Post by macmex on Aug 26, 2013 15:43:54 GMT -6
I'm going to post an introduction for myself, adapted from what I originally did for the Tahlequah Eats board. It's a little lengthy. But it does a good job explaining where I'm coming from. We have some wonderful gardeners in our area. We can learn from on another.
George
Tahlequah, OK
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My name is George McLaughlin Jr.
I grew up in a family which had, as a hobby, to produce the most, and the most diverse food from our one acre plot as possible. We grew almost all our own vegetables, kept bees and grew 23 varieties of fruit. My mother and father canned and froze lots of food. We kids helped with almost everything. It was a blast!
My father taught us to fish. So we caught much fish for home consumption. Fishing led me to take an interest in hunting, and then in trapping. I had a mentor who taught me those things, as well as some things, like eel bobbing, which were no longer practiced, things which bygone generations depended on for their food.
My wife and I met through our common desire to serve God, and quickly discovered that we were both interested in a simple, more self sufficient life style. While studying in Chicago we delved into baking, especially sourdough.
During our advanced studies and on into a 14 year ministry in Mexico, we continued to learn, study and practice about self sufficiency, food production, preparation and preservation. During our time in Mexico I researched and instituted a rabbitry program, designed to help the poor better their diets through all the by products of rabbitry. During the early days, we especially focused on how to house and feed rabbits with no access to factory produced cages or commercial feed. The program was a huge success. For the last eight years it trained young people, sold breeding stock and provided much of the protein needs of a private Bible institute. During our time at the Bible Institute we also investigated fish culture, though we only got to the rudimentary stages of this enterprise before leaving the country. We also dabbled a bit in mushroom production.
Additionally, we investigated the use of soy. This involved learning to utilize soy in regular cooking and then, later, locating a variety which would produce at the 20th parallel. Most commercial soy is from the North, and will not produce in southern latitudes.
I have studied, practiced and taught seed saving for the last couple of decades. For several decades I've tried to mentor at least one new party, in gardening, per year. While teaching at the Bible Institute, in Mexico, I taught gardening and small animal husbandry (beekeeping included). Since 1992 I've dabbled in vermiculture, using red worms for composting as well as production of fertilizer.
When Jerreth and I chose to move to Tahlequah it was our dream to learn to do dairy goats. We received a warm welcome from several of the region's “goat people.” Dairy goats have been a rich blessing in our lives. They were our introduction to ruminants, which are so well suited to this region, and indeed, a wonderful addition to most any homestead. Through our goats we have expanded into the production of cheese and yogurt. We've perfected our butchering skills, and we've begun to experiment with the canning of excess milk. It is our opinion that the goat is probably the animal with the greatest potential to better the lives of those who would like to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
As far as gardening goes, our aim has been to produce most of what we consume. We have tried, also, to reproduce most of what we grow, producing our own seed, both to share with others and to grow again. This is a very important area of food production which, we believe has come into its own. Now is the time for ordinary gardeners to begin learning to save their own seed. A natural corollary of seed saving is plant breeding. There is a lot of room for home gardeners to both be preserving good varieties, and developing more of them!
In closing, I'll just mention a couple of veins of interest, which have come up through our gardening in the Tahlequah area, and in recent years:
1) Short season and drought gardening
2) Reliable production in the widest possible swings of extreme conditions
3) Corn as a grain crop. (We grow two native American varieties for this purpose.)
4) Growing Irish potatoes from seed and, eventually, producing our own seed.
5) Building hoop houses economically and extending our growing season.
I could go on to elaborate each of these areas. But I'll just let it go, saying that I have become ever more convinced of the importance of learning to reliably produce good, usable food, in our local conditions, and with the most return for the labor. As I learn I try to share with others, so that they too may improve their lives and add to the resilience of their region.
George
Tahlequah, OK
---------------------------------------------------------------
My name is George McLaughlin Jr.
I grew up in a family which had, as a hobby, to produce the most, and the most diverse food from our one acre plot as possible. We grew almost all our own vegetables, kept bees and grew 23 varieties of fruit. My mother and father canned and froze lots of food. We kids helped with almost everything. It was a blast!
My father taught us to fish. So we caught much fish for home consumption. Fishing led me to take an interest in hunting, and then in trapping. I had a mentor who taught me those things, as well as some things, like eel bobbing, which were no longer practiced, things which bygone generations depended on for their food.
My wife and I met through our common desire to serve God, and quickly discovered that we were both interested in a simple, more self sufficient life style. While studying in Chicago we delved into baking, especially sourdough.
During our advanced studies and on into a 14 year ministry in Mexico, we continued to learn, study and practice about self sufficiency, food production, preparation and preservation. During our time in Mexico I researched and instituted a rabbitry program, designed to help the poor better their diets through all the by products of rabbitry. During the early days, we especially focused on how to house and feed rabbits with no access to factory produced cages or commercial feed. The program was a huge success. For the last eight years it trained young people, sold breeding stock and provided much of the protein needs of a private Bible institute. During our time at the Bible Institute we also investigated fish culture, though we only got to the rudimentary stages of this enterprise before leaving the country. We also dabbled a bit in mushroom production.
Additionally, we investigated the use of soy. This involved learning to utilize soy in regular cooking and then, later, locating a variety which would produce at the 20th parallel. Most commercial soy is from the North, and will not produce in southern latitudes.
I have studied, practiced and taught seed saving for the last couple of decades. For several decades I've tried to mentor at least one new party, in gardening, per year. While teaching at the Bible Institute, in Mexico, I taught gardening and small animal husbandry (beekeeping included). Since 1992 I've dabbled in vermiculture, using red worms for composting as well as production of fertilizer.
When Jerreth and I chose to move to Tahlequah it was our dream to learn to do dairy goats. We received a warm welcome from several of the region's “goat people.” Dairy goats have been a rich blessing in our lives. They were our introduction to ruminants, which are so well suited to this region, and indeed, a wonderful addition to most any homestead. Through our goats we have expanded into the production of cheese and yogurt. We've perfected our butchering skills, and we've begun to experiment with the canning of excess milk. It is our opinion that the goat is probably the animal with the greatest potential to better the lives of those who would like to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle.
As far as gardening goes, our aim has been to produce most of what we consume. We have tried, also, to reproduce most of what we grow, producing our own seed, both to share with others and to grow again. This is a very important area of food production which, we believe has come into its own. Now is the time for ordinary gardeners to begin learning to save their own seed. A natural corollary of seed saving is plant breeding. There is a lot of room for home gardeners to both be preserving good varieties, and developing more of them!
In closing, I'll just mention a couple of veins of interest, which have come up through our gardening in the Tahlequah area, and in recent years:
1) Short season and drought gardening
2) Reliable production in the widest possible swings of extreme conditions
3) Corn as a grain crop. (We grow two native American varieties for this purpose.)
4) Growing Irish potatoes from seed and, eventually, producing our own seed.
5) Building hoop houses economically and extending our growing season.
I could go on to elaborate each of these areas. But I'll just let it go, saying that I have become ever more convinced of the importance of learning to reliably produce good, usable food, in our local conditions, and with the most return for the labor. As I learn I try to share with others, so that they too may improve their lives and add to the resilience of their region.