Mary Brown writes in WUWT Tips and Notes:
No more steak for you earth hating skeptics. Time to learn to eat sustainable crickets… so says the Washington Post. Of course it mentions climate change.
The article also says this…
“The industry leapt forward following a 2013 United Nations report warning that with nine billion people on Earth in 2050, current food production will have to double. Between a lack of space and climate change concerns, we’ll need more sustainable solutions. Crickets happen to be a great option.”
Interesting statement since the earth currently has 7.2 billion people, many of whom are clearly overfed already. I’m not sure why a 25% increase in population would require a 100% increase in food.
Also, the USA already produces food for 1.2 billion Americans and we waste 75% of it. Worldwide, food production is enough for roughly 14 billion people with 50% waste. Zero waste is unrealistic, but I’ll bet the food waste ratio approached zero in Europe in winter of ’45.
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Answer honestly to back up your statement that you are not throwing away infected and destroyed fruits, vegetables, herbs, and root crops. This is a very educated audience with a wealth of experience. I know I spend a lot of extra time cutting out bugs and spots in my apples and pears for the canning season. It is very labor intensive. Losses for some trees are 100% around here. You cannot eat it, and no country would ever import it either – which is another point. Quarantines.
Zeke
The only thing I use is neem oil, The two big issues I have are downy mildew and tomato blight Neem works good on downy mildew but it needs to be applied before the mildew shows up
Tomato blight is easily controlled by using a barrier between the plant and ground and picking the infected leaves off, a little neem helps too
The only fruit I gow is rhubarb and strawberries I have never sprayed either, I simply pick any bugs I find
Squash bugs, spray neem before they show up works good, after not so good
Aphids on corn a little shot of neem just as the tassels start to show and then a little more 1 week later
Peppers all varieties, never do anything to them except pick bugs, and then i’m not sure if the japanese beetles are really doing anything harmful to the plants anyway
Carrots, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Radishes, Peas, Green Beans…. nothing it seems the bugs don’t like these plants
Half the battle is catching stuff before it happens
I forgot potatoes, picking the occasional potato bug and the japanese beetles, I have great sandy loam at the high end of my property, perfect for taters no rot as of yet ;0)
Winter of ’45…well played.
Anecdotal statements online about gardening successes are one thing, but if anyone has any illusions about the hundreds of problems faced by the tomato and potato growers, I can offer this simple trouble shooting list for tomatoes:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/vegetables/tomat2.html
(This page is just the last dozen of over 60 problems encountered by tomato plants, many of which wipe out all fruit.)
For any other interested observers, please at least do an image search of potato diseases and pests. At least visually scan the natural enemies of this crop. Like this:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=potatoe+diseases+and+pests&FORM=HDRSC2
Yet our northwest growers produce billions of pounds of potatoes which are excellent in visual and nutritional quality, and have long shelf lives so they are not discarded when you do not eat them right away. This is a wonderful achievement. Organic preferences are easily accomodated at specialty stores and by home gardens. However, soil which has been destroyed by blight and nematode presence is a serious threat and I would not take any free soil from these people on craigslist! Just a word to the wise.
In re: proper diet, insects and food waste: A stay-at-home mom can grow and preserve 300 jars of food in one season on her first try, but let me tell you, she will spend a lot of hours per day watering, weeding, preparing, and processing. She will need some land, irrigation, dormant sprays and a number of other inexpensive and effective controls. The cost of sugar, jars, salts and vinegar will have to be watched so that no more than 40cents is spent per jar of food. Yet the high property taxes she pays for public schools (which she may or may not want to use) will make this move to a single income difficult. Women who stay at home have fallen to 25% of households in this country. These were the home growers of our past. The one you hated so much and said was chained to a kitchen sink, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, unfulfilled and wasting her education. Which is it?
The push for “inexpensive child care” will also be an added burden to mothers, as they are forced to pay higher taxes so that other women can give their children to experts and child day camps, and so these mothers can run off and buy designer organic food and organic cotton tampons at the Rich Hippy store. I don’t think that’s right. I am just telling you where this all leads. But all I hear about is the rights of girls to catch Johns on Broadway and shoot up at a younger and younger age. I believe the stay-at-home mom is getting destroyed in this discussion.
@zeke
Another thing I do to help stop plant disease, I plant with very wide spacing 5’x5′ for tomatoes grown in 5 ft tall steel baskets, potatoes 4’x4′ hilled 3 times, cucumbers, zucchini, squash and melons in different areas, never next to each other.
This year here in southern MI has been very cool, with evenly spaced rain and lots of sun,(no need to water this year) the bugs have been almost non existent and barring a catastrophe I will likely have grown one of my best gardens in the last 25 years, Knock on wood
Meet me here in October John. We will see who laid by the most food from the season! (: By the way, 15000 sq ft is a nice hobby garden. Clearing and weeding, plus watering, plus controls of leafminers, etc. must take some commitment of hours. You might want to mention if you have a full or part time job. I know people think that food just grows on trees but experience and having a job in addition proves otherwise (; . Ty John. Enjoy.
I was lucky enough to find an income source that allows me to work in my home shop (drills, grinders, plastic) and only takes about 20 hrs a week
My time in the garden is minimised by the spacing, I can run my rototiller all year and I use corn gluten for weed control, which is good but not great, before I switched to organic I used preen, that stuff works great, like I said I miss the old days, petrochemicals gota love em
The last time saver, I never let the weeds get taller than an inch, Its easy to go down though a row with a hoe and pluck the little weeds, big weeds require bending over and a back ache
I just finished freezing 54 full quart bags of sweet corn and have given away 15 shopping bags on the cob to friends and neighbors, its looking like next week will be the start of tomato canning, juice, salsa, and marinara sauce, gotta love the smell of fresh garlic and tomatoes simmering on the stove ;0) ;0) :0)
From Zeke on August 21, 2014 at 12:04 pm:
People are still using soil? Nutrient film technique hydroponics allows organic farming in the backyard. On the local Home and Backyard show they showed one small company that grew produce for local restaurants, the noted source of nutrients was from a tank of food fish they were also raising, think it was tilapia.
Which is part of the many types of hydroponics that can be practiced, with or without substrates that are organic or inorganic,
With the many methods available, that can be so inexpensive with reduced wastage that commercial growers make good profits with them, why are people still using soil? That is so 20th century!
Kadaka inre hydroponics, I would be willing to make a small trial of rockwool next year.
Grodan Water Absorbent AgroDynamics Granulate Granulated rockwool 3.5 cubic feet 45 lbs $55.61
It would have to be a very small trial. (:
First of all…. get some real crickets:
15,000 sq feet? 100′ X 150′, less than a quarter acre? Hobby is one correct descriptive for it; dilettante gardener would be another term for it.
Zeke was nice; he asked what you grew. Instead I’ll ask, how much of that food have you put up and/or sold?
Part of the name strawberries ‘straw’ seems apt because we used to cover the strawberries with straw for the winter and then rake the straw off of the plants in the spring leaving the straw bedding the plants to cut down on weeds. Etymology tells us that the reason for the ‘straw’ part of the name, (Old English examples; streawberige, streaberie) is lost; but certainly not drawn from covering the strawberries with straw as strawberries were wild picked long before they were cultivated.
The bolding is because the longer a field of strawberries are grown the more pervasive weeds and pest get; especially lovely weeds like thistle, jimson weed, mulberry (courtesy birds), dandelion, plantain (plantago major). slugs, beetles, and so on.
Even small plots get quite tedious very quickly.
A statement of yours along that line puzzles me, “…when all I had to do was hose my garden with petrochemicals every 15 days…”.
After my Father’s great experience trying organic farming back in the seventies which included an acre of strawberries; I learned my lesson and I don’t mind using aids such as insecticides and especially fungicides as all fruits quickly succumb to brown rot fungus in this part of Virginia. That is all fruits, there is nothing you can do organically that prevents it; the brown rot infection occurs at the flower stage.
If your garden is so easily pest free than you are isolated from native pest sources one way or the other, not because you are terrific at spotting and ‘nipping’ infestations before they get started.
By the way, Neem huh? If Neem is effective, and it is in a relatively minor fashion just what active ingredients do you think makes it effective?
Chemicals are chemicals whether found organically or manufactured. Usually, man moves to manufacture something when he can not find sufficient quantities in nature.
Still Mine has several great strawberry scenes.
dilettante gardener Interesting word, i’m really not sure how to take that LOL I’ve been known to dabble ;0)
1: a person whose interest in an art or in an area of knowledge is not very deep or serious
2: an admirer or lover of the arts
3: a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge : dabbler
Put up or sold/giveaway list from last year
5 bushels of potatoes with plenty of seed taters this spring
45 quarts frozen spinach and swiss chard
50 quarts frozen sweet corn, 15 or 20 shopping bags given away on the cob
45 +or- quarts frozen green beans
20 quarts frozen broccoli
1 bushel of carrots in the cellar
2 bushels onions in the cellar
230 quarts +or- a couple tomato juice, salsa, and marinara sauce
25 pints strawberry rhubarb jam
peas ate them as fast as they came on just love fresh peas
cucumber/pickles 30 quarts
dehydrated jalapeno/chilli peppers/habanero 3 quarts ( those will last a few years)
2 pints ground horseradish
2 quarts raspberries ate those right away ;0)
I usually put in a couple egg plants I eat 2 or 3 and give the rest away
10 or so heads of cabbage
dill weed
cherry tomatoes
acorn/summer/spaghetti squash in the cellar
zucchini, 40 loafs zucchini bread frozen
I think thats about it ;0)
when I finish with each veggie it gets plowed under
I went to the farmers market once 2 years ago sold a little over $200 never went back, not sure why
My lack of bugs, my dad and I always surmised that because I live on an island, in a sea of corn that might have something to do with the lack of bugs, farmers spray a lot of pesticide.
Strawberries I have 1 row about 30 feet long, I trim all the leaders and keep them in a row that I can straddle, anything that gets out side that row gets chewed up in the tiller
petrochemicals, liquid seven, ortho plant disease control, ortho fungicide mixed together in a hose sprayer, sprayed twice a month, and preen twice a year, you really dont have to do much with that combo ;0)
Neem, when I started looking into organic it was listed as a kind of a do all, It seems to do a good job, and it seems to work on grubs, I hardly ever see any when I till anymore, however the japanese beetles seem to like the stuff they fall off the plant roll around and crawl away.
And i’ll have you know, I am a master at nipping bugs…almost ninja like ;0) that and I have a good population of tree frogs and toads which I attribute to killing all the garter snakes
Well thats disheartening I just made a long post answering all the questions ATheoK put to me and it vanished after I hit the post button I’ll give it another try tomorrow
You are playing at gardening, that is why the dilettante phrase; it is just something you find pleasant to do, neither your livelihood nor food supply is actually dependent on successful grow. Nor is a bad season serious trouble.
Gave away garden produce is a cop out. Sure neighbors might enjoy some fresh vegetables especially if you invite them over to pick their own. Otherwise you just might be a bother; hint watch Alton Brown’s ‘Good Eats’ episode ‘Deep Purple’ where his neighbor, Mr. McGregor keeps bringing him eggplant. Perhaps your local food bank might appreciate them more.
You are in a barren island, many of the pests are native to the area and happily get blown by the wind, follow enchanting aromas, (food or mates), upwind (especially things like Japanese beetles) and chance upon your patch.
Surrounded by corn greatly reduces the pests available to move over to your garden.
There are an incredible amount of erroneous assumptions about farmers and their sprays. My Brother-in-Law drops over $5,000 every time he goes to spray a hundred acres of fruit trees. Farmers get pennies where stores charge dollars; so he isn’t in any mood to just go have another spray to annoy the eco-batty.
Nor do farmers just douse plants with what sounds like a good mix, they specifically target the bugs they’re seeking to control.
Corn is attacked by around two dozen different pests and most of them are controlled by the same insecticides. Corn hybrids are used to handle most diseases and occasional fungicides to handle fungus. Interestingly is that corn smut that is so avoided in America is a delicacy in Mexico.
Really want to know what and when the farmer is spraying? Many states require that the farmer post a schedule that lists the spray schedule and what is sprayed. The farmer does get some leeway to deal with alternative spray days to deal with weather.
Your farmer neighbors are controlling the local supply of corn pests several of which don’t mind eating other plants and the lack of infested habitat greatly lessens other bugs showing up in masses. Trust me, squashing Colorado potato beetles is unpleasant and it can get quickly frustrating when their flying in from surrounding fields as fast as you squash them.
Birds love strawberries, Wind doesn’t care but blows endlessly except where turbines are; both bring seeds that take hold quickly often right at the base of the plant where the birds often land. Weeding these out with a hoe mean chopping the strawberry at the base seriously hurting that plant’s fruiting. The worst weeds, mulberry (tree), thistle, plantain, dandelion, blackberries (wild), etc… throw down a strong taproot and only careful hand weeding saves the plant. Though I guess with only thirty feet of strawberries, you could just replant every plant.
When you’re trying to do an acre of strawberries, the hoe can only deal with the mulched aisle between the rows. after a long row pulling thistle at the base even gloves get painful as the thorns work through the leather.
Just the act of rototilling reduces grubs directly in the garden. Farmers till their fields several times to kill grubs and many weeds.
Japanese beetles prefer fields of grass. If you were surrounded by farmers raising meadow grass for forage you’d be inundated with Japanese beetles. Best advice for handling Japanese beetles is to get your downwind neighbors to install lures and traps. Farmers as neighbors means that’s not an option, they’d get a kick out of the attempt though.
Putting up food requires hours carefully preparing both food and jars; worth doing with many vegetables. Freezing is easier as there is less need to sterilize.
Selling food is seven days a week, not an occasional visit to a farm market. It means keeping your mouth shut while oddballs accuse you of cheating them a thousand different ways. Try spending hours in the sun working and picking strawberries then have some goof yell at you that you’re cheating them because the grocery twenty miles away is cheaper, (it wasn’t, unless they meant twenty years before).
Two quick stories:
My Brother and I were sitting on the porch one day selling corn when some nut stopped his car, got out, headed right to the corn and started ripping husks off the corn. My Brother and I both jumped up yelling.
I yelled that he was buying those ears.
My Brother yelled, “What are you looking for!”
The guy brandished a defrocked ear at us and yelled “This corn is not fresh!”
I was stunned silent and beginning to think of physical means.
My Brother returned to speaking, (brandishing is not denuding), and quickly said “Picked fresh this morning.”
About this time, My Father who happened to be inside the house showed up at the screen door and asked “What is going on here?”
To which the turned and brandished the ear at my Father and snarled “This corn is not fresh”.
There was a bit of silence where I realized cars were still driving by, when my Father said “Corn’s out back, same price, go pick your own.”
The guy gloated, grabbed a couple of brown paper shopping bags and ran around the corner of the house.
Back came the guy with two full shopping bags thrilled with his prize, paid us and left. Thirty seconds after he left my Brother and I laughed for hours.
The joke? Our back field of corn had been fresh corn a month before, now it was field corn with giant starchy kernels. Fresh corn is cheap but you don’t get a lot of ears per stalk. Corn not picked quickly grows into field corn. The corn we were selling was picked from a field a couple of miles away.
The only reason ears of corn need the leaves removed is to prepare them for eating or storing. Everything a person needs to check corn freshness or maturity can be done without stripping leaves. A corn ear stripped of leaves quickly loses freshness and flavor.
2nd story:
A couple of years after the corn event we had a seriously bumper year of tomatoes; actually everyone in our corner of the state did. Tomatoes were bargain priced all around us.
Most of my family had other jobs so none of were dependent on the income. My parents were depression era children and wasted nothing if possible.
We fed our two pigs all of the tomatoes they wanted and composted any tomato that wasn’t perfect. Quarts of tomato sauce were cooked every week till kitchen wallpaper started peeling.
We tried cutting the price of tomatoes but that really upset many of our friends who were also selling tomatoes.
My Father, the ever practical brought out a broken scale from the barn and hung it up. The going rate for tomatoes was 3 pounds (1 1/2 kilos) for a dollar. With the broken scale just about the time we’d fill a shopping bag is when the scale would read 3 pounds.
Very very few people said one word to us about the scale being wrong; maybe one or two per day.
But it was great fun watching people bite their lips, hold down smirks, roll their eyes at their friends. Most of these folks would practically shove the dollar into our hands, grab their bag and bolt afraid that we’d notice.
I didn’t need to make tomato sauce for a couple of years. We also had bumper crops of peppers as they’re related, but peppers were even harder to sell in quantity back then. The pigs decided they didn’t like serrano peppers much and for some reason didn’t trust the other peppers, probably because we’d stuffed a few with serranos.
Keep growing stuff as that is a terrific thing to do and a small garden is far far better than just growing lawn.
Great stories ATheoK, The one about the corn is priceless, I would have loved to seen the look on their faces when they took the first bite LOL
I found it interesting that your parents were depression era children, so were mine born in 1923, my dad was a farm boy and my mother was a city girl, Dad said it took her a few years to get use to country life, They wasted nothing, and they didn’t seem to be able to throw anything away either ;0) I also run a tight ship like they did, difference being I know were the the dumpster is and I can easily toss a broken toaster out ;0)
Giving stuff away being a cop out? I would have to say no on that one, my two best neighbors that I have known for 30+ years, begin hanging their noses over the fence as soon as they see me in the cucumber patch, cucumbers, sweet corn, and tomatoes are the only things I give away, I would have better luck trying to give my mother-in -law away then an egg plant ;0) The rest goes to my family, 5 different households, one thing I notice, the frequency of visits seems to go up just about the time the sweet corn is getting ready ;0)