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fast grow the weeds

This is a journal, of sorts, of an organic garden in SW Michigan. “Ut sementem feceris, ita metes: non semper erit aestas.”

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Greenhouses etc.

Greenhouse information

  • Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman. Not just greenhouses, a must-have book!
  • Intrepid slug-squisher Andy McGee is publishing a book in Spring ‘09 called The Polytunnel Handbook through Green Books. (Polytunnel=hoop house=greenhouse)
  • I got my greenhouses as complete kits from Growers’ Solution, which makes their own frames.
  • There are lots of other ways to have your own greenhouse. Google “Hoop House” and watch the results turn in. Here’s a decent site though to build one out of PVC.
  • Eliot Coleman also has a demo on MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Assoc.) on how to build a low tunnel (a short greenhouse) to help season extension.

Preservation comes in many forms.

  • American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. If you’re going to eat them, you might as well breed them.
  • National Sustainable Agriculture Information Source. This is a treasure. A national treasure.
  • Vegetable Varieties for Home Gardeners. A great cross-reference, through Cornell University.
  • Slow Food Ark of Taste: USA. One way to preserve something is to stand on a soapbox and yell about how wonderful it is. I grow many things on this list.
  • Chicken breeds and varieties. This is a great one-stop place to bone up on your birds!

Sometimes, it is better if you make it yourself.

  • Raw milk: Campaign for Real Milk
  • Dairying/Cheesemaking sources: both are goaty but work with cow’s milk too Caprine Supply and Hoegger Goat Supply
  • Yogurt/sourdough/tempeh cultures: Gem Supply

And always, TRY LOCAL FIRST.

  • Local Harvest. Still the best way to find out who your farmers are, or, barring that, where the farmers’ markets can be found.
  • Eat Wild. Best way to source grass-fed meats.
  • Eat Well Guide. Through Local Harvest, this is a more exacting finder.
  • Dave’s Garden Watchdog. Find both local sources, and how reliable those far-away mailorder sources are for you.

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  • Welcome!

    onions Glad you came to visit! Got something to say? Email me at fastweedpuller at gmail dot com.
  • Be a life saver! SAVE YOUR SEEDS.

    "The one factor most responsible for destroying garden diversity has been the massive shift to hybrid varieties [of seed]. Seed companies favor these proprietary varieties for several reasons. Hybrid seeds are usually much more expensive to produce, and usually sell for several times more than "open-pollinated" (non-hybrid) seeds. Also, seeds saved from hybrids are worthless for replanting, so farmers and gardeners must return to the companies for new seeds every year. And the percentage of hybrid varieties can be kept secret, so competing companies can never reproduce them. Open-pollinated varieties will come "true-to-type" (produce plants like their parents) if not allowed to cross with similar varieties growing nearby. In contrast, hybrid varieties are the result of deliberately crossing two different parent varieties, usually inbreds. Hybrids should be avoided for seed saving purposes because they are incapable of producing plants like the previous generation. Seeds saved from hybrids will either be sterile or will begin reverting to one of the parent varieties during succeeding generations." --Suzanne Ashworth, Seed to Seed, p. 14. (Decorah, Iowa: Seed Savers Exchange, Inc., 2002.)
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