Thursday Thoughts

We started canning beans yesterday. I love the sight of the jars full of fresh picked and canned beans piling up on the counter. Beans are in my opinoin the most important crop for the homestead. They will grow in any soil and seem to always yeild a good crop. For the space they take up nothing will produce more food for the pantry than beans. Just as everyone else I imagine, we are eating a lot of summer squash fried in butter. Suplemented with meat a couple a squash plants can keep a family filled up for a good part of the summer. The meat chicks are growing up fast. We finaly got some cooler weather, for which I'm thankful. I'll wait for the nights to warm up a little before I turn them out on the grass. We still could use some rain.

Gene Logsdon writes about the joy of eating well....

The question I am most often asked by urbanites goes like this: “But what do you do out there all the time?” And the answer I most often give, sort of facetiously, because that is such a culturally-illiterate question, is: “Eat.” They look puzzled of course. Modern society, irrationally scared to death by fat, calories and cholesterol, doesn’t know how to eat any more, and families rarely sit down together for a meal. It really is a shame. Enjoying a feast of homegrown food is surely my family’s favorite pastime, and Carol’s (my wife’s) family has practically made a sacrament out of it.


Some timeless advice from Andrew Nelson Lytle, from an essay "The Hind Tit"

He must close his ears to these heresies that accumulate about his head, for they roll from the tongues of false prophets. He should know that prophets do not come from cities, promising riches and store clothes. They have always come from the wilderness, stinking of goats and running with lice and telling of a different sort of treasure, one a corporation head would not understand.

If you haven't already stopped by, be sure to check out A Bit of Earth Farm . A journal of the life of a 19 year old girl living and learning on a farm in Ohio.

The traitors in Washington passed CAFTA last night. The nightmare of Globalism marches on. Another example of why the two party system is a fraud. As CAFTA works its magic on our economy, expect the Agrarain Movement to grow by leaps and bounds.