by Higgenbotham » Thu May 23, 2024 7:55 pm
FullMoon wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2024 1:14 pm
Any recommendations on which countries Americans can escape to?
This Forum concluded long ago that staying domestically is best. Choose your location. There's many good places. Navigator's book explains clearly and the Dark Age Hovel Higg has also made very compelling choices.
This conversation just discusses Texas, but there is much to learn from it.
What is the Best place in Texas for growing Fruit and Vegetables?
The Jungle Explorer
6 years ago
Okay. So I have lived in Jones County, Texas for the last 11 years on 20 acres. In those years I have fought an endless battle to try and produce my own food. I have had little success. It seems like all of nature is fighting me with everything it has got. I could write a large book on all the things I have tried and how they have failed miserably, because of one element of nature or the other. I have spent tens of thousands and worked myself into the ground and I have nothing to show for it. I have had it! I am selling out starting over somewhere else while I still have the chance and strength to do so. My question is, WHERE?
I did not choose to come to my current location; the land was given to me. Now I know why! But now, I want to choose where I move to. I want to make this choice off of firm research and facts. I am hoping I can get some of that here from people who share the same passion as I.
So what I am looking for? I am looking for the best region of Texas that is the most FAVORABLE for growing the widest variety of of fruit and vegetables. I know that you can grow just about anything, just about anywhere, with enough work and investment. But what I am looking for is the region of Texas where it is EASIER and more Favorable then others.
I am basically looking for a new Homestead, where I will live till I die. I want to produce most of my own food, from fruits and veggies to, meat eggs and milk (goats).
This is a huge life decision for me and I would appreciate some really good advice on helping me decided where to start this journey. Thanks in advance.
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/52026 ... vegetables
I bookmarked this thread and followed it for years. I don't think someone has to be in the "best place" but they need to be in "a place" where they have the skills to handle the conditions. A place as inhospitable as Jones County, Texas might work out well for the very few who have the unique skills to make a go of it.
Below is an article discussing what things might look like in the Midwest when the Green Revolution runs out of fuel and chemical inputs, and the land needs to be regenerated. It won't be easy, and will be more labor intensive, but there may be opportunities for those who can make the connections and are willing to do the hard work.
MAY 17, 2024
To save their soil, Kansas tribe shifts to regenerative agriculture—and transforms their farms
by Will Pry, American Heart Association
When one of the elders in the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska asked if he could keep bees on the reservation, Tim Rhodd's answer was straightforward: "Absolutely."
Soon, the bees started buzzing in the alfalfa fields. Then they started pollinating.
Then they all died.
"Once we started looking into it, we found there was a chemical (class) called neonicotinoid that caused the death of these bees," said Rhodd, the tribe's chairperson. "That was the very, very first part of what I had seen that we were doing things wrong."
Facing the reality that their soil was contaminated—and the realization that the same harmful insecticides that killed the bees would be bad for them, too—the Ioway started questioning their farming practices.
After receiving a grant in 2019, the tribe switched its farming operations from monocropping—growing one plant in the same soil, year after year—to regenerative agriculture, a process designed to promote biodiversity and soil health by minimizing disturbances and maintaining living roots as much as possible.
By caring for a rotation of diverse crops throughout the year—rather than controlling the soil year-round for just one seasonal crop—farmers eliminate the need for herbicides and pesticides.
Moving away from monocropping is as much a challenge to standard practice as it is a physical feat. The so-called Green Revolution in the 1960s changed industrial farming to address food shortages by ushering in the extensive use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Working to improve the yield of a single crop became the norm, thanks in part to profitability and operational efficiency.
But monocropping has been shown to damage soil health, and farmers' reliance on pesticides and herbicides can harm pollinators and water supplies while insects and weeds rapidly develop resistance to the chemicals.
"Just monocropping, eventually you use up all of your nutrients," said Olivia Brien, tribe member and its director of communications. "And what happens is that you run out of the nutrients to grow good food, so then you'd have a desert. It becomes a desert."
The tribe's Ioway Farms operation has implemented regenerative practices and indigenous methods across 2,400 acres of row crop production and 2,500 acres of pastureland in rural northeast Kansas, near White Cloud. The tribe runs Ioway Farms along with several other ventures—including a bee farm, a seed company, a hemp farm and an orchard that includes pears, peaches, plums and apples.
The farm generates vital revenue for the tribe and helps the Ioway, also known as the Báxoje, reconnect with their culture—and the land. The tribe found historical evidence that diverse irrigation processes mimicking a more natural system had been in place on the land within the past 200 years.
Kyle said the move to regenerative agriculture has been transformational for the tribe. And it's changed the way he sees the soil.
"I honestly didn't look at the soil as a living thing," Kyle said. "I just looked at it as dirt. Going along on this journey, it makes you realize there is so much more than just dirt on the ground. … There are living organisms down there that are getting taken away from all the chemicals being used.
"With a biology in the soil, making that all mesh—it's already there. Why do that synthetically when you can let nature take its course?"
The Ioway have seen the benefits of caring for the soil in the quality of their produce.
"After one year of regenerative principles, the Ioway came back and said their tofu beans had a better, nuttier flavor and yielded better," Fuchs said.
"What we're seeing is what's happening in the soil—healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals, healthy food. … We have seen changes that impact all over the country. The way we grow food—the health of our food, the nutrient density of our food—it's a broken system.
"This type of agriculture is a learning curve, but it can be done."
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-soil-kans ... ative.html[quote=FullMoon post_id=87031 time=1716138852 user_id=3072]
[quote]Any recommendations on which countries Americans can escape to?[/quote]
This Forum concluded long ago that staying domestically is best. Choose your location. There's many good places. Navigator's book explains clearly and the Dark Age Hovel Higg has also made very compelling choices.[/quote]
This conversation just discusses Texas, but there is much to learn from it.
[quote]What is the Best place in Texas for growing Fruit and Vegetables?
The Jungle Explorer
6 years ago
Okay. So I have lived in Jones County, Texas for the last 11 years on 20 acres. In those years I have fought an endless battle to try and produce my own food. I have had little success. It seems like all of nature is fighting me with everything it has got. I could write a large book on all the things I have tried and how they have failed miserably, because of one element of nature or the other. I have spent tens of thousands and worked myself into the ground and I have nothing to show for it. I have had it! I am selling out starting over somewhere else while I still have the chance and strength to do so. My question is, WHERE?
I did not choose to come to my current location; the land was given to me. Now I know why! But now, I want to choose where I move to. I want to make this choice off of firm research and facts. I am hoping I can get some of that here from people who share the same passion as I.
So what I am looking for? I am looking for the best region of Texas that is the most FAVORABLE for growing the widest variety of of fruit and vegetables. I know that you can grow just about anything, just about anywhere, with enough work and investment. But what I am looking for is the region of Texas where it is EASIER and more Favorable then others.
I am basically looking for a new Homestead, where I will live till I die. I want to produce most of my own food, from fruits and veggies to, meat eggs and milk (goats).
This is a huge life decision for me and I would appreciate some really good advice on helping me decided where to start this journey. Thanks in advance.[/quote]
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5202676/what-is-the-best-place-in-texas-for-growing-fruit-and-vegetables
I bookmarked this thread and followed it for years. I don't think someone has to be in the "best place" but they need to be in "a place" where they have the skills to handle the conditions. A place as inhospitable as Jones County, Texas might work out well for the very few who have the unique skills to make a go of it.
Below is an article discussing what things might look like in the Midwest when the Green Revolution runs out of fuel and chemical inputs, and the land needs to be regenerated. It won't be easy, and will be more labor intensive, but there may be opportunities for those who can make the connections and are willing to do the hard work.
[quote]MAY 17, 2024
To save their soil, Kansas tribe shifts to regenerative agriculture—and transforms their farms
by Will Pry, American Heart Association
When one of the elders in the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska asked if he could keep bees on the reservation, Tim Rhodd's answer was straightforward: "Absolutely."
Soon, the bees started buzzing in the alfalfa fields. Then they started pollinating.
Then they all died.
"Once we started looking into it, we found there was a chemical (class) called neonicotinoid that caused the death of these bees," said Rhodd, the tribe's chairperson. "That was the very, very first part of what I had seen that we were doing things wrong."
Facing the reality that their soil was contaminated—and the realization that the same harmful insecticides that killed the bees would be bad for them, too—the Ioway started questioning their farming practices.
After receiving a grant in 2019, the tribe switched its farming operations from monocropping—growing one plant in the same soil, year after year—to regenerative agriculture, a process designed to promote biodiversity and soil health by minimizing disturbances and maintaining living roots as much as possible.
By caring for a rotation of diverse crops throughout the year—rather than controlling the soil year-round for just one seasonal crop—farmers eliminate the need for herbicides and pesticides.
Moving away from monocropping is as much a challenge to standard practice as it is a physical feat. The so-called Green Revolution in the 1960s changed industrial farming to address food shortages by ushering in the extensive use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Working to improve the yield of a single crop became the norm, thanks in part to profitability and operational efficiency.
But monocropping has been shown to damage soil health, and farmers' reliance on pesticides and herbicides can harm pollinators and water supplies while insects and weeds rapidly develop resistance to the chemicals.
"Just monocropping, eventually you use up all of your nutrients," said Olivia Brien, tribe member and its director of communications. "And what happens is that you run out of the nutrients to grow good food, so then you'd have a desert. It becomes a desert."
The tribe's Ioway Farms operation has implemented regenerative practices and indigenous methods across 2,400 acres of row crop production and 2,500 acres of pastureland in rural northeast Kansas, near White Cloud. The tribe runs Ioway Farms along with several other ventures—including a bee farm, a seed company, a hemp farm and an orchard that includes pears, peaches, plums and apples.
The farm generates vital revenue for the tribe and helps the Ioway, also known as the Báxoje, reconnect with their culture—and the land. The tribe found historical evidence that diverse irrigation processes mimicking a more natural system had been in place on the land within the past 200 years.[/quote]
[quote]Kyle said the move to regenerative agriculture has been transformational for the tribe. And it's changed the way he sees the soil.
"I honestly didn't look at the soil as a living thing," Kyle said. "I just looked at it as dirt. Going along on this journey, it makes you realize there is so much more than just dirt on the ground. … There are living organisms down there that are getting taken away from all the chemicals being used.
"With a biology in the soil, making that all mesh—it's already there. Why do that synthetically when you can let nature take its course?"
The Ioway have seen the benefits of caring for the soil in the quality of their produce.
"After one year of regenerative principles, the Ioway came back and said their tofu beans had a better, nuttier flavor and yielded better," Fuchs said.
"What we're seeing is what's happening in the soil—healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals, healthy food. … We have seen changes that impact all over the country. The way we grow food—the health of our food, the nutrient density of our food—it's a broken system.
"This type of agriculture is a learning curve, but it can be done."[/quote]
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-soil-kansas-tribe-shifts-regenerative.html