common sense preparedness

Growing Blueberries – Quick Guide and Master Grower’s Tips

May 3, 2018 by chris

Do you love the taste and health benefits of blueberries? Would you like a fruit crop that will produce well in a short amount of time and doesn’t require a lot of space? Have you tried growing blueberries and had poor results? This post is for you! Learn how to grow blueberries in your own backyard. We'll take you step by step through building proper blueberry soil, blueberry fertilizer and mulch, blueberry bush planting and care. We also touch on growing blueberries in containers, pruning and moving mature blueberry plants.

Growing Blueberries – Quick Guide

Bluberries prefer soil pH between 4 and 5.5
Blueberry soil should be rich in organic matter
Plant blueberry bushes in full sun for best production. Plants will tolerate late afternoon shade.
Blueberries prefer well drained soil.
Space blueberry plants 4-6’ apart for highbush, 2-4’ for low bush with 6-8’ between rows
While blueberries are self-pollinating, planting a second variety will increase fruit production
Blueberries need around an inch of water per week during the growing season.

How to Grow Blueberries – Master Grower's Tips

Where do blueberries grow?

You can grow blueberries in zones 3 through 10. A zone is a USDA Plant Hardiness Zone, but the local microclimate is just as important. Watch your local weather, talk with other gardeners, visit orchards and find out your real growing climate. For more information read: Plant Hardiness Zones and Microclimate – Creating Your Best Garden.

Blueberry soil – What's the Best Soil for Blueberry Plants?

Blueberries grow best with an acid soil pH between 4 and 5.5, so do a soil test before you start. The best soil for blueberry plants is soil rich in acidic, organic material, like you would find on forest floor or edge of the forest. Peat moss is commonly recommended, but pine needles, leaves and other tree fallout (that may be available for free) work just as well. If your soil is alkaline, you’ll either need to do a LOT of soil amending or grow you blueberries in a container.

When you prepare your blueberry planting area, dig a generous amount of organic matter into your blueberry soil. Time and effort up front will make all the difference in plant performance. Watch out for large amounts of sulfur and other chemical additives, which may lower pH but disrupt the soil microbes. If you do add sulfur in quantity to lower pH, wait at least three months for it to break down before planting. (For instance, add in fall for planting in spring.)

The first time I planted blueberries, I used pine sawdust to kill the weeds, then used the sawdust for mulch. It worked OK, but I think the sawdust tied up a lot of nitrogen in the soil as it broke down, which slowed plant growth.

When I extended my blueberry patch, I first smothered the grass in a 10’x24′ plot with black plastic during the growing season. In the fall, I tilled in a generous amount of leaves and black peat by-product from Whitetail Organics earthworm casting production. (My nephew owns and operates Whitetail Organics.) I know my blueberry soil is acidic enough from the test I did before starting the plot.

Choosing Your Blueberry Plants – Which Blueberry Variety is Right for Your Area?

Different blueberry varieties can be grown from Texas to Canada. Check with your local Cooperative Extension office, or ask neighbors who have had success in growing blueberries. You can also check your favorite local or online nursery for suggested blueberry varieties. (Learn more about Plant Hardiness Zones here.)

Basic blueberry types include:

Lowbush Blueberry – Vaccinium anugustifolium – Cold tolerant, less productive than high bush blueberry varieties, can be used as an edible ground cover or food forest planting
Northern Highbush Blueberry – Vaccinium corymbosum – For zones 4-7 (specific highbush blueberry varieties will tolerate colder temps, such as those I’m growing in zone 3). Grows 5-6’ tall.
Southern Highbush Blueberry – Vaccinium corymbosum hybrids – For zones 7-10. Plants require little chilling, but are otherwise similar to their northern cousins.
Rabbiteye Blueberry – Vaccinium ashei – Best for southern growers. For zones 7-8. Cold tolerant to around zero F. This blueberry variety can grow up to 20 feet if left unpruned, but best trimmed to manageable picking height.
Saskatoon – Amelanchier alnifolia – Not a true blueberry, but extremely cold tolerant. Can be grown in the northern United States and Southern Canada. Does not require acidic soil. Also known as serviceberry, shadbush and juneberry. Fruit flavor is somewhat bland, seeds are larger than blueberry seeds and have a mild almond flavor.

I now have a 24’x40′ enclosure planted with three sugar sweet cherry bushes, four honey berries and a variety of blueberries. My northern highbush blueberry varieties include two Blue moon, two Blue Velvet, North Blue, Chippewa, and Blue bell, a high bush type not really for this area, but I have 3 of them started so I’m going to give them some time.

Planting Blueberry Bushes

Prepare your soil before planting blueberries, as noted above. Plant container grown blueberry plants in your garden at the same depth they are growing in the pot. The same rule applies for bare root plants. Look for where the soil line was and plant the blueberries at the same depth they were growing before. The potted plants I planted blossomed and had fruit the first year. Bare root plants may take longer.

To remove a blueberry bush from its container, place your hand around the base of the blueberry plant with your palm facing towards the soil to support the root ball. Gently invert the pot to dump the blueberry bush out. Check for roots that circled around inside the pot, and gently loosen and spread them out before you set your blueberry bush into the planting hole. If planting a bareroot blueberry plant, gently spread the roots in the planting hole. Cover the roots of your plant and gently tamp down the soil. Water the blueberry bush well to settle the soil around the roots, and cover soil with a layer of organic mulch.

Where to Plant Blueberry Bushes

As noted above, blueberry plants prefer slightly acidic soil rich in organic matter. They need full sun for best fruit production, but will tolerate some afternoon shade. Avoid planting blueberries in ground that tends to have standing water or ground that dries out too quickly. Think “edge of forest”.

When to Plant Blueberry Bushes

Bareroot blueberry plants should be planted in early spring, preferably while they are still dormant, to minimize transplant shock.

Container grown blueberry plants do well planted in spring, too, but can also be planted later in the season. It's best to avoid planting in mid-summer, when high temps in the garden can stress plants. Areas with mild winters may do well planting container grown blueberries in fall.

Note: If you are purchasing container grown blueberries from an online nursery, they may need to be acclimated to your area before planting. Start with placing the containers in sheltered, shady spot outdoors, such as a porch. Keep them there for 3-4 hours the first day, bringing them inside at night. Add 1-2 hours of outside time each day, planting at the end of a week. Avoid exposing your young blueberry plants to freezing temperatures when they have fresh baby leaves. If frost threatens after planting, use frost protection.

Locally grown container blueberries that have been sitting outside at a nursery shouldn't need to be acclimated and can be planted directly in the garden.

The Best Blueberry Fertilizer

The texts I have suggest fertilizing blueberries with 2 ounces of ammonium sulfate 18 inches from the plant when you see blossoms and increasing by an ounce each year up to 4 oz per plant per year. In years when organic mulches are applied increase the amount by 1/2. The ammonium sulfate will help acidify the soil. I’m currently gathering pine needles for mulch to keep the weeds down, which also helps to acidify the soil. Blueberries are a shallow rooted shrub and don’t compete well with grass, so they will really benefit from a good mulching.

One of the best discoveries I have made is how the blueberry plants respond to earthworm castings for fertilizer. My nephew gave me a 5 gallon pail in the fall and suggested I use it for the blueberries. Since its low nitrogen I figured it would be OK, but it triggered a growth spurt and even a few blossoms in October.

How to Fertilize Blueberries the Right Way

Now when the blueberries are starting to bud, I fertilize my blueberry bushes with earthworm castings and they do great. From my experience, a complete organic blueberry fertilizer gives results that chemicals such as Miracle Grow can’t match. I pull back the mulch at the base of the blueberry bush, and spread an inch of two of worm castings, and then move the mulch back into place around the blueberry plant.

I recommend worm castings as the best blueberry fertilizer I've tried to date. You can click here to order worm castings online for blueberry fertilizer. Another organic blueberry fertilizer option is EcoScraps Organic Berry Plant Food (order here). I haven't tried this one yet since I have a local source of worm casting fertilizer, but it's a smaller package, so may be handier to use if you have to fertilize just a couple of blueberry plants. (More info on organic fertilizers here.)

Best Blueberry Mulch

A good layer of mulch will help keep up the moisture level stable, and cut down on the amount of time spent watering. I would say the best blueberry mulch is pine needles. As they decay they will continue to supply nutrients and help maintain the correct pH.

If you can’t get pine needles, bark or wood chips over wet newspaper would be my next choice, although I haven’t tried it. Each spring, I would suggest pulling up the mulch and adding organic material such as compost or castings around the base of the blueberry plant to keep the ground healthy. Spring is the best time to add blueberry fertilizer, as noted above.

Healthy soil = healthy plants. Plants in the healthiest soil will produce the healthiest berries. Remember, these bushes have the potential to provide many years of delicious berries, so they are worth the extra effort.

Blueberry Care – Watering

Learning how to care for blueberries is fairly straightforward. Once you prep the soil, fertilizer and mulch, the main thing to watch during the growing season is watering. Blueberries need around an inch of water per week, and water is extra important when the berries are growing. Blueberry bushes set fruit next year on this year's growth, so you want to make sure to care for your blueberry plants well throughout the season.

Blueberry Care – Protecting Blueberry Plants for Birds and Other Animals

The first problem I ran into with blue berries is that every wild animal eats them, and not just the berries. They started with the newly planted bushes. First the deer came to browse and then the rabbits, and the first 6 plants I put in turned into 2 inch stubs.

I fenced the next planting with 3 foot wire, but I still had problems with the deer jumping the fence, so last year I went to a 6 1/2 ft fence. To keep the birds out I built a frame work out of T post, chicken wire, tube steel and conduit, then ran wires to support plastic bird netting. This created safe haven for the plants to grow and berries to ripen pest free. Having the netting elevated instead of just draped over the plants provides better protection and makes the plants easier to access for harvest and care.

I know there are products to repel deer and rabbits but I'm not convinced in their effectiveness. Same with different tactics to repel hungry birds – nothing is going to be as effective as a physical fence. When you price fencing materials they may seem expensive, but remember a blueberry planting can last 30 years if you manage it properly, so it will be worth it in the long term.

Growing Blueberries in Containers, Including Overwintering Instructions

For detailed blueberry container planting information, please see http://hort.uwex.edu/articles/growing-blueberries-containers. Excerpt from the article:

Because containers do not provide adequate insulation from the cold, be sure to protect container-grown blueberries during the winter to prevent root damage. In mid- to late October, bury containers in the ground at a site where snow is likely to accumulate and where plants will be protected from cold winter winds. Mulch the soil surface with four to eight inches of straw in mid-November or cover the bushes with burlap. Prevent rabbit damage by placing chicken wire fencing or hardware cloth around the bushes. During early to mid-spring, remove containers from the ground and place them in full sun. Alternatively, containers can be left buried in the soil as long as the containers have proper drainage holes and the site where the containers are buried is well drained and exposed to full sun.

How to Plant Blueberries in Pots

Additional information on growing blueberries in containers, including overwintering, can be found at: Growing Blueberries in Containers by Vijai Pandian, UW-Extension Brown County and Rebecca Harbut, UW-Madison Horticulture.

How to Prune Blueberries

Here’s a good post from Oregon State University Extension on proper pruning techniques for blueberries, “Prune blueberries yearly for more fruit“, which includes the following steps:

“Remove the low growth that would touch the ground when loaded with fruit. Cut out short, soft shoots that develop from the base of the plant late in the season.
Prune off canes and twigs damaged by winter injury, mechanical causes, diseases or insects. Cut out the unproductive canes: those that haven't produced much new growth on one-year-old canes, which have buds and are dull in color.
If you have been pruning every year, it is best to remove the two oldest (most unproductive) canes each winter.
Prune to let light down into the plant center.
If your plants tend to overbear, with numerous small fruits rather than larger ones, thin the fruit buds by clipping back some of the small shoots carrying a heavy load of flower buds. Blueberry flower buds are near the tips of the past season's growth and are large and plump, compared to the small scale-like “leaf” buds.”

How to Transplant Mature Blueberry Plants

Yes, you can transplant mature blueberry bushes. It’s best done in late winter or early spring. This is a pretty good guide, although I would try to give the sulfur a longer rest period before planting. http://www.gardenguides.com/112707-transplant-mature-blueberry-bush.html.

How to Clone Blueberries from Mature Plants

See http://homeguides.sfgate.com/graft-clone-blueberries-73089.html for instructions on cloning your own blueberry plants.

This post is by Laurie Neverman’s brother, Richard Poplawski. Since his service in the Marines, Rich has been a mechanic, fabricator and “fix just about anything” guy for over 20 years. He lives in northwest Wisconsin in the farmhouse that was owned by his grandparents, and maintains a large orchard and perennial plantings, as well as a vegetable garden. He loves spending time with his grandkids, introducing them to gardening or getting in some fishing with “Papa Rich”.

His posts on the site include:

First published in 2012, updated in 2017, 2018.

The post Growing Blueberries – Quick Guide and Master Grower’s Tips appeared first on Common Sense Home.

Small Garden Ideas – 10 Tips to Grow More Food in Less Space

May 3, 2018 by chris

Small gardens have seen big growth in recent years. From rooftop gardens to urban homesteads, people are taking back the control of their food supply by planting vegetable gardens in front yards, backyards, patios and anywhere else they have a little space – even kitchen counters. Through creative gardening techniques, people are growing enough food in a small vegetable garden to sustain their families, producing high yields in small spaces. Some even have enough left over to sell and generate an income on less than 1/10 of an acre.

If you are like me, you don’t have the luxury of living on a farm or owning acreage, but that shouldn’t stop you from growing your own food.

Here are ten garden ideas for small spaces to help you grow more food in a smaller footprint.

#1 – Use Edible Landscaping

Have you ever heard the saying “Grow food not grass?” It’s a good motto to adopt. Grass depletes lawns of their nutrients, requires a lot of water to maintain, and serves very little purpose other than being eye candy, not to mention the constant mowing. You can take a 10'x10′ patch of grass and turn it into a beautiful edible garden, which can feed your family and be aesthetically pleasing.

Look at your yard and see what is in your landscape that doesn’t serve a greater purpose. Can you replace that juniper bush with a blueberry bush? What about the ornamental grass with lemon grass, kale, or other edible greens? Do you have a small tree that you can replace with a dwarf fruiting tree? Once you start to look at your landscape as a means to serve you nutritionally instead of aesthetically, you open up a whole new world of gardening opportunities.

Some plants that make a great addition to an edible landscape include:

Rhubarb
Swiss Chard
Peppers
Artichokes
Amaranth
Beets
Lettuce
Sunflowers
Cabbage
Nasturtiums
Banana Plants
Sweet Potatoes
Strawberries
Dwarf Fig Tree
Herbs

See “Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist” for more information on edible landscaping.

#2 – Invite Pollinators

Planting to invite pollinators on purpose is something we often overlook. If you are planting a small food garden on a patio, balcony, or are creating a garden for the first time in your yard, it is crucial to create a habitat that invites pollinators. Mix flowers in with your vegetables or herbs to attract pollinators and add a pop of color. Never underestimate the value of pollinators; they are one of the key elements to your gardens success.

Some edible herbs that welcome pollinators into your garden are:

Anise Hyssop: Agastache Foreniculum
Basil: Ocimum Basilicum
Bee Balm: Monarada
Borage: Borago Officinalis
Dill: Anethum Graveolens
Fennel: Ferula Communis
Rosemary: Rosmarinus Offcinalis
Yarrow: Achillea Millefolium

See “Vegetable Companion Planting in the Garden” for more companion plant ideas to attract pollinators, and “Top 10 Edible Flowers” for flowers that both you and the bees can enjoy.

#3 – Use Mounds and Spirals to Create More Growing Area

If you have a flat landscape, you can create more soil surface to grow a garden by adding soil elevation. (See Hugelkultur below.) Think three dimensional gardening, instead of two dimensional. You can grow more on a mound than you can on flat land, so build a mound or elevated spiral to create more planting surface to increase your small garden yield. Mounds and spirals also create great focal points in a small garden landscape.

For example, say you have a 5 sqft area of flat growing space; you can only plant a garden that is 5 sqft. But if you add a 2 ft mound in the middle of that 5 sqft and taper it down, now you’ve created almost double the square footage of gardening space on that same piece of land.

Hugelkultur (HOO-gul-culture) meaning hill culture or hill mound: Instead of putting those branches, leaves and grass clippings in bags by the curbside…build a hugel bed. Simply mound logs, branches, leaves, grass clippings, straw, cardboard, petroleum-free newspaper, manure, compost or whatever other biomass you have available, top with soil and plant your veggies.

#4 – Fertilize, Fertilize, Fertilize

If you are gardening in small spaces like container gardening, garden boxes and raised beds, you have pay extra attention to your soil's nutritional needs. Plants deplete the nutrients at a quicker rate with small gardening than large-scale gardening. Add organic compost, top-dress soil and spray with compost tea regularly. Rotate crops by not planting the same type of plant in the same spots each year. Healthy soil promotes healthy plants, and healthy plants provide better nutrition and can resist pest and disease.

I use:

Neptune's Harvest fish and seaweed fertilizer for everything
compost
worm compost
compost tea (from worm castings, molasses & neptunes)
Epsom salt
egg shells
coffee grounds
goat and chicken poop

Biointensive Gardening: Biointensive agriculture is an organic agricultural system that focuses on achieving maximum yields from a minimum area of land, while simultaneously increasing biodiversity and sustaining the fertility of the soil. The goal of the method is long term sustainability on a closed system basis. It is particularly effective for backyard gardeners and smallholder farmers in developing countries, and also has been used successfully on small-scale commercial farms

#5 – Choose Fruits and Vegetables That Give You the Best Yield in a Small Space

Pick plant varieties that maximize your available space. For example if you only have 1sq ft of gardening space available, don’t plant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. in that space. You will only receive one harvest from these plants, and they take 1sq ft space per plant.

Instead, opt for plants with high yields for small spaces, like:

radishes
lettuce
greens
carrots
garlic
onions
spinach
vertically growing plants

Grow anything that vines (tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pole beans, grapes, and other vine fruits) on a trellis. (See #7 below.) Try potato towers for an easy harvest in a small garden footprint.

#6 – Plant in the Space You Have – Backyard, Front Yard and Patio Garden Ideas

Look at every small space with some sun as an opportunity to grow food: porch, balcony, roof, landscape, windowsill, fence, mailbox, driveway, walkway, decks, or by swings. Explore the opportunities right outside your door.

Mailbox – You can grow grapes or another vining plant around a mailbox post

Walkway – Line your walkway with cabbage, kale, mustards or other eye pleasing edibles.

Fence – Hang garden boxes from your fence or plant vining produce.

#7 – Vertical Gardening, When you Can’t Grow Out— Grow Up

One of the best ways to maximize your space is growing vertically. There are several benefits to growing vertically, including:

increased yield
better pest management
visual interest
create privacy
ease of harvesting

By growing plants vertically you help reduce gardening problems like leaf fungus and fruit rot because air is circulating through the plant reducing moisture buildup and the fruit is off the ground.

You can save on water usage by watering at the root of the plant where it is needed instead of wasting water by runoff from watering the plant from above. Harvesting is easier because you’re not bending over breaking your back. You can see the produce easier

There are many different trellis mediums you can use to garden vertically. Pretty much anything the plant tendrils can latch onto, the plant can grow up; lattice, wire, bamboo, pallet, netting, rope, I’ve even seen the springs from a baby crib. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

To learn more about vertical gardening read, “Transform Your Landscape with Vertical Gardening: 10 Reasons to Grow Up Instead of Out“.

#8 – Dwarf Fruiting Trees

Almost any fruit tree you can imagine is now available in a dwarf variety, allowing you to grow fresh fruit in a small yard.

On our small little slice of heaven (1/4 acre) we have; 2 lemon trees, 2 lime trees, 1 keylime tree, 2 tangerine trees, 3 fig trees, multiple plum trees (one planted and several volunteers), 1 blood orange tree, 1 grapefruit tree, 2 pear trees, and a fruit cocktail tree that produces; plums, peaches, apricots, and nectarines.

When growing fruit trees, keep in mind that many varieties need to cross pollinate, so you may have to buy two. Even if a fruit tree is advertised as ‘self-pollinating’, they will produce better if they have another tree to cross pollinate with.

#9 – Use Companion Planting

Use companion planting to grow plants under other plants or trees to grow additional crops and increasing your yield. Plant carrots under tomatoes, radishes or beets under cucumbers, pole beans with potatoes or radishes, grow garlic, onions, and herbs under trees to maximize your harvest and space.

A perfect example of this gardening style is known as the Three Sisters. The three sisters is a Native American method of gardening and consist of planting corn, squash, and beans together. The three crops benefit from each other, the corn provides a trellis for the beans to climb, the beans provide nitrogen for the corn and squash, and the squash helps prevent weeds from growing by blocking sunlight to the soil and creates a microclimate which aids at retaining water.

See Vegetable Companion Planting in the Garden for more detailed companion planting ideas.

#10 – Plant indoors

Do you have a sunny window? Turn it into a mini garden. You can grow many herbs indoors successfully like basil, chives, parsley, cilantro, thyme, and ginger. Try your hand at micro greens or sprouts – both have a high nutritional content.

Micro Gardening: “Micro-gardening” is the intensive cultivation of a wide range of vegetables, roots and tubers, and herbs in small spaces, such as balconies, patios and rooftops. While urban residents have long grown vegetables in backyard plots, modern micro-gardening makes use of containers such as plastic-lined wooden crates, custom-built tables and even old car tires. It integrates horticulture production techniques with environmentally friendly technologies suited to cities, such as rainwater harvesting and household waste management.

Mushrooms (a tasty source for vitamin D) grow great indoors and many grocery stores sell starter kits. Grow a dwarf lemon or mandarin orange tree indoors to add beauty, color and fruit. Lettuce pots grow well indoors providing you with fresh salad ingredients all year. See “Fresh Food from Small Spaces – Grow Fresh Food in the City or Suburbs” for more micro-gardening ideas.

Never let a lack of space prevent you from growing your own food. You will be amazed with what you can do with a little growing space. We'd love to read your comments about how you make the most out of your small gardening space!

“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.” ― Abraham Lincoln

Small Scale Gardening Books You May Enjoy

Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy
Square Food Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
Straw Bale Gardening by Joel Karsten
Vertical Gardening by Derek Fell

Don't forget to check out “Common Sense Gardening – Home Garden Ideas from Planting to Harvest” for a full listing of all the gardening posts on the site. You can also get free garden planning templates here.

Other posts by Amber Bradshaw:

This post is by Amber Bradshaw of My Homestead Life. Amber is a environmentalist, homesteader, garden and outdoor enthusiast. She is a wife and mother of three. Amber owns a contracting business with her husband. She was President of the local Herb Society for the last three years, a 4-H Leader, and runs a CSA. She lives on the east coast with her family on a little over 1/4 acre and encourages others to do big things with small spaces.

When not out in the garden you can find her sharing her latest homestead tips at My Homestead Life, on Facebook, or on Pinterest.

Originally published in 2015, updated in 2017, 2018.

The post Small Garden Ideas – 10 Tips to Grow More Food in Less Space appeared first on Common Sense Home.

Rural Internet Options – A Comparison of Rural Internet Services

May 1, 2018 by chris

Living in the country has its benefits – lower cost per acre, fewer regulations and more freedom. But with those benefits comes a distinct disadvantage – slow or no rural internet options. Fast rural internet can be like looking for a unicorn, but for the homesteading commuter, farmer or rural entrepreneur, high speed rural internet access can be a necessity.

Summary

Research any internet provider before you commit. Choose cable if you can get it. Select DSL second, then cellphone MiFi or hotspot. Satellite and local point to point services are your 3rd option – pick whichever is the better price, speed and value. Remember to check with local power utilities and local government to see if there are unique options.

5 Rural Internet Options

There are four rural internet options when you live far out in the country:

Cable – unlikely but check to make sure
DSL – CenturyLink and other landline phone providers generally have at least slow DSL available
Cellular – a MiFi (or hotspot) with unlimited data may be a bit pricey but it will get you access
Satellite – download limits and high prices, make this the last option
Check for Regional/Local Services

It is possible you may have other rural high speed internet options. Some communities created co-ops that provide DSL, regional WiFi or even municipal fiber networks. Some folks drive to a local library, fast food restaurant or other public internet access location for temporary high speed access. Avoid satellite if you can, they know they are a provider of last choice – so their service and support is poor even compared to cable and phone DSL services.

When looking for high speed internet for rural areas, try negotiating a test period for a link. Ask for ALL associated costs, fees, support costs and charges. Try to find someone who is using the service and ask how they like it. If you live in the country you will likely have trouble streaming YouTube, NetFlix or Amazon video and may not be able to make reliable voice/video internet access. Avoid any devices or services that use data (bandwidth) indiscriminately, such as “helpers” like the Echo Dot or internet connected appliances. These can tie up your connection or max out your available downloa very quickly.

Summary of Internet for Rural Areas

Latency	Country	Stability	Cost per GB
Cable Internet	Good to Great	Ok to Great	Ok to Great	$
Phone Company DSL	Poor to Good	Ok to Great	Ok to Great	$
Cellular Internet	Poor to Good	Poor to Good	Poor to Great	$$$
Satellite – worst	Poor to Good	Terrible to Ok	Terrible to Ok	$$$

**satisfaction for services vary by location and provider – research locally before investing

Some Widely Available Rural Internet Providers

Earthlink http://www.earthlink.net provides satellite, and wireless internet in limited areas
HughesNet https://www.hughesnet.com/get-started (satellite)
AT&T https://www.att.com/internet/fixed-wireless.html (point to point wireless)
Exede https://www.exede.com/ (satellite) – basically the same as WildBlue
Dish https://www.dish.com/internet/ (satellite)
Google Fi https://fi.google.com/about/ (cellular)

Other internet service options could include internet provided by local municipalities, local power companies or even co-ops. Internet options for rural areas can vary widely, so do your research before jumping to satellite.

3 Main Factors that Affect Internet Performance

Internet performance for each of the four sources is based on three factors: Speed (Bandwidth), Latency (Lag) and Stability (packet loss). Each factor impacts performance in a different way.

Speed

Higher numbers are better. Speed affects the amount of time to transfer large files. The technical term is bandwidth, because it is technically a combination of speed and amount of data transferred per second. Speed or bandwidth is measured in Mbps (or mega bits per second).

Upload and Download speeds will be different. Upload is normally 5x to 20x slower than download speeds.

A rough analogy is that Mbps is comparable to miles per hour (mph). Most service providers will list internet speed as “up to ##Mbps” – they will generally not guarantee the highest speed. We (and other friends on rural internet) rarely see anywhere close to the maximum possible speed theoretically available for our link. If possible, have your rural internet service provider do a speed test before you commit to a long term contract, so you know what you're getting.

Latency

Lower numbers are better. Latency affects response time. High latency can make a Skype or Google hangout call intermittent or choppy or fail altogether. If latency is low you generally get better quality realtime voice/video. Latency also is a big factor in online gaming. Latency or lag is a measure of the delay for a communications link.

A link can have 100Mbps high speed and 1000ms high latency. A simple analogy would be a highway that permits up to 100 miles per hour, but with 1000 second delay on the on and off ramps to the highway (fast on the highway and slow on/off). So every time you start to use your link, you start accessing, but there's a delay getting on.

A different link might be 100Mbps and 1ms latency, which would be like a 100 miles per hour and on/off ramps would be only 1 second (fast on the highway and fast on/off). When you use this link, you won't have a significant wait time to get going. Latency applies to uploads and downloads equally (it affects all information flowing to and from the internet).

Stability

Stability affects overall connectivity. A very busy service may have inconsistent service, like a road with bumper to bumper or stop and go traffic. A technical term that describes poor stability is “packet loss”. Zero or low packet loss is preferred.

Inconsistent service means the link stops working for periods of time causing perceived slowness, disconnects in voice/video calls, disconnects in games or lost sessions in online editing tools. So consistency of speed and latency both matter.

A very stable or consistent connection is more reliable and service is more predictable. Stability is a problem generally when a link is overloaded or “saturated”. This can occur due to the internet service provider oversubscribing – i.e. selling more bandwidth to each individual than they have in total. We see this regularly on our connection. During the day, when many people are at work, the connection is more stable. In the evening, when more people are home and using the service, it becomes difficult (if not impossible) to do things like stream a movie or youtube video.

Using Two Internet Connections at Once

We have a local provider that provides a dish that points to a nearby tower that gives us internet. The service is a point to point wireless internet connection, which is marketed as “wireless DSL”. Because we run an online business, we also have a phone company DSL connection, which is slower but more stable with lower latency. Sometimes one connection drops completely (sometimes both), but this gives us better odds of connecting. We have software and equipment that we manually use to switch between connections. There are options for a router to connect to two different connections.

Piggybacking Off a Better Connection

If you are techie and have line of sight to someone else who has good internet, you can get a point to point wireless connection and make a deal with them to share their internet or even get a 2nd internet connection at the address that can get the good internet.

Satellite Rural Internet

Solution: Compare the current rates and speeds, select the one that meets your needs. Call them and get the service installed.

Pros: It's available nearly everywhere, as it completely removes ground-based “line of sight” from the equation.

Cons: Moderate to expensive. Upload speeds rarely meet the maximums listed. Satellite service can vary dramatically depending on your tree-cover, weather, and latitude and longitude. Satellite regularly has a fixed upload and download speed, and a maximum upload/download amount. If you exceed the amount the link performance is reduced.

DSL and Cable Rural Internet

Solution: Call the cable or cellular provider and get the line installed.

Pros: Faster, more reliable, lower latency and less expensive.

Cons: DSL and Cable are very dependent on distance to the nearest service point. The closer you are the more speed options you will have and the better your service will be.

Cellular Rural Internet

Solution 1: Get an unlimited data plan for your family. Then buy a MiFi unit on the same plan (not all carries allow this). The MiFi unit converts the smartphone data feed to a WiFi signal for your apartment or home. This gives you portable WiFi. It won't be as good as a landline.

Solution 2: Get an unlimited data plan for your family. Then buy an extra backup cellphone on the same unlimited plan and leave it plugged in all the time, and acting as a hotspot. This gives you portable WiFi. It probably won't be as good as a MiFi.

Pros: Portable. Data speeds can be decent even when everything else is slow. Widely available. If you move, it can move with you.

Cons: Price can be moderate to high. Nearly all cellular internet services have data caps. This means that if you exceed the amount of data transferred, your cellular link performance is reduced until the next billing period.

Cellular Signal Note: Cellular is dependent on how close the cell towers are and your effective “line of sight” to those towers. If you have a metal roof, concrete home or metal siding it can reduce or block the signal from cellular internet services. You can get external cellular boosters that relay the cellular signal from inside your house to the nearest cellular tower.

How do I find Internet Service Near Me?

As you probably know, it is hard to find unlimited high speed internet for rural areas. Below is a list of resources that will help you find internet service options in your area.

Note: Maps are not 100% accurate. We've found several services that should be available at our home according to the map, but when we called the internet service providers it turned out that the service stopped on the other side of a nearby highway. In other cases, trees are between us and the nearest towers. The connection should work according to the map, but the trees cause interference.

BroadbandNow https://broadbandnow.com/Fixed-Wireless -enter your zip to find services
RVInternet https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/featured/ -information on various mobile internet options
Best Internet Service Providers https://www.reviews.com/internet-service-providers/
National BroadBand Speed Map: https://www.broadbandmap.gov/speed – some are out of date
FCC Maps https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/maps/ – some are out of date

Many states also have a broadband or high speed internet service provider maps. Also consider asking your local electric power provider and/or local government about high speed internet options.

Making it work!

Modern homesteading is often a mix of old and new. You'll find solar electric panels sitting next to a pile of wood for the stove, printed “how to” manuals used right alongside youtube videos to learn a new skill, and quiet country living paired with virtual friendships around the world. At Common Sense Home, we work to bring you a range of information so you can pick the options that work best for you.

Do you have a rural technology, home business, green building or preparedness question? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Related articles may also find useful:

Internet Security – 12 Steps to Avoid Computer Viruses and Identity Theft

Sole Proprietorship vs LLC – Are all Your Eggs in One Basket?

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) – What You Need to Know

This post was written by August Neverman IV. August is the Chief Information Officer and Information Security Officer of Brown County. He's served on several emergency preparedness teams during his tenure at a local hospital, as well as undergoing emergency response training during his time with the Air National Guard. He and his wife, Laurie, live with their two sons in a Green Built, Energy Star certified home with a permaculture twist.

The post Rural Internet Options – A Comparison of Rural Internet Services appeared first on Common Sense Home.

Mom’s Best Chocolate Pudding Cake Recipe – Easy, From Scratch

May 1, 2018 by chris

Mom's best hot fudge pudding cake is an easy from scratch chocolate pudding cake recipe combines two desserts in one – rich chocolate cake and yummy chocolate fudge pudding sauce. This is not a poke cake. It gets layered by itself, right in the oven. It's great paired up with ice cream or some nice cold milk.

To make the chocolate pudding layer of the cake, you pour a liquid mixture over the top of the cake batter before cooking. Some of you may recognize this technique from the rhubarb pudding cake recipe. It's a little quicker prep time than homemade chocolate pudding, which requires stirring on the stove top. This homemade chocolate pudding cake recipe is made from scratch with common pantry ingredients. No cake mix is needed.

Mom's Best Chocolate Pudding Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour or gluten free flour blend, such as Namaste
1 3/4 cup sugar (divided)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (divided)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (homemade vanilla extract is great if you have it)
3/4 cup chopped nuts (we like walnuts)
1 cup hot water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a square 8 inch pan.

For the chocolate cake: Sift together flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, combine butter, milk, vanilla and chopped nuts. Mix dry sifted dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Beat two minutes and pour into prepared pan.

For the chocolate pudding layer: Blend together 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Stir in hot water and whisk until well blended. Pour gently over top of cake batter.

Bake chocolate pudding cake for 35 minutes, until most of cake looks firm and pudding bubbles around edges. Cool a few minutes to allow pudding to thicken. Serve while still warm for “hot fudge” pudding cake, or enjoy at room temp or chilled chocolate pudding cake. Leftovers, if you have any, are best stored in the refrigerator and eaten within a couple of days.

You can see the pudding layer in the bottom of the pan in the photo below.

Made From Scratch Recipes

My mom was a baker. There was always some homemade treat on the table – except when her six kids polished it off. Even as she got older and the kids left home to have families of their own, visitors could still count on a cup of coffee and some homemade goodies.

Some people are surprised to find I have recipes with white sugar and white flour on the site next to low carb and low sugar options. Kolaches, cinnamon rolls and deep dish pies are the fare that brings back happy family memories from my childhood and my mother. For mom, cooking from scratch was a way to show that you cared. I feel the same way. Now we simply mix old and new, remembering family traditions and adding traditions of our own. Plus – if you share with a group, no one goes into a sugar coma.

If you enjoy baking from scratch, check out my cookbook featuring a mix of recipes old and new, “Never Buy Bread Again – 20+ Homemade Bread Recipes“. It's dedicated to my mom, gone but never forgotten.

You may also enjoy:

Easy Chocolate Brownies
Sourdough Brownies – These are great for using up excess starter that is not completely active.
Chocolate Chestnut Brownies – Brownie option that's lower in carbs.

Mom's Best Chocolate Pudding Cake Recipe – Easy, From Scratch

This easy chocolate pudding cake recipe combines two desserts in one – rich chocolate cake and decadent chocolate fudge pudding.

Author: Laurie Neverman

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour or gluten free flour blend
1 3/4 cup sugar (divided)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (divided)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped nuts
1 cup hot water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a square 8 inch pan.

For the chocolate pudding layer: Blend together 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Stir in hot water and whisk until well blended. Pour gently over top of cake batter.

The post Mom’s Best Chocolate Pudding Cake Recipe – Easy, From Scratch appeared first on Common Sense Home.

10 Home Remedies for Acid Reflux and The Problem with PPIs for GERD

February 9, 2018 by chris

Recently, some friends asked me for home remedies for acid reflux, so it seemed like a great topic to add to the Home Remedies Collection. Whether you call it acid reflux, GERD, or gastroesophageal reflux disease, it doesn't feel good. In this post we'll cover quick fixes for acid reflux and GERD symptom relief, long term solutions to improve digestive health, acid reflux triggers to avoid and the side effects of PPIs.

What is GERD? What is Acid Reflux?

GERD is short for gastroesophageal reflux disease. “Gastro” deals with your stomach, “esophageal” deals with your esophagus, the tube that delivers food to the stomach, so “gastroesophageal” is where the two meet. “Reflux” is backwards flow – in this case, food and acid flowing back up the esophagus. “Disease” generally indicates a chronic condition, as opposed to occasional acid reflux.

Symptoms of acid reflux and GERD are similar, but acid reflux commonly passes quickly or is only a problem once in a while. GERD sticks around, and prompts many people to get on prescription acid blockers. These acid blocking medications may calm symptoms, but they can also cause other problems, which I'll discuss below. GERD may also cause other long term issues such as scar tissue buildup at the base of the esophagus.

What Causes Acid Reflux and GERD?

As we age, our stomachs produce less acid, and our digestive enzymes become depleted. Many of us have had our helpful bacteria knocked out by antibiotic medication. The stomach tries to physically work harder to break down the food. The sphincter that closes the top of the stomach may also weaken with age or disease, allowing it to open when it shouldn't.

GERD and acid reflux are commonly linked to harder stomach churning, forcing stomach juices into the esophagus. In this article, we'll cover both quick fixes and long term solutions for acid reflux and GERD.

Acid Reflux and GERD Symptoms

Symptoms of acid reflux and GERD include upset stomach, regurgitation, and the classic mid-chest burning sensation known as heartburn. Sometimes there's a bitter or bile taste in the back of the throat. Lying down or bending over may make the pain worse.

#1 Home Remedy for Acid Reflux – Apple cider vinegar

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is one of the most popular home remedies for acid reflux. Some people get acid reflux relief by consuming between 1/2 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons of ACV in room temperature or warm water right before a meal. Others prefer a similar dosage upon rising in the morning and before going to bed at night. My husband does a shot of plain apple cider vinegar after a meal for acid reflux relief.

Start with a smaller amount of ACV and work up to larger amounts if needed. The flavor is pretty strong, even in water, and some people find it very unpleasant. You can also mix apple cider vinegar into tea in place of lemon. Organic ACV is best, because apples are at the top of the Dirty Dozen list of contaminated produce. You can learn how to make your own homemade apple cider vinegar from apple scraps here.

#2 – Pickle Juice

If you don't like vinegar on its own, you can get your vinegar with a little flavor bump via pickle juice. Many of us have an open jar of pickles in the fridge, so pickle juice is an easy option for acid reflux treatment.

Just take a shot with meals, or any time you're hit with acid reflux. Check out my neighbor's recipe for “No Canning Required Dill Pickles” for the easiest homemade pickles you've ever made.

#3 – Apples, Apple Sauce and Apple Cider

Whether you choose fresh apples, apple sauce or apple cider, apples provide relief to many when heartburn acts up. Some use them when acid reflux symptoms hit, others add more apples to their diets. Chilled applesauce can do double duty, cooling and coating for an acid reflux home remedy. My guess is that the natural pectin in apples coats and soothes an upset stomach. others suggest it may be the trace minerals or alkalinity. You can check out apple cider drink recipes here, and learn how to make homemade applesauce here.

#4 – Aloe Vera

Just as it soothes burns on the outside, this anti-inflammatory plant can soothe “burns” on the inside. It's available in juices, gels and capsules, or you can juice your own aloe vera plants. Just cut open a leaf and scoop out the inside pulp. Consume aloe vera after meals, on an empty stomach between meals or just before bedtime as an acid reflux remedy or treatment for GERD. *Do not use while nursing or pregnant.

#5 – Lemon

Lemon juice is #5 in our acid reflux remedy countdown. Try some lemonade made with real lemons or a glass of lemon water with your meal for a more pleasant way to add a little acidity to your meal. *Note: Remember not to drink large quantities of liquid with meals. Although some fad diets recommend this to help fill you up, too much liquid dilutes digestive acids. This means that your stomach has to physical churn harder to break down food. Sip your drinks with meals, don't guzzle.

#6 – Mustard

Mustard is another popular option for acid reflux treatment. Most folks down a spoonful after a meal to get rid of acid reflux, with yellow mustard preferred over other mustard types. This could be linked to mustard's vinegar content, which give it some acidity, plus the mustard seeds themselves contain anti-inflammatory compounds and phytonutrients. Maybe our ancestors were on to something other than just good flavor when they paired up this spicy condiment with heavy foods?

#7 – Ginger

You can use commercial ginger teas, or simply slice some fresh ginger and steep it in hot water, then slowly sip. Other people nibble a bit of crystallized ginger, suck on ginger candies or chew ginger gum for acid reflux relief.

#8 – Papaya and other Digestive Enzymes

Papayas, fresh or dried, contains enzymes that help your body break down heavy meals. You can also purchase papaya enzyme in convenient tablet form, sometimes in combination with other enzymes. Take enzymes with a meal, as recommended on the packaging. For fresh or dried papaya, a small portion should do the trick. My neighbor, Betty (of Betty's Dill Pickles and Buttermilk Rye Bread), says that papaya enzymes worked great for her as an acid reflux remedy.

#9 – Probiotics and Live Cultured Foods

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, as we age things tend to slow down a little, and it's not uncommon for our guts to get out of whack. Healthy humans have more bacteria cells than human cells, so when you take medications that kill bacteria, you can really mess things up. If you're suffering from GERD, I strongly recommend that probiotics be a part of your home remedies for GERD.

To help rebuild a happy, healthy microbiome inside your belly, where much or our digestion is actually done by bacteria (true fact), we can consume foods or supplements that contain healthy bacteria that we need. These healthy bacteria are also known as “probiotics“, and contribute to good health in many ways. This is not likely to provide fast relief, although personally I do find that drinking kombucha with meals helps settle my stomach, especially when the food is a little questionable.

You can read learn how to brew kombucha at home in the post, “Kick the Soda Habit – Brew Your Own Kombucha“, and we also have a number of Live Culture Food Recipes in the Recipe Index.

#10 – Reduce Stress

I haven't seen anyone talk about this, but I *know* my husband has more trouble with his acid reflux when his stress levels go up at work. That “stomach churning feeling” really does churn up your stomach, and sometimes tear up your esophagus. Figure out some way to let go of your stress and tension. Get some time out in the garden (you'll probably eat better, too). Take a walk, stretch, meditate, talk about your troubles with a supportive friend or family member. Let it go! Whatever it is is not worth sacrificing your health.

Triggers to Avoid for Acid Reflux

Most folks who live with acid reflux have some idea of what triggers the pain, such as spicy foods, fatty foods, chocolate, coffee, alcohol, or simply too much food. Here are some acid reflux triggers that you may not know.

Medications (Prescriptions and OTC), including:

Ibuprofen
Osteoporosis drugs known as bisphosphenates—including blockbusters like alendronate (Fosamax), ibandronate (Boniva), and risedronate (Actonel)
Blood pressure medication (calcium channel blockers and beta blockers)
aspirin
sleeping pills and sedatives
Iron supplements
antidepressants
antibiotics (as we discussed earlier)
potassium supplements

You can read more at “9 Medications that Can Cause Heartburn at Health.com“.

Fish Oil Supplements – Fish oil is great for many things, but it doesn't agree with everyone. I take mine with meals.

Timing of meals – My husband is prone to acid reflux, and he finds that if he eats too late in the evening, he's more likely to get acid reflux at bedtime. Be sure to give your meal plenty of time to process before you lay down at night.

Peppermint – Sometimes peppermint is stomach soothing, but you can have too much of a good thing. I like my peppermint nice and gentle, steeped in an occasional glass of tea.

I hope this post is helpful to you if you suffer from acid reflux. Remember, if pain is severe or persistent, see a trained healthcare professional. Pain is our body's way to get our attention.

The Problem with PPIs for Acid Reflux/GERD

Many folks resort to proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) such as esomeprazole (Nexium®), lansoprazole (Prevacid®), and omeprazole (Prilosec®). Long term use of PPIs has been linked to problems such as:

Stroke
Dementia
Chronic Liver Disease
Kidney Damage
Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD)
Osteoporosis, decreased bone mineral density (BMD), and a 35% increased risk of fractures

Sources:

Why I Don't Recommend Baking Soda for Acid Reflux

Many people use of a spoonful of baking soda in water for heartburn relief, but there are a couple reasons I didn't include it. First off, baking soda is very high in sodium, so taking an entire spoonful of it could be a problem for some people. Second, and more importantly, adding baking soda to an already over-full stomach can cause the stomach to explode – no joke. This is really rare, because you really need to have a lot of pressure build up, but here's an example from The New York Times, “In Rare Cases of Indigestion, Baking Soda May Be a Peril“:

“I nearly died after taking this stuff,” said William Graves, who suffered a rupture through the wall of his stomach in 1979 after taking baking soda mixed in water for indigestion after a big meal. The 64-year-old resident of Bethesda, Md., who is editor of National Geographic Magazine, said that only emergency surgery saved his life and that six more operations were needed to repair the damage.
He said the incident occurred while he was on vacation after an evening when he consumed two vodka martinis, a bowl of chili with corn chips on the side, a salad, corn bread, a glass of red wine, cookies and an after-dinner brandy. Soon after going to bed, he awakened with indigestion and mixed a teaspoon of baking soda with a small amount of water. Less than a minute after drinking it, he said, he collapsed in agony when a two-and-a-half-inch rupture occurred in the inner curve of his stomach.

Just make sure to use your common sense when trying any home remedy – even those that seem pretty boring.

Future Food – Not One Solution, But Many, for How to Feed the World

February 9, 2018 by chris

When you think of “future food”, what comes to mind? Most information I've seen on the subject talks about lab grown “meat”, eating bugs, 3D printed foods and other synthetic options. It's all about mass production and convenience. I think these ideas are missing some important pieces of the picture, and I'd like to offer an alternative food future.

Some friends and I had a conversation about the future of food recently, and it got me thinking. Our conversation started with a discussion of lab grown “meat”, which just got another investment from an industrial farming company. I'm not a lab meat hater. It's a little creepy and incredibly resource intensive, but less nasty than some things they're growing in labs.

The thing is, what these lab food people don't understand is that in a healthy ecosystem, we are part of that ecosystem. Right now, the focus is simply on creating product to meet demand. People being isolated from the reality of food production is a big part of why it's as screwed up as it is. We need to connect people to their food again.

How do we do that, and feed the world? Everything is so interconnected that there is no easy fix. That said, if we keep doing what we've been doing, things aren't likely to get better. We're already seeing weeds and insects becoming resistant to herbicides and pesticides. Deforestation and lack of clean water are critical problems. Too many people are hungry, too many people are fat. It's time for a different approach. Let's start with a little background information.

Feeding the World

Right now, there are over 7 billion people in the word. By 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates there will be nearly 10 billion people. Most of that population growth is expected to happen in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where resources are already stretched. By 2025, two out of every three people are expected to live in the city.

As of 2017, about 800 million people are chronically hungry. 2 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. At the same time we have people starving, obesity in increasing worldwide. Around the world, roughly one third of food grown is not eaten. It's wasted, lost, tossed for not meeting cosmetic standards – getting food from field to table is a challenge. Producers may be forced to sell low because they can't store product, and then buy high when they need it out of season.

Weather extremes don't help the mix. We've been blessed with an unusually stable stretch of weather for decades, but lately things are a little more active. Hurricanes, floods, droughts, wildfires – it's tough to produce a crop when you're fighting just to survive.

The global challenges facing food and agriculture identified in the UN Future of Food an Agriculture analysis include:

Challenges to Food Stability and Availability

Sustainably improve agricultural productivity to meet increasing demand.
Ensure a sustainable natural resource base.
Address climate change and intensification of natural hazards.
Prevent transboundary pests and diseases.

Challenges to Food Access and Utilization

Eradicate extreme poverty and reduce inequality.
End hunger and all forms of malnutrition
Improve income-earning opportunities in rural areas and address the root causes of migration.
Build resilience to protracted crises, disasters and conflicts.

Systemic Challenges

Make food systems more efficient, inclusive and resilient.
Meet the needs for coherent and effective national and international governance.

Future Food – Urban Agriculture

From an biodiversity/security standpoint, distributed small polyculture production is much less prone to be wiped out by any one event (like the Irish potato famine). We need not one solution, but many. Since urban areas continue to grow, to keep food local, some food must grow in urban areas. Keep your food production close to your population and you reduce or eliminate transportation costs. In developing countries, food storage is an important issue. Creating low input options for food preservation, such as solar dehydrators, would greatly expand food availability.

Vertical Farms

High rise aquaponic and aeroponic gardens and farms are starting to make an appearance in urban areas. Food grows vertically instead of horizontally. In most cases, vertical farms are completely indoors, with all light, water and nutrients provided artificially. Improvements in computer monitoring and robotics allow much of the work of tending these gardens to be done automatically. LED lighting is also making vertical farms more cost efficient to operate.

Greens are the easiest plants to grow because of modest light and space requirements. Pests and disease problems are limited due to the isolation of the plants. The initial cost of vertical farms is high, but lower labor costs and shipping costs help balance those costs. Since the environment is strictly controlled, climate changes have little influence – unless the power goes out.

Aquaponic Farms

Aquaponics is a hybrid of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (raising plants in nutrient rich water instead of soil). The fish poop feeds the plants, the plants clean the water for the fish. Instead of one crop, growers get two. Aquaponic growing ranges from small home units to large commercial operations. Sometimes plants are grown inside with the use of grow lights, sometimes they're grown outside or in greenhouses.

One champion of aquaponics was Will Allen, and his organization, Growing Power. Will promoted urban agriculture and aquaponics for over two decades, earning worldwide recognition. Unfortunately, Growing Power demonstrated the “why” better than the “how”. Overextended and out of money, the organization closed its doors in late 2017. It's a good reminder that it takes more than good intentions to succeed.

Successful food production models must also be sound business models. Small food producers need to control costs and avoid the temptation of attempting to do more than they can do well. Lean manufacturing principles can also be applied to farm production. See “The Lean Farm” for additional information.

Community Growing Spaces

Schools, retirement homes, rehabilitation centers and youth centers are all prime areas to develop multi-use food growing areas. Volunteers from the organization can be teamed with paid growers/managers who establish work protocols and production goals.

In addition to the fresh food produced for the facility, gardening provides work skills and therapeutic value, and also strengthens the community. Gardening has been successfully used for rehabilitation therapy as well as being an integral part of school curriculum. Gardening has a number of proven health benefits. (See “Dirt Therapy” for more information.)

High End “Garden to Order”

Right now, many high end developments include amenities such as private exercise areas or pools – but what about private produce? As public awareness grows about problems with the food supply, I believe a niche market will develop to cater to high end consumers. Residents would have the option to work in the garden or simply place their orders for fresh produce.

The same smart stocking expert systems that now track your refrigerator contents and make shopping suggestions could pair with other expert systems. Running low on fresh salad greens? Smart stocking let's you place your order with the groundskeeper, and your order is ready for pick up as you get home from work. Need meat or seafood to compliment what's grown on site? Put in your request and smart stocking scans available vendors in the system and places your order.

This same concept may also be expanded to include online ordering options. With amazon.com and other online retailers pushing into the grocery space, there may be a space for premium options. Sure, some items can hang around in a warehouse for weeks, but truly fresh produce is best within days or even hours.

Personal Urban and Suburban Gardens, Small and Large

Not everyone has a green thumb, but almost everyone could grow something. With self-watering containers and LED grow lights, micro-gardens are easier than ever.

A single tomato plant can produce 20 to 50 pounds of tomatoes or 1600+ calories. If only o.5% of the population of the United States grew a single healthy container tomato plant, that's over 2 billion calories of food. Container plantings are especially well suited for salad greens and fresh herbs. With a growing interest in small space gardening, seed companies have developed varieties specifically suited to container culture. Some good veggies for containers include:

Lettuce and other salad greens
Radishes
Small carrots
Bush beans
Peas
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Peppers – Hot and Sweet
Bush Squash
Potatoes

In the U. S., lawns cover 40 million acres. These lawns are mowed, trimmed and fertilized – to produce nothing but uniform green space. If we shifted even a small portion of these lawns into food crops – enough to provide 1 million calories per acre – that output would be roughly equal to the total calories produced by all wheat and potatoes grown in the country. (For comparison, an acre of wheat yields roughly 5 million calories per acre. An acre of potatoes yields roughly 15,000,000 calories per acre. So 1/15th of an acre of potatoes per acre would meet that mark. You could have your green space and your food.)

Community gardens make open public spaces available for growing gardens. Typically anchored by a strong core of volunteers, they provide extra growing space for those in urban areas. Plots are commonly rented for a nominal fee each season. The garden may also provide some tools and/or basic infrastructure such as raised beds.

Future Food – Rural Agriculture

Smallholders Instead of Megafarms

We had more than 6 million farms in the U.S. at the end of WWII. Now we have less than 2 million. Despite the push for every larger farms, numerous studies indicate that the productivity per acre of smaller farms is higher than that of larger farms. Small, diversified farmers typically grow many different crops on the same piece of land. This means more calories of total production. They also utilize crop waste as animal food, and animal waste as crop fertilizer, closing the resource loop.

Farm subsidies in the U. S. and Europe allow farmers to produce agriculture commodities at a loss. These commodities are then dumped in foreign markets, undercutting local production. The World Bank and IMF have made the problem worse, supporting projects that boost exports while driving subsistence farmers off the land. Increased bio-fuel production has exacerbated the issue, destroying rainforests that could be preserved for both wildlife and food crops.

Another benefit of small farms is the preservation of genetic diversity. A megafarm must grow standardized crop varieties that are well suited to mechanized production to maximize profits. Because small farms often still rely on hand labor, they can grow crops not well suited for mechanized agriculture, including crops that mature over a range of time. Generational farming (where a farm is passed down through generations) often provides the opportunity to develop landraces specifically adapted to a particular area. These landraces (locally adapted crop varieties) may have unique disease resistance, cold tolerance, bloom times or other adaptations. Small, diverse, seed saving farms act as living seed banks.

Permaculture and Perennial Agriculture

The term “permaculture” comes from a combination of “permanent” and “agriculture” or “culture”. Permaculture design elements include human care, earth care and return of abundance or surplus. Planting is typically done in polycultures, or mixed groups of plants. These plantings go together in guilds, where different plants fill different niches in the ecosystem. There are varying heights – groundcover to tall trees – and varying functions – food, soil enrichment, pest control, etc.

Annual crops have a place in permaculture, but the bulk of plantings focus on perennial crops. Perennial crops help prevent soil erosion, which is a huge problem with our current agricultural system. Permaculture also shapes the land with swales, keyline plowing and other features to help trap and collect rainwater. This can transform dessert into an thriving oasis, or recharge depleted aquifers. With clean water being such an endangered and essential resource, improved water management is critical.

Perennial crops also tend to weather climate changes better. We've been blessed with an unusually long period of relatively stable weather, but all good things must come to an end. Perennial crops get a jump start on the season compared to annual crops. They're already in the ground and growing while the annuals are still waiting to be planted. With heavy rains and even flooding, a properly designed perennial planting will be well anchored and divert excess water efficiently around the landscape. It may set a crop back, but is unlikely to destroy it completely. In dry conditions, trees can create their own microclimate through transpiration. Smaller plants take shelter under larger trees, creating a whole new protected ecosystem, pulling moisture from below ground to create an oasis. A permaculture polyculture is more productive and more resilient.

Future Food – Changing Eating Habits

There are over 300,000 edible plant species. Of these, just 15 crops provide 90% of the world's food energy intake. Rice, wheat and maize (corn) account for two-thirds of that 90%. This is a recipe for disaster. If some disease or insect wipes out one of these crops, people will starve.

Our limited diets contribute to another problem – micronutrient deficiency. The FAO estimates show just over half the world's calories come from cereal crops. These crops are often lacking in micronutrients. With a more biodiverse food supply, we could address that problem. Many traditional diets have been displaced by modern convenience foods, including cereal grains. We need to relocalize food supplies and get back to traditional foods.

There's a lot of disagreement about the healthiest diet options – vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore. From a carrying capacity standpoint, vegetarian and omnivore diets that include animal products from land unsuited to standard cultivation are the most sustainable. In a perennial permaculture system, both meat and plant products can be harvested from what would typically only be used as grazing land in conventional agriculture. This further expands the carrying capacity of the land.

Ocean farming and fisheries, properly managed, can also contribute huge volumes of protein and other nutrients to the food supply.

What You Need to Do

Grow Something

Even if it's only a pot of herbs or greens in a window, if everyone grew something, it would make a huge difference in the food supply. A single tomato plant can produce 20 to 50 pounds of tomatoes or 1600+ calories. If only 0.5% of the population grew container tomatoes, that's over 2 billion calories of food.

Encourage community growing spaces

Whether they're in schools or other institutions, or standalone gardens, community gardens build connections between people and from people to their food. People who are good caretakers of their herds and crops appreciate the food on their plates at a whole different level. We need to reconnect people and their food.

Petition lawmakers to allow food growing to replace grass

Many urban and suburban residents have had their gardens ripped out due to local zoning laws. This has to stop. Edible landscaping can be beautiful as well as functional. Public park space could also include space for edibles.

Support Local Growers and a Fair Price for Farmers

If you can, buy direct from growers and pay a fair price. The push for cheap food is destroying small farmers. my friend, Scott Terry from North Country Farmer, shared this in an online group the other day (early Feb 2018):

“In case you haven’t heard, the dairy industry is blood bath right now. There has never been a more depressing time in rural American dairy country than right now. To add insult to injury, Agri-Mark sent out milk checks this week to their farmers without a letter explaining the reason for the even lower price they got They did include a paper with a suicide prevention hotline number in the envelope . Farmers are a little pissed.”

Sam Crandall of Northern Marsh Farms replied:

“Yep, everything farm related is down…unless you're subsidized. Judging by the price of feed I'm guessin' corn is doin' flippin' great. I've had more people trying to buy my pigs/pork for $0.30-$0.50/lb. I'll let my pigs die of old age before I sell that low.”

I know budgets are tight and it's not always easy to make a connection with a grower, but if you can, do it. CSAs and bulk purchases can often make fresh food more affordable for you while still paying farmers a living wage. Be careful at farmers markets. Sometimes you're supporting local growers, sometimes not. Amber shares more on this in her article “The Truth About Farmers Markets- And The Lies Behind The Produce“.

Eat a Variety of Foods

Expand your food choices. As mentioned above, there are thousands of edible plants, but we get most of our calories from just a few. Make it a point to try something new each week. Eat less grain and more vegetables to boost your micronutrient intake. Try different cuts of meat, especially meat on the bone and offal. Make bone broth and schmaltz. Add fermented foods such as homemade kraut to improve digestion and nutrition.

Learn about foraging and edible wild plants. Many of those weeds that pop up in your garden rival high priced imported superfoods for nutrition. You can begin learning about wild edibles in the Weekly Weeder series on the Herbs and Wildcrafting page.

Join Us in Growing the Future

There's a lot more information I could share, but this article is already crazy long for a blog post. If you've stuck with me all the way to end, thanks. If you'd like to do even more, please share the post and help get the word out.

I'm also starting a newsletter specifically dedicated to gardening, in preparation for the launch of our food growing courses in early 2019. With your subscription, you'll get free access to the Common Sense Home Garden Planning Kit, which includes:

Seed purchase log
Planting and Germination record
Seed Starting and Transplanting Calender
Customizable seed sowing schedule
Seed longevity chart
Seed germination rates after storage
Plant spacing chart

You'll also get regular updates throughout the year with gardening tips, and the opportunity to share your ideas for the gardening courses. I want to make sure these courses meet the needs of our readers. This is different than your regular CSH subscription, but you are welcome (and encouraged) to sign up for both. (You can sign up for the main list here.)

References

M. Ahearn, J. Yee, and W. Huffman (2002). “The Effect of Contracting and Consolidation on Farm Productivity,”

V. Uzun (2005). “Large and Small Business in Russian Agriculture: Adaptation to Market,”

Z. Lerman, R. Sutton (2006) Productivity and Efficiency of Small and Large Farms in Moldova

Destroying African Agriculture – The World Bank and the IMF are the real culprits behind the current food crisis

Small Farms Are More Efficient & Sustainable – Organic Consumers Association

The Cost of the Biofuel Boom: Destroying Indonesia’s Forests

Staple Foods – What do people eat? – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Carrying capacity of U.S. agricultural land: Ten diet scenarios

The post Future Food – Not One Solution, But Many, for How to Feed the World appeared first on Common Sense Home.