Innholdsfortegnelse for June - July 2016 i MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Omega-6s and omega-3s are out of balance in the standard Western diet — that’s old news. In response, health-minded consumers now purchase pastureraised meat, milk, and eggs. However, as demand increases, many consumers are priced out of healthful food markets. Thankfully, small-scale poultry providers — oftentimes called “flocksters” — offer us a workable model to produce omega-3-maximized meat and eggs on a modest budget. To maximize omega-3s, budding backyard flocksters should incorporate feed amendments and free-range practices. Additionally, you should source or grow high-quality, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Certified Organic grains and greens to include in an intentional feed regimen. Admittedly, intensively managed sustainable poultry operations can be complicated, but with these three general rules, you’ll fulfill your flock’s forage and feed needs, and produce high-omega-3 meat and eggs…

It’s an unfortunate truth that most of the things we do in a garden also encourage weeds. Bare soil in any form is an invitation for weeds to grow because weeds are nature’s opportunists. Most weed plants grow faster than food crops, so weeds will shade or starve out your babies unless you protect them. In addition to basic organic weed-control methods, such as hand-weeding, shallow hoeing, and deep mulching, innovative techniques, such as creating “weed moats,” can help protect your garden from Bermuda grass, puncture vine, and other troublesome plants. Weed Prevention Basics The need to weed follows a predictable pattern in the vegetable garden. About 10 days after you plant a crop, the bed or row will need careful hand-weeding, followed by a second weeding session 10 days…

2-for-1 Deal: Greenhou2-Greenhouse and Garage Before I retired, I spent 12 summer vacations building a cabin in a remote part of Montana that’s 35 miles off the electric grid. The cabin features large windows with mountain views, a woodstove, and solar panels with storage batteries. I needed to construct two more buildings to make my homestead complete — a garage to park my truck in during winter months, and a greenhouse to grow vegetables in during spring, summer, and fall. Because I had limited funds for these projects, I designed one multipurpose building to fit both needs. I constructed the building using lumber that had been harvested from my neighbor’s land and cut using my neighbor’s sawmill. I hired three friends and worked with them to build the structure. My…

Building a home with near-zero winter heating costs may sound like an impossible dream in the snowy Upper Great Lakes region of the United States. Yet, one homebuilder in Viroqua, Wisconsin, has achieved the impossible. Sonya Newenhouse’s 968-square-foot home that she lives in with her family relies on passive solar design to maintain an indoor temperature range of 68 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, even through the coldest winter nights. Because the home is about 80 percent more energyefficient than the average U.S. home, it can be heated solely with a hair dryer on each floor. (Building codes required a heating system, so the family installed four 24-inch radiant electric heaters.) Passive solar buildings incorporate low-tech solutions, including highly efficient south-facing windows, to strategically capture the sun’s energy in thermal mass…

While wooden pallets are free and readily available, upcycling them into home and garden projects can come at a price. The process of breaking down a 40-by-48-inch pallet (the most common size in the United States) into usable wood is time-consuming and requires strength, a high threshold for frustration, and sometimes pain. If you appreciate the idea of an inexpensive pallet project but want to avoid smashed and gashed fingers, we’ve got some great ideas for you. These no-saw or low-saw pallet concepts are doable by anyone with a few hand tools and minimal building skills. After a few hours of enjoyable labor, you can have a useful fixture for your home or garden that you’ve built yourself from recycled materials. When you’re on the hunt, look for wood that’s…

Fishing may seem mysterious or complicated, unless you grew up with relatives who enjoy this timeless activity. I learned how to fish while standing alongside my mom at our family’s pond. She taught me how to tie a fishing knot, and I can still see the smile that spread across her face whenever I came home with a stringer full of fish draped over my shoulders. I’ve been hooked ever since. Fishing can supplement your diet and provide hours of fun. Plus, it’s an easy and inexpensive hobby to take up. Getting Started Some of the best fishing waters are farm ponds, many of which go untouched all year simply because the landowners don’t care to fish them, and no one else dares to ask. Depending on your state’s rules…

Timber Framing BasicTimber Basics I want to try timber framing with logs I mill from my property. Where should I begin? One of your most affordable options is a chainsaw mill, or a set of rails that attach to a chainsaw bar to help guide it through wood. Chainsaw mills aren’t the most efficient way to mill lumber, but they are portable, reasonably priced, and require only a chainsaw, which you may already own. To mill timber, begin by felling a tree, preferably one with few branches or defects, measuring at least 16 inches in diameter. Next, remove the limbs with either an axe or a chainsaw, depending on the limbs’ dimensions. Then, cut—or “buck”—the log 6 inches longer than your desired finished length. Because windblown sand and debris collect…

Although the gas naturally circulates among the planet’s plants, oceans, and atmosphere, human activities have released carbon dioxide in excess of what natural systems can sequester, causing the sun’s heat to get trapped in the atmosphere. Because of the ill effects of climate change on various ecosystems, the Environmental Protection Agency classified carbon dioxide produced from the burning of fossil fuels as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act in 2009. Since then, citizens, governments, and private corporations have pushed polluters to pay for their carbon emissions. One “polluter pays” approach to reducing carbon dioxide involves establishing carbon markets. Governments that participate in the carbon marketplace cap the total amount of carbon dioxide that a state, country, or industry can emit. Industries that rely on burning fossil fuels —…

In Colonial times, “peas by the king’s birthday” (that would be King George III’s birthday, on June 4) was considered the mark of a good gardener. Indeed, an early pea harvest is a worthy goal. Tender, fresh peas represent the start of the fruiting season after a diet of winter roots. Northern gardeners can hope to celebrate it with fireworks on July 4, and the date advances accordingly as you move south. I’m talking about ordinary garden peas, also referred to as “green peas,” or “English peas” if you must. Much as I love the edible pod types, such as snow peas or sugar snaps, there’s nothing quite like zipping open a newly filled pod and popping that luscious little green row into your mouth. I snack on them raw,…

Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops are engineered to be herbicide-tolerant, specifically when sprayed with Roundup. Now that the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm has designated Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” consumers need to fully understand how the chemical works on plants and, in turn, impacts human health. For in-depth answers to these questions and more, we turned to molecular biologist and retired genetic engineer Thierry Vrain. When and why did you start researching glyphosate? I went to graduate school in North Carolina in the 1970s, where I was trained as a soil biologist — a nematologist, to be precise. Nematodes are microscopic worms in the soil that feed on the roots of plants and cause considerable yield loss for many types of crops. In school, I…