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FarmingInWA's comments:
on The Biomass Question
Biomass may not be as sustainable as it's billed.
As organic farmers we focus on building nutrients in the soil so our crops continue to thrive. Plants grow out of the soil; each plant takes and holds some of the minerals present in that soil. When harvesting biomass, over time you will strip the soil of its mineral and nutrient bank, leaving behind weak soil. Weak soil will not continue to produce big crops.
This is a problem throughout agriculture, not paying attention to building soil that sustains life. It's short sighted to look at what we can use today without thinking of what the payback is in the long term. Even using slash from forest cutting is short sighted. Leaving it in place to rot back into the soil is how soil renews itself.
I'm NOT in favor of coal in the slightest, but stripping the soil of its life force and expecting it to keep on producing doesn't seem like a bright idea either.
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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on Urban Chickens
I venture a guess that Mr. Kilian is not being quite honest about how his father contracted the disease from chickens. I'd be willing to bet that he got this from a commercial chicken operation, a CAFO with thousands of chickens in one area. These operations are commonly filthy dirty and rife with disease, and completely different from a backyard with a few hens.
We raise chickens on our farm which is in a rural area and they are delightful. We have more acreage than most, but the whole secret is to keep the scale right. CAFOs have far too many chickens for the area and thus shouldn't be compared to a backyard with a handful of hens who are well cared for.
We give backyard chicken classes on our farm because we believe it's a smart idea for people to know how to care for their hens so everyone is healthy. No eggs taste better than those you grow yourself. I hope more people find the joy that these backyard hens can bring. They really are delightful.
Jacqueline Freeman
Friendly Haven Rise Farm
www.FriendlyHaven.com
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on The Health of Our Bees
I'm a farmer and organic beekeeper in WA. So many of the problems with bees could be helped by changing our approach to build bee health rather than using the 'bigger, cheaper, faster' rules so common to commercial projects. Bees are not commodities, they are living beings. We need to alter how we care for them.
Let them eat their own honey rather than replacing it with sugar water and genetically modified high fructose corn syrup as is common with commercial producers. Let them propagate their hives by swarming instead of preventing that because the bees know best when they need to expand their hive. Let them raise their own queens rather than using commercially raised queens that don't have the genetic diversity of strong drones. Stop their exposure to chemicals both inside the hive and on flowers. Give them the vast variety of foods they need - wild and weed flowers rather than the monoculture migratory bees are exposed to. Let them self-medicate with flowering herbs as they do in nature.
Not everyone wants to be a beekeeper, however, everyone CAN help bees. The easiest is to plant flowering herbs in their yard or you can set a small dish of water high and near bushes that the bees can visit.
I hope this is helpful. I teach a class called "Bees: The OTHER Way" that is my attempt to make a difference in creating healthier bees.
warmly, Jacqueline Freeman
www.FriendlyHaven.com
posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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on Grow Your Own
My husband and I own a teaching farm, Friendly Haven Rise Farm, where we show people how to garden, keep backyard chickens, make bees healthy, and bring back cultural kitchen skills. People garden for freshness and good taste but I believe what they most want it healthful food. Unfortunately just because food is grown in a backyard garden doesn't mean it's the most healthy.
I believe what most backyard gardeners want is nutrient dense food, fruit and vegetables that are filled with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and also great taste. There are ways to do this, even rather simple ways, but most people, even experienced gardeners, don't know how to increase the nutritional content of their food.
We're offering a class at our farm on April 25th with Steve Diver, a nationally known organic soil expert who will show folks simple organic ways to build soil and feed plants so the fruits and vegetables that come from your garden are the best possible. This isn't that difficult, it's just not common knowledge. Our goal is to help people raise and eat better food, which allows them to be healthier and also to think better.
www.FriendlyHaven.com/classes.html
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Within Bounds
Speaking as a farmer, the area around Portland in the Willamette Valley has some of the richest agricultural land in the whole country. Builders, of course, want to build everywhere but once lost, this land is gone forever. We NEED agricultural land for food security. Any area that can't grow its own food isn't viable. Unfortunately farmers often aren't as politically active as those who develop land are and this issue doesn't come forward as much as it should. Save farmland, it's what feeds us.
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Within Bounds
The area surrounding Portland has some of the richest agricultural land in the country. Of course builders want to build but we NEED to keep this land available for farmers. Without this land we lose the ability to grow our own food. This is so much more important than the developers realize. Once agricultural land is gone, it is very difficult to get it back.
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on The Changeover: Farms, Food, Forests, Fuel
posted 4 years, 3 months ago
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