August frost!

An August frost snuck up on us this year. Not too surprising, we did have a frost warning on July 8th this summer, for goodness sake! With an early June frost in the tally, it seems we were only graced with a full 86 frost-free days this season. That's a pretty big swing from last season's 126 days. Thankfully, not much was damaged in this August frost, so here's hoping for a couple of warm weeks to finish up the season!

It got down to about 4C/39F the morning of August 29. At first glance, it appeared that there was no damage, but we do have one mysteriously frost-prone stretch in the garden. Potatoes were planted there this year. It is only slightly lower than the rest of the garden, maybe 4 inches, but it also gets some of the earliest sunlight in the morning, and it is the action of the sunlight on the ice-crystals that burns the leaves. Plants can be surprisingly tolerant of light frost, as long as the frost melts before the direct sun hits the leaves or fruit. I have seen ice coated squash leaves that suffered no frost damage, because clouds rolled in before the sun came up, allowing the ice to melt without damaging the leaf tissue.

The potatoes in the frost pocket were not burned, but some over-eager winter squash vines had started rambling over the potato patch as the potato tops die-back in preparation for harvest. And these errant squash vines got their tender tips knocked back like naughty fingers reaching for the cookie jar. Besides these frosted vines I only found some frost damage on a few basil plants and poppy leaves. No major loss, just an early surprise!

To keep this spring's tender pepper and tomato transplants warm, we lined the rows with hay bales on either side, and never did move them due to the cool summer temperatures. So they are still there to provide a warm pocket that will hold off early light frosts, such as this one. We provided the peppers with an added heat sink of rocks around the base of the plant. The rocks will help to radiate a bit of heat to keep the nightly temperatures warmer. It might be just enough to get a few red peppers this year, though I'm just as happy with the green ones. The rocks also help support the stems of these heavily-laden pepper plants during hurricane season.

The yearly fall migration has begun, and the frosty mornings remind us that winter is nearing.

Growing by degrees

The food cycle has finally reversed flow, there is more food coming into the house than we are able to eat... time to stock the pantry. Without a greenhouse, our stored food supplies need to last until the third week of July. It can be a struggle, and usually means relying on spring greens, grains, eggs and dairy for the better part of June and July after the last of the root crops and potatoes. And I always put away more than enough canned green beans to cover the gaps before those first glorious snow peas are ready in early July.

Although we planted each of these crops about three weeks earlier than last year, our first harvests are no more than a week to a few days earlier. I, of course, had my hopes up for a logical three-week-earlier harvest. But every season is unique. In doing some research, I happened across the phrase "Growing Degree Days". It is a unit used to measure or predict the first bloom or maturity of a crop, or the emergence of an insect or pest. Temperature is one of the most crucial elements in crop growth, and generally triggers most of the cycles of the insect world. And we have had an abnormally cool June and July. Especially July. Our nights have averaged at 10C (50F) instead of the normal 16-18C (60-65F). Only a few crops will continue to thrive with these nighttime lows, such as peas and Cole crops. Roots, onions and potatoes slowed down. And heat lovers: beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers just hung around, waiting.

Growing Degree Days can easily be calculated (go to the link above at Wikipedia), by keeping track of the maximum and minimum temperatures, which I have been doing for years, in my garden records. Each crop or insect has a cumulative requirement of heat, or Growing Degree Units to flower, reach maturity or hatch out. It will be interesting to use this unit in the future, to calculate and predict crop maturity or expected pest emergence, in an ever changing climate.

According to planting dates, we should have had our first new potatoes July 1st, instead of July 22nd, which shows that the cool weather set back the growing season by three weeks. Quite significant. But our first taste of potatoes, since the last wrinkled-ones in mid-June, was well worth the wait: Yukons, one large golden potato snuck out from each plant in a row. Boy they taste good. It's kind of a nice break, not eating potatoes in the gap between the last wrinkled, sprouting aliens, and the new, apple-crisp crop. Like cleaning the palette. After all, we do eat our share of potatoes over the winter. And come June we have an abundance of eggs so I can make all of the pasta I dreamed of making in the winter egg-drought.

Likewise, there is nothing like that first sun-warmed tomato... We savored, half each, on a bed of lettuce and snow peas, with a yogurt-dill-cilantro dressing.
Broccoli won't be far behind... I usually can't resist snapping off the first head and eating it right there in the garden.

The larger carrots can be selectively pulled from the row, making room and giving sunlight to the stragglers from replanting the gaps. I couldn't resist pulling a few early parsnips to go with the feast. The smell of freshly pulled parsnip roots and leaves reminds me of coconut. Didn't have any coconut milk in the house, but this is what the aroma inspired: carrots and parsnips sliced, steamed, cooked in butter, with chopped mint, peppermint and finely chopped dates. New favorite.


Our last carrot planting was later than usual, after the cutworms marched through, taking two May re-plantings with them, I was too discouraged to plant again, until after we put the cutworm fence around the fallowed, cutworm free plot. The first week of July started with a flood and ended with a drought, I planted the carrots between 1" rains, and then the weather turned hot and dry, forming a crust on the surface of the soil. Larger seeds would not be worried by this, but tender carrot seedlings can really struggle with obstructions. And the heat was to continue for a week, so I experimented with laying a fine layer of hay over the beds, aiming for 50% coverage, like shade-cloth, to bring the soil moisture back to the surface and soften the soil, allowing the seeds easy emergence.

It worked beautifully, the carrots poked up between the mulch, and it has worked to suppress some of the early weeds. As the crop emerges, I gently part the mulch and concentrate it between the rows to further suppress weeds.

Extremes

All told, out here on the East coast, this June was reported as the darkest June on record, ever. And for all of that cloud cover we accumulated close to 10 inches of rain! I'm back in my muck boots, instead of summer sandals, and we have puddles we haven't seen since the April melt. Not such a great month for growing things. But the garden is, amazingly, holding up pretty well. Although slow to fruit or flower, we are not suffering from any molds, rots or generally water logged problems. Yet, anyway. We do need some sun now, to turn things around.

And we may get an about face for the rest of the summer. The seasonal outlook is calling for a warmer and drier than usual summer, can we say extremes? Extreme weather (too wet, too cold, too dry, or too hot) is putting mounting pressure on established farmers, I hope the legions of fledgling backyard gardeners are taking these extremes in stride. Rather than throwing in the trowel.

We will probably get our sun, and our heat, but it will likely not be in the measure we would desire. The one thing I can count on in all of the Climate Change models, is unpredictable extreme weather. Those are tough conditions for growing food, of any kind, but we do believe that the smaller, more adaptable and hands-on gardens will pull through, and even flourish, while traditional farming methods, relying on specialized machinery, will not be able to withstand these extremes.


So hang in there... keep growing!

Watching the signs

Salad greens are ready to harvest in the freezer-cold frames, and the soil is ready to be worked, despite the lingering snow-pack along the tree-line and in the woods. Our garden is situated on the driest part of the property, there are still ponds in low-lying spots in the pastures and grain fields, but the garden soil is ready.

All signs pointed to an early spring, and they have not disappointed, we are working ground and planting seeds at least two weeks earlier than last spring. And we are taking full advantage of the time. All signs are pointing to a dry season as well, so we are planting in time to catch the generous spring rains, and then mulching over much of the garden to hold that precious rainfall in the soil. We cannot count out a late snow fall yet, but a bit of snow wouldn't hurt the crops we have planted: potatoes, carrots, parsnip and peas so far. The onions, beets, turnips and grains will follow next. I also re-planted the biennial seed saving crop of onions, carrots, beets, and turnips, as well as the solitary leek that overwintered under mulch in the garden.

We are amazed at how quickly the snow melt has been absorbed into the ground this spring, the ground seemed thirsty, and our well had dropped quite low over the winter. Our cumulative snowfall for the winter of 2008/9 came to 13'4", just under last winter's at 14'2", but if I hadn't kept records, I would have thought this past winter had half the snow as 2007/8, judging by the ground moisture.

An early spring has also meant an early re-appearance of Spring Peepers, as well as the migratory birds. Although the Peepers sounded their first herald of spring with gusto on Saturday evening, the migratory birds have not shown up in their usual numbers. Last spring we could not count the dozens of Robins, Grackles, Red-Winged Blackbirds and Starlings that flooded the sodden pastures, overturning manure for the treasure trove of earthworms. This spring, only a modest 4 dozen Grackles, a handful of Blackbirds, no Starlings as of yet, and perhaps 6 dozen Robins. Again, last spring the view out my kitchen windows was hopping with pairs of a half-dozen species of Sparrows, scooping up weed-seeds and flitting back and forth to the trees. This spring, only a single pair of Song Sparrows have graced my view. Not to mention the song, last spring it was a cacophony, and this spring it is a mere twitter.

We were aware of the decline of the swallow, flycatcher, and wood thrush populations locally, and have greatly desired their healthy return, to contend with the abundance of biting and blood-sucking insects. But there seems to be a decline in even the heartiest little bird fellows. Birds can be an invaluable ally in the organic garden, and I am learning more about how to create habitat, here in their summer breeding grounds, but if they simply do not return, it is a sad loss.

The return of the birds, the emergence of the peepers and the awakening of the bees are the three crucial signs of ecological health I watch closely. The bees are yet to appear, although this past weekend, sunny and 60F, should have brought them out, searching for pollen. And there is a source of pollen awaiting them in the trees. Dandelions and clover blooms are still a month away, but the hungry little bees make their first honey from an unlikely source.

This poplar bud has burst into long catkins, covered with minuscule flowers, all dusted with pollen.
Maple flowers are starting to open, revealing their nectar.


And the furry pussy willow has transformed into a bristle of delicate yellow stamens.

Bouncing some ideas around

Wow, what a great discussion, thank you all for your honest thoughts and feelings, and your consideration of alternate views. We have regretfully been unable to make it down this week to respond and contribute more to the discussion, the woman who runs the Internet access center here is awaiting her first grandchild, and was out of town this week. She is back just for this morning, so we only have an hour on the net today. Most likely we will be back on Wednesday, after an approaching snowstorm blows over us.


The last thing I did on Monday, when we were here last, was do some research on climate change, and I found a great link. NASA Earth Observatory It shows real time pictures from satellite of features, weather events and ecological impacts. I have been looking for something like this, to be able to step back and take a look at the bigger picture of what is happening on our planet. It shows some images of the bush fires in Victoria, Australia, and only from this heightened view can you really get a perspective on the size of the area burned. It also shows images of drought and crop failures around the planet. And it explained our North American and Northern European deep freeze in January. Stratosphere Influences Winter Weather.


So this week, while we have been snowed in at home, and fighting off cabin fever!, we came up with an idea, and would appreciate some feedback.

We are thinking it would be helpful, especially for gardening and homesteading newbies, to compile some of the tutorials and practical information from this blog, and our experiences in community food systems, and were thinking of creating topical PDF e-booklets. We were thinking of focusing these skill booklets on those who have few gardening and food preservation skills, limited budgets, and limited access to land. As we head into these economic and climactic adjustments in 2009, people who have never grown or preserved food, are going to be starting up gardens as a way to feed their families, and like many others, we would like to help these families meet their needs. These booklets will also focus on community approaches to organizing, such as seed saving, grains on city lots, and non-vegetable foods such as meat, dairy, eggs and honey. Our homestead has been a kind of experimental farm for people who need to start growing their own food in one year, with few tools and less than $1000 a year, to invest in seeds, tools, land, knowledge, etc.

Blogs and Forums are excellent tools for networking and sharing ideas, and for writing out our individual stories of adaption and change. But blogs and forums, although they can provide tutorials and advice, do not necessarily compile and organize this incredible wealth of experience and practical skill. Gardening books can be helpful, but they are an expensive form of information for those on a low budget. We are looking at publishing these booklets under the Creative Commons License, and and then started playing with the idea of putting them up as wiki pages, or as a collaborative website, so they can be updated and amended with new information from all of you homesteaders, urban gardeners, and community organizers. There is a lot of data, experience, and practical information coming from every corner of the world wide web for the backyard gardener, and subsistence homesteader.

Here are some basic topics to start with, that we feel we could contribute some fresh perspectives to, from our own experiences:
Garden Planning
Meet your Staples from the Garden
Garden and Soil Preparation
Crops for Beginner Gardeners
Hygiene in the Organic Garden, preventing pests and disease
Food Preservation on a Low Budget: Drying and Fermenting
Extending the Growing Season on a Low Budget
Seeds: where to get them, hybrid or OP
Seed Saving and Community Seed Lending Libraries
Small Scale Grain Production, even in the city
How to meet your Egg, Dairy and Meat needs in your community
90% Down Power Systems for less than $2000

So what do you think? Would a wiki site be a helpful tool to gather and share our knowledge with others? Many tutorial style blogs could be simply copied in, and linked back. Do you think you would contribute to the wiki? Would you use the site to search for specific information? Or have you found something like this already on the net? What kinds of topics would you find helplful?

We are looking forward to reading all of your thoughtful and thought provoking comments to the last blog post... until then.

A conversation on ecological sustainability

ChicagoMike wrote a comment to the last post What we grow, and a slight digression, and it deserved a longer response than I could fit into a comment, and it is a vital and timely conversation to be having, so here is Mike's comment, and my response below.

ChicagoMike: I do have to disagree on a key point though. This planet is really only able to support 1 to 1.5 billion people. Population is the problem. Humans are "stealing" sunshine from the past (fossil fuels) which support agriculture and society on a massive scale. When the fossil fuels run low (obviously a lot of differences on the estimate), the agriculture and technology which support our current and growing population will fail, and Humanity will be making a huge adjustment. Mainly, shedding about 80% of its population. These events will not happen overnight in some cataclysm, but will occur over decades. All large cities will become unsupportable and the world will have some heavy times ahead. This is a long way off, but it is almost inevitable. Nuclear power plants, windmills, and solar cells do not make fertilizer. Lets just hope that we don't irrevocably damage the planet in the readjustment. Check out The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler.

Grow the Change: ChicagoMike, I am familiar with the over-population theories, and sympathize with them to a degree since I thought this way at one point along my environmental path. These theories largely came out in the 80s, along side the environmental conservation movement that saw “nature” as something untouched and pure, and human interaction as the problem. Studies have come out since then, showing how human activity has shaped the ecology of this planet for at least 80,000 years, for better or for worse (see anthropology studies from Aboriginal Australians). Out of this has come a new theory of environmentalism that does not look at the conservation of nature, so that “nature” can take care of itself, but rather sustainable resource management. Meaning stewardship, we have inherited the earth from previous generations who shaped it, for better or worse, and we are responsible for handing these natural resources on to the next generation.

The reason I no longer believe that over-population is the dominant problem, or even the root cause of many of our ecological crises, is that our “modern” systems of production, food, manufacturing, transportation, etc, are lavishly and shamefully wasteful and inefficient. This unthrifty attitude arises from a market based on cheap and supposedly abundant non-renewable resources, including fossil fuels and fossil water. Take food as an example. Studies have come out giving conservative estimates that 30% of food is wasted (thrown out, spoiled, left in the field) along each way station from the farm to the plate, in our modern, industrial, fossil fuel based, Green Revolution, farming model. So if a farm produces 1000 lbs of produce, about 30% is lost (due usually to market considerations, either ripening later, or not conforming, etc), so 700 lbs goes to the processor/packager and another 30% is lost, 490 lbs head to the retailer of which 30% is lost (as many of you dumpster divers can attest to), 343 lbs makes it to the family table of which 30% is thrown out. The original farm used up the fossil fuels as well as fossil water to produce 1000 lbs of food, and only 240 lbs actually made it into a body as nourishment. Now, most of you reading this practice more efficient methods of bringing the food from the farm to the table, and either compost or feed your livestock with your table scraps. Out of 1000 lbs produced in our garden, without any fossil fuel or fossil water, we use 100% either on the table, in the barn, or in the compost pile. As is true in many gardens and sustainable food systems, but still not the majority.

Food production is just one example, this model of inefficiency is almost universal. The power companies lose a large portion of the power they produce pushing it along the lines to your house, internal combustion engines are stupidly inefficient on fuel, Canada still allows 5 gallon flush toilets for goodness sake, and in the Tar Sands of Alberta they use 2 barrels of oil to produce 1, I could go on and on about the reckless waste of our natural resources. And the biggest myth is that “we need fossil fuels to actually feed all of these people”. We do not, but our economic infrastructure does. The markets of the rich nations would fall (or be transformed), and they threaten to take the rest of the world with them. But I am sick of being blackmailed into apathy, and I know I am not the only one.

So the way I see it, we actually have the choice, either an 80% “shedding” of population, meaning mostly children, elderly and economically vulnerable people, or we can reduce our consumption of resources by 80% simply by not wasting them, and using our intellect to build smarter more efficient systems. I find it interesting that the estimated carrying capacity of the planet is 1 to 1.5 billion people, because I think this is just about the population of the “western” nations, and at our current use of resources, that is all this earth can support. These theories of overpopulation run dangerously close to eugenics and ethno-centricism. This is not a personal attack on you ChicagoMike, this is a Post-Structural and Post-Colonial critique of these theories of overpopulation, see Foucault or Spivak.

Often cited in the over-population theory is the desertification of marginal lands around the Sahara. Overgrazing and overharvesting of wood for cooking fires are cited as the cause of the expansion of the desert, and the loss of arable land. Narrowly speaking, this is true. But is it not true that if they had planted a tree for every one they cut, the desert would not advance? So is it not a management issue, rather than a population issue? So it is also an education issue.

It is perhaps the case that this earth is at or near it's carrying capacity, especially with climate change on the horizon. The question I ask is why has the population increased so dramatically in the last 30-50 years? Is it really fossil fuels and fossil water, or is it the money that has been made from mining these resources? I believe it is economic development that encourages population booms, and not necessarily access to natural resources. And as more money is made from the sale and consumption of these resources, they become less available to the increased masses of poor, who then become an easily exploited labor pool.

It's a complex issue, but I firmly believe there is more than enough for everyone alive right now on this earth to be nourished, clothed, housed and enabled with dignified work. This is not an utopian ideal, but an ethical principle. We can live without a speculative and debt-based economy, and we can grow food, transport ourselves, produce power and goods, communicate and innovate without fossil fuels. The problem is, I believe, that most of us are taking more than is our share, if we believe it is a human right to have an equal share of our ecological inheritance. And yes, that share gets smaller as population increases, and as adults, our share is transferred every time a child is born. As great as the ecological crisis is, it is also the easiest to solve. Even greater, and more problematic because it is a philosophical and ethical issue, is the human rights crisis we are facing.

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.

A Goat's Economy

This is what we get these days. We no longer get showers. When it rains, it really rains. Twice we have gotten a wheelbarrow of water in 24 hours, at least 5 inches of rain, only ten days apart. The Climate Change models for our area are proving true. I am not sure how much this would be, if it were snow instead of rain! But the forecast both times predicted 1/2 to 1 inch of rain, not 5 inches, which is I think, the result of funding cuts to local weather stations.

This kind of rain keeps me pretty close to the house, and I have been reading up on goats. Our goat-tending neighbor down the road dropped off his goat library, five titles in all, touching on all issues related to goat care and farming. One book in particular has caught my interest, Goat Husbandry by David Mackenzie. In the first few chapters he details the reasons why goats have never fit well with industrialized farming. Goats have always been the cornerstone of subsistence farming, especially those pushed to marginal farmland. I was amazed to read our story echoed in his pages, a story centuries old, of subsistence farmers who tried to raise a family milk cow on marginal land, as a way to try and feed the family as well as raise a supplemental income. More often than not, the needs of the cow would push them into debt, and the needs of milk on the table and cream for income, would deprive the calf of the only protein rich food available, stunting the calf, and further jeprodizing the family's ability to get out of debt.

So I am exploring what it means to be a subsistence farmer, and how subsistence farming works within a community. Our ideals of farming have changed dramatically since we began our adventure. We used to think of our ideal farmstock as consisting of cows, pigs and chickens, with heavy draft horse breeds providing for the extensive amount of grain cultivation and hay necessary to maintain the stock. These animals in particular fit well into industrial or market economies. We are now transitioning to goats, sheep, rabbits and ducks, using only standard horse breeds or possibly draft ponies for the relatively small grain and cultivation needs. Goats, rabbits and ducks (with the exception of sheep), have never fit well into the traditional market farm economy, but are relics of a still older, and perhaps more stable, subsistence farm economy.

Frosty Blooms

We woke up to a gorgeous frost late last week, the ice crystals were so thick it almost looked like snow. It was also my cue to bring in the last of the carrot and onion harvest. And I'm glad I did because Tuesday this week brought 5 1/2 inches of rain! Probably the last big rainfall for the year, we are expecting snow anytime, and judging from the amount of rain we have had this summer, we will likely have plenty of snow this winter. Climate change scientists have predicted that Atlantic Canada and Northeastern US will recieve heavy precipitation as a consequence of the melting Arctic.

We are prepared for heavy snowfall. Without a car, we do not need to keep the driveway clear, which is one complaint our neighbors have, waking up to three feet of snow. We pack trails out to the road and the barn with snowshoes, and hit the road with our bikes. Our food supply for the winter is stored in the cold room and pantry, so we have little need to get to town. And the thick blanket of snow is actually beneficial to us in the growing season. Last winter's 14 feet of snow replenished the reserve of groundwater to a level that we did not have to water the garden, except directly after transplanting. Also the snow insulated the ground from freezing, which is beneficial to overwintering crops like garlic, winter rye, or crops like chard, parsley and fennel I hope to overwinter for the sake of seed saving. A thick blanket of snow is also beneficial to my garden ecology. Insect eaters like voles and toads fare well, and they are the main predators of my most problematic pests: cucumber beetles, flea beetles, cabbage worms, and potato beetles. So I really do hope the snow comes early and thick, before the ground freezes hard, and stays all winter long.


The brussels sprouts don't mind the heavy frost, even though I got them started a bit late, we will still get a late fall treat. Some of the last fresh greens for a few months.It looks like my crop of broccoli seed is too late this year. The seed pods have formed on many of the plants, but the seeds are not filled out, and will most likely be killed by a freeze. I was hoping to harvest some extra broccoli seed for sprouts in November and December, but at least I know how early to start them next spring. But letting these broccoli heads go to seed was well worth it to see the bees collecting heavy baskets of yellow pollen so late in the year. There is no other souce of pollen for them, not in my garden, and not in the fields around, so perhaps this late bloom will help these wild honey bees survive the winter.

Our onion crop was not the best, but they did well for the poor ground and just adequate manure coverage they were planted into. They were planted from my first crop of saved onion seed, and I was pleased with the germination and vitality of the seed. The best bulbs have been set aside for next year's seed crop.

Our carrots have astonished me this year. Some of them are almost two pounds of crispy sweet carrot flesh! These, and green beans, have been our bumper crops for 2008. I was expecting at most 200 lbs of carrots from the 150 row feet planted, and we tipped the scales, so to speak, with 400 lbs! But it is not just the weight of the harvest that pleases me, the carrots are of a very high quality and flavor, and will store well.