Heirloom Seeds

I have read enough and tasted enough heirloom grown vegetables to know there is a huge difference in taste than those that are not. This year we've planted basic Roma tomato's along with cherry tomato's, but we also planted five heirloom varieties. I am anxious to see them and taste them...

I have been surrounded by farming my entire life. My family is from Nebraska, where we farmed hundreds of acres of wheat, milo and alfalfa. I remember as a young boy traveling back to Nebraska during the summers and my folks dropping me off at the homestead and saddling over to Estes Park, CO for time alone. My sister and I would stare at each other thinking; "As soon as I can, I am going to knock your block off" Sure enough, we did, then we settled in to farm-life. Up at 5am for and a snack and out to the Combine. In at 7:30am for breakfast. Back out for more harvesting, in for dinner at noon. Back out for harvesting and then in for supper at around 6:00pm. Hard living, but good living.

Once on the west coast we settled in Salinas and I worked in the fields for many, many summers moving sprinkler pipe in the fields. Lettuce, onion, cauliflower, sugar beets, broccoli... we grew many of the staples for large produce houses. Foxy Lettuce, Bunny, T&A... Antle... Getting dirty, planting seeds, watering the fields and harvesting has been apart me longer than I have been on this earth.

So, to grow food in your backyard is smart, honorable, healthy and, well.... just good for you. Plus it doesn't get any better. So, I want to grow food that when planted - on my table, people not only notice the difference they want it for themselves and go off and become gardeners themselves.

Which brings me back to heirloom seeds. Find them, plant them and enjoy them. Here are some links to various seeds companies...

www.surviveandthrivesupply.com

www.heirloomseeds.com

rareseeds.com

I would push you to the last one... if I was shoved up against a wall and told to eat a tomato from Safeway.

Omnivore's Dilemma

A friend of mine - we'll call him "Joe"... recommended a book. While I will avoid appearing like the Oprah's Book Club although you can call me the "Chicken Whisper"..., I think this could be a good recommendation. I have also read a few reviews and this seems to be right up our ally... Here is a quick review written by Beverly Crumpacker (I hate chuckling over some one's name - but Crumpacker slays me - what is the derivation of this name? Crumpacker? Was it Crumbpacker? Did it have to do with some one's job in Elizabethan England?) I digress...
"We've lost touch with the natural loops of farming, in which livestock and crops are connected in mutually beneficial circles. Pollan discusses the alternatives to industrial farming, but these two long (and occasionally self-indulgent) sections lack the focus and intensity -- the anger beneath the surface -- of the first. He spends a week at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley, a farm that works with nature, rather than despite it. Salatin calls himself a grass farmer, though his farm produces cows, chickens, eggs and corn. But everything begins with the grass: The cows nibble at it at the precise moment when it's at its sweetest and are moved from pasture to pasture to keep the grass at its best height. Their droppings fertilize the grass, and the cycle is under way. There's a kind of lyrical symmetry to everything that happens on this farm. Even the final slaughtering of chickens is done quickly and humanely, in the open air. It isn't pleasant, but compared to the way cattle are fattened and slaughtered in meat industry feedlots and slaughterhouses, it is remarkably reasonable."

Inaugural Urban Suburban Farmer Post

This blog is dedicated to getting off the grid... we will discuss and banter about, gardening, wells, small hobby farms, solar, wind-energy, foraging in the yard for food... you name it, we'll talk about it.

I don't know who's home this is and don't care... But WHAT AN AWESOME IDEA! Forget your lawn and grow food!