Category: farming/gardening
Posted on November 20, 2018
by John Jeavons
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As harvest season draws to a close, it’s time to preserve the bounty. And what better way to do it than with the time-honored method of fermentation? With the earliest known examples of fermented foods appearing in the Fertile Crescent over 8,000 years ago,… Continue Reading “A Little “Culture””
Category: books, farming/gardening, food security, GROW THE EARTH, interesting practices, My favorite things, nutrition, practical guides, Preserving food, sustainabilityTags: Fermentation, health, it's alive kombucha, keeping the harvest, kombucha, Mary Karlin, Mastering Fermentation
Posted on October 7, 2018
by John Jeavons
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With winter approaching, people in rural areas of the developed world are thinking about heating and cooking. And firewood. And stoves. Around the globe, in the developing world, it isn’t a seasonal thought – it’s a daily thought. “More than half of the world’s… Continue Reading “Cookstoves and Coppicing”
Category: cook stoves, cookstoves, coppicing, coppicing/pollarding, Ecology Action, GROW THE EARTH, interesting practices, practical guides, publications, sustainability, sustainable practices, unusual techniques, videosTags: Aprovecho, cookstoves, coppice, coppicing, Ecology Action, efficient, firewood, lorena, PCIA, rocket stove, sustainability, test results
Posted on October 2, 2018
by John Jeavons
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With summer drawing to a close, it’s time to start thinking about your winter garden, and that means cover crops! Here are some things to consider when planting your cover crops this year: Normally, a gardener or farmer planning a crop rotation (over time)… Continue Reading “Cover Crops! Interplanting with Legumes”
Category: about crops, Biointensive, books, compost, compost crops, cover cropping, cover crops, crops, farming/gardening, grains, GROW THE EARTH, interesting practices, interplanting, my writing, practical guides, soil, sustainability, sustainable practicesTags: compost crops, cover crops, grains, GROW BIOINTENSIVE, interplanting, John Jeavons, legumes, Managing Cover Crops Profitably, nitrogen fixation, SARE, USDA
Posted on August 27, 2018
by John Jeavons
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John Keats famously called Autumn the “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” and I couldn’t agree with him more. Just when the summer seems like it will last forever, the turn of the seasons begins to make itself known in a subtle change of… Continue Reading “Keeping the Harvest”
Category: about crops, books, farming/gardening, food security, fruits, GROW THE EARTH, harvesting, My favorite things, practical guides, Preserving food, vegetablesTags: d'agen plums, food storage, french plums, gretchen mead, Harvest, keeping the harvest, nancy chioffi, story books, Trees of Antiquity
Posted on August 8, 2018
by John Jeavons
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It’s no secret that gardening is good for the body and spirit. Gardeners have known the peace and calm that comes from tending their plants for centuries – I certainly feel it when I’m watering, weeding, harvesting or just being in the garden, feeling… Continue Reading “Ease Your Mind: Herbs for Mental Health”
Posted on July 23, 2018
by John Jeavons
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Everyone seemed to enjoy the Lost Crops of Africa so much, I thought I’d mention another treasure from the National Research Council: Lost Crops of the Incas (published in 1989). This book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in ethnobotany and heirloom varieties,… Continue Reading “Lost Crops of the Incas”
Category: about crops, books, Carribean America, Central America, crops, ethnobotany, farming/gardening, food security, grains, GROW THE EARTH, history, Latin America, native plant, native plants, plants, South America, vegetablesTags: central america, crops, ethnobotany, inca, latin america, National Research Council, native crops, plants, south america
Posted on July 18, 2018
by John Jeavons
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This 3-book series Lost Crops of Africa (Volumes I, II and III on Grains, Vegetables, and Fruits, published in 1996, 2006 and 2008, respectively) is a treasure for us all, but especially for the African continent, with the hope it presents of growing food… Continue Reading “Lost Crops of Africa”
Category: about crops, Africa, books, crops, ethnobotany, farming/gardening, food security, fruits, grains, GROW THE EARTH, native plants, vegetablesTags: Africa, books, crops, food security, native plants
Posted on June 26, 2018
by John Jeavons
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One of the most frustrating experiences you can have in the garden is to see a plant—or worse, and entire bed! —struggling with disease or pests. Conscientious farmers want to bring health to their gardens, but the chemical remedies provided on the shelves of… Continue Reading “Homeopathy for Plants”
Category: books, compost, container gardening, farming/gardening, GROW THE EARTH, homeopathy, homeopathy, homeopathy, indoor gardening, nutrition, plant health, plants, practical guides, unusual techniquesTags: farming, gardening, health, homeopathy for plants
Posted on June 25, 2018
by John Jeavons
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Nora Waln was an unusual and adventurous woman. A Philadelphia Quaker and best-selling writer and journalist in the 1930s–60s, she was the first to report on the spread of Nazism in the lead up to WWII, and wrote on Mongolia, communism in China, and… Continue Reading “30 Generations of Farming”
Category: books, China, ethnobotany, farming/gardening, GROW THE EARTH, history, history of agriculture, planning, sustainabilityTags: Biointensive, China, Ecology Action, fertility, history, John Jeavons, Living Libraries, Nora Waln, soil, sustainability, The House of Exile
Posted on June 19, 2018
by John Jeavons
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Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is a dynamic late autumn, winter and early spring grain crop that is somewhat higher in calories that other short-day crops. Added to soups, it tastes great, and thickens the broth beautifully. It can also be used as a fodder crop… Continue Reading “Barley – A Versatile Crop”
Category: barley, compost crops, crops, farming/gardening, grains, grains, GROW THE EARTH, varietiesTags: Barley, Cereal Crops, farming, gardening, John H. Martin, John Jeavons, Warren H. Leonard
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