Tim Deppa

It was a lot of fun and educational. I was encouraged to learn more about composting and biochar. I built a large wooden composter for my backyard and compost just about everything now including coffee, tea, eggshells. Also, I learned what goes into biochar and the challenges of getting small farmers in places like the Amazon to accept it. But it is gaining. My son has friends who are making biochar right in New Jerey.

This is the compost box I built. It has a removable top to deter larger animals. I added leaves,grass, eggshells, coffee and tea, and many vegetable scraps to get started. I will plant some flowers and herbs in the pots around it just to jazz it up a little! Sarah and I are very happy to eliminate unnecessary waste.

In the book :1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus,” journalist Charles C. Mann tells the amazing story of corn. Mann points out that unlike other grains, corn is incapable of propagating itself. Corn kernels are wrapped inside a tough husk. They must be sown by human hands.

According to Mann, no wild ancestor of corn has ever been found, despite decades of search. Corn's closest relative is a grass called teosinte, but teosinte is not a good food source. An entire ear of teosinte has less nutritional value than a single kernel of corn.

Corn was consciously developed in what is now Mexico, by Native American plant breeders who hunted through teosinte strands for plants with desired traits.

As genetic engineer Nina Federoff tells Mann, "To get corn out of teosinte is so . . . you couldn't get a grant to do that now, because it would sound so crazy . . . Somebody who did that today would get a Nobel Prize!"

While companies like Monsanto make money from Native seeds, no royalties accrue to the modern tribes whose ancestors created this wealth. 

https://action.organicconsumers.org/o/50865/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=21662

Support this initiative for tribal food security! Write to your congressman following the link above. 

I had an opportunity to meet Carol who along with her husband Barry own Savoie Organic farm in Williamstown ,NJ. They have a summer CSA which delivers to the Farm and Fisherman Tavern on Route 70.  It is a great chance to support a farm that is close to where we live!
http://www.savoieorganicfarm.com/csa.html

Today we combined several errands to reduce our driving. My washing was all dried on clothing racks to reduce electricity consumption.