What Food Should I Grow? Ask an Astronaut
Take off your shoes and slip your toes on into the info-chop-suey of this latest permablitz newsletter. We’ve got gardening advice from outer space, we’ve got mercenary microbes, we’ve got organics — macho style, we celebrate 2008, International Year of the Potato, we’ve got a major report on Victoria’s food security, we bring you opportunities to be an urban share farmer, and wise words from the Archdruid of the United States of America. It’s nothing if not eclectic. Plus some exciting new format upcoming courses, and lots of upcoming blitzes. But first, words from the one who dances with oak trees…
“A thousand, or two thousand, or ten thousand years from now, when people look back through the mists of time to the 20th century and talk about its achievements, the top of the list won’t be moon landings, computers, or the double helix, much less the political and cultural ephemera that occupy so much attention just now. If I’m right, it will be something much humbler – and much more important…”
Just what does John Michael refer to? The science and innovations of 20th century organic agriculture. Help us move it into the new millenium at any one of these upcoming permablitzes…
~~~ Upcoming Blitzes ~~~
This Sunday, two for the price of none:
Noble Park’s Noble Blitz (#55 by a whisker) November 9, 1008 9:45am
All are welcome to come and enjoy some African cuisine as we help a mum with 5 hungry children (aged 5-16) settle into their new home. It’s a big yard so there’s room for plenty of volunteers. You’re encouraged to (but not required to) bring along something to share – perhaps some food, some seedlings, some seeds, some worm juice or worm castings, some musical talent, etc. More…
“Meet You All The Way” Blitz: Rosanna (#56) November 9, 2008 10am
Come and help Philip, Cathy and their baby daughter, Acacia get permablitzed! This blitz will be a great example to those of you wanting to create a permaculture garden whilst being constrained by a relatively small parcel of land. We’ve got raised beds to build, fruit trees to relocate, pots to prepare, and even a sculpture to paint! The house is a 10 minute walk from Rosanna station. More..
Kinglake Blitz (#57) November 22, 2008 10am
Come visit the beautiful Kinglake and help start a community garden. Details coming soon
Noble Park Blitz (#58) November 23, 2008 10am
Please come along to help Mamta and Gopal, and their children Nishtha and Leisha, turn their hot backyard into a fruit and vege producing haven. Delicious Indian food will be available as you help to add shade creating fruit trees and child friendly vege and herb beds. More…
~~~ Upcoming Courses ~~~
Home Food Growing For Beginners (Free 2hr seminar) Fitzroy, November 13, 2008 06:45pm
Paul, Adam and Nathan from Permablitz are inviting all to this free 2-hour seminar on how and why to successfully grow your own veges and fruit. More… We’re going to run several short courses on topics such as chooks, compost, water wise gardening over the next couple of months so stay tuned, or come on the night to find out more.
Check out the permablitz calendar for more courses…
~~~ 1000 Newsletter Subscribers ~~~
Congratulations to our 1000th Permablitz Newsletter subscriber Ms Marcella Brassett from Prahran. Marcella receives a $10 discount of our next Intro to Permaculture Course.
~~~ The Age: Call for action as state food security at risk ~~~
“Victoria is at risk of being unable to feed itself if the current drought continues and governments fail to safeguard the state’s food chain, a leading group of land managers and conservationists has warned.” Full article…
Read the full 185 page report
~~~ Potato 2008 ~~~
Amazingly, it’s November and I only just acquainted myself with the acronym IYP. We almost let the International Year of the Potato slip us by. 2008:IYP aims to “raise global awareness of the potato’s key role in agriculture, the economy and world food security”. At the recent Gardening Australia expo, Peter Cundall’s closing remarks as he withdraws himself from public life were to the effect that everyone should learn to grow potatoes: ‘we’re going to need to’. IYP have an inspiring 2 minute video on the wonder and importance of potatoes:
http://www.potato2008.org/en/
~~~ Reason to Grow Your Own Veges #78: Be Beefcake ~~~
It almost goes without saying that people that grow their own food are smarter, healthier and better looking. Our innovative Passive Qualitative Polling (PQP) techniques confirm it. (PQP techniques mostly involves waiting for someone to say something and remembering the bits which suit your argument). But what about more beefcake? Paul Chek is a bodybuilding motivational speaker, health advisor and a consultant to the US Airforce Academy and the Chicago Bulls. He has lots of photos of himself shirtless on his website. 100% Man. In the following 16-part quite lucid YouTube lecture delivered to fellow bodybuilders he slams nutritional supplements and talks instead of the need instead to “close organic cycles” and build nutrition from the soil up, for optimum beefcake health. He actually know his stuff too. Watch ‘The Dirt Facts’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
~~~ Share Cropper Wanted ~~~
Alastair, host of permablitz #46 in Preston is looking for help in the garden for a share of the produce after lineup changes in the house. Contact Alastair <[email protected]>
~~~ When under attack, plants can signal microbial friends for help ~~~
More: http://www.physorg.com/
~~~ The lettuce from outer space ~~~
What are the best foods to grow at home? It turns out that researchers from the University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center looking at what hypothetical moon base colonists might grow have come to pretty much the same conclusion we have: fresh vegies. When you grow perishable foods like lettuce, tomatoes, capsicums, you both benefit your tastebuds and your health with naturally ripened food packed full of living enzymes. You might conceivably, in their imagined outerspace grocery trade, move storable foods like grains and beans around in the space-lorries, but imagine flying lettuces to the moon. Their space and refrigeration requirements would mean that the environmental costs would be astronomical, and their perishability would result in a saggy nutritionless end product. The same holds true here on Earth too. For these ecological reasons too the best thing to grow at home are fresh vegies.
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That’s it for another newsletter, hope to see you soon at a blitz or a course!
Adam @ Permablitz Decentral
