BACK TO EDEN

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

I am thrilled that the Back to Eden gardening is working for IS. We’re six years into it for more than gardening- we use it to build pasture as well- and we’ve had astonishing results.

Yesterday a chef from the city came up to talk with me about his new restaurant that will be opening this Summer. He brought his wife and 4 daughters and I gave them the tour to show how we raise our animals, discussed the history of the place, what we’re doing, his desire to get the best possible fresh/local/seasonal ingredients for his restaurant, etc. They were intrigued by the Back to Eden concept because we literally farm new soil- black, rich, moist and yes, filled with worms and countless unseen decomposers simply by adding layers of wood chips/carbonaceous wastes. I showed the girls how to find worms by flipping over a cow patty at just the right stage of decomposition (they thought it was disgusting at first, turned into a competition before the end) and then our 7 year old took them on his own tour which included fishing in the trout pond with the worms- they got 2 beautiful brookies to take home, big smiles, nice visit all around.

All I need to get people interested in looking at what we do as admirable or desirable is to take a walk with them and talk about food. It’s something we all have in common, anyone with children has a predisposition to want to see them happy and people have an innate connection to the land that they may sublimate if they live in the city, but they never get away from.

By the time they got in the car they wanted to move out of the city and raise their own food. Now I’m not saying they will, but they had changed the way they were thinking from that single visit. My wife spoke with the chef’s wife under the big maples out front and afterward she shared with me the concerns she had about raising her children in the city (it’s a small city by US standards) and the tensions she felt there lately. Her big concern was what her children were being exposed to and she could see our kids, running around comfortably with cattle, being able to fish for fun whenever they feel like it, and doing all these things without having to be hovered over. This wasn’t my wife’s idea of how we’d wind up living, but she has come to love it as much as I do for her own reasons and together we are able to raise up our children to be independent, self assured, and to experience what liberty means in practical terms rather than ideologically. I don’t think that there is much more a family can do in this world to make things right than that.


22
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
flash
flash

HSF, don’t encourage city folk to move to the country because they always bring their city bred regulatory sickness with them….and they will inevitably take over the local political system and completely destroy the freedom of commerce which made the rural areas so appealing in the first place.

Instead of enjoying the community as traditional working class ,they will demand prosperity and growth under the auspices of Village Plans and Smart Growth and before you know it , the community will be transformed from rural working to one made up of retired mid managers and petty bureaucrats whose entire lives revolve around forcing others into compliance with their “city sophisticated ” views of how the rural people should build ,trade and work , none of which allow for variance outside the new zoning plans.

I’ve seen it happen, over and over again….do yourself a favor and discourage the the city folk from relocating to your little paradise …they were bred in the city and that’s all they know…you’ll see.

Montefrio

HSF: “[W]e are able to raise up our children to be independent, self assured, and to experience what liberty means in practical terms rather than ideologically. I don’t think that there is much more a family can do in this world to make things right than that.”

That about says it for me too, sir. Bravo!

Mr. F: “they were bred in the city and that’s all they know…you’ll see.”

I was bred in the city and moved to a tiny village in a rural paradise and engage in none of the activities you describe, save for the zoning issue: some other city folk were attempting to sub rosa create zoning that would drive the locally-born out of the choicer areas; I took some of my city-bred knowledge and applied it so that the locals became aware of what was planned for them. Result? The recommendations of the highly paid (by a “donor”) outside urban planner were rejected. Not all city-bred folk are interested in living in a micro-managed environment; those who dislike it are usually the first to arrive in the rural zone and the first to assimilate into its community because they share many of its values.

I wouldn’t put an ad in the New Yorker encouraging city-bred folk to move to the country, but if you’ve lived in the country a while and encounter a city person who claims to find it attractive, you’ve likely learned how to tell cow flop when you encounter it. Rural areas CAN benefit from new blood.

Stackingstock
Stackingstock

HSF,

After 5 years of reading about BTE style gardening, I finally did one this year. The benefits are incredible to say the least. I’m not in your league with gardening but I am trying. I have a bunch of pictures and details over at Twoicefloes.com in the members forum area. No membership required for my forums.

http://twoicefloes.com/forums/topic/the-2015-backyard-garden/ I also do other types of gardening as well.

HSF Keep the articles coming, I really enjoy you’re experiences.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Montefrío says: I was bred in the city and moved to a tiny village in a rural paradise and engage in none of the activities you describe,

Then you not “all” city bred people , then are you? The evidence speaks for itself.

DC Sunsets

“Practical liberty vs ideological.” Truly an excellent observation.

Live the life you envision instead of trying to change everyone else. I can think of no better way to pursue the adventure that is life. I wish I’d have grasped this a long, long time ago.

Now that I’m once again unemployed, who knows? Maybe there’s hope for me yet.

Montefrio

@Anon: “Then you not “all” city bred people , then are you? The evidence speaks for itself.”

Would someone other than “Anon” please explain to me what the above sentences are meant to convey.

IndenturedServant

For the full Back to Eden film go here and scroll down:
http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/
For all of you devout Christians, you should really enjoy the film.

The guy pretty much covers everything in the film but there are a couple of people who visit his farm and interview him on a regular basis where they ask dozens of questions put forth by other viewers. Like I said elsewhere and HSF can attest to, this method eliminates tilling, eliminates or drastically reduces watering needs, eliminates crop rotation, minimizes pests and weeds, feeds the soil and all the other soil critters from worms to no-see-ums, recycles what would otherwise be a waste product and returns all manner of rare Earth minerals like boron, molybdenum, cobalt and a hundred others that have been tied up in long lived trees.

I’ll be harvesting my first crop (garlic) using this method shortly. Judging from the look of the plants alone it should be my best harvest ever.

Billy has talked about restoring his fields/pastures and I doubt he could ever find a better method than this.

I’d love to try this out in someplace really dry like AZ, TX or CA just to see how well it retains moisture in that heat. I can almost guarantee that Stucky could grow a fig tree in NJ using this method.

For the record this method is not new but using wood chips might be a relatively recent incarnation of what has been known for centuries as layered gardening. It’s also know as lasagna gardening. Look up a video of Ruth Stout on youtube. She was quite a woman and liked to garden naked.

My thanks to HSF for originally pointing this film out on TBP.

Billy
Billy

Yeah, not ALL city types are micromanaging assholes…

But I’ve seen enough to know that I don’t want them here.

They create socialist hellholes wherever they currently live, then bail out when it directly affects them. They move out to the boonies and then say “What do you mean there’s no garbage pickup? What do you mean I have to drive my kid to Public School myself?

Hey asshole? YOU moved HERE, not the other way around. Next thing you know, there’s new taxes for shit you never asked for and can’t opt out of. Repeal a tax? BAHH-HAHAHAHAH!!!

Today, I found out that I can’t have Terminex (who treats our place for termites) spray a certain mulberry tree for bag worms (the nastiest, most destructive bug I’ve seen in awhile) because the Dept of Ag for Kentucky hath forbidden them from doing so because they’re “not a lawn service”. And if I got a “lawn service”? Still nope. Seems if the plant even stands a chance of flowering, then the spray might kill a ‘pollenator’ at some point in the future…

BUT! If I just decided to take a fucking AXE to the tree and cut it down for good, ridding us of the hated bag worms forever, the Ag office has exactly nothing to say about that…

Can’t spray! Might hurt some bug down the road (because DERP! Spraying is SUPPOSED to hurt bugs!). But chop the motherfucker down and kill it forever? Oh sure, go right ahead…

I wonder where THAT particular bit of statist bullshit came from? Hmmmmm…. .

Stucky

“Seems if the plant even stands a chance of flowering, then the spray might kill a ‘pollenator’ at some point in the future” —————– Billy

“pollenator? First of all, it’s spelled pollinator.

Second, that is a GREAT law!! I didn’t know you were such a Monsanto supporter … killing off shit with POISON! That’s pure eeeevil. The world is poisoned enough without the likes of you adding to it. Sure, Mr. Poison Killer …. kill off the bees … make fun of it, even, …. and pretty soon NONE of your shit will produce fruit. Is THAT what you want???

For fuksake, take the time to learn some other methods. Introduce a natural enemy of the bag worms. Or … you’re from Kentucky … find a preacher to “pray away” that worm from hell. Let Jesus work for you. Or, invite your cousins over and make worm soup. It goes well with possum burger. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Really. Take care of your little corner of God’s Kingdom. Stop polluting it!

Billy
Billy

“pollenator? First of all, it’s spelled pollinator. – Stuck

I misspell ONE WORD in the entire time I’ve been here, and you jump on it… as if getting one vowel wrong discounts the entirety of my post… petty much?

Yeah.. okay Grammar Hitler.

comment image

comment image

comment image

Dude, you know me.

You think I’m ABOVE using chemical warfare to exterminate the little bastards? Last year, they damn near wiped out ALL of our fruit trees… and this spring, we’ve discovered that 75% of our walnut trees were killed by Ambrosia Beetles…

We just spent the weekend replacing the dead trees from last year, but we had to wait around an extra week or so to see if the walnut trees were gonna take off, since they’re always the last to green up…

Nope. They’re dead.

And YOU don’t want me to spray for bugs… cause BEEZ and shit…

Yep… I’m just a heartless Monsanto employee who wants to wipe out all life on earth, poison the waters, club baby seals with a regulation softball bat, kill all the whales, etc…

Just because I don’t want some fucking worms – that NOTHING bothers to eat because they’re so nasty – destroying my orchard…

These fuckers are vile… you have no idea about that which you speak.

comment image

Billy
Billy

IS,

I got nothing against using other means to eliminate the pests around here – like the aforementioned bag worms (and Stucky… that is, if it’s really Stuck-o and not a doppel)…

It’s just that I have no alternative at the moment.

I’ll check out other methods of pest control, but having almost all of our hard work wiped out by those nasty, vile things almost drove me to cutting that mulberry tree down… and I LIKE mulberries… they’re good in ice cream.

If I can find a way to keep them away without having to spray – because the annoyance of having to spray outweighs my pleasure at wiping the little bastards out – I’ll give it a shot…

IndenturedServant

Billy, I don’t have any method for dealing with most pests. My understanding is that many but not all of our pest problems are due to stressed or unhealthy plants. There are occasional plagues of pests to damage or kill even the most healthy plants but a a healthy specimen should be able to resist or repel most pests.

Two things that might help your situation are to watch the back to eden film and second, read up on adding stone dust to your soil. I believe I came across a reference to stone dust actually saving the American Chestnut in some cases.

I’ve done a ton of reading about healthy soils since learning about the back to eden method and there is an enormous amount we do not know or understand about soil nutrients and the symbiotic relationship between soil, soil “critters” and plants that grow in them. There may be dozens of elements that plants themselves do not need but the critters in the soil need those elements in order to process soil constituents that end up being good for the plants. For instance, some soil critters help to fix nitrogen in the soil in a manner that makes it readily available to the plants. For all we know some soil critter may need boron to manufacture some other substance that allows you walnut trees to build up resistance to the bag worms you have.

Soil in this country has been over utilized and abused for decades and all we ever do is replace the NPK via fertilizers but that does nothing to replace all the rare Earth elements. Tilling the soil actually destroys the soil ecosystem. Rebuilding that ecosystem seems to solve many problems that gardeners and farmers have.

The guy in the film has his own orchard planted in an ocean of wood chips and he gets amazing results.

Stucky

You’ve made many spelling mistakes. I let them slide, out of pity. But, no more. You misspell … I fuck you up!!

Those worms could be humans that once lived on earth … or, they could become humans once again. Ask Homer about that shit, he knows.

Anyway, Gandhi wouldn’t even kill a mosquito. He knew that ALL life has value. You need to stop playing God and killing everything you don’t like. Live and let live. You wouldn’t want some vastly superior being (like, me) killing you just because they could. What makes you so special, snowflake?

Boo hoo, my walnut trees died!! You want walnuts? Do like the rest of us … go to a fuckin’ store and buy them.

IndenturedServant

Of course if those pests are a non-native, invasive species, pesticides may be your only remedy since native plants have never developed a natural defense.

IndenturedServant

Stucky is in fine form today!

Stucky

Yes, I’m on a roll, Wyatt!

And all that pussy, Billy, can muster is one measly thumbs down. That little worm is hiding in his cocoon.

Bea Lever
Bea Lever

Pure neem oil may be the answer for pests in the garden…..organic and kills something like 50 different critters. Anyone here ever use this?

madmax1861
madmax1861
IndenturedServant

I’ve never used neem oil but I have found that cheap dish soap diluted with water in a windex sprayer kills all kinds of bugs. It seems that most insects breathe through their skin and if you spray them good they suffocate pretty quickly. I use pure castile liquid soap and it kills aphids, wasps, hornets, every kind of fly I can hit, mosquitos etc. Doesn’t hurt the plants at all.

The guy in the back to eden film reckons that most pest insects drown when they attack his plants because when they bite into a plant grown his way a large volume of water exits the bite location. I’m not so sure about that but it seems plausible.

Boric acid and diatomaceous earth kills hard body insects like ants pretty well. I like the boric acid myself. Mix it with some sugar water and dip cotton balls in it and let the ants nibble on them. The boric acid and DE is so sharp and abrasive that it cuts their exoskeletons open and the little guys die of dehydration. The bonus is that they head back to the hive first where they get groomed before death which spreads the boric acid around doing even more damage.

Strips of copper work great for controlling slugs and snails. You can buy copper “tape” and run a ring around vulnerable plants. It seems that it reacts with the salts in their bodies and causes them an electric shock which they don’t like. The boric acid and DE work great on slugs as well but if you water or it rains you have to re-apply. DE works better than boric acid on slugs because particle size is bigger. The BEST thing for slugs by far are a couple of ducks. Ducks will hunt the little bastards down and turn them into eggs for you.

Stucky

Billy & I_S

Murderers!!!!!!

comment image

IndenturedServant

I like bugs same as I like feral, inner shitty yutes………..as long as they’re bothering someone else, I like ’em just fine!

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer

Glad to see this up, it was just a comment in passing-

Diatomaceous earth works for beetles, copper is also effective. Best bet is to control, by hand at the earliest stages. If you get a crop specific invasive (Colorado potato bugs are the worst type of offender) then let the affected area go fallow for a few years to starve the line. Plant potatoes elsewhere.

Back to Eden simply mimics the much longer timeline of loam creation in forests. Branches and twigs and leaves and other carbon bearing matter falls, moistens, decays and becomes nutrient dense soil. Taking those same ingredients and packing them into a shorter time frame doesn’t alter the normal course of natural decomposition, it just adds volume. The benefits are so stacked- erosion control and water retention, elimination of targeted vegetation (weed suppression), huge build up of bacteria colonies to speed decomposition, lighter soil to eliminate compaction, an explosion of mycorrhrizae at the rizosphere allowing for maximum nutrient and mineral uptake in plants during the growth phase. It allows for the kind of fluffiness in soil that worms love, you’ll notice dung beetles after a year or two- one of the hardest workers in show business- and your gardens will look so well tended you’d probably get an invitation to live in Colonial Williamsburg if anyone saw them.

I understand that if enough people from urban areas get into rural ones they will attempt to change the character of that region, that’s why Agricultural Commissions are essential to help establish the rules around protecting and promoting farming and other rural type activities. It’s still possible to be involved on the local level without having to get into politics.

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading