Food
-
I've been reading a number of books that talk about the way the modern food system is built, and how likely it is that we're going to face some sort of food crisis, as more and more people both exist, and expect a Western standard of food ( which means more meat, more than anything ). I wonder how many people give much thought to where food comes from ? We grow a lot of our own, I am making tomato sauces, and grape juice at the moment and we have all sorts of other preserves in our cupboards, as well as piles of potatoes and onions. I am picking Nashi pears, grapes, apples, tomatoes, carrots, beans and capsicum at the moment ( it's autumn here ).
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
I've been reading a number of books that talk about the way the modern food system is built, and how likely it is that we're going to face some sort of food crisis, as more and more people both exist, and expect a Western standard of food ( which means more meat, more than anything ). I wonder how many people give much thought to where food comes from ? We grow a lot of our own, I am making tomato sauces, and grape juice at the moment and we have all sorts of other preserves in our cupboards, as well as piles of potatoes and onions. I am picking Nashi pears, grapes, apples, tomatoes, carrots, beans and capsicum at the moment ( it's autumn here ).
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
I've been growing a bunch of my own food for a while now. It's spring now and I tend to wait all year for tomatoes from the garden. It's going to take me a while to get the soil in the kind of shape I need it in to grow all the different kinds of food I want, but it's coming along. Tomatoes have always been a staple of mine and I plan on growing green beans this year too. I have a lot of gravel and stones in some parts of the yard and so that's taking a bit of time to deal with. There's another documentary, albiet biased a bit I think, called "The Story of Stuff". http://www.storyofstuff.com/[^] I say it's a bit biased because some of the facts in it aren't really accurate when it comes to why computers are built a particular way. Tonight I plan on watch "Capitalism: A Love Story". After watching the trailer and a few clips from it I think it might show me more of the picture of what happened and what's still going on. I think it will be a little biased, but not to bad.
-
I've been growing a bunch of my own food for a while now. It's spring now and I tend to wait all year for tomatoes from the garden. It's going to take me a while to get the soil in the kind of shape I need it in to grow all the different kinds of food I want, but it's coming along. Tomatoes have always been a staple of mine and I plan on growing green beans this year too. I have a lot of gravel and stones in some parts of the yard and so that's taking a bit of time to deal with. There's another documentary, albiet biased a bit I think, called "The Story of Stuff". http://www.storyofstuff.com/[^] I say it's a bit biased because some of the facts in it aren't really accurate when it comes to why computers are built a particular way. Tonight I plan on watch "Capitalism: A Love Story". After watching the trailer and a few clips from it I think it might show me more of the picture of what happened and what's still going on. I think it will be a little biased, but not to bad.
wolfbinary wrote:
I tend to wait all year for tomatoes from the garden.
This year, I grew TONS and oven dried a heap of them. The cherry ones dry really well. They taste just as good as they do 'wet', and are great in pasta sauces, etc. I am like you, I will not buy tomatoes. The dried ones also taste great in sandwhiches.
wolfbinary wrote:
It's going to take me a while to get the soil in the kind of shape I need it in to grow all the different kinds of food I want, but it's coming along
I have year round access to manure from race horses ( so they eat grain, not just grass ). That makes a lot of difference. I also have a hand driven cultivator I use to turn the soil over in areas I am still building up.
wolfbinary wrote:
I plan on growing green beans this year too
I love fresh beans. I grow snap beans, they don't have a string, and they don't climb. They just keep producing for MONTHS and obviously it's easy to let the last few just dry off and keep them for next years seed.
wolfbinary wrote:
I have a lot of gravel and stones in some parts of the yard and so that's taking a bit of time to deal with.
Yeah, that sucks. We have 11 acres, so we started gardens in places where the soil was half decent, but I am still pulling out stones and throwing them away, after 5 years.
wolfbinary wrote:
The Story of Stuff".
I think I may have seen it.
wolfbinary wrote:
I think it will be a little biased, but not to bad.
Everything is biased, the point is to read a number of different points of view then come to a conclusion. I've been reading a number of books by a skeptic, on things like why smart people believe weird things, how morality evolved, etc. As I am a Christian, his views are not always the same as mine, but I find it interesting to listen to the alternative POV and consider how much merit I think it has.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
wolfbinary wrote:
I tend to wait all year for tomatoes from the garden.
This year, I grew TONS and oven dried a heap of them. The cherry ones dry really well. They taste just as good as they do 'wet', and are great in pasta sauces, etc. I am like you, I will not buy tomatoes. The dried ones also taste great in sandwhiches.
wolfbinary wrote:
It's going to take me a while to get the soil in the kind of shape I need it in to grow all the different kinds of food I want, but it's coming along
I have year round access to manure from race horses ( so they eat grain, not just grass ). That makes a lot of difference. I also have a hand driven cultivator I use to turn the soil over in areas I am still building up.
wolfbinary wrote:
I plan on growing green beans this year too
I love fresh beans. I grow snap beans, they don't have a string, and they don't climb. They just keep producing for MONTHS and obviously it's easy to let the last few just dry off and keep them for next years seed.
wolfbinary wrote:
I have a lot of gravel and stones in some parts of the yard and so that's taking a bit of time to deal with.
Yeah, that sucks. We have 11 acres, so we started gardens in places where the soil was half decent, but I am still pulling out stones and throwing them away, after 5 years.
wolfbinary wrote:
The Story of Stuff".
I think I may have seen it.
wolfbinary wrote:
I think it will be a little biased, but not to bad.
Everything is biased, the point is to read a number of different points of view then come to a conclusion. I've been reading a number of books by a skeptic, on things like why smart people believe weird things, how morality evolved, etc. As I am a Christian, his views are not always the same as mine, but I find it interesting to listen to the alternative POV and consider how much merit I think it has.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
where the soil was half decent
I've got a little tiller and access to vast amounts of compost. I've got to truck it in is all. The idea is to have soil so loamy I can just use a dirt fork to turn it each year. :) I also have an herb garden and grow onions and garlic. I only wish I had more time to garden.
-
Christian Graus wrote:
where the soil was half decent
I've got a little tiller and access to vast amounts of compost. I've got to truck it in is all. The idea is to have soil so loamy I can just use a dirt fork to turn it each year. :) I also have an herb garden and grow onions and garlic. I only wish I had more time to garden.
Yeah, if you can get it that good, and you rotate your crops, you probably won't need to feed the soil much at all from there. So long as you never grow corn....
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
I've been reading a number of books that talk about the way the modern food system is built, and how likely it is that we're going to face some sort of food crisis, as more and more people both exist, and expect a Western standard of food ( which means more meat, more than anything ). I wonder how many people give much thought to where food comes from ? We grow a lot of our own, I am making tomato sauces, and grape juice at the moment and we have all sorts of other preserves in our cupboards, as well as piles of potatoes and onions. I am picking Nashi pears, grapes, apples, tomatoes, carrots, beans and capsicum at the moment ( it's autumn here ).
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Ahh intelligent conversation. I think that the availability and convenience of food has lowered peoples appreciation of just where that food ultimately comes from. My wife tells stories of kids not knowing what certain foods are etc. I like Gordon Ramsey's approach with his kids (for livestock at least!) in raising the animals, educating the children that these are food. A lot of people criticize him for exposing children to that, and maybe it's not as sensitive, but we haven't always just had food placed in front of us. A child should understand that the beefburger and fries they are shoveling into their mouth didn't just appear via a truck for their pleasure. Maybe if we stop putting cotton wool around kids, they'll learn more about the cost of everything, and it will ease such a situation. I would love to be able to grow my own food, although with the garden I have, I might get a couple of tomato plants and that's about it.
-
Ahh intelligent conversation. I think that the availability and convenience of food has lowered peoples appreciation of just where that food ultimately comes from. My wife tells stories of kids not knowing what certain foods are etc. I like Gordon Ramsey's approach with his kids (for livestock at least!) in raising the animals, educating the children that these are food. A lot of people criticize him for exposing children to that, and maybe it's not as sensitive, but we haven't always just had food placed in front of us. A child should understand that the beefburger and fries they are shoveling into their mouth didn't just appear via a truck for their pleasure. Maybe if we stop putting cotton wool around kids, they'll learn more about the cost of everything, and it will ease such a situation. I would love to be able to grow my own food, although with the garden I have, I might get a couple of tomato plants and that's about it.
hammerstein05 wrote:
My wife tells stories of kids not knowing what certain foods are etc.
The local primary schools are full of kids who think beans come from cans.
hammerstein05 wrote:
raising the animals, educating the children that these are food
We have sheep. My kids every year say they are too cute to eat. I've told them if they want to go vegetarian, I'll cook seperate for them. If they want to eat random lamb, but not ones they saw in real life, they can forget it.
hammerstein05 wrote:
Maybe if we stop putting cotton wool around kids, they'll learn more about the cost of everything, and it will ease such a situation.
I agree. We've become more and more sterile, more and more worried about how real life might affect our kids. There's no alternative, best we teach them the truth.
hammerstein05 wrote:
I would love to be able to grow my own food, although with the garden I have, I might get a couple of tomato plants and that's about it.
I count myself very lucky to live 20 min from our capital city, 30 min from the airport, and still have 11 acres, a river view, and the ability to grow so much of our own food.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
hammerstein05 wrote:
My wife tells stories of kids not knowing what certain foods are etc.
The local primary schools are full of kids who think beans come from cans.
hammerstein05 wrote:
raising the animals, educating the children that these are food
We have sheep. My kids every year say they are too cute to eat. I've told them if they want to go vegetarian, I'll cook seperate for them. If they want to eat random lamb, but not ones they saw in real life, they can forget it.
hammerstein05 wrote:
Maybe if we stop putting cotton wool around kids, they'll learn more about the cost of everything, and it will ease such a situation.
I agree. We've become more and more sterile, more and more worried about how real life might affect our kids. There's no alternative, best we teach them the truth.
hammerstein05 wrote:
I would love to be able to grow my own food, although with the garden I have, I might get a couple of tomato plants and that's about it.
I count myself very lucky to live 20 min from our capital city, 30 min from the airport, and still have 11 acres, a river view, and the ability to grow so much of our own food.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
hammerstein05 wrote: My wife tells stories of kids not knowing what certain foods are etc. The local primary schools are full of kids who think beans come from cans.
I've tried explaining that to people. Explaining why some fruits and vegetables cost so much is another. Raspberries for example are so labor intensive, yet produce so much off one plant for months. I live in town with a small lot so I can't grow as much as I used to. Corn has never been an option for me. Too easy to get from professional farmers or produce stands, when in season. Large things like watermelon I just don't each enough of, but I might try growing smaller varieties so I can juice the extra or dehydrate it. Usually I can or freeze everything. 60 quarts of tomatoes, etc. I'm really looking forward to getting back into the garden. The change of season will be great.
-
Christian Graus wrote:
hammerstein05 wrote: My wife tells stories of kids not knowing what certain foods are etc. The local primary schools are full of kids who think beans come from cans.
I've tried explaining that to people. Explaining why some fruits and vegetables cost so much is another. Raspberries for example are so labor intensive, yet produce so much off one plant for months. I live in town with a small lot so I can't grow as much as I used to. Corn has never been an option for me. Too easy to get from professional farmers or produce stands, when in season. Large things like watermelon I just don't each enough of, but I might try growing smaller varieties so I can juice the extra or dehydrate it. Usually I can or freeze everything. 60 quarts of tomatoes, etc. I'm really looking forward to getting back into the garden. The change of season will be great.
wolfbinary wrote:
Raspberries for example are so labor intensive, yet produce so much off one plant for months.
Really ? Raspberries for me are not labour intensive at all. I tie them off and cut them back in the middle of winter, and that's about it. My main issue is controlling them, they grow like weeds. We have tons of raspberry jam, syrup, etc, from the copious fruit we get.
wolfbinary wrote:
Usually I can or freeze everything. 60 quarts of tomatoes, etc. I'm really looking forward to getting back into the garden. The change of season will be great.
yeah, I am trying to learn how to best preserve as much as I can. I also am trying to make my garden year round. I have brassicas, carrots, parsnips, silverbeet, spinach and kale in for winter eating.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
wolfbinary wrote:
Raspberries for example are so labor intensive, yet produce so much off one plant for months.
Really ? Raspberries for me are not labour intensive at all. I tie them off and cut them back in the middle of winter, and that's about it. My main issue is controlling them, they grow like weeds. We have tons of raspberry jam, syrup, etc, from the copious fruit we get.
wolfbinary wrote:
Usually I can or freeze everything. 60 quarts of tomatoes, etc. I'm really looking forward to getting back into the garden. The change of season will be great.
yeah, I am trying to learn how to best preserve as much as I can. I also am trying to make my garden year round. I have brassicas, carrots, parsnips, silverbeet, spinach and kale in for winter eating.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
wolfbinary wrote: Raspberries for example are so labor intensive, yet produce so much off one plant for months. Really ? Raspberries for me are not labour intensive at all. I tie them off and cut them back in the middle of winter, and that's about it. My main issue is controlling them, they grow like weeds. We have tons of raspberry jam, syrup, etc, from the copious fruit we get.
For mass production they are. Someone has to pick all those berries, but for the average gardener no. Carrots don't really turn out right unless you have very loose soil, which for me, isn't just yet. I'll see how much gardening I can get done this year so that they can grow without forking.
-
Christian Graus wrote:
wolfbinary wrote: Raspberries for example are so labor intensive, yet produce so much off one plant for months. Really ? Raspberries for me are not labour intensive at all. I tie them off and cut them back in the middle of winter, and that's about it. My main issue is controlling them, they grow like weeds. We have tons of raspberry jam, syrup, etc, from the copious fruit we get.
For mass production they are. Someone has to pick all those berries, but for the average gardener no. Carrots don't really turn out right unless you have very loose soil, which for me, isn't just yet. I'll see how much gardening I can get done this year so that they can grow without forking.
wolfbinary wrote:
For mass production they are. Someone has to pick all those berries, but for the average gardener no.
True. We probably only end up picking half of ours.
wolfbinary wrote:
I'll see how much gardening I can get done this year so that they can grow without forking.
They don't fork because your soil is too tight. They fork because there's too much nitrogen in the soil. Carrots are a good crop to plant after something like tomatoes or brassicas ( not beans ) and you don't feed the soil at all. Otherwise, they fork. I get a few forked ones here and there, but not many.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
I've been reading a number of books that talk about the way the modern food system is built, and how likely it is that we're going to face some sort of food crisis, as more and more people both exist, and expect a Western standard of food ( which means more meat, more than anything ). I wonder how many people give much thought to where food comes from ? We grow a lot of our own, I am making tomato sauces, and grape juice at the moment and we have all sorts of other preserves in our cupboards, as well as piles of potatoes and onions. I am picking Nashi pears, grapes, apples, tomatoes, carrots, beans and capsicum at the moment ( it's autumn here ).
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
We grow a lot of our own, I am making tomato sauces, and grape juice at the moment and we have all sorts of other preserves in our cupboards, as well as piles of potatoes and onions. I am picking Nashi pears, grapes, apples, tomatoes, carrots, beans and capsicum at the moment ( it's autumn here ).
Eeesh.... that's not fair. I think the only thing growing here is icicles. :^) :-D
L u n a t i c F r i n g e
modified on Thursday, March 11, 2010 8:43 PM
-
I've been reading a number of books that talk about the way the modern food system is built, and how likely it is that we're going to face some sort of food crisis, as more and more people both exist, and expect a Western standard of food ( which means more meat, more than anything ). I wonder how many people give much thought to where food comes from ? We grow a lot of our own, I am making tomato sauces, and grape juice at the moment and we have all sorts of other preserves in our cupboards, as well as piles of potatoes and onions. I am picking Nashi pears, grapes, apples, tomatoes, carrots, beans and capsicum at the moment ( it's autumn here ).
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
it's autumn here
No it's fucking not, not till 21-03-2010.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
-
Christian Graus wrote:
it's autumn here
No it's fucking not, not till 21-03-2010.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
The seasons don't start on the 1st of the month ? Really ? That's news to me. But what do I know ? I'm a paedophile and a eugenicist. Oh, wait, that's that other dude. Christian Gruas.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
The seasons don't start on the 1st of the month ? Really ? That's news to me. But what do I know ? I'm a paedophile and a eugenicist. Oh, wait, that's that other dude. Christian Gruas.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
The seasons don't start on the 1st of the month ?
Never, ever have, just something that's popped up in the last 20 years or so it's much easier for morons to remember. Look up Summer Solstice 21st December and Winter Solstice 21st June (obviously those weirdo's in the Northern Hemisphere have it all backwards) Spring and Autumn are obviously then 3 months off of these dates.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
-
Christian Graus wrote:
The seasons don't start on the 1st of the month ?
Never, ever have, just something that's popped up in the last 20 years or so it's much easier for morons to remember. Look up Summer Solstice 21st December and Winter Solstice 21st June (obviously those weirdo's in the Northern Hemisphere have it all backwards) Spring and Autumn are obviously then 3 months off of these dates.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
OK, well, then I've been deluded my entire life in this regard :P I believe even the paper here ran a story on our summer that was saying how warm it was, hence implying it was over.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
OK, well, then I've been deluded my entire life in this regard :P I believe even the paper here ran a story on our summer that was saying how warm it was, hence implying it was over.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
I believe even the paper here ran a story on our summer that was saying how warm it was, hence implying it was over.
Don't worry, it isn't just the Taswegian medai that's fucked up. Here in Sydney the print and TV news was all over the fact Autumn has started. They're just morons.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
-
Christian Graus wrote:
I believe even the paper here ran a story on our summer that was saying how warm it was, hence implying it was over.
Don't worry, it isn't just the Taswegian medai that's fucked up. Here in Sydney the print and TV news was all over the fact Autumn has started. They're just morons.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
Well, I tried to avoid learning something new today, but it appears it's too late for that now....
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
-
I've been growing a bunch of my own food for a while now. It's spring now and I tend to wait all year for tomatoes from the garden. It's going to take me a while to get the soil in the kind of shape I need it in to grow all the different kinds of food I want, but it's coming along. Tomatoes have always been a staple of mine and I plan on growing green beans this year too. I have a lot of gravel and stones in some parts of the yard and so that's taking a bit of time to deal with. There's another documentary, albiet biased a bit I think, called "The Story of Stuff". http://www.storyofstuff.com/[^] I say it's a bit biased because some of the facts in it aren't really accurate when it comes to why computers are built a particular way. Tonight I plan on watch "Capitalism: A Love Story". After watching the trailer and a few clips from it I think it might show me more of the picture of what happened and what's still going on. I think it will be a little biased, but not to bad.
wolfbinary wrote:
It's going to take me a while to get the soil in the kind of shape I need it in
You should see if you can lay your hands on a trailer load of hops from the local brewery - they make the best fertiliser - my old man always digs it in and the growth rates are awesome.
I don't speak Idiot - please talk slowly and clearly 'This space for rent' Driven to the arms of Heineken by the wife
-
Christian Graus wrote:
I believe even the paper here ran a story on our summer that was saying how warm it was, hence implying it was over.
Don't worry, it isn't just the Taswegian medai that's fucked up. Here in Sydney the print and TV news was all over the fact Autumn has started. They're just morons.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004