Home, Farm & Garden

Home, Farm & Garden

Sustainability on Steroids: Organic Farmer Grosses $100K an Acre

Sustainability on Steroids: Organic Farmer Grosses $100K an Acre

Sustainability on Steroids: Organic Farmer Grosses $100K an Acre

By Christina Sarich | Natural Society

Sustainability on Steroids: Organic Farmer Grosses $100K an Acre

We need GMOs to feed the world like a fish needs dry land. A controversial farmer in California is proving that a veritable bumper crop can be had using new farming methods that don’t require GMO pesticides, herbicides, or even weeding, and require 10 times less water than the average farm. The best part – he earned $100K per acre last season without even harvesting all of his land.

What kind of super-fertilizer allows Paul Kaiser to grow so much food on a mere 8 acres? Lot’s of rotten food scraps and rotten plants – otherwise known as compost. And he uses loads of it.

He uses farming practices both old, and cutting-edge-new so well that agricultural specialists from University of California at Davis who have tested his top soil can drive a four-foot steel pole all the way through his fields. This, as opposed to most parts of California, where it would hit infertile hard-pan in less than 12 inches.

Last year, Kaiser’s farm located in Sonoma Valley, CA grossed more than $100,000 an acre, too. This is ten times the average for most farmers of this area, even in lucrative wine-country.

His farm is no mega-farm, either. At just under 8 acres, he is beating even other large organic farms because the soil is still so damaged in other conventional and organic farms alike. He is certainly out-performing Big Ag methods of farming as his unique farming practices have turned the soil into a goldmine.

Kaiser also doesn’t plow his fields (which means a lot less work) and he uses around 10 times less water than his peers. His neighbors still run sprinklers, but he waters for about an hour a week, using almost exclusively drip irrigation. This means that while California is still recovering from a drought, most farmers are watering the air – since most of the water is lost to evaporation. Kaiser is watering – how novel an idea – just his plants.

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Beekeepers Dream: A Better Way To Harvest Honey From Beehives

Beekeepers Dream: A Better Way To Harvest Honey From Beehives

Beekeepers Dream: A Better Way To Harvest Honey From Beehives

By True Activist

Inventors Stuart and Cedar Anderson knew there had to be a better way to harvest honey from their beehives so they came up with the “Beekeepers Dream”.  Their invention which took them a decade to develop, allows beekeepers to harvest honey straight from their beehives without opening it.  This means the bees stress less and it makes it much easier for the beekeeper.

Although they have not released any detail on how this system works, it surely looks promising. Below you will find some information that you will receive once you enter your email address on their website.

How do the Flow™ frames work?

The Flow frame consists of already partly formed honeycomb cells. The bees complete the comb with their wax, fill the cells with honey and cap the cells as usual. When you turn the tool, a bit like a tap, the cells split vertically inside the comb forming channels allowing the honey to flow down to a sealed trough at the base of the frame and out of the hive while the bees are practically undisturbed on the comb surface.

When the honey has finished draining you turn the tap again which resets the comb into the original position and allows the bees to chew the wax capping away, and fill it with honey again. The Flow frames are inserted into standard bee supers (boxes) in much the same way as standard frames, however the box itself is modified by cutting two access doorways in one end.

When the frames are inserted, the ends of the frames now form the end of the super. This allows access to the operating slots and honey pipe outlets.

Comments from the inventor:

“Many years ago…. I went down to one of my beehives, which I knew was a pretty wild hive. It was getting on towards evening and a bit of a grey day, not the best time for beekeeping!

So I put on the bee vale my grandma made me and pressed the gaffa tape back on the mesh that covered the holes. Then put on my glove, I couldn’t find the second one… I fired up the smoker and blew plenty of smoke into the hive. When I opened the lid my suspicions were confirmed. The bees weren’t happy about being disturbed….  I pulled the sleeve over my glovless hand, blew some more smoke into the hive and pulled some nice frames of honey out.

The hive was packed with bees and it was near impossible to get the honey out without squashing lots of them. I really dont like squashing bees.The bees got more grumpy and started to sting me through my bee suit. They weren’t happy…..  I put the hive back together, squashing more bees as the lid went on and ended up running away across the field thinking there has to be a better way! So my Dad and I set to work on a decade long task of inventing the beekeepers dream.”  Cedar Anderson – Inventor

“In 2014 I had the pleasure of testing the FlowTM frames… The bees quickly accepted the frames and in less than 2 weeks stored and capped 40 lb of honey. I must say it was quite exciting to see the first bit of honey appear at the outlet, then make its way down the tube into the jar. Mesmerizing.”John Gates – Canada

The video will be used as their fundraising campaign which they will launch on the 23rd of February.  For more information or updates, please visit their  website honeyflow.com.

Source

Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Off-grid Cooking: How to Make a Fresnel Solar Cooker

Off-grid Cooking: How to Make a Fresnel Solar Cooker

Off-grid Cooking: How to Make a Fresnel Solar Cooker

By Daniel Barker | Natural News

Off-grid Cooking: How to Make a Fresnel Solar Cooker

Off-grid Cooking: How to Make a Fresnel Solar Cooker

(NaturalNews) For those interested in living off-grid, solar energy offers one of the best and most readily-available sources of energy. There are many ways to harness the sun’s power for performing a number of tasks, such as creating electricity and heating a home.

The sun’s rays can also be used to cook meals. Building a simple cooker using a Fresnel lens to focus sunlight on a cooking apparatus is easier, cheaper and more effective than you might have imagined.

Fresnel lenses are devices you’ve seen used in many ways, perhaps without realizing what they are or how they work. Essentially a Fresnel lens accomplishes the same thing as a convex lens — it concentrates light by bending the rays towards a focal point, creating a powerful beam that can be projected for long distances, or aimed at something nearby, such as a cooking pot!

The difference between a convex lens and a Fresnel lens is that the latter performs the same function, but with a much smaller thickness. Its design incorporates “steps” comprised of ridges arranged in concentric rings which are progressively angled to focus light towards a central point, thereby eliminating the need for a thick convex lens.

Fresnel lenses are the ones used in lighthouse beacons, but they are also found in the plastic covers of car headlights, taillights and other common devices. The solar cookers I will be discussing here are made from the Fresnel lenses found in old rear-projection wide-screen television sets.

They are easy to find on eBay, where you can purchase one very cheaply, or on Craigslist, where you will often find them being given away. You may also see one of these old TV screens discarded on the side of the road, waiting to be picked up by the trash disposal trucks. You may already have one laying around your garage or storeroom.

Once you’ve found or purchased your own Fresnel lens, making a frame for the lens and a stand for holding the cooking apparatus (frying pan, dutch oven, etc.) is a relatively simple undertaking and you may already have all the materials you need just lying around the house.

There are many designs to be found on the Internet, some with detailed plans and others that just give a general idea of how they work. There are lots of YouTube videos on the subject, as well.

Read more

http://graywolfsurvival.com/84068/solar-diy-building-fresnel-solar-cooker/

Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Ideas to Strengthen Your Farmers Market or Help Get One Started

Ideas to Strengthen Your Farmers Market or Help Get One Started

Ideas to Strengthen Your Farmers Market or Help Get One Started

By John Clark Vincent | Mother Earth News

Ideas to Strengthen Your Farmers Market

Image credit: Lisa D. Holmes. Farmers at the farmers market in downtown Forest Grove, Oregon, are preparing for customers.

Active farmers markets seem to be everywhere these days, but many communities have either tried and failed to get a market going or seem to continually remain in the planning stages. To help those who are still getting started, I asked a couple friends — who happen to be Portland Farmers Market pros — for a few pointers.

Farmers Market

Image credit: Lisa D. Holmes. Anna Curtin (left) and Amber Holland having fun at a Portland Farmers Market.

Anna Curtin and Amber Holland have been working with the Portland Farmers Market (PFM) organization for the past decade and had this to say about launching a new market.

“It takes a lot to put together a farmers market,” said Anna, “because farmers markets are for everyone, right? But while there are many different stakeholders to take care of, there are three primary components… the vendors, the customers, and the market organization that speaks to the general public. The setup needs to work well for everyone, and that takes a lot of flexibility and the ability to listen really well. Plus, you have to understand that markets don’t mean the same thing to all people or all communities. A farmers market can serve different roles, depending on what a community needs it to be.”

Anna pointed to the eight PFM markets to demonstrate some differences. PFM’s Buckman market is a typical neighborhood market, much like my neighborhood’s market, the Moreland Farmers Market. Like the majority of Portland’s markets, Moreland is not associated with PFM. But both Buckman and Moreland have several farms selling vegetables, meats, and fruit, combined with value-added products, specialty items, bakeries, and hot food vendors. Plus there usually are entertainment and kids activities that often feature neighborhood schools and organizations. At the other end of the farmers market spectrum, there’s PFM’s Saturday market at Portland State University, which serves thousands of tourists, shoppers, and entertainment seekers.

“What happens at Buckman is certainly different from what’s going to be happening at our King or Pioneer Courthouse Square markets,” said Anna, “because they’re in different parts of town. And then, of course, PSU is just a completely different scale of event. But in my mind, the most important thing any market can do is bring farmers and customers together. They all do that.”

Looking at the differences in markets from a farmer’s point of view, Amber emphasized that farmers need to take the time to look closely at what works best for them and to choose wisely.

“If you’re a small farm starting out, you need to figure out how to get noticed,” said Amber. “If you’re a small farm at a market like PSU, you will simply get lost unless you’re doing something very special to stand out. That special thing could be something as simple as what you’re selling if it’s very unusual. But for beginners, being at a small market is usually a big advantage.”

Amber also mentioned that anyone researching farmers markets — from either the farmer or organizer point of view — should check out the information compiled by Oregon State University agricultural economist Larry Lev. Lev has done extensive research on the key financial components every farmers market needs to consider to remain viable. One key that’s essential is balance. The market has to be attractive to both the farmers and the consumers, or like a large percentage of start-up markets, it will fail.

Anna suggests that, “the first step is to figure out what the need is, keeping in mind that your view of what the need is may or may not be accurate. Like if you’re trying to get healthy food to low income people, it could be that a mobile market does that better than a traditional parking lot farmers market. There’s also a lot of thinking going on right now about market saturation. There’s been an explosion of markets in Portland. Is a farmers market in every neighborhood the right solution? Is that too many? I’d argue that question is kind of a red herring. We only get three percent of the vegetable dollar in the metro area, so if you were to double that spending, there would be plenty of money to support all the markets out there. So I think it’s a question of more shoppers versus too many markets.”

Farmers Market

Image credit: Lisa D. Holmes. The Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University serves thousands of customers every Saturday.

Amber added, “Of course with more markets, you either need to be adding new farmers, or you’re going to be putting more strain on the farmers you have on board. Many of these farms have three or fewer people on staff, so if they are continually expanding to sell at more farmers markets, they’ll need to hire more people and that has an economic impact on their business. If they’re personally going to all the markets, who’s going to farm?”

Amber also points out that adding markets creates more strain on organizers. A farmers market is an event. It pops up and gets torn down over and over and over again. That repetition impacts both the organizers and the farmers and other vendors. At some point, that becomes very difficult to sustain.

“Farmers markets do a lot of good, and they’re not going anywhere any time soon,” Amber said, “but I don’t know that we’ll always be handling markets the way we do now. People just starting out or planning for the future might want to consider something that’s easier to run or simply reaches more people. I believe they could evolve so much that they may not look like today’s markets at all. If the need grows enough, and you have to hope it will, the market can’t always pop up and go away. It needs to be there all the time. There are only so many people who will support the farmers market as a community event.”

In the meantime, Anna believes it’s important to adjust and expand markets to respond to the needs of today. “When we opened our winter market,” she said, “we heard from several farmers that that helped keep them in business. It enabled them to keep year-round staff and gave them a market to sell to. That’s serving the need of what’s there. Which never can be the same old model for everyone if you want it to work.”

Order your copy of Planting A Future: Profiles from Oregon’s New Farm Movement.

Source

Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
How to Purify 12 Gallons Of Water A Day WITHOUT Filters or Electricity

How to Purify 12 Gallons Of Water A Day WITHOUT Filters or Electricity

How to Purify 12 Gallons Of Water A Day WITHOUT Filters or Electricity

By Chet | The Prepper Project

Purify 12 Gallons Of Water A Day WITHOUT Filters

If you are like me, and you worry about the life span of your water filters in a collapse situation, and how you’ll keep purifying drinking water after your supply of filters runs out, then this video is for you.

I’m sharing this video with you because up until recently I wasn’t sure if this was a legit method for purifying water, and I didn’t want to fall for any scams out there.

Several times over the last year Scott (the dude in this video) has turned me away from products sold to Preppers that aren’t all the manufacturers claim them to be… and tipped me off to cheaper products that can get the same job done as the one I was about to buy.

He’s tipped me off to stoves that really don’t crank out the heat that they claim they can, or different electricity generating gimmicks that simply don’t work.

If I’m in question, I simply ask Scott. And he’s never steered me wrong.

So if you’re looking for a way to purify up to 12 gallons of water a day, or maybe with some tweaking even producing 16 gallons a day, and you live in an area that has a lot of biomass on the ground then this might be a perfect option for you.

Its not as simple as something like a Berkey water filter, which you can learn to make yourself here by the way, but then again it won’t have filters that will eventually crap out on you either.

There are already huge percentages of the Earth’s population in third world countries that have to boil every drop of water they drink. If it ever comes to that, this would be a MUCH more efficient way of doing so. More efficient in biomass that needs to be burned by using the Rocket Stove, and more efficient at purifying by using the distiller.

Something to think about.

Source

Video: Off Grid Water Distillation at its Best!

A video demonstrating the non-electric Off Grid Steam Distiller by Water Wise. It was very rewarding to see the production rate. Up to 16 gallons of distilled water a day off of wood. The water tastes great. Future tests will involve brackish and seas water.

Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
This Tree Produces 40 Different Types of Fruit

This Tree Produces 40 Different Types of Fruit

This Tree Produces 40 Different Types of Fruit

By Science Alert

Tree Produces 40 Different Types of Fruit

An art professor from Syracuse University in the US, Van Aken grew up on a family farm before pursuing a career as an artist, and has combined his knowledge of the two to develop his incredible Tree of 40 Fruit.

In 2008, Van Aken learned that an orchard at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station was about to be shut down due to a lack of funding. This single orchard grew a great number of heirloom, antique, and native varieties of stone fruit, and some of these were 150 to 200 years old. To lose this orchard would render many of these rare and old varieties of fruit extinct, so to preserve them, Van Aken bought the orchard, and spent the following years figuring out how to graft parts of the trees onto a single fruit tree.

Working with a pool of over 250 varieties of stone fruit, Van Aken developed a timeline of when each of them blossom in relationship to each other and started grafting a few onto a working tree’s root structure. Once the working tree was about two years old, Van Aken used a technique called chip grafting to add more varieties on as separate branches. This technique involves taking a sliver off a fruit tree that includes the bud, and inserting that into an incision in the working tree. It’s then taped into place, and left to sit and heal over winter. If all goes well, the branch will be pruned back to encourage it to grow as a normal branch on the working tree.

After about five years and several grafted branches, Van Aken’s first Tree of 40 Fruit was complete.

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Pack Your Small Garden With Uncommon Edibles

Pack Your Small Garden With Uncommon Edibles

Pack Your Small Garden With Uncommon Edibles

By Melissa Wiley | Chicagoist

Pack Your Small Garden With Uncommon Edibles

Image credit: Opioła Jerzy (Poland) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5]

There’s more to do this week than wrap packages while layering wool sweaters. Be bold and think spring while designing next year’s urban garden. And while your space may feel cramped, national garden expert Charlie Nardozzi says your options still loom larger than you might expect. Columnar apples, honeyberries, fig trees and Alpine strawberries can all sweeten your deck or patio in a matter of months.

”Urban gardeners often feel like they can’t grow much food because of lack of space or sun. But root crops like carrots and turnips can survive on three to four hours of daily sunlight, while lettuces like kale and Swiss chard can still thrive on even less. And new technology—self-watering containers, railing containers that sit on decks, wall plantings, even casters designed for plants—is addressing the space issue,” Nardozzi told Chicagoist.

Breeders too, Nardozzi notes, have shrunk the size of most produce in recent decades, making gardening into an even more compact practice. Fruits like salad bush cucumber now flourish on shorter vines that help you economize on space, while new cultivars of cherry tomatoes grow well in hanging baskets. Fruit trees also just keep getting smaller, putting ancient fruits like figs within closer reach.

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Making Clean Raw Milk: A Simple Guide for Small-Scale Dairies

Making Clean Raw Milk: A Simple Guide for Small-Scale Dairies

Making Clean Raw Milk: A Simple Guide for Small-Scale Dairies

By Nick Zigelbaum | Mother Earth News

Making Clean Raw Milk: A Simple Guide

The Importance of Testing Milk (Raw and Pasteurized) and Your Animals.

One big benefit of running the private and FDA-certified Bob-White Systems Dairy Lab is that we get to see what works and what doesn’t work to keep milk clean. “Clean,” for our purposes, means that it passes Vermont’s Tier II Raw Milk Standards, which happen to be some of the most stringent in the country, more so than federally regulated pasteurized milk standards. At the lab we perform FDA-certified testing to ensure raw milk producers are compliant with Vermont’s standards. We also perform non-FDA certified tests for diagnostic services. That means we see all kinds of milk, with all kinds of problems, and we help producers troubleshoot many different issues.

Vermont’s Tier II Raw Milk Standards require that raw milk intended for retail sale pass four tests; Total Bacteria Count below 15,000 cfu/mL, Coliform Count below 10 cfu/mL, Somatic Cell Count below 225,000/mL (500,000/mL for goats), and no Antibiotic Residue found. “cfu/mL” stands for Colony-Forming Units per milliliter; bacteria form colonies, and this is the number of colonies per milliliter of milk. Antibiotic residue looks for traces of cow penicillin or other antibiotics that could affect people with antibiotic allergies and probably contribute to the creation of the notorious MRSA and other antibiotic resistant bacteria. Every state has it’s own set of regulations and laws regarding raw milk, more info can be found at the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund and the map below.

Federally regulated, commodity raw milk for pasteurization must have a Total Bacteria Count less than 100,000 cfu/mL and a Somatic Cell Count less than 750,000/mL (1,000,000/mL for goats). Pasteurized milk must have less than 20,000 cfu/mL of bacteria, 10 cfu/mL of Coliform and no requirement on somatic cell count (they don’t increase after leaving the cow). It’s important to note that Vermont’s Tier II raw milk is “cleaner” than pasteurized milk you buy in the store. However, the fact is that failing these test standards doesn’t mean the milk is harmful. A high count only means the milk was produced and handled in a way that could support harmful pathogens, were they present. In other words, if harmful bacteria were to enter your production practice, it could flourish, but it might not be there at all. These test standards are the tools we currently have to assess milk safety, so that’s what we’re going to use.

Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Land Buying and House Building Advice: A Roundup of Reader Tips

Land Buying and House Building Advice: A Roundup of Reader Tips

Land Buying and House Building Advice: A Roundup of Reader Tips

By Jennifer Kongs | Mother Earth News

Land Buying and House Building Advice

Image credit: Jennifer Kongs (a hay bale abandoned in our woods by the previous owner.)

The Small Home, Big Decisions series follows Jennifer and her husband, Tyler, as they build a self-reliant homestead on a piece of country property in northeastern Kansas. The series will delve into questions that arise during their building process and the decisions they make along the way. The posts are a work in progress, written as their home-building adventure unfolds.

We shared the first several posts in this series on Facebook, and we received some good feedback that we just couldn’t keep to ourselves. Here’s a quick roundup, divided by post, of the advice the Mother Earth News Facebook fans had from their own experiences buying land and building a house.

1. Additional Advice and Feedback on We Bought Land, Now What?

Design!  Draw your property to scale and get your house spot down and design the bare bones of your yard, garden and farm. Plant little fruit, nut and shade trees now with a big ol’ stake by each one! By the time you finish your house, barn and fencing, etc, they will be getting big and substantial for a lot less than larger trees! Make the drawing big and make it nice, because you will edit and use that for a decade. I know this first hand! — Wendy Schroeder

We just bought 42 acres in Tennessee. Reach out to your local ag agent and soil-conservation agent. There are lots of government grants for first-time farmers. Also check with your ag agent about Master Beef Producer Programs, which will qualify you for free farm equipment. Also, read up on IRS regulations for gains/losses. And, good luck! — Margaret Brogden Petre

We built a metal home with heavily insulated 9-inch walls. I highly recommend metal homes and the extra insulation. We should be able to heat our home with just a woodstove. — Christine Stout

Pay attention to solar South, and locate your house and design/arrange it to use solar power if you decide to use it in the future. Metal roof for rainwater collection on every building. That will prevent having to lay pipes to those locations. — Christina Forrester Bredenkamp

I have friends who have a centuries-old familiar farm between Ottawa and Osawatomie. Talk to the old farmers. You’ll be glad you did! — Patricia Traynor

Joel Salatin’s You Can Farm is a really good place to start. I couldn’t recommend a better book. — Gilly Dixon-Spain

2. Additional Advice and Feedback on How to Finance Buying Land: Should We Go into Debt?

We bought 43 acres in Tennessee. We were able to get 75 percent financing. We will be applying for grants (many up to 90 percent) for fencing, cross fencing, and water for livestock. There is a lot of cost-share money available. Check with your local soil-conservation office and local ag agent. We had timber appraised today and it’s worth half of what we paid for the farm! — Margaret Brogden Petre

Pay as you go. I had to go small, but it was way worth it. No mortgage, no car payments, no worries. — Steve Cinelli

I believe in paying in cash for whatever you need to get. A mortgage can be a useful tool. We all have seen the land market fluctuate over the last 10 years. And the longer you wait, most likely the higher the prices are going to go. Find a good family-owned bank, preferably one that does not deal in government loan programs. Interest will be a bit higher but that’s the price you pay. Don’t let a dream slip away because you hate banks. Use them as means to an end. — Steven Brinkman

We got a small mortgage on a piece of land a couple of years ago, paid half cash. Then we sold our house that had a mortgage. With the equity we had, we built a house by ourselves on our land and now we owe so little on the land that we’ll probably have it paid off in a year. We got out of the system. And others can, too! But I will say, it’s hard work to build your own. We did everything from the foundation to the septic. The only thing we hired out was someone to drill the well. But now we’re free. And it feels good.  — Mary Johnson

3. Additional Advice and Feedback on How Do We Get an Entrance Permit for Our Driveway?

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Makeshift Grill Ideas: Cooking When the Grid Goes Down

Makeshift Grill Ideas: Cooking When the Grid Goes Down

Makeshift Grill Ideas: Cooking When the Grid Goes Down

By Pat Henry | The Prepper Journal

In my quest to think of creative (hopefully) ideas for articles on the Prepper Journal, I try to pull inspiration from a lot of places. Certainly my own efforts at prepping give me experiences that I can use to share information but I also read books, magazines, watch movies and TV shows and anytime I see something that I think would make an interesting or useful post idea, I write it down. There is a note page on my phone specifically geared toward post ideas I have had over the last almost two years now, and as I write on a topic I erase that from the list of ideas. Fortunately for me, the list is never empty but sometimes I will have a great idea, but not the words for an article. This post is a little different because it won’t be overly wordy but will hopefully share some ideas with you on makeshift grills that you can use to cook food if the grid goes down.

Makeshift Grill Ideas

I was inspired to write this post while watching my favorite TV show, the Walking Dead. My wife and I only watch one TV show and this one, while I know it doesn’t appeal to everyone, is great in my opinion. It isn’t that I believe that flesh eating zombies are in our future, but the writing is creative and the scenarios the characters face are exactly the same (minus the walking dead) as any apocalyptic vision you can imagine. Take out the zombies and imagine a world after an economic collapse or pandemic and you would have similar problems as the characters in this show I think. Regardless, I like the show and frequently get ideas from it. They have also been showing more actions the characters take this year as the characters go about surviving as best they can without many modern conveniences.

I got the idea to write about makeshift grills from a recent episode. All cooking that happens in the Walking Dead is usually done over an open flame. If we have TEOTWAWKI we will all need to be more resourceful. Even if the whole world isn’t thrown for a SHTF loop, natural disasters like the 2011 Fukushima Tsunami victims pictured above demonstrate the need to improvise from time to time. Below are a series of photographs that I found illustrating several creative methods for cooking without the benefit of a stove top range or what we all might be faced with at some point and find ourselves cooking when the grid goes down.

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
How to Finance Buying Land: Should We Go into Debt?

How to Finance Buying Land: Should We Go into Debt?

How to Finance Buying Land: Should We Go into Debt?

By Jennifer Kongs

The Small Home, Big Decisions series follows Jennifer and her husband, Tyler, as they build a self-reliant homestead on a piece of country property in northeastern Kansas. The series will delve into questions that arise during their building process and the decisions they make along the way. The posts are a work in progress, written as their home-building adventure unfolds.

How to Finance Buying LandNeither my husband nor I stand to inherit land. Nor have we won the lottery (at least not yet, although we haven’t tried very hard). We are not sitting on piles of money, and no one has dropped off bags of money on our front porch (but if you want to, please feel free.) We did, however, find a piece of land we love, and we did purchase it.

To have enough acreage to achieve our goals within the region we wanted to live in, we knew we would need financing. We got some help from family and we had some savings, but we needed bank financing to make that chunk of Kansas our very own. (We had a period of time where I tried to get Tyler to refer to us as “land baron and baroness,” but the sparkle wore off quickly after I saw how much the land baroness owed each month for the honor of her title.) The choice to take out a mortgage is not an easy one, and it’s not the right decision for everyone. If this is the path you are considering, here are some tips from our experience. (If you want to learn from folks who’ve gone the debt-free route instead, read our Debt-Free Home Reports  from real-life readers who’ve made it work without the bank.)

1. Not all banks will do loans for “raw” land. We had to call several banks until we found one that would even lend on undeveloped property. Farm credits or banks in smaller towns in mostly rural counties are a good place to start, as they are more likely to handle these types of investments.

2. Not all banks will lend on large pieces of land. Similar to the point above, you may need to do some searching to find a bank that will lend on more than 10 acres (a common lendable property-size limit we ran into). Sometimes, banks will want you to split the property to make two separate loans, a loan for land and a loan for building a house. It sounds complicated because it is. The reason this can happen is based on rules banks set as to what percentage of the total land value the house can be appraised for. So, in our case, in order to take out a 30-year mortgage on the house we will build, we’re refinancing to have the majority of the land paid back with the original 5-year land loan, and to have the house set up on 10 acres with a separate loan. Which leads us to our next point.

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Common Core Concerns Lead to Homeschool Increase

Common Core Concerns Lead to Homeschool Increase

Common Core Concerns Lead to Homeschool Increase

By | Breitbart

More parents are removing their children from traditional school environments and are choosing to homeschool them instead due to increased concern over the use of the Common Core standards.

The Heartlander reported earlier this month that in the state of North Carolina homeschooling increased by 14 percent during the last academic year as the controversial Common Core standards grew to be more of a concern for parents.

Homeschool Increase

Image credit: Peter Merholz via Flickr

Similarly, a new report at Fox News indicates that the number of students homeschooled in Virginia, California, and New York has increased.

“If you look at national, and even state polls, you can see that the more familiar people become with Common Core, the more they dislike it,” Bob Lubke, a senior policy analyst for the North Carolina-based Civitas Institute, said. “They feel like they are losing control of what their kids are learning.”

“More and more private traditional schools are choosing to align to the Standards,” Lynne Taylor, a North Carolina parent who has been homeschooling her children for over ten years, told the Heartlander. Taylor said concern about the Common Core standards is the primary reason for the recent increase in homeschooling.

“I have met people almost on a daily basis who are escaping Common Core Standards via home education because the traditional system is failing their families,” Taylor said. “My main concern is that they receive the proper guidance in remaining Common Core standard-free.”

“In North Carolina, Common Core is not only available to home education,” she added. “It is, most times, hidden in plain sight. If you’re not careful, the system you seek to escape can meet you all over again.”

As Breitbart News reported in September, homeschooling parents can receive guidance in avoiding curricula aligned with the Common Core standards. Homeschooling mom Tina Hollenbeck, for example, has compiled an online Home School Resource Roadmap to help parents choose the best curriculum for their children. The Roadmap distinguishes Common Core-aligned resources from those not aligned with the nationalized standards.

The numbers of homeschoolers have also risen in South Carolina, as reported in August by The State. According to the state’s Department of Education, nearly 16,000 students – about two percent of all South Carolina students – were homeschooled last year. The report noted that in Lexington County, homeschoolers outnumber privately schooled children.

“There are a lot more children being homeschooled than people realize,” James Quint, education coordinator at Historic Columbia, which offers monthly programs for groups of homeschoolers, told The State. “With the increased interest in alternative forms of education … I think there’s a lot more awareness and interest out there than there has been.”

Glyn Wright, executive director of the Eagle Forum, also told Fox News that the unpopularity of the Common Core standards is giving a boost to the numbers of homeschooled students:

The uptick in homeschooling has become a trend across the nation over the past couple of years, even in states like New York and California. Americans have rejected the Common Core initiative because they are tired of unaccountable federal bureaucracy, especially when it comes to their child’s education, and because they are seeing first-hand the poor quality and content of the standards that are meant to prepare children for the workforce instead of giving them a well-rounded, superior education.

“It’s not surprising that we are seeing a lot of this as of late,” William Estrada, director of federal relations for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), said. “When it comes to Common Core, we see a hastening by parents. For them, it’s the final straw after many concerns about the education of their children.”

“There’s been a battle for a long time, where parents feel that they do not have enough of a say when it comes to their child’s education,” he added.

Source

Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Suburban Permaculture Transforms Neighborhoods

Suburban Permaculture Transforms Neighborhoods

Suburban Permaculture Transforms Neighborhoods

By Jan Spencer

Half of all Americans live in suburbia. It’s true that suburbia is on the receiving end of a lot of social, economic and environmental criticism with much of that criticism well deserved. Suburbia requires a lot of resources to keep it going. Just about everyone has a car. Many homes are remarkably over sized. Suburbia is known as a place lacking in culture where people often don’t know their neighbors.

Suburban Permaculture

Urban Homestead Image credit: urbanhomestead.org

While some of these criticisms may be justified, at the same time, suburbia offers enormous potential to become a critical new frontier for deep changes in our culture and economy. “You don’t have to move to live in a better neighborhood.”

All over the country, a growing number of people are beginning to recognize the potentials of suburbia as a location for a way of life that is far more friendly to people and planet. Here in my neighborhood, two miles northwest of downtown Eugene, Oregon, we have a small preview of what suburbia can become. There are lots of good stories.

The purpose of this blog is to share practical experience for transforming suburbia. Food, energy, water, culture, economics, human scale technology, social uplift. This blog can also help bring people together who are starting out and others with years of experience, to share what they are learning for creating a very different kind of suburbia. This blog can help add to important conversations relating to the suburban frontier.

Fifteen years ago, I bought this modest 1,100-square-foot house. From the start, the plan was to make best use I could of the assets this quarter-acre provided. The grass is gone front and back. The 350-square-foot patio has become a closed in passive solar space that helps heat the house. There is edible landscaping all over. Automobile space has been reclaimed as the driveway was taken out and the one-car garage turned into a living space.

Surprising to some people, the Pacific Northwest is dry for months in the summertime so I installed a 6,500-gallon rainwater system for garden and landscape. The house has a solar water heater and heat pump, there are two water features landscaped with “urbanite” from my former driveway, and there are a greenhouse and cold frames.

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
7 Market Crops You Can Grow in a Greenhouse

7 Market Crops You Can Grow in a Greenhouse

7 Market Crops You Can Grow in a Greenhouse

By Jesse Frost

Your farm income doesn’t have to drop just because the temperature has. Use your greenhouse to grow products for sale all winter-long.

When cold weather sets in, most farmers close up their market booth for the season and pack it in. However, a farmer looking to continue earning income in the off-season can turn to a greenhouse as a season extender, offering produce to hungry customers year-round. But what crops are best for greenhouse production? And what is the winter customer looking for? These are things you’ll need to identify before starting your greenhouse operation. While it will take a little bit of market research on your part, here are our favorite greenhouse crops, as well as how to maximizing your yields and get them into the hands of eager customers—though if we’re being honest, bring a fresh carrot to market in February and it will market itself.

Grow in a Greenhouse

Image credit: Goldlocki (Own Work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

1. Cut and Head Lettuce
Lettuce is a relatively hardy vegetable, and a popular one no matter what time of year. Grow a few different lettuce varieties for mixes, as well as some colorful lettuce heads, to draw customers in.

Grow It: Sow seeds for leaf mixes thickly, preferably using a seeder, in tight rows 2 to 3 inches apart in 4-foot-wide beds. Cut leaves off one plant up to four times, tasting every time to make sure it hasn’t become too bitter. For head lettuce, sow or transplant seeds 10 to18 inches apart, depending on the variety. Succession-plant in early fall and late winter.

Market It: Mix cut lettuce in plastic bags or enclosed totes, and display out of wind and sun. Dunk head lettuce in clean, cold water before market, and display on table. Keep both cut and head lettuce well-misted and prominent on the table. Few foods draw people in like fresh lettuce, especially the darker, redder varieties.

2. Spinach
Spinach is a classic greenhouse crop. It must stay watered and the farmer must avoid extreme temperature shifts by monitoring the greenhouse, but spinach can be cut from several times in a season and provide a dependable off-season income.

Grow It: For full leaf spinach, sow seeds 1 to 2 inches apart, in rows 10 to 18 inches apart. For baby spinach, you can sow seeds in wider bands, in rows 6 to 10 inches apart. Succession-plant in early fall and late winter.

Market It: If growing full spinach leaves, harvest from the stem, wash and tie in large, attractive bunches. Bring a baby spinach harvest in a tote or in individual bags, or consider consider making salad mixes with your spinach and lettuce.

3. Other Leafy Greens
Leafy greens like kale, collards and Swiss chard are not only wildly popular but are a great fit for farmers wanting to extend the growing season. The flavor of some greens, like kale, even improves with a little cold. These crops are also ideal because unlike broccoli or cabbage, where you get one cut and that’s it, these greens can be picked off of all winter and provide months of income.

Grow It: Whether you sow seeds or use transplants, leave at least 8 to 10 inches between plants and about 24 inches between rows. Plant into fertile soil in early fall and late winter, and water regularly for best leaf production.

Market It: Tie or bag your greens in large, attractive bunches. Keep leaves misted and out of the wind to avoid wilting. Come to market with a full load—you’re sure to sell out!

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden
Biodynamic Gardening Takes Holistic Approach to the Soil

Biodynamic Gardening Takes Holistic Approach to the Soil

Biodynamic Gardening Takes Holistic Approach to the Soil

By Tom Oder

Want to enhance the health and vitality of your garden? Try gardening biodynamically. It will deepen your understanding of the life processes that happen in the garden and enhance the quality and flavor of the food you grow.

Many people are familiar with how organic gardening avoids using chemicals and focuses instead on more natural and ecological approaches to growing food. Biodynamic gardening takes that approach to the next level not just by changing what organic gardeners do in the garden but also by altering how they view the garden.

Biodynamic Gardening Takes Holistic Approach to the Soil

Image credit: Thea Maria Carlson

That view is one in which all of the many aspects that make up a garden — soil, plants and animals (both domestic and wild) — are seen and managed not as individual parts but as a single, integrated, self-sustaining whole. If that sounds like a holistic approach to digging in the dirt, it is. Welcome to biodynamic gardening.

Biodynamic gardening starts with building truly healthy soil through thoughtfully integrating both plants and animals in the garden and creating fertility by rotating crops, growing green manures such as vetch or clover, and carefully composting plant waste, kitchen scraps and farm animal manures (such as chicken or rabbit) with the help of medicinal herbal preparations.

“It’s not just about what chemicals you can’t use but what you can actively do to create a healthy garden whole that sustains itself,” said Thea Maria Carlson, director of programs for the Biodynamic Association in Milwaukee. “And it works on any scale, even in a small space.”

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Posted by Red Pill Reports in Home, Farm & Garden