Don't give a cow. Give seeds

Holiday gift season. Giving a cow is still a popular program, but I wish there was some programs where you can give vegetable seeds or fruit trees to people who need them.

http://www.heifer.org/
I don't necessarily think giving a cow, chickens or a goat is bad idea considering livestock can add foods to diet of those people as long as the environment is right.  When you give a cow or sheep, there must be grass growing naturally.  or when you give chickens, there must be enough feeds naturally obtained from the wild area. 

Why not Cow, sheep or goat?
Grazing animals require large pasture comparing to available garden space.  Unless there is large pasture area for animals to graze, it is not very desirable.  I have 4 sheep and they do not eat any grain feeds although they like them.  I share some of my crackers or granola sometimes, but they are on their own eating grass most of the time.  when grass is abundant and there is no garden space conflict, it is quite a good help to have livestock that can actually keep your weeds down and give you some milk and also share some happy moments, but if people are starving, perhaps it's much better to grow some vegetables to eat.
Also, cows don't produce milk all the time.  They have to have offspring before they start producing milk and it doesn't last forever either.




Why not chickens?
I have a difficult time keeping chickens happy in a limited area.  Mostly we feed them kitchen waste, but they are hungry all the time and don't produce eggs much.  I found out that keeping our chickens free range and still producing eggs is about 3-4 chickens max with about 500 sq ft.  I'm pretty sure that there are certain high protein vegetation that can feed chickens more naturally, but if we have access to that much of rich soil, I would rather plant vegetables. 
Also chickens can be devastating to gardens.  unless it's fruit orchard or certain crops it is hard to keep them away from destroying the garden space.
 
If people already have nice fruit orchard and garden, they are probably not starving. 

Giving seeds
There are some programs that give seeds, fruit trees or other food sources or even other resources. 
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/

Seeds are very adaptable in new environment.  If we know what grows well in certain environment, giving seed program can be more productive.  Even in desert environment, certain plants grow.  Mr. Fukuoka's seedball restoration project actually took place in desert environment to bring back fertile soil..

Weeding your ego

In the natural world plants can coexist and flourish together.  However, in human eyes coexistence of plants appears as a conflict, therefore to grow one plant, the others become weeds, and to grow their crops, weeds need to be removed.

by Masanobu Fukuoka


We conveniently categorize anything that we disregard as weeds.  Whether it is a small herbaceous plants or large trees, when I sprinkle some compost or organic fertilizers, it makes me wonder how much of fertilizers or compost actually goes to our crops, and how much to other weeds and yet more lost to leaching and air.  Often times I find roots of large trees in the rows of tea.

Then I realized that there was beautiful dark soil even before I started farming.  Who created that?  Apparently certain types of plants are better at building soil than others.  Under some trees soil is always better than open field.

If we leave some weeds and do not fertilize, it is possible that they enrich soil as they die.  Of course, it is not just any weeds, but certain weeds do certain things, just like some people are good at math and others cooking, others writing, etc.


It is more about controlling our ego than controlling weeds. 
I kept thinking that some weeds and big trees are stealing fertilizers from my crops, then I started to see those unwanted weeds as potential enemy.  I searched ways to rid this negative feeling of hating weeds, the answer was no-fertilizer.  When I stopped using fertilizers, I started to see weeds helping build soil. 

How the soil is created

Over quiet winter period I have much to ponder and observe while sipping our farm grade unfinished tea.

Soil, as it seems, is always there and we take it for granted, but it is a remarkable process of creating hospitable environment for plants and small creatures.

I walk on a dirt path after heavy rain or while in pouring rain following where all the rain water is carrying the top soil or what is keeping it in place. sometimes my boots become like high heels with mud stuck to the bottom of my rain boots, walking like not knowing how to walk in high heels. I then remember that the spot where it used be pasture for horses and sheep with only grass growing and dirt is heavy clay.

Clay in rain creates mud and get stuck to boots. I learned this first hand by walking in rain.

Some places down the path I come across beautiful dark forest soils in its natural state. Nobody did any work there but nature. Certain types of trees and plants growing there create that beautiful soil.

Good Soil
Good soil for crops is dark and soft, holds water and drains excess water, hold good air space inside, smells like forest. A lot of gardening and farming books define it this way. In nature we don't find this everywhere, but a lot of plants which we call weeds still grow in that somewhat undesirable conditions.

Nature teaches
More than any books, nature teaches better. Of course, books also help us guide to be a better farmer, but we grow crops in nature not in our head or in writing. It doesn't matter how eloquently we speak about farming and garden soil, we farmers still have to help grow a beautiful harvest and that's what speaks the most. Nature has taught me a lot through soil.

Soil, Genesis of forest
Easiest way to find a good soil is to go search for good soil and trace back from there, observing what natural elements are around and possibly creating the soil. Sometimes we need dynamic observation while it's happening like standing in a heavy rainfall and looking what soil is actually responding to that natural rainfall. We need to learn to read signs in nature more that reading a lot of general gardening books about it.

I have come across so many books saying what a good soil is and how you can make it by adding this and that, but many times it does not related to our particular natural environment, climate or vegetation that create good soil. There is an cover crop study released by CHTAR, talks about what each type of cover crop do, but the most amazing thing I found was that what I thought biggest weeds were the biggest helpers of soil as long as we can keep up with it.
http://www2.ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/Database.asp


On a nice warm sunny day after log hours of field work, I was exhausted so I just lay down to take a break and fell asleep. The soil was soft and smelled earthy. Each breath I felt like breathing in the forest itself. What a pleasant waking it was. Since I am so obsessed with the conditions of soil, it is nice to have an area where there is naturally beautiful rich soil still exist on our farm land.


Soil and Tea
When it comes to tea, what soil makes good tea? I am not saying highest yield, or even certain flavor. Perhaps the word "good" is misleading because everybody has different expectations.

Our ideal natural farming tea expresses inherent nature of its own quality, like how people can be who they are.