East Texas Gardening

[The Pagan Pig]

As soon as Mother Nature is finished playing with the night time temps around here .... maybe we can get the rest of our seeds planted. Might break a low of 37 degrees Wednesday night that was set back in 1918.

 

[baymule]

I’ll just live here on my little farm, doing my part to live a better life, raising my food with my labor, and raising enough to sell, giving someone else an opportunity to buy and consume better food, raised as organically as possible.
But on the other hand, the chickens eat feed that is raised on large farms, shipped to a processor, bagged and shipped to the feed store, that I drive to to make my purchase. Ditto on the pigs, sheep and even the livestock guard dogs. The horses are just dead weight, they eat, but contribute nothing other than the enjoyment I get from them.

Can’t win for losing.

I’ll keep doing my best, I make my own happiness.

 

[baymule]

We have knocked ourselves out in the garden the past 3 days. I'm so late in planting, I might as well call it an early fall garden. LOL LOL

Tomorrow it is supposed to start raining and rain until next Sunday.

We got 3 1/2" this past week, more to come!

 

[baymule]

@flowerbug I couldn’t agree with you more on the industrial monoculture of food. In Utopia, there would be small farmers in every town and city, they would be respected and paid for their produce and be able to earn a living. These farmers would keep livestock and use their manures for compost to put on the lands for fertilizer. While we are visiting Utopia, people would actually grow gardens and raise at least some of their own food. Maybe some would keep chickens for eggs and meat.

But Utopia is not real. Most people don’t want to get their hands dirty, don’t have time and are utterly disinterested. They want to shop online and have their groceries bagged and waiting, someone to put the groceries in the car and off they go.

Since the population is so large, so many people in apartments with nowhere to plant that garden they don’t give a crap about anyway, food is mass produced.

If everyone who avows to truly care about the environment would buy ALL their food from a small farmer and grow what they could, I’d be impressed by their commitment. But guess what? Most dont. They go to the same grocery stores as everyone else and buy the same mass produced food as everyone else.

Dont down the farmers. Their methods certainly aren’t perfect, but they are feeding the country plus exports to other countries. The farmers work hard and deserve respect. For a state to cut off their water for their crops is reprehensible. For it to be ok to water the lawn and wash a car while a farmer goes broke is purely political fatheads pandering to their voters so that they can remain a parasite on society.

I know YOU do your best to not be a careless consumer. I know you raise a garden and are careful with what you do. But until more people actually live the life they spew empty words about, large scale farming it will be.

Never go to a grocery store again, never go to a restaurant again, for it is all mass produced. Find small farmers, buy your meat and vegetables from them, in season of course so you don’t contribute to airplane fuel being burnt overhead, bringing in food from other countries. Can and freeze the food for winter. We are going back to Utopia again and Utopia doesn’t exist.

 

[baymule]

I'm tired of cold. It's supposed to be SPRING! Our 35F temperature broke a record for low temps on this day since 1978. Phooey!

A neighbor sent me a picture of a pile of cow manure and rotted hay........ with the caption, Want This? Of course i sent back Heck yeah! He's even repairing the dump trailer he borrowed and will load it up and bring it to us.

 

[Britesea]

Nice Tshirt weather here; in the mid to high 60's, with overnight lows in the mid 30's. We have the garden expansion prepped with cardboard and chips. Next is several inches of well-aged horse manure, followed by garden soil leavened with aged compost. The chickens were having a great time following us and scratching at the chips- they are a year old, full of worms and mycorrhizae. It's still too cold to put out the peppers and tomatoes, of course. They are blooming in the greenhouse, with the door and windows open to allow possible pollinators, and to keep the humidity and temps down a bit.

 

[JanetMarie]

We need some of that rain here, bad! The effects of the drought from last year are still here, and now this year it seems that the drought is going to continue. Had very few walnuts last year, and no acorns, which is the first time since being here for 10 years.

East Texas does seem like a nice place, if one is going to be in Texas. Are there many or few creeks or rivers in your area @The Pagan Pig?

 

[farmerjan]

They are thinking that the people with the green lawns and azaleas have enough money to go buy their groceries in the grocery store... because that is where food comes from ... didn't you know that????

 

[Mini Horses]

Like the machine that milk comes from? Yeah, green lawns and washed cars are real important!

 

[Britesea]

I will probably be jumped on for this... but, originally... horses were domesticated for meat.