Perennials

Jill and I just went and saw a talk by Wes Jackson of the Land Institute. Very interesting -- he talked a lot about how when we think of cool local agriculture, we are thinking about the cool farmers who are growing vegetables and fruits. He thinks that's totally great but the problem is that 68 percent of our agriculture is devoted to grains and it is mostly in the midwest where there is not a lot of opportunity to grow lots of veg. So while he is completely in support of the current trend in local agriculture he wants to also focus on overhauling the way we grow grains, primarily by breeding (not using genetic modification) perennial versions of our staples (primarily wheat, which seems the easiest). These perennials will have longer roots, thus less erosion and water run off anbd less need to fetilize. basically he would recreate the prairies, but with grasses that produce seeds in bulk that we could eat.

Carrots

Started a new tradition : Easter carrot delivery. Yesterday I dug all the carrots we'd overwintered in the ground under straw. about half were rotty and gross but the rest were perfect, probably about 80 pounds in all. As it was a nice day I loaded some up into my bike chariot and biked little bundles of carrots to all the neighbors. People were delighted to get sweet garden fresh carrots in April. Gene and Kathy Garthe were so appreciative that before I knew it I had a plate of Easter ham and homemade raspberry sauce in front of me. Delicious.