"Grow a Sustainable Diet" a book review

Grow a Sustainable Diet 

planning and growing to feed

ourselves and the earth

by 

Cindy Conner

Over the winter I have read numerous books that have inspired me to become better at growing most of our own food, and to work harder towards doing this as a career.

"Before we feed others, however, we need to know how to feed ourselves." ~ Cindy Conner

"Grow a Sustainable Diet, planning and growing to feed ourselves and the earth", is probably one of the most comprehensive book I have read to date about growing your own food and doing it sustainably. I've learned several new techniques for growing as well as planning the gardens, an area I seem to have the most difficult perfecting.

The author, Cindy Conner, covers every aspect of growing from planning the gardens, choosing crops for nutrition, calculating how much to grow, companion planting and seeds. She uses the bio-intensive method of gardening, something I have talked about several times, and replenishes the soil with use of cover crops and compost. She discusses mapping out our garden so you know how much growing area you have and with the use of her worksheets you can easily:

plan How much to Grow
calculate Plant / Harvest Times
create a Plant / Harvest Schedule
track your Seed Inventory
and
calculate Seeds and Plants Needed

The worksheets are extremely useful, especially in the School Garden, because I have to figure out when to start seeds so the plants are ready for our fundraisers. I also need to create a plant/harvest schedule so we can get the most yield from our garden. (Over the weekend we added 11 new beds and increased our growing area to over 1200 square feet!) I have already begun using the worksheets to plan the garden, and the children will be using the information to calculate our estimated yield and will then compare it to our actual yield.

There are also chapters on companion planting and crop rotation, two subjects I have been trying to learn more about. There are resources listed in each chapter where you can find additional information on each topic.

This book is an excellent resources, one I highly recommend if you are interested in learning about sustainably growing your own food. I have begun using the worksheets this year and we started implementing many of the techniques found in the book in both our home garden and the school garden. The worksheets have become teaching tools we can use with the children, not only to grow more sustainably, but to also incorporate other lessons like art and math into the school garden, and to help foster a deeper appreciation of nature.

"Grow a Sustainable Diet" has already become one of my most valuable resources!

~Rob~

Morning Glory seedling in soil block.

Farmacology Book Review ...

Farmacology by Daphne Miller, MD



I just finished reading Farmacology, by Daphne Miller, MD,

one of the books on my reading list for this summer.

Farmacology is about the connection we have with the soil our food is grown in and how the nutritional content of what we eat has a direct impact on our health. It's a very interesting book and surprisingly is written by an MD who takes a natural preventative approach to health care.

The author, after reading "The Unsettling of America" by Wendell Berry, and " The Soul of Soil" by Grace Gershuny and Joe Smillie, decided to visit family farms to research the connection between farming, food and our health. She realized that all the vitamins and minerals that are the building blocks of our bodies are derived from the soil. The plants, as they grow, draw these nutrients from the soil and pass them onto us through the food we eat. We, in essence, are not just nourished by the soil, we are the soil.

After visiting several sustainable family farms and talking to scientists and researchers, the author realized that the natural way biodynamic and organic farmers "treat" the soil to make it healthy is the same way she treats her patients to make them healthy. Successful sustainable farmers rely on examples from nature to create a self-supporting eco-cycle using only natural elements. When chemicals or unnatural elements are introduced, the cycle becomes off and issues arise, just like in humans.

Conventional farming practices deplete soil of nutrients and produces nutrient deficient food, which is one of the reasons there are so many health issues today. The food grown today is much different than the food grown 100 years ago in respect to nutritional value. Organic farming methods are better than conventional, but still deplete the soil unless the farmer uses sustainable growing practices. Studies have shown that Biodynamic and sustainable farming builds and replenishes soil and produces more nutritionally dense food.

Farming needs to be more than just a business that grows food, it needs to be self contained ecosystem run by farmers who understand the connection between soil and nutrition. These were the principles of Rudolph Steiner and Biodynamic Farming. While I agree with most of the concepts of biodynamic farming, that everything in nature is connected, and that plants are affected by the cycles of the moon, I don't really understand the spraying of silica or burying  cow horns filled with manure. That's not to say that I don't believe this works, I just don't know enough about it to understand it. I do believe in a natural farming, growing in harmony with nature. As the author writes, a farm is not just a collection of parts but a complete (and sometimes unwieldy) living system. Biodynamic farming has no need for outside additives of inputs like fertilizers and pesticides and is the definition of sustainable. It is a self supporting eco-cycle or self powered organism.

She also discussed the benefits of farming or gardening. Growing your own food connects you with nature, makes you more aware of healthy eating, lowers blood sugar and body mass, increased exercise capacity and lessens depressive symptoms. Studies have shown that people who garden are more likely to eat the recommended amount of vegetables each day over non-gardeners. Gardening is also a way to socialize and build community, something that is important for your mental health.

This book really reaffirms my beliefs that what we put into put into our bodies has a direct impact on our health. To maintain a healthy lifestyle you need to be aware of what you are eating. Consuming more vegetables isn't enough, you need to be aware of how your food was grown and what the nutritional value is. Food grown sustainable has far more nutritional value than food from a factory farm. You may pay more for it, but in reality you are getting more.

So the next time you reach for some "food like" substance when you're hungry remember, you are what you eat. What you up into your body will have a direct impact on your health!

I highly recommend reading this book. It will really open your eyes to the connections between sustainable farming, nutritious food and your health.

~Rob~

Book Review - Seed by Seed

Seed by Seed, The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman

Normally I would review a farming or gardening book, but seeing that my wife is an elementary school  librarian and we are trying to get a school community garden started at the elementary school where she works,  I though it was appropriate to review a children's book.

Seed by Seed is about the legend and legacy of Johnny Appleseed. 

 They say the stories of Johnny Appleseed are part legend and part fact, but he was real. His real name was John Chapman and he was born September 26, 1774 in Massachusetts. He was a farmer who grew apples and offered them to pioneers heading west. He planted apple seeds every day and changed the landscape of our nation. He traveled by foot or canoe and planted apple trees in over a hundred thousand square miles across the Ohio Valley.

John Chapman was a simple man who lived by example. 

The examples he "planted" are:

Use what you have,

Share what you have,

Respect nature,

Try to make peace where there is war,

 and You can reach your destination by taking small steps.

This book gives details about how he lived each of these examples everyday until his death in 1845.

This is a great book to have in your personal library, especially if you have younger children. It would also make a nice Christmas gift and is a fantastic way to teach children about the important lessons he lived by, and possibly get them interested in gardening!

John "Appleseed" Chapman grew so many apples that chances are any apple you eat today is from a descendant of a tree planted by him!

November's Book Review

The Sustainable Vegetable Garden

A Backyard Guide to

Healthy Soil and Higher Yields

by John Jeavons and Carol Cox

Now that the gardens have pretty much finished producing, except for the winter beds in the cold-frames, it's time to sit down and make my winter reading list. Throughout the year I pick up farming and organic gardening books that I find in Acres USA, NOFA or other resources that look interesting. This winter I have a particularly big stack of books to get through with some interesting titles like "Eco-Farm, an Acres USA Primer", "Foundations of Natural Farming", "The Organic Farming Manual" and "The Soul of Soil" just to name a few. Winter, for me, is a time to learn new techniques and plan the gardens for next year.

This months book review is "The Sustainable Vegetable Garden, a Backyard Guide to Healthy Soil and Higher Yields" by John Jeavons and Carol Cox. Throughout most of my posts on planting I talk about using the Biointensive Method for growing. Biointensive Gardening Technology is a sustainable farming method that is actually thousands of years old. This book is a condensed version of "How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine". It is geared towards people trying these methods for the very first time, as well as the seasoned gardener looking for more streamlined information on these methods.

The Biointensive Growing Method focuses on the soil. By creating a living, healthy soil the gardener will be able to grow health-giving food. This method starts with deeply prepared garden beds whose growing area, with it's closely spaced plants, can produce up to four times more than on equivalent shallow beds planted in rows. I have used this method of growing for several years now and have had some astounding results. It takes time to build a healthy soil and after a few years I am really starting to see the results. The biggest difference I have noticed is the root systems on my plants. When I first started growing I used to get a shallow root system, now I get a deep root system with the main plant roots extending deep down into the soil with a large web of roots around it. I have healthier plants with less weeding, less watering and less pest problems.

The Sustainable Vegetable Garden walks you through all the steps to grow Biointensively. Some of the chapters include:
Thinking about Raising Food Sustainably
Before You Start
What Do You Want to Eat? Choosing What to Grow
Preparing a Biointensive Bed: Double-Digging
What to Feed a Biointensive Bed: Compost
Seedlings
Planning and Planting Crops
Growing Compost Crops
Growing More Calories
Arranging What Goes into a Bed: Companion Planting
keeping the Garden Healthy
and
Seeds for Next Year's Garden

This book is an excellent primer for getting started using the Biointensive Growing Methods and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in growing using more natural methods. As you learn the processes and want more detailed charts and information including when to start certain crops and all the planting and spacing information for just about every crop then I would also recommend getting How to Grow More Vegetables. I have both of these books and use them each year when I am planning and planting the gardens.

Shared at:

The Backyard Farming Connection
Down Home Blog Hop

September Book Review

I just finished reading another great book called "The Heirloom Life Gardener" by Jere & Emilee Gettle. It's a book about a man's passion for saving  heirloom, open pollinated seeds which turned into a mission to preserve as many varieties of heirloom seeds as possible. The author, Jerre Gettle, is co-founder of The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company where they sell over 1400 varieties of heirloom seeds. He also owns two other retail operations, The Petaluma Seed Bank in Petaluma California and Comstock, Ferre & Co. in Wethersfield, Connecticut.
In the book, Jere talks about how his passion for farming started at an early age, planting his first seeds at age 3. When he was 17 he started his first mail order seed company from his bedroom in Missouri, which quickly turned into a very successful business. He talks about his travels to Mexico, Thailand and other countries in search of new heirloom seeds to bring back to grow on his farm.

Jerre decided to start preserving heirloom seeds when he discovered that most of the seeds available today from big seed companies are either GMO (Genetically Modified) or Hybrid (which won't breed true and will revert back to one of it's parent types when saved). He began to realize that a lot of the old favorites were no longer available and set out to preserve as many as possible and to educate people about the importance of preserving seeds.

There is a food movement underway and more people than ever are starting to take back control over the quality of the food they put into their bodies by planting backyard gardens or buying locally from their organic farmers markets. Another step in that process is to grow heirloom varieties and save the seeds for next years garden. Heirloom varieties are open pollinated, non-GMO, non-hybrid and will grow true every time.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is passionate about gardening, is interested in growing heirloom varieties and wants to learn more about saving seeds. This is definitely one that I will be adding to my library!