barley; 1500 sq ft; 75-100 lb

Millet: Proso; 2400 sq ft; 60-75 lb

Quinoa; 1200 sq ft; 25-50 lb?

Amaranth: Golden; 1200 sq ft; 25-50 lb?

Popcorn: "Popcorn"; 120'; 12 lb popcorn kernels

Sunflower: Early Russian; 100'; 20 lb?

Poppy Seed: Mauve Flowering; 240'; 5-10 lb

Sugar Beet: "Sugar Beet"; 600'; 400-600 lb (200 lb syrup)

Mangle: Mammoth Long Red; 600'; 400-600 lb (fodder crop)

Herbs; Row ft

Anise 12' (seed)

Caraway 18' (seed)

Coriander 21' (seed)

Cumin 12' (seed)

Dill 15' (seed)

Fennel 12' (seed)
Alfalfa 30'

Basil 21'

Betony 10'

Catnip 10'

Chives 9'

Chicory: Coffee 30'

Comfrey 24'

Ephedra 4 potted plants

Lavender 5'

Lemon Balm 5'

Marjoram 18'

Mint 10'

Mullein 20'

Parsley 12'

Peppermint 5'

Oregano 10'

Rosemary 2 potted plants

Roseroot 2 potted plants

Sage 10'

Skullcap 20'

Stinging Nettle 10'

Thyme 10'

So you can see, this is a pretty basic garden as far as varieties or specialty crops, there aren't many thrills or novelties. Our priority is to grow a garden that nourishes us for a year. We place a priority on staple foods, storage crops and grains. At this point, we only put a minimum of effort into non-staple foods that require intensive methods in our climate, like peppers, or summer vegetables that can only be stored well by freezing such as broccoli and greens. It is a no-nonsense garden. I would love to have time for more flowers. We can really only eat out of the garden for 3 months at best, the other 9 months we must rely on the pantry. Our gardening season is too short for succession crops, except for lettuce and radish, so up in the north here, it is an intense growing season with one planting and one harvest. Any foods that require more than they give back are either cut altogether, or reduced to a manageable size.

On a sustainable footprint scale, to digress a bit, we are beginning to question where human settlements should be centered. Living an agrarian and domestic life above Zone 4 is not only hard, it is an inefficient use of resources. It takes more land, more fuel, and more grain to live here. Domesticated grazing animals are only on pasture for 5 months of the year, so it takes twice the pasture to grow enough grass to store through the winter. We need a larger garden, and more compost to grow the same domestic garden vegetables. We also burn more firewood to keep warm through the winters. This is the very edge, the furthest extreme of being able to live a settled life off of the land. These zones have traditionally been used as nomadic grazing and hunting grounds, and are still used primarily as a source of resources, either lumber, minerals or water.

Living on the edge of a temperate climate, we know how vulnerable we are to climate extremes on our own home-front. If Canada were not a nation with the resources to import food and maintain social assistance programs, as well as implementing research and technologies that will mitigate or manage disasters, it would be experiencing local famines and out-migrations of people already, due to the extent of grain crop failures in the Prairies in the last 5 years in particular. Nations without the same resources can do nothing for their people but plead for help from the UN, and the wealthy nations of the world. It is long past time that we have a global strategy to face the coming storm.

Climate change is beginning to reshape our planet and human civilizations, and the first climate refugees are evacuating the most fragile island ecosystems. Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and the Caribbean islands have been putting their cases before the UN, as they are flooded out and washed over by 1,000 year storms. What is it to be a natural citizen of a nation that has been made uninhabitable by climate change? These islands are the canary in the coal mine, and our planet will continue to be reshaped by devastating climate swings. When national borders become front-lines in a climate war, it will be too late to prevent the famines and genocides to follow.

The temperate zones, both north and south are, and hopefully will continue to be, the most stable regions on this planet. The polar and equatorial regions are our best planetary carbon sinks, and these zones will likely experience the largest extremes.

We do not believe the theories that over-population is the main cause of pollution and famines. It is the wanton and wasteful use of resources that has created dead zones, deforestation and the climate refugees to come. In a temperate zone, a comfortable life can be sustained on just a few acres per person. So with these things in mind, we keep a critical eye on our own use of resources. At this point, living on a no-impact, zero-emission scale, is not enough. Climate famines are not inevitable, if we reach down deep, forsake our wanton abuse of planetary resources, and even forsake our national boundaries to allow the free movement of peoples onto arable land, we could pull through. And prevent what could be the greatest human genocide.

One of our neighboring clearcuts we are surrounded by at least 200 acres of clearcut on all sides, leaving no habitation or wind break, and devastating the forest ecology. There are no tree planting programs locally either.

Ten acres of cabbage on a local farm that were plowed under, we suspect because it cost more to harvest than he would get for the crop. Perhaps 200 tonnes of food, not to mention the heavy usage of fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides and diesel for the tractor, wasted.

Our greatest human potential is our ability to adapt to a perceived danger. We would still be animals if all we could do was react to changes. Perhaps what makes us human is our ability to foresee. And because we can foresee these famines, it is our greatest human degradation to ignore them, and carry on. So as much as the so-called developed nations are suffering economically, we are largely insulated from the greater emergency. And it is my hope, that difficult times remind us to open our arms even wider to those who suffer more, and that times of strife inspire us to make room, where otherwise we would be tempted to exclude.