I went to the MOSES Organic Farming Conference last month for the first time and it was really great! I learned so much! My two favorite classes were "The Art & Science of Organic Seed Production" and "Restoration Agriculture."
The organic seed production class was extremely helpful for my new interest in seed saving. It saved me at least a year of mistakes because I learned about the population sizes required for adequate genetic diversity in various crops. I also learned that many of the supposed "selfers" --like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, and peas--are routinely cross-pollinated by insect activity; and that time, distance, and/or physical barriers are required to ensure pure seed even for selfers. I bought so many different varieties of corn in the past few months, and now it seems that for most of them I don't have enough seeds to constitute a proper population size. When growing corn for seed, you want to save seeds from at least 200 plants. But those should be the best 200 plants, so really you should plant at least 400 seeds. What I may end up doing (next year) is trialing all those varieties to see who grows best, and then pray that I'll be able to find enough seeds the following year to grow them out. This year, I plan to grow out the oldest corn seeds I have, which happen to also be the corn that grew best in my work garden last year (Lindsey Meyer blue corn, a stout, super-early, delicious, beautiful heirloom corn that is surprisingly difficult to find). I will also be growing all the Glass Gem corn seeds I have. I picked up some Glass Gem seeds at the Biodynamic Farming Conference seed swap in November. Before I took the seed production class, I gave half of them to a seed saver who had made a very generous donation to our developing Fond du Lac Reservation seed library. But then I was able to purchase a few more Glass Gem seeds from Native Seeds/SEARCH recently. I still don't have 400, but I may try saving the seeds anyway and perhaps try to rejuvenate the gene pool in a year or two by purchasing more Glass Gem seeds and growing them all out. Apparently Glass Gem corn was an internet sensation last year--pictures of the unbelievably beautiful ears went viral and Native Seeds/SEARCH sold out for several months. Google it if you haven't seen this corn yet.
Restoration Agriculture was a class on North American permaculture taught by Mark Shepard, author of a book by the same title. Mark talked about the fact that every other civilization that has relied on annual crops for its main food staples has collapsed. The reason for this is that in order to plant and maintain annual cropping systems you have to destroy ecosystems. This destruction leads to other problems, like decreased biodiversity, erosion, and loss of fertility. Annual systems are also less productive than perennial ones, and they require infinitely more work. Mark advocates replicating the oak savanna that once dominated the area now known as the United States, planting tall nut trees (oak, pinyon pine, chestnut), shorter fruit trees or sugar maples (apple, apricot, pear, cherry, plum), vines (grapes, passion fruit, hardy kiwis) and fruit- and nut-producing shrubs (hazelnut, sand cherries, chokeberries, Juneberries, brambles). For a groundcover, you can use mushrooms, medicinal perennial herbs, asparagus, strawberries, etc. This is an intermixed, multi-story system that replicates Nature. And in a younger system, you can grow annuals between rows of perennials to increase the variety of food produced, make use of the space, and/or feed livestock. He has a maintenance plan that even my husband can follow. He calls it STUN: sheer, total, utter neglect. Mr. Shepard suggests that we plant way too many trees and shrubs, and let Nature select the best ones. While we may not plan to "STUN" our plants, it is effectively what happens sometimes when life gets in the way and we fail to pay as much attention to the garden as we may plan to initially. Mark also discussed the importance of water management using a keyline system to direct all the water that enters the farm in a very intentional manner. His aim is to cycle all water that comes to his farm either through crops or livestock. This system requires some technical assistance and professional measurements, but it should eliminate or at least significantly reduce the need for irrigation. Taking that class and reading the book makes me feel like I am on the right track with Magic Summer Minifarm by planting so many trees and shrubs last year (with at least twice as many more coming in May!!!). One thing that definitely needs improvement is the multi-story aspect of the minifarm's permaculture plantings. I plan to amend it this year by training grapes onto the American plums and planting a wild strawberry groundcover. Also I need to do the keyline water management system to capture more water for the dry sandy soil. I really can't wait to get started!
The organic seed production class was extremely helpful for my new interest in seed saving. It saved me at least a year of mistakes because I learned about the population sizes required for adequate genetic diversity in various crops. I also learned that many of the supposed "selfers" --like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, and peas--are routinely cross-pollinated by insect activity; and that time, distance, and/or physical barriers are required to ensure pure seed even for selfers. I bought so many different varieties of corn in the past few months, and now it seems that for most of them I don't have enough seeds to constitute a proper population size. When growing corn for seed, you want to save seeds from at least 200 plants. But those should be the best 200 plants, so really you should plant at least 400 seeds. What I may end up doing (next year) is trialing all those varieties to see who grows best, and then pray that I'll be able to find enough seeds the following year to grow them out. This year, I plan to grow out the oldest corn seeds I have, which happen to also be the corn that grew best in my work garden last year (Lindsey Meyer blue corn, a stout, super-early, delicious, beautiful heirloom corn that is surprisingly difficult to find). I will also be growing all the Glass Gem corn seeds I have. I picked up some Glass Gem seeds at the Biodynamic Farming Conference seed swap in November. Before I took the seed production class, I gave half of them to a seed saver who had made a very generous donation to our developing Fond du Lac Reservation seed library. But then I was able to purchase a few more Glass Gem seeds from Native Seeds/SEARCH recently. I still don't have 400, but I may try saving the seeds anyway and perhaps try to rejuvenate the gene pool in a year or two by purchasing more Glass Gem seeds and growing them all out. Apparently Glass Gem corn was an internet sensation last year--pictures of the unbelievably beautiful ears went viral and Native Seeds/SEARCH sold out for several months. Google it if you haven't seen this corn yet.
Restoration Agriculture was a class on North American permaculture taught by Mark Shepard, author of a book by the same title. Mark talked about the fact that every other civilization that has relied on annual crops for its main food staples has collapsed. The reason for this is that in order to plant and maintain annual cropping systems you have to destroy ecosystems. This destruction leads to other problems, like decreased biodiversity, erosion, and loss of fertility. Annual systems are also less productive than perennial ones, and they require infinitely more work. Mark advocates replicating the oak savanna that once dominated the area now known as the United States, planting tall nut trees (oak, pinyon pine, chestnut), shorter fruit trees or sugar maples (apple, apricot, pear, cherry, plum), vines (grapes, passion fruit, hardy kiwis) and fruit- and nut-producing shrubs (hazelnut, sand cherries, chokeberries, Juneberries, brambles). For a groundcover, you can use mushrooms, medicinal perennial herbs, asparagus, strawberries, etc. This is an intermixed, multi-story system that replicates Nature. And in a younger system, you can grow annuals between rows of perennials to increase the variety of food produced, make use of the space, and/or feed livestock. He has a maintenance plan that even my husband can follow. He calls it STUN: sheer, total, utter neglect. Mr. Shepard suggests that we plant way too many trees and shrubs, and let Nature select the best ones. While we may not plan to "STUN" our plants, it is effectively what happens sometimes when life gets in the way and we fail to pay as much attention to the garden as we may plan to initially. Mark also discussed the importance of water management using a keyline system to direct all the water that enters the farm in a very intentional manner. His aim is to cycle all water that comes to his farm either through crops or livestock. This system requires some technical assistance and professional measurements, but it should eliminate or at least significantly reduce the need for irrigation. Taking that class and reading the book makes me feel like I am on the right track with Magic Summer Minifarm by planting so many trees and shrubs last year (with at least twice as many more coming in May!!!). One thing that definitely needs improvement is the multi-story aspect of the minifarm's permaculture plantings. I plan to amend it this year by training grapes onto the American plums and planting a wild strawberry groundcover. Also I need to do the keyline water management system to capture more water for the dry sandy soil. I really can't wait to get started!
