Innholdsfortegnelse for June - July - 2017 i MOTHER EARTH NEWS

When it comes to the prices farmers charge for their produce, the legality of a label often makes all the difference. There’s a lot at stake for what “Certified Organic” really means, which is why the definition has been debated for decades. Recently, the dispute has intensified over the necessity for vegetables and other food to grow in soil to merit organic certification. The heart of the debate is about whether produce grown hydroponically — meaning the plants are raised in nutrient-enriched water — can be considered organic. Proponents argue that hydroponic systems legally fit the definition of organic growing because the solution used by these systems provides everything plants need to grow, without any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. They further contend that their methods are even better for the…

The passing of the Wyoming Food Freedom Act (WFFA) in 2015 made Wyoming the first state to eliminate the majority of regulations restricting the sale of local and homemade foods. It was a huge step forward in making homemade foods easy to sell and accessible to everyone. However, there’s still quite a bit of confusion over what the WFFA really means for citizens of Wyoming and the United States at large. Unlike the prohibitive “cottage food laws” that 40 states have in place, Wyoming now allows its residents to sell any form of homemade food, so long as it doesn’t contain meat other than poultry. Chicken pot pies, homemade cheese, and even raw milk are now legal to sell without any form of business license, zoning approval, or regulation from…

Solar-Powered Electric Fence $194.00 at www.MotherEarthNews.com/PoultryNet Poultry producers who regularly move their flocks to fresh pastures may want to check out Premier 1’s PoultryNet Plus, an electrifiable, prefabricated fence that can easily be rolled up and relocated or attached to a mobile chicken tractor. The fence is 48 inches high by 164 feet long with 1⁄2-inch-diameter PVC posts for additional support. The electric fencing will arrive at your door as a complete roll with line posts already built in — ready to take straight to pasture. You’ll need a fence energizer to electrify the net, either a 110-volt AC plug-in or a solar-charged battery. Try Premier 1’s Solar IntelliShock 60 Energizer Kit ($266, also at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Store), which provides 0.60 joule of energy. “Intelli” is short for “intelligent” and refers to…

Many of us are conscious of ways we can use resources sustainably, create things ourselves, and value the objects in our lives by making them with our own hands. But we don’t necessarily think of the paper we use on a daily basis and the huge amounts of energy and water consumed by commercial paper mills. When you make paper by hand with plant fibers from your own backyard, you’ll participate in a long-practiced art and connect with plants around you — just as you grow your own bright, oddly shaped tomatoes and make rich, flavorful sauce from them, savoring every drop. Tear a piece of commercial, bleach-white paper. It’ll tear easily. The fibers, the stuff from which it’s made, will be barely distinguishable. Handmade paper is stronger, harder to…

Grafting is the joining together of two living plant parts so that the whole grows as one plant. The rootstock provides the roots and a short length of trunk. The scion becomes the rest of the trunk, plus the stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits of the grafted plant. The graft union never moves; all growth above this union retains the identity of the scion, and all growth below the union retains the identity of the rootstock. Grafting is useful for multiplying clones (genetically identical plants), whether the clone is a ‘McIntosh’ apple, a ‘Sargent’ cherry, or some nameless apple tree bearing tasty fruits. An old, dying apple tree can be perpetuated by grafting one of its stems onto a young rootstock. Grafting is a way to multiply plants that don’t…

After seeing the variety of salad dressing recipes and tips our bloggers submitted for the April/ May 2017 issue, we decided to call on them again — this time for their favorite pickle recipes. Reflected in the bloggers’ submissions is this welcome food-preservation truth: You can pickle just about anything. They’ve given us a variety of ideas — asparagus, beans, beets, and even eggs. Some of their recipes are true fermentations, taking advantage of the lacto-fermentation process. Others are “quick pickles” or “refrigerator pickles,” reliant on refrigeration. We hope this collection of methods and ingredients will spark your creativity in preserving your most prolific produce this season. Spicy Asparagus Pickles The worldwide practice of pickling has produced long-lasting and tasty veggies for millennia — lacto-fermentation is the original “quick pickle.”…

This is a great recipe for those times when you have just a handful of cucumbers and want a quick homemade pickle. Be sure to use good, crispy cucumbers for a crispier pickle. This recipe has been modified from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (available on Page 79). I’ve started using the reusable plastic lids for my mason jars on all items that go straight to the fridge or on items that we’ve opened and then refrigerated — which just reminds us that those items aren’t canned. I make up a large batch of brine and then refrigerate what I don’t use for an even quicker pickle the next time. This recipe makes enough for 5 pints. Directions: To make brine, combine the white vinegar, water, pickling salt,…

I just want to say thanks! This is an amazing publication. I’ve found so many valuable lessons on your website. Valuable Lessons I just want to say thanks! This is an amazing publication. I’ve found so many valuable lessons on your website for choosing livestock guardians, making lye-leaching barrels, cutting straw by hand, using the deep-litter method for chickens, creating homemade soaps and candles, gardening, and the list goes on. Extremely valuable! Dan Jacob Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pollinators and Predators I’ve been an avid reader for many years. It was MOTHER that really taught me the importance and productivity of good organic gardening. Regarding bugs, it took many years for a really noticeable change to take place in the garden. I never thought I’d be a part-time entomologist, but what I’ve…

While modern agriculture has moved away from regionally developed crop cultivars — also known as “landraces” — a grass-roots organization based in the American West is bringing local seeds back to the Rockies. The Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance works to strengthen access to local seeds among farmers in Colorado and surrounding states. This nonprofit organization encourages planetfriendly seed stewardship through education and networking. The Heritage Grain Trials Project, which began in 2016, is an important public component of the Alliance’s work. To carry out the project, the Alliance first identified and collected heirloom grains that are ideally suited to Rocky Mountain growing conditions. Then, local growers were sent seeds to grow out. Every member of the project has also received detailed instructions in seed saving. Farmers, gardeners, and anyone else…

Understanding the journey food takes before it lands on your plate is more popular than ever, and a new documentary explores what that trip looks like in times of scarcity. Created by the National Young Farmers Coalition, the short film Conservation Generation examines the stories of four young farmers who are starting their careers in a country where older farmers outnumber younger ones by 6-to-1. The film dives into the essential role of the Colorado River in Western agriculture, and its impact on small farmers. Roughly 15 percent of the crops grown in the U.S. are fed by the Colorado River, and times of scarcity force many farmers to make do with less. Conservation Generation demonstrates what it means to begin a career in agriculture during a time of historic…

Peel back the bark on millions of trees throughout the Western United States, and you’ll find the telltale signs of beetle infestation: a crisscrossing network of narrow channels that emboss otherwise smooth wood. Since the late 1990s, more than 60 million acres of forest in the West have experienced tree die-offs resulting from an unprecedented mountain pine beetle epidemic. Although mountain pine beetles are native to the region, two decades of warming temperatures and drought have weakened trees, giving the insects a foothold. While entire mountainsides turn from green to rusty red and then to gray — the characteristic palette progression of a forest in beetle-borne decline — elm, ash, and walnut trees are also being attacked by pests and removed at increasing rates in communities such as Denver, Boulder,…

Do you need true-dimensional lumber to repair your barn? How about mulch, sawdust, cordwood, or large timber? If so, go to your local sawmill. I first learned about the benefits of sawmills when I was looking for D-Log timbers (generally used for building log homes). The timbers were tough to track down, but when I found them at a local mill, I was thrilled to discover all the other various materials I could get there. As I sourced from additional sawmills, I was excited to see what each mill offered for gardening, farming, and construction. I found sawdust and mulch, slab siding, 8-foot logs, bar tops, kiln-dried lumber of nearly any dimension, and more. Some sawmills don’t have a stockpile but will fill custom orders for things like fence posts,…

SHOW US! Share your unique perspective with our community by submitting photos of inviting gardens, nutritious foods, wild animals, and more to the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Photo Group on Flickr (www.Flickr.com/Groups/MotherEarthNewsPhotos/Pool ). We’ll feature our favorites here and online!…

Food Scraps for Your Flock I want to thank you for Joel’s article “Turn Food Scraps into Poultry Feasts” in the April/May 2017 issue. I’m a member of a popular online poultry forum where the so-called experts discourage feeding anything other than chicken feed, referring to food scraps as “treats.” I’m in a high-predator area and only allow my flock to free-range when I can be out with them. Against the advice of others, I feed my girls meat, vegetables, and dinner leftovers, along with garden herbs, to compensate for the variety of nutrients they aren’t getting while free-ranging. My flock is healthy and happy, and the hens lay perfect eggs. I hope more chicken owners will read this article and begin to add diversity to their feeding regimens. Kokomo,…

High-quality topsoil is becoming scarcer in North America, and that’s bad news for all of us. Fortunately, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has teamed up with the Soil Health Campaign to find ways of conserving this precious natural resource. Soil Health Campaign pioneer Dave Brandt launched the movement in 2012 to promote the vitality of farm soil, and the project quickly took off across the United States. His goal is to foster a closer connection with the Earth by educating the general public about the incalculable benefits of the healthy soil directly beneath their feet. What began as a single public event has grown into dozens of ongoing chapters across the country, all of which work together to preserve and protect cropland. Today, the Soil Health Campaign sponsors workshops,…

It began innocently enough in the fall of 2015 at a MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort outside of Donegal, Pennsylvania. I was there as a small-town newspaper reporter covering the event. I attended a lecture on raising rabbits, watched someone demonstrate aspects of bushcraft, and rode a ski lift up the mountain. But it was in the livestock tent that I received that fateful bolt of inspiration. There, I bumped into Dave Cronauer of White Bison Farm in Laona, Wisconsin. He stood next to a small, straw-filled enclosure where spotted piglets snoozed among half-eaten apples. He explained that they were a new breed called the Idaho Pasture Pig — a mix of Berkshire, Duroc, and Kunekune that was developed specifically to thrive on grass. Though…

We’re all stewards of the land, blessed to be living here, and it’s our critical responsibility to make sure we honor the natural resources that help us live. Permaculture design provides a great toolkit for doing this, and it can also help simplify your life and make your landscape more resilient. Practicing permaculture can be fun and rewarding on many levels. Though it’s complex and can take years to learn, I’m going to help simplify permaculture for you. First and foremost, permaculture is rooted in ethics, which can act as a filter to help you make decisions: • Take care of the Earth. • Take care of people — starting with yourself! • Share resources and abundance. You can learn from a number of different ecological design principles, creation techniques,…

Being outdoors during summer months will inevitably lead to encounters with flying and crawling insects. Both desirable and undesirable bugs are constantly battling out in our yards. All gardens have bugs that help and bugs that harm. Some of the beneficial ones that can be found in your garden are dragonflies, ladybugs, and ground beetles. They feed on plant-destroying critters, such as aphids, caterpillars, and spider mites. This is nature’s way of keeping our environment well-balanced. Bugs can also bug us. We all know how irritating a hungry mosquito is or how destructive a colony of ants can be. While many insect repellents are on the market today, most of which con- tain synthetic chemicals and fragrances, functional alternatives also exist, including homemade options. Insects use a multitude of inputs…

Home gardeners are particularly suited to making lacto-fermented foods because only the freshest of vegetables are best for this process. I love to make pickled vegetables in summertime. I’m also a potter — I make and sell fermentation jars, having been frustrated with the clunky forms and dark colors of commercial jars. If I’m going to have something sitting on my kitchen counter for weeks in the summertime, I want it to be beautiful! However, I’m convinced that nothing I make in the studio can compete with the lovely shapes of the beans themselves, warm from the sun and hanging in tendrils on their vines. Directions: Dissolve sea salt in water and set aside. Place garlic, peppercorns, coriander seed, and dill at the bottom of your jar. Pack green beans…

Off-Grid ‘Chillbilly’ Air Cooler I’ve been accused of being a lot of things: a cheapskate, a hermit, a used-car salesman, and one lady thought I was the ghost of country singer Keith Whitley. But I’ve never been accused of being someone who would buy something new and expensive when I could either make one myself, splice a few old gadgets together, or do without. DIY is my thing, y’all. It gets hot here in Texas. And nobody wants to sit around all day in the 100-degree-Fahrenheit heat for four months out of the year. If you live off-grid like I do, work in your shop or barn all day, or worry that your animals are getting too hot outside, cooling your space can be a challenge. I run my cabin…