Carol Deppe on Growing Food in Times of Climate Instability (audio with Jim Phillips)

January 3, 2012 show

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What "global warming" isn't (7m); climate instability - we've got to be nimble (10m); monoculture is a bad idea for normal times, for 100 years we've had an unusually stable climate (11m); diversify in every possible way you can, how potatoes deal well with extreme weathers especially early and late freezes, wind storms (12m); Irish potato famine, role of large land ownership and export crop (oats) in famine (15m); the 6th staple: fruit and nut trees, think of annuals and perennials differently, with annuals you can afford to gamble, with perennials plant conservatively, it's a big investment to lose, plant will within the hardiness rating, such as -1 zones (16m); more on choosing which plants (20m); in the NW in a bad year, you'll be glad when you grow one of the high-yielding short season varieties (23m30); seed saving including how many years of storage - enough seed for the rest of her life for an acre! The Hopi had a rule to grow and store enough for two years to both eat and replant (26m30); seed-saving, better vigor, and why it's a good idea to have tons of extra seed, and how to save corn, bean, and squash seeds for nearly forever (34m30); "you want to be able to set up your neighbor with enough seed, and that's going to be thing that's best for yourself, too, you want to be a part of a neighborhood where people are working together, not a neighborhood where people are starving" (37m30); first and most important step: don't eat the best ones! (39m); recommendations for evaluating the potential resilience and problems with your own land and region: 1. USDA soil survey maps, 2. Pay attention to which crops are grown commercially in your area, 3. website for your local land grant college for local crop info and limiting factors, to help choose varieties, 4. Discover what the Indians did with the land, 5. Talk with people who have been doing agriculture or big gardens for decades, ask questions like "what's the worst year you've ever had for corn?", etc. (45m45); notes on tomatoes - focus on Stupice because early and good in cold weather, some Amish, 8 plants total, 1 of a couple other things, grow the transplants indoors to where they're big, put them out big (48m); increasingly wet spring weather, so look for any time starting in February to till, avoid labor bottlenecks (52m); what she does for a new piece of land: get a soil test, add the minerals, then use cover crops from then on out for fertility (54m); the reality of needing to irrigate cover crops nowadays in the NW! (55m30); on taking the thousand-year view, including the 'Cascade Ruby-Gold' corn as the ultimate survival crop (57m30); we're not used to think in terms of disasters that are REALLY large, but mega-9 earthquake in the NW 3x per 1000 years (59m30); on the Amish, who saved the draft breed of horses, and what the tractor-makers did to displace horses, the efficiency of horses for smaller operations (64m); my parents taught me to swim, they taught be to swim because I might fall into deep water some time... and likewise it's a good idea for people to teach their children to swim, to do basic first aid, and to grow food and save seed(67m30); most people aren't going to grow all their own food because with hand tools it takes too much time if you have a full-time job (69m); on reinventing cornbread from home-grown corn and the need to know how to prepare food, too (71m); on the soul-satisfaction of growing your own staples: "if you've ever watched a squirrel storing nuts in a log, you can just sense the satisfaction of that little critter: 'Now, I've got a whole hollow log full of nuts!' (78m); "I really don't think any amount of money could make me feel as happy inside as a big pile of beans" (80m)