The following is an outline of the presentation given on Feb. 5, and again on Feb 8 at 6pm, 54 Brewery Gulch.
There is included in this post a suggestion. It's a little exercise that will focus your attention on your water & food use for a week and provide you with information which is important for you and your family.
I'm suggesting (for the reader and her or his family and friends) to do a week long personal assessment of your water and food use, including everything you experience in any way regarding these two essential elements of your life.
There is a simple chart template suggested for you to use to chart your water use and for the food documentation simply write everything down on a daily sheet of paper. After the week of paying close attention to your relationship with water & food, answer the two questions and discuss this with your family and as many friends as you feel to share this with.
Feel free to use this Ecoasis - Local Food Initiative Forum to post your experiences and thoughts and feelings on this subject
Introduction to What You Need To Know About Growing Food
Why?
For sustainability – Current practices are totally dependent on non-sustainable petroleum based systems ranging from planting to growing to harvesting to processing to distribution to consumption and waist.
For a life of Optimum Health – You are what you eat. For the most part, humans are creatures of habit and food is no exception. Change our habits and we change our experience. When we are living mindfully, we move away from habitual living toward conscious living. Living consciously begins with our relationship with food.
For the intrinsic liberty which comes from being in control of your food supply.
For the mind/body happiness which comes from experiencing a life balanced by human/Nature interfacing (co-creative) activities, such as food gardening and enjoying the process of growing and eating food from your own garden, or in lieu of have your own garden, by actively supporting local food growing.
For the planet upon which our life is dependent.
Because of commercial agricultural practices, We are losing topsoil at a greater rate than it can replenished by Nature's normal time cycle. We are pumping water from deep aquifers at a rate beyond their ability to be replenished naturally. The combined effect of our collective behaviors in agriculture, industry, as well as domestic practices, is poisoning the water, earth and air, and this goes on being compounded annually.
resources, towns & cities can become producers of their own food.
How...
1. Change our habits. Mindfulness – living consciously rather than habitually.2. Everything intrinsic to life begins with water.
What is your conscious and unconscious relationship to water?
Where does your water come from? How much do you use? How do you use it?
How much do you waist? How much do you need? How much do you have?
Suggested pro-active measures: Consider sooner than later, Having a back-up water reservoir of your own...Make it a goal to start collecting rain water... Determine ways to maximize your water use... Examine the possibilities of gray water use... Realize that composting toilets will be a necessary consideration as fresh water resources continue to be dwindle FYI- ( Human fecal matter and urine have high percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, carbon, and calcium. It is equal to many fertilizers and manures purchased in garden stores. Humanure aids in the conservation of fresh water by avoiding the usage of potable water required by the typical flush toilet. It further prevents the pollution of ground water by controlling the fecal matter decomposition before entering the system. )
3. Eliminate the concept of waist from your reality –
recycling and composting
Start composting everything and recycle what you can't compost.
4. Soil - Building and sustaining food growing soil for
a. beds, b. containers
Plan your food garden –
What kind? How much water and how much time you have, and the number of persons involved, will determine the size of your garden.
What size/where? What food(s)? When?
How?
5. Make & Tend your garden.
Planting – seeds or seedlings?
Nurturing – creating & sustaining the optimum growing conditions for the plant(s)
in question. Watering. Weeding. Mulching. Insects. Fertilizing. Harvesting. Post Harvest Procedures.
To maximize the resiliency of your garden, I recommend the following outlined strategy and components: Use deep beds and/or adequate containers amended with – (Also, a good way to prepare your current garden for the growing season)
Compost and or composted manure and or organic potting soil.
Vermiculite and or Peat Moss (or other exceptionally effective water holding materials for boosting your garden's water holding capacity)
Kelp (Maxi Crop powdered concentrate)
Microbes (Em) Lactic acid bacteria , Photosynthetic bacteria , Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)
Mycorrhizal innoculant (MycoGrow)
Any balanced, natural fertilizer (with similar amounts of the big three fertilizers - Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium)
Mulch (to protect the microorganisms and reduce water loss)
Opening to Nature's Wisdom - Becoming a ally rather than an adversary with Nature opens us to the Intelligence of Nature (which is totally available to assist us in our food growing efforts if we will learn how to see and listen).
Garden resiliency essentially depends on sunlight, your garden's water holding capacity, and plenty of available nutritional content, and being further prepared by implementing protective systems for dealing with potential weather problems - (frost, hail, severe winds, etc.). One product I've used for years is Agribon - ( a spun, not woven, agriculture fabric)
Documentation of My current relationship with Water and Food - 1. Water
| Mon | Tues | Wed | Thur | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| 6am-2pm | | | | | | |
| 2pm-10pm | | | | | | |
| 10pm-6am | | | | | | |
2. Food – document all food use for seven days.
What does this mean to me? and What do I want to do about it?
Feel free to post your experiences. Sharing enables us to accelerate our awareness through net working.
