Depletion and Abundance are just two sides of the same coin. We're no longer speaking of the future when we talk about climate change and peak oil. So now the project is to accept depletion, and still find a good and abundant way of life, not just for ourselves, but for those who will come after us. We can do this - it is one heck of a challenge, but we have to find a way, so we will. That's what this site is for - finding a way forward.
I am the author of three books. Depletion and Abundance: Life On the New Home Front explores the path to finding a good life in spite of tough times. A Nation of Farmers:Defeating the Food Crisis on American Soil analyzes our current food situation and offers steps for creating meaningful food security. Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation explores the connections between food storage, food preservation and our democratic heritage.
Sharon March 16th, 2010
Hi Folks – I’m taking a week or so off from the internet and the computer. I’m still having a tough time with the book and am talking to my editor about that, but most of all, I just need a break from the computer and some time away from the blog. So no posting until further notice – back when I can be. Apologies in advance if I owe you email.
Sharon
Sharon March 15th, 2010
Hi Folks – Sorry I didn’t do a first ID update this past week, but I was travelling. So this is my first official post of year three!
Let’s see, what happened in the last couple of weeks. Well, Frodo/Ring Bearer the goat boy came home to live here, bringing his musky-scented self along. He bred one of our does the first day, so all the relevant bits seem to work. We’re looking at a lot of babies in August. Jessie and Bast should deliver in May (we think), with the rest of them following in late summer.
Our ducklings arrived on the same day as Frodo, and they are doing beautifully – Isaiah, after weeks of agony finally decided to raise crested ducks for the fair. Simon was planning on raising cochin chicks, and those arrived while I was gone – but all of them were dead. It was the only time (in many years of ordering poultry) that that’s happened – the box must have gotten left in the cold somewhere or something, but it was horrible for the boys. They will re-ship, but it was a pretty miserable thing.
I’ve been starting seedlings – I put off most of my greens until after I came back so that they wouldn’t pop up before I came back (Eric would never notice 
), so it has been a busy green-starting kind of week. Also the snapdragons, which I love because I love to watch bees go into them, and which the kids love because they are cool. Tomatoes are all in, as are peppers and eggplant.
The snow is down to about 6 inches (from 4 feet at the beginning of March), which is good. The flooding basement isn’t quite as desirable, but is probably an inevitable result of 2 inches of rain and the rapid transformation of a foot of snow to water. The daffodils are up a couple a couple of inches, and the weather is supposed to be fairly consistently warm for a while.
Otherwise, I’m ignoring everything. Book. Book. Book. I’ve never really managed to get my groove back with this book, and it is going slowly and painfully, but it is mostly going. I only consider returning the advance and bagging on the book two or three times a day now. But there’s only two weeks left. Sigh. Ok, done whining now…for today.
Plant something: Broccoli, kale, chard, lettuce, various other greens, snapdragons, tomatoes, hot peppers, eggplant, sweet peas.
Harvest something: Eggs, Milk, willow bark
Preserve something: Not a thing
Waste Not: Made applesauce out of some of remaining apples, cut up extra softening sweet potatoes for slips, the usual composting, recycling and feeding things to other things.
Want Not: Got a new batch of sourdough starter from my step-mom to replace the one that leaked all over.
Eat the Food: Made an applesauce spice cake to take to a friends’ house, ate a lot of chametz (grain based things) before passover. Nothing particularly exciting – soba noodles in miso broth were the best.
Build Community Food Systems: Gave two talks at least partly about food, otherwise, nada.
How about you?
Sharon
Sharon March 12th, 2010
Hi folks – I was wondering, do you start all your own seeds or buy at least some transplants? Where do you get them?
I’m asking because starting seeds is one of those things I do really well – I love doing it and it comes easily, and it occurred to me that I might add to my plans to sell bedding plants at farmers markets a CST (Community Supported Transplants …or something), in which people could hire me to do custom seed starting (from a list of funky varieties probably not available at their local nursery), and/or pre-reserve varieties that I would start for them. I’m thinking of offering groupings as well like “Herb garden in a box” or “Custom pizza topping garden.” I could offer fall gardening transplants as well, since I know a lot of serious gardeners have a hard time getting that late crop in.
What do you think? I know many of you probably do your own, but would it work in your area? I’m going to have to accumulate customers in Albany/Schenectady, I suspect, but that’s ok.
Sharon
Sharon March 12th, 2010
Check it out! And it meets the critical requirement – whether my books are mostly about food or not, there has to be some food on the cover .
Now all I have to do is finish writing it….
Sharon March 12th, 2010
I haven’t posted an ID update yet (I’m saving that for Monday) or done much to get new content going on this blog, and realistically, most of the changes will wait until the beginning of April, when I’m not insane working on the book.
But we are moving slowly towards goals. The first, of course, is that I get my life back, but I’ve got seeds started and the buck in the barn with the does, and all sorts of good things going on. I’m ready to get started on a whole host of new projects! I can’t do them yet, but I keep dreaming.
So I thought I’d ask – what are your projects for spring? What are your goals?
Sharon
Eliot's Casaubon was a fool, and there is no key to all truths. And yet, the truth is that our present crises are much more of a piece than most of us have fully understood. The problem isn't just the economy, or our energy use, or global warming - or rather, they are all part of the same larger problem. But what to call it? How to get a hold of the tail of the crisis Ouroborous? Maybe this time, the fools are right and synthesis is the name of the game. So here's my attempt at the universal code, the synthesis of all things, or at least, all things of interest to me.
