posted by jim | March 17, 2010
See Homegrown (see their website at urban homestead) and many, many other environmental films at the D.C. Environmental Film Festival March 16th through March 28th. This family grows 6,000 pounds of food on 1/5 acre.
posted by jim | April 21, 2009
Few vegetables are as forgiving and abundant as potatoes. My green shoots are just coming up a couple of days ago. The potato was a generous gift of my brother-in-law–actually he gave us many potatoes but this one started to develop shoots and I held on to it until I could put it in a pot (I found my pot abandoned by the side of the road). Use as big a pot as you can afford (or scavenge)–maybe even a garbage can–if like me you don’t have very much land. Potatoes don’t require very rich dirt. Just keep covering the shoots as they come up. I’m using compost-so I fill as fast as the worms can eat my garbage. You can use any organic potato that you like. Non-organic potatoes are typically sprayed with chemicals that inhibit their desire to sprout. I got mine in the dirt earlier this year. I think next year I will start them indoors in February and see if I can get an earlier crop. The potato is truly the utopian comfort food.
photo by Tony Austin; some rights reserved.