Assemblages Of Plant Species
LAYERS OF A FOOD FOREST
trees shrubs herbaceous ground covers vines rhizospheres
secondly, the renegade farmers are cultivating the vegetation to grow earth's best tasting foods
the work of our hands described through our favorite quotes . . .
agent of nature Joseph A. Cocannouer, Weeds: Guardians Of The Soil, 1950
This pioneering agent of Nature is the so-called weed. The weed roots unlock the tight soil, fill it with fiber, and thus re-establish its porosity. But the weeds do not drive out the grass. Something else does that. And fortunate is the farmer who is able to watch a strong crop of weeds take over his pasture immediately his grass has become seriously weakened. The weeds also lessen erosion, if the land is at all sloping, in addition to getting the land ready for the comeback of the grass.
blade of grass Abraham Lincoln, September 30, 1859 Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society
Every blade of grass is a study;
and to produce two, where there was but one,
is both a profit and a pleasure.
seed sovereignty = food security Vandana Shiva, Activist, Author, and Scholar.
Saving seeds is a political act.
The desire to save seeds
comes from an ethical urge
to defend life’s evolution.
release Shemot (Exodus) 23:10-11
And six years you shall sow your land, and you shall gather in its produce. And the seventh year you shall release it from work and abandon it, and the poor among your people will eat.
perennial polyculture Shmita Sourcebook
A perennial polyculture is a diverse, mixed plant community, comprised of many different perennial plant varieties growing together in the same landscape. These plants are chosen due to their complementary relationships, as each plant mutually supporting the other’s growth. Some farms use a method called Alley Cropping, which alternates between one row of mixed tree crops, and one row of annual vegetables. Another method is called a Food Forest, which is a unique type of orchard design that uses edible plants to mimic the natural synergy found in the multi-layered growth of the wild forest ecosystems.
corruptions of science Colin Tudge, Biologist and Writer, Feeding People Is Easy.
Science should be one of the greatest assets of humankind, liberating our minds and (through its high technologies) sparing us from drudgery and enabling us (as Joseph Addison put the matter in a different context) to ‘become ourselves’. But it has allowed itself to become the handmaiden of big industry.
the green leaf Louise E. Howard, The Earth's Green Carpet
The green leaf has the extraordinary capacity of securing the transformation of dead matter from the inorganic to the organic condition. It does this by changing simple mineral and chemical compounds into protoplasm which means living substance, so that we may say that if anything creates life on our planet it is the green leaf. Nothing else in Nature can do this. Were the green leaf to fail us, our civilization and culture would fade into nothingness, our existence would cease to have an origin, we ourselves should perish.