Current Farm as of this coming weekend

So I am including a picture of my gardens as it will be after this weekend. Of course this does not include the 900 sqaure feet of wheat that I'm planting on my mother's property along with the 4 apple trees that still have not arrived, rasberries that I will place along the fence line, and an asparagus bed I will add in the fall. Also not pictured here is my herb bed that has well over 300 plants of rosemary, dill, sweet basil, lemon basil and parsely. So not a bad start if I do say so. Also this does not include the solar tracking bed I'm working on which should increase my total by another 60 or so plants. But I will keep everyone posted on that so stay tuned.

Affordable produce

More and more I find myself contemplating food prices and their relationship to the obesity problem in the country. You all have read the articles and shaken your heads at how large people are getting now, and maybe even asked yourself, why is it that people continue to eat poorly when they know they shouldn't. The answer is simple, walk through the aile of any grocery store and look at the cost of produce. 3.99 a lb. for green peppers, 1.99 a head for romaine lettuce, 1.99 a lb. for tomatos. The list goes on. I know from a recent experiment I did that to feed my family of 4 for one month cost me 853 dollars and that was shopping mostly sales when possible. And even with that figure I had to cut some corners and buy cheaper processed food items in some cases. Now I make a decent living along with my wife who is a nurse. I understand that the farmer needs to make a living and I understand that the grocery store needs to make a profit as well. I also understand that some people will just choose to eat badly out of laziness. But what about the people that want to do better but can't afford it. Vermont has a 120 as of 2006 which was the closest year I could find. Take into account the economic collapse that happen just a year later and I can only imagine it is higher now. But I will look into that more later. So I propose this and this is part of my project idea coming to Kickstarter soon, so you all get a bit of a sneak peak. What if through better more efficient means of growing, and utilizing the remaining land for renewable energy projects, such as wind or solar, I the farmer could lower my cost on produce. The grocery store could still turn a profit from selling my items at a lower cost and more people could afford to eat better.
You see I don't want to shut down grocery stores, they provide jobs and income to millions, not to mention conveinance on finding items from all over in one place. So while farm to fork is a great idea, making farms closer to your stores is better, jobs then are created on two fronts, at the farm and at the store.
My proposal is this the farmer through hydroponics, vertical farming, solar tracking beds, can use his land more efficiently. There by allowing him to place solar panels or wind turbines on his land and generate and sell renewable energy to suppliment his income. Case in point is a story about a strawberry farmer I read about in a book I will link to below. His land, some 100 plus acres, was decimated by a storm. When he rebuilt he used vertical farming techniques to restore his entire crop on only 32 acres, that would leave him 70 plus acres to use for renewable energy, thus allowing him to generate two incomes and offer his produce at a reduced cost.
The reality is everyone loves their computer, hell I'm on one now, they love their tv, thier Xbox, and whatever other electric devices they use. Renewable energy is going to have to be the way of the future no matter how much we want to resist it. And everyone is going to have to eat.
The farm proposal I will be placing soon will incorporate this ideal, with the placement of 240 solar panels to generate power, not only for the farm but for the community in which it is built. Through maximum use of the land I believe I can generate a crop capable of feeding thousands, and again I point to Will Allen and Growing Power for a referance. On 2 acres he grows enough food to feed thousands of people. Think of what could be done on a larger scale. Watch for me on  Kickstarter at the end of the month and please stay tuned. Healthy living doesn't have to be something only some people can afford.
Sorry for the long rant and I'm pretty sure I may have strayed from my original topic, but it's late and now I'm off to bed.

www.growingpower.org

http://www.verticalfarm.com/

Growing Farm

So as much as my wife may not like it now the farm continues to grow every weekend. The long weekend was no exception. I added a second PVC system for 110 plants that is nearly done and ready, I added a 40 plant sugar snap growing area, and I started over 72 more seeds for various things that will fill pots all over the yard. This weekend I plan to build some growing platforms for the pots so they don't kill the grass and finish work on the PVC systems and get them up and running full strength. As promised here is some pictures of things that got done.

Weekend

Very busy this weekend. I completed 5 DWC systems and planted 40 pepper plants. Also planted 40 sugar snap plants in a raised bed so they can hang. Got started on 12 cucumber plants, 28 green bean plants, 15 brocolli, and 12 summer sqaush. I still have about 20 more bell peppers plants that I will place in containers this week and 12 Roma tomato plants to put in hanging pots. I nearly completed a 2nd PVC pipe system for 110 more plants which will be a mix of lettuce, spinich and maybe beans. Mounded the potatos this weekend and I will also look to plant 4 more potato buds this coming weekend. My four vertical apple trees have not arrived yet but I will call Gardener Supply tomorrow and find out what is up with them. All together I think this weekends planting put me at over 500 plants now.
In other exciting news  I put in my 4 new beehives this weekend and the bees are already producing honey. I managed to snag an extra frame from last years honey and harvested 28 ounces. I also have a bunch of bees wax now that I will turn into candles with the help of  a friend with molds. I may check out building my own honey extractor and see how that goes for this year rather then buy one.
I'm still waiting on my seed starter plugs for the lettuce and what not in the PVC system I'm really itching to get it up and running full speed. But I will post pictures of everything hopefully tomorrow so stay tuned.

Victory Gardens

So I read an interesting thing today about Victory Gardens, that 40% of all produce consumed in the US was grown in victory gardens. All they were was a movement during the war to help relieve food supply shortages by growing it at home. I think it's interesting that after the war was over most people stopped planting their own gardens. Now here we are in the 21st century and people everywhere are trying to urge folks to go back to growing their own produce. With all the rampant pesticide use and other chemicals in our food growing your own seems the only logical step to me.
As of this weekend I have planted 478 plants on my small quarter acre of land. With any luck I will triple that by the end of the season. Anyway I'll leave for now with a couple links to the wikipedia article on Victory Gardens and a video from the 40's promoting them.
http://archive.org/details/victory_garden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden

Container Gardens

So tonight I have decided to share with you all, pictures of my container gardens. To date I'm growing tomatos, sweet peas, potatos, onions, carrots, bell peppers, brocolli, rosemary, basil, dill, and parsley. This weekend I plan to add at least two more large containers of garden beans, and cucumbers. Also plan on completing some DWC systems for the peppers, and putting in roma tomatos in hanging pots. I also have 4 Columner apple trees that will hopefully come in and those will be in large pots along the patio. If your unfamilar with this type of apple I have included a link at the bottom to show you what they are. Rasberries will be planted along the backyard fence, and maybe some summer squash as well. Anyway enjoy the pictures and feel free to add any comments.
http://www.gardeners.com/Columnar-Apple-Trees/37-513,default,pd.html

Also before anyone says anything I know they all need to be thinned down and cleaned out of the oak tree seed pockets. =)

Electric Motorcycle

I really want to build an electric motorcycle, not only do I think it would be a lot of fun in the building process, but also it would save me tons on gas for simple errands around town. There are a lot of great videos on youtube on how to convert an old gas motorcycle into an electric. I guess really all I need now is to find a donor bike. Hell I don't even need the whole bike the frame and rear assembly would be enough to get started.
You know the more I read and research these differant technologies the more bothered I get. It seems my whole life I was lead to believe that these things were so advanced that not everyone could do it. Things like solor power and electric vehicles, hydroponics and sustainable living. And here it is 3 months into this reawakening and I've built a solar panel, I'm growing more crops then I could alone eat on a quarter acre of land. I understand now that the only reason people wanted us to believe these things were unattainable was to keep us down, for lack of a better way to put it. Uneducated masses are easier to control and sell products to.
At this rate I figure I'll have cold fusion in the bag by this time next year.

Just kidding on that part but who knows.