Heirloom Gardening, Food and Other Thoughts
I stumbled across this blog today, written by Bram Cools, in Belgium I think. On his trade list he says he’s in Kessel. On Google maps I see place names in Holland, Germany and Belgium called Kessel, but only one city with that name in Belgium.
Anyway, it’s nice to have another blog in the area, and I wish Bram lots of luck!
I like to try to mention all initiatives promoting non-commercial seeds, large and small. Peter Brinch recently sent me an email telling me about his initiative and website, Open Pollinated Seeds in the UK, promoting the use of OP seeds as well as seed saving, seed swapping and plant breeding. It all sounds great to me!
It’s old news, and all over the Internet by now, but if you haven’t seen it there’s this great article on the dangers of collecting opium antiques.
I often think so much can be learned by looking to our past mistakes. It’s a shame as a people we aren’t so good at not making the same mistakes over and over, but there’s still a lot to be learned from the past. I think you can really understand something about today’s drug wars, by looking at how it all started with opium.
Reading the above article led me to one written a few years ago by Michael Pollan, on what NOT to do with the poppies you grow in your own garden.
Finally, compliments of Jeremy at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, here’s an article on the Alberta police helping to keep the world safe by eradicating the daisy, er marihuana .
Will just left a comment here, which led me to his new site Small Farms Matter Big. It looks really good so far!
I came across this site a few days ago, and thought I’d mention it here.
I think it’s written by a she, who’s interested in permaculture, sustainable living and gardening. In her most recent post she mentions she has a PhD in land reclamation:
…which involved studying the re-creation of vegetation systems on restored open cast coal sites. I am fascinated by looking at natural relationships and seeing how these can be applied to physical and social systems created by people. For me, the easiest way to think about this sort of design is in my garden, because I understand the value and function of things like soil structure, micro-organisms, micro-climate, water, pollinators, decomposers and vegetation. But I am increasingly intrigued about how I can apply systems-level thinking to other aspects of my life: starting a new business, working with other people, designing a course for adult learners…
Her blog is already bringing back memories of the first few years of this blog, and I think it’s going to be very interesting to follow as she goes along.
