Timeless Books – Before Agro-Chemicals, Farming WAS Organic

We’ve pulled five books from the GoodFood World library, spanning a critical period in American agriculture – the late 1880s through the early 1940s. Before the development of “agro-chemicals” as an off-shoot of chemicals used in both World Wars, farming methods were naturally “organic.” These books, while considered somewhat dated today, are our grandfathers and great-grandfathers teaching us how to care for the land and animals.

The Fat of the Land – The Story of an American Farm by John Williams Streeter

The wealth of the world comes from the land, which produces all the direct and immediate essentials for the preservation of life and the protection of the race. The farmer, who produces all the necessities and many of the luxuries, and whose products are in constant demand and never out of vogue, should be independent in mode of life and prosperous in his fortunes.

Voices From the Farm – A Beautiful Spring; A Celebrated Bottle Lamb; People, People, Everywhere; A Wish Comes True

At last, a beautiful spring, the ewes and lambs were out on pasture, and life was good once more! The kids were counting the days until school would be out, and so was I, as it would mean I would not have to attend to two ponies and a horse every morning, along with my other chores. We had lovely pastures, and it was a temptation to just turn everything loose in them! Unfortunately, our ponies were prone to founder, and our sheep to bloat.

The Global Village Construction Kit

Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch.

And that’s only the first step in a project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village (starting cost: $10,000). Call it a “civilization starter kit.”

Browsing the Bargain Bin

I’m living on a budget… I just don’t have one. Somehow, it works. I guess I would say that the trick to living on a budget is not allowing yourself to get obsessed with the idea of something. There’s no guarantee that you’ll find said something on a discount rack or sale section. If you can’t be flexible, you’ll end up paying full price. Bargain Bin Rhubarb

But if you peruse the sales regularly, you’re bound to find something that you want or need.

Voices From the Farm – Parting with Bob, and a Long and Harrowing Lambing Season

The year did not start off well, we were going to have to find a new home for Bob, the Old English Sheep Dog. My attempts to mollify his aggressive behavior toward the sheep were a total failure. The defining moment came when he broke his heavy chain, and was chasing ewes through deep snow drifts in late January. This was just unacceptable, the ewes were due to start lambing in late February. One of them, “BoPeep,” died as a result. Bob had to go!