ERB, Vol 1 , #17
The
Vol. 1, No. 17 -
Diving for pearls in the endless stream of books (Eccles. 12:12B)
Chris Smith, editor
“Sustainable Food Growth?”
A Review of John Jeavons’
How To Grow More Vegetables
(and fruit, nuts, berries, grains and other crops).
By Patrick Bowers.
As we hear news of droughts both in the
John Jeavons, the president of Ecology Action has written a book, How To Grow More Vegetables, that is a wonderful place to start in thinking about sustainable food growth. Since 1972, Ecology Action has been working, learning, and educating about bio-intensive gardening all over the world. This book is helpful in understanding their journey with stories and data, and is also an introduction to Ecology Action’s “Grow Biointensive” system of gardening. Jeavons takes you through an introduction to the importance of sustainability and ends with a no frills look at a ten year learning process on understanding the environment around the place you grow your food.
The Grow Biointensive method is based on a working theory of growing 60% compost crops (mostly grain), 30% calorie crops (root based), and 10% vegetable crops. The goal is to be able to create enough compost so as to be 99% sustainable. The recommended composting system uses rotating layers of dry compost, wet compost, and dirt has to be set aside from your garden area. The purpose of this system is to create enough compost for your garden using the garden’s plants over a 6 month period.
The amount of water consumed by this method is around 60% less than traditional gardening. How is that possible? First, the “double dig” method for soil preparation helps to loosen the soil. Second, the clustering and companioning of plants creates a healthy environment for plant growth. Jeavons spends a whole chapter on how to use natural fertilizers for repairing the soil, including the methods and chemistry behind such fertilizers.
This method can seem a bit overwhelming once you have looked at the whole book, but around half the book is reference information. I found the most helpful thing in the book is that Jeavons lays out sample charts for a garden bed, including a time schedule for when to start seeds in flats and when to plant items. And if you think you would never attempt to start a plant from seeds, the chapter on seed propagation is excellent for setting your mind at ease.
One quote in the book that sums up this sustainable system is “Just grow one small area, and do it well. Then, once you have got it right, grow more!” I think this is a very hopeful place to start if you want a more sustainable food source in your backyard.
Patrick Bowers is an employee of Englewood Community Development Corp., and is using the Grow Biointensive method in his garden this year.
How to Grow More Vegetables….
John Jeavons. Paperback. 7th edition. Ten Speed Press. 2006.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $16 ] [ Amazon.com ]
[ A note on buying books: We offer you the opportunity to buy the books listed here, either directly from our little independent bookstore (Doulos Christou Books), or through amazon.com. The prices listed for our bookstore do not include shipping or
Used Book Finds
The bread-n-butter of our bookstore business is the sale of used books, and we do a fair amount of scouting around for used books each week. In this section we will feature some of the interesting books that we have found in the past week. Generally, we will only have a single copy of these books, so if you want one (or more) of them, you’ll need to respond quickly.
Community in the Lord:
Paul Hinnebusch. Trade Paperback. Ave Maria Press. 1975.
Very Good Condition. Clean pages, moderate wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $7 ]
The Eighth Day of Creation: Gifts and Creativity.
Elizabeth O’Connor. Hardcover. Word Books. 1971 printing.
Good condition. X-library copy. Clean pages / Minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $7 ]
Break Down The Walls: A Christian Cry for Racial Justice.
Johannes Verkuyl. Trade Paperback. 1973.
Very Good Condition. Clean Pages / Minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $7 ]
Reviewed Elsewhere
The Austin Chronicle reviews Fritz Haeg’s on-going
works of art/activism: “Edible Estates.”
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A584295
“ … An architect/artist/teacher, [Fritz] Haeg began his attack on denial
“Why are we attacking lawns?” asks Arthouse curator Elizabeth Dunbar. “Why not? They suck up lots of water, and there’s chemical runoff. And there are a host of other issues associated with having a front lawn. For the most part, the lawn is nothing more than a decorative space with no real function other than just sitting there and sometimes being pretty. A lot of times it isn’t even that.
“Edible gardens weren’t really considered something to hide until fairly recently. Fritz is reversing that trend by putting them in the front yard, making them functional, making them aesthetic, and also making them sites of conversation and social interaction. At the same time, he’s asking us to think about where our food comes from. Most of our produce is shipped something like 1,500 miles before it gets to us in stores. Fritz wants to inspire people to become more involved in thinking about where their food comes from and considering what kind of environmental and sociological impacts food production has on our world today. .. ”
Read the full review:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A584295
Fritz Haeg.
Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn.
Paperback. Metropolis Books. February 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $20 ] [ Amazon.com ]
First Things Reviews Motherhood Interrupted:
Stories of Healing and Hope After Abortion.
http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2008/04/07/motherhood-interrupted/
“ Motherhood Interrupted: Stories of Healing and Hope after Abortion
…
Christians hope in the Gospel’s promise, the mystery of love at the heart of Salvation: In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. A collection of accounts of post-abortive suffering and healing is more than a string of emotional anecdotes. It is a glimpse into the reality of the culture of death—and the reality of its conquest. Moreover, it is a glimpse into our call to participate in Redemption.
Story after story reveals that compassion—literally, the willingness to suffer with the suffering—expressed by church communities and family members, is priceless balm for the women who have been wounded by abortion. It necessarily draws from, and crucially points to, the most precious gift of all, God’s forgiveness and grace. As one woman says, echoing the words of
It is the hope of the cross and the hope of Easter, the hope that never dies:
Death with life contended: Combat strangely ended!
Life’s own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign. ”
Read the full review:
http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2008/04/07/motherhood-interrupted/
Jane Brennan.
Motherhood Interrupted: Stories of Healing and Hope After Abortion.
Paperback. Xlibris Press. Janurary 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $18] [ Amazon.com ]
“Talking the Talk”
The NY Times review of Jonathan Rieder’s
The Word of the Lord is Upon Me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/books/review/McWhorter-t.html
“… But the act I want to talk about is growing some — even just a little — of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t — if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade — look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.
A great many things happen when you plant a vegetable garden, some of them directly related to climate change, others indirect but related nevertheless. Growing food, we forget, comprises the original solar technology: calories produced by means of photosynthesis. Years ago the cheap-energy mind discovered that more food could be produced with less effort by replacing sunlight with fossil-fuel fertilizers and pesticides, with a result that the typical calorie of food energy in your diet now requires about 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce. It’s estimated that the way we feed ourselves (or rather, allow ourselves to be fed) accounts for about a fifth of the greenhouse gas for which each of us is responsible.
Yet the sun still shines down on your yard, and photosynthesis still works so abundantly that in a thoughtfully organized vegetable garden (one planted from seed, nourished by compost from the kitchen and involving not too many drives to the garden center), you can grow the proverbial free lunch — CO2-free and dollar-free. This is the most-local food you can possibly eat (not to mention the freshest, tastiest and most nutritious), with a carbon footprint so faint that even the New Zealand lamb council dares not challenge it. And while we’re counting carbon, consider too your compost pile, which shrinks the heap of garbage your household needs trucked away even as it feeds your vegetables and sequesters carbon in your soil. What else? Well, you will probably notice that you’re getting a pretty good workout there in your garden, burning calories without having to get into the car to drive to the gym. (It is one of the absurdities of the modern division of labor that, having replaced physical labor with fossil fuel, we now have to burn even more fossil fuel to keep our unemployed bodies in shape.) Also, by engaging both body and mind, time spent in the garden is time (and energy) subtracted from electronic forms of entertainment. … ”
Read the full piece:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/books/review/McWhorter-t.html
Jonathan Rieder. The Word of the Lord is Upon Me.
Hardcover. Harvard U.P. April 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $24 ] [ Amazon.com ]
