Rejected by the "Ladies"

I never claimed to be an expert beekeeper.
There are simply two honeybee hives in the food forest
project in MN, and we occasionally check in on them
and wrap them up snug for the winter.

I dont know tons about bees, and believe that by
leaving them alone and providing good food and shelter
for them, maintenance is hardly needed.
This is my viewpoint on gardening and health overall.

Less is more.

So...I went against that a little bit a month ago
to see just what was cooking in their hives.



One hive is mellow, which wasnt filmed because
there wasnt much to show and I only have 10 min on youtube.
The other hive though is quite aggressive, and will
even attack when the lid is simply taken off the top.

Usually it is the guards near the entrance of the hive
that are the tough ones, but these bees all take part.

Bees cannot hear, which is a good thing.
I felt that I had to speak so loud to talk with my
dad and was worried that it would disturb them.

Ive heard that they sense fear, and although I wasnt
really scared, I was tense as hell after getting stung in
my finger twice. It was getting to be too frustrating so I gave up
and let them be. Honey is being made, so that is all we need to know.

I used to sit in front of the hives last year and meditate,
usually sitting about 2 feet away from the entrance.
They would just buzz right by as if I wasnt there.
I didnt move much, but still.

These bees now will get aggressive with you if you are picking
vegetables 15 feet from the hive...pretty sassy for sure.

You just cant avoid getting stung eventually.
Maybe Im wrong, but Ive been hit at least 10 times
in the past 2 seasons and I havent even been around them
all that much, so just be aware to that fact that if you have
bee allergies, think long and hard about where you can put
your bees and have someone else do the dirtywork for you.

Hope you enjoy the video.

-A

Good Stuff from Underground Wellness

He says again and again that it doesnt make
sense that these sick doctors and nutritionists
keep telling us to eat foods that are actually bad for us.

Well..it makes sense when we finally realize that
its a two-part equation:

First, they get us sick with those types of foods.
Refined oils, sugars, and starches.
Toxic dairy with condensed GMO and EVERYTHING else.
No grass fed is ever mentioned officially that I know of.
No distinction, right? Am I wrong?
Will feedlots ever be made illegal?

Second, they attempt to sell us some kind of remedy.
It works perfectly well and makes loads of sense when
you look at it from a business perspective.

Sell the disease, then sell the cure.

Nature (God, The Universe, The Force, The Source)
knows (and has always known) what its doing.
Eat according to the laws set down, and you can do no wrong.

Simple Mango Spinach Smoothie

This is a very simple and accessible smoothie
that makes consistency more possible.

People might nag on me about using bagged spinach,
but lets be reasonable. We are all on a different path,
and some people only have organic access to bagged
salads and bagged-frozen berries/mangoes.

I will be making lots more food videos like I was
last spring, so stay tuned for some new twists and
ideas, and some VEGETARIAN recipes! GASP!

GMO VID-E-O

This is a little graphic at times,
but definitely a good watch.

Think about this -
Those who produce food for 95% of the population
have to report many things on their labels,
but not GMOS? WHY?
Don't we have the right to know in the USA? THE WORLD?

Why the secrecy?

Many people get it through corn syrup, soy and canola oil,
and probably so much more.

When you get really deep into cleansing
you start to feel as if everything is out to harm you.
Im definitely overdue for a cleanse but Ive been there.

Lets get the parents off of conventional meat and dairy at the very least.
Those animals are concentrating GMO feed into their tissues. Yikes.

If you cut GMO's out of your life,
your basically removing all processed foods,
which will totally cleanse you depending on
how much leafy greens you eat.

The whole gmo diet has got to become a sad memory of the past.

Glenn Beck and Catie Couric

Watch CBS Videos Online

I just watched this and thought Id put it on for everyone.

If you watched it, what did you think?

I think as a society, we have to think of it as more of a divide
between those who want true peace and freedom
AND ABUNDANCE FOR ALL
around this wonderful world we have been given,
and those that make billions on the business of war and wage slavery.

Why have we made ourselves so dependent on their food, water,
and electricity (and MONEY)? Would it not be worth it to produce our own instead?

I just found the grainy satellite pic of my place in MN!
I believe this was taken in march or late fall last year.
I planted alot more in there this summer, and Im
excited to see what it looks like now with the green "carpeting".

And if you measure the angle from the greenhouse to the dome,
it aligns perfectly with Orion's belt on the summer solstice.

........

KIDDING!

That would be pretty crazy if I actually did that.
Im sure someone 10,000 years into the future could find that it
matches up to some constellation and say that some
primitive? civilization was onto something.

Can you tell which spot the garden is at?
FOOD FOREST!!

Current DKNY.com pics and MN Permie pic

I am surely a gardener at heart, but I still DO model.

Here is a page from DKNY.com


I just found this today and heard from a friend that
the Clark's campaign is out now too, let me know if you see it
anywhere. I havent see it yet.

I want to send words of encouragement and thanks
to everyone who Ive spoken with lately about diet/lifestyle!
The conversations have been so great, and I know
only big things are happening for you...stick with it!

I just drew out the new layout of the permaculture project too.
Just in pencil, check it out:

Click on it for a better read. There is more action
taking place on the right and left as well, but this is
pretty inclusive for now. The trees are NOT that big yet :(

And where there is white, its actually green. There is no exposed
gravel anymore. Carpeted with clover and good grasses.

I dont have a Tipi on the deck, but I want something circular up there.

I see myself continously shaving off more and more of the brush and
planting nuts and fruits in there. Piece by piece...

What a joy to create though, cant recommend it enough.

I had to share...guinea pig permaculture

4 minutes well spent. It was bizarre to watch,
but they are doing a very local and sustainable diet.

I felt bad for the little guys though, squealing like that :(

Wouldnt poultry seem better? Then you get eggs at least.

"That first bite!!! Ooh Yum!" I was DYING of laughter.

Question of the Week...

(Hokkaido Squash...stores extremely well)

I received this from Julia, who sent me a comment
on my permaculture design page. Im keeping those pages
free of comments, so I thought Id cover her question here.

Here it goes:

Hi, I have spent a lot of time in Vermont studying permaculture. We are in zone 4 up in Burlington and my parents own land in New Hampshire in zone 5. Anyway, I have been weening myself off of cooked foods for a couple years now, but last winter my partner and I lived in a yurt on our friends' homestead in which they had a root cellar, so I made a whole bunch of kimchis and sauerkraut and pickled over $100 of produce from the last of the 2008 season's farmers markets. We'll still have a bunch going into this winter, but I have a few questions about permaculture and eating raw.

Permaculture has taught me that we can grow great fruits in the northern climates such as hardy kiwis and pawpaws and all sorts of berries, but how do you eat these raw through the off-season? Furthermore, do you have any advice on a northern permaculturist raw foodie can eat locally through the off-season? I guess you spend a lot of time in New York, so you have easy access to a variety of raw foods at any time, but have you been thinking about what a raw food diet would look like living off the land year-round in Minnesota?

Thanks for your time and your inspirational blog! I'd love to see the designs if you could post a large picture of them. (Maybe it's here somewhere and I just haven't found it.) Take care!

..........

What an awesome question, something pertaining to our soon-to-be future
and what we can do to make it as smooth of a transition as possible.

Lets start with this:
Imagine that its the year 1900.
No refrigerators, no freezers, no dehydrators. How did people eat
through the long winters? What methods did they use?

Obviously fermentation is a key. Koreans eat fresh cabbage one
month out of the year, the rest - fermented. They store massive barrels
in the ground and pull kimchi from it throughout the year.
Funny how they had no SARS outbreak like their neighbors.

Ive thought about this intensively this past year.
I hold no illusions that our society will soon be going through
a "power down" and everything around us that we take for granted
will not be as it is now. How will we feed ourselves in the winter?
How will we keep warm? How the hell will we be happy?

Well...happiness aside, this is about making to springtime.
I realized that something we take for granted (the fridge for example)
has only been around for maybe 70 years or so.
Even electricity...widespread use started in the 1930s.

Until then, it (electricity) was kept mostly in cities and for the wealthy.
That is going to happen again. Sorry. I wish it werent the case,
but cheap energy is over and we will soon have to deal with it.
Unless you can invest in a personal energy source, you will have
to come up with more ingenious (and ancient ways) of doing things.

So what did they do? They canned, they dried food, they fermented.
They grew food that didnt need refridgeration to stay edible,
and they built root-cellars to protect those that did.
With new technology, we can grow plants in well-insulated greenhouses
12 months of the year, but still, this will just give us some salads.
More nutrition is needed.
Animal products anyone?
Raw vegetarianism?

I don't think vegans could survive on their own in a temperate climate
unless they were VERY good at preserving food.

(onions...again, store very well. Garlic and shallots too.)

Personally, I would have two female goats, and as many chickens
or ducks or guinea fowl as I could comfortably fit in my greenhouses,
which would be about 8 or 10. My poor greenhouse would reek, but
I wouldnt go hungry. Still, its a matter of putting up food for THEM
for the winter. Growing or buying alfalfa hay and stocking
it up in a waterproof area is absolutely essential.
These things are just so foreign to most of us.

I want to live in a northern climate when I get older (like 30!).
I think the cold weather will soon weed out the "weaklings" and
those who cant stay warm because of the rising energy costs
and the fact that 99% of people live in really poorly-insulated homes.

My area in MN may soon be deserted because people just cant stay alive there
without cheap energy, and I strongly suspect that anyone living in
zone 5 or colder will find the same to be true.

Here is another key. NUTS. LOTS OF NUTS.

I just ordered two almond trees that will go in my
soon-to-be-built 10x20 rectangular greenhouse.

Im going to order as many hazelnuts as I can get, and make a thick hedge
across the front of the property. Nuts store well, and provide many calories
compared to leafy greens. Sure, the fat might make you a little sleepy,
BUT YOURE ALIVE! How wonderful!

Learn more about hybrid hazels HERE.

Our diets are a luxury. Make no mistake about it. We can actually
pick and choose what we want, while 75% of the rest of the world
would gladly take whatever fell from a UN. plane.

But, with conscious planning, our diets can be free and totally
self-sustainable. But the key is in planting foods that store well.

I like the ideas of food forests and agro-forestry because
so little work is involved once the trees are planted.
I feel bad for all those fools who till up their poor soil every
year so they can plant annuals again. Such a waste of time
and the fight against nature is just so 20th century.
Nature loves what? Perennial Polycultures.

Chairman Mao tore down fruit orchards and mandated that the
whole country plant wheat to feed the Chinese people.
That murdering idiot had no clue about soil health and sustainability, and because
wheat couldnt thrive in those climates, massive starvation occured.
If he would have ordered a mass planting of fruit and nut trees,
a very different story could have taken hold.

If one can head towards vegetarianism instead of veganism,
a much more realistic plan can take hold.
You can milk your goats or your mini-jersey cow,
harvest your eggs every morning, and be pretty well off.
You dont have to cook anything if you don't want to.
I eat raw dairy and raw eggs all the time, and Im fine.

Vegans will have to fight harder to preserve nutrient-dense
food in the northern climates,
and I think after hunger were to take hold, they would
find their convictions to be much more wobbly.

Look into the earthship model of building.
Walls made of rammed-earth that is 3ft thick.
Build it into the side of a hill for extra insulation.

Quite possibly you could grow tropicals will little extra
heating if you had animals or a wood-heated stove inside,
so an April-fruiting guava would be a VERY welcomed site
after a long Vermont winter.

But all of this is based on the fact that you have NO ONE
else to depend upon for food. This is like some end-of civilization
scenario that many collapsitarians dream of.

Likely, there will be local networks to order food from,
and even stocking up on nuts or dried fruit from a neighbor will be possible.

If it gets so bad to the point where we have no one else to
depend upon for food, well...heaven help us.

Some would say that we are foolish to be permaculturists
in zone 5 or colder. I strongly disagree. Native Americans
did very well here, and as long as we arent attached to the
opulent lifestyles of middle class America, we should hopefully be ok.

It will take hard work and lots of human intellect, but we will thrive.
Plant winter apples that store through the spring, plant as
many hybrid hazels and hybrid chestnuts as you can,
keep learning fermentation and dehydration techniques,
and youll be sitting pretty when April comes around.

PLEASE...keep me posted. Love hearing about others
taking these projects on. Here is to YOUR and OUR freedom!

Anthony

Planting Seeds

The creation of a thousand forests
is in one acorn. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'd like to share a wonderful set of videos
that were so inspirational to me.

"The Man Who Planted Trees"
is a true story from pre-WW1 France.

Please watch if you have the time,
this video is a total gem.









My initial motivation in regards to this blog was to show
everyone how raw foods were cool and effective.

That was great, and very well intentioned,
but the picture is so much bigger than just that.

I am here to encourage others to start their own little food forest.
I think that by doing this, we can solve just about every
problem we face as individuals and as an overall society.
If you have been inspired and have taken action,
please send me some pics so I can share with others.

Want some more inspiration? Check THIS out.

(two PLUMP acorns I found in Ohio,
going to plant them when I go back to MN next time)

One soul can turn a desert into the garden of Eden.
We are creators, and its about time we start embracing that.

9-11 Mysteries

I saw this movie about 2 years ago,
and the hard science and COMMON sense
completely floored me.

For the longest time, I thought that the US
government had just messed with the wrong people,
and now we were finally paying for it.

After doing my own research and asking hard questions
(the ones that the corporate media never asked)
I have come to some really scary conclusions.

Check out this video and pursue further information
if you wish. Just make up your own mind.

Ask the hard questions, and remember all the
lies about invading Iraq and WMDs.

It really all adds up.

Skip the Swine Flu Shot

Dawn, the lovely lady over at Happy Healthy Balance
just did a wonderful post about whats going on with Swine Flu.
Check it out HERE.

The US Gov't tried this in 1976,
and they are gearing up for it again.
Whether or not they will make the move to make it mandatory
is still up in the air...Im reading so much about it now and
all the talk of metal bracelets and confinement camps for refusers
is really getting me worked up. By November 1st we should
know if they are crazy enough to try to force us to take the vaccine.

If they are going to make that move,
we really need to be ready.
At the very least, prepare yourself and your family
and be educated on what you can do.

Check out Dawn's post for more info.

More aluminum anyone?

The Obama Deception

Its the weekend.
If the weather is bad,
maybe you can devote two hours to this video.

I voted for Obama, mostly because I had the hope
that whatever he was saying was true.

Pretty naive of me, but some part of me wanted
to believe that a lightworker could become president again.

I would highly recommend watching this,
give it 20 minutes and see if you want to continue.

Its not about left or right wings.
Its about the super wealthy continuing to lock the population
into wage slavery, poor health, and dumbing us down.



If you do watch this, let your friends and family know what you think.

Again, this isnt about Obama.
Its about who Obama (and Bush...and Clinton) is working for,
and why the media NEVER mentions this.

Offering change we can believe in...haha

-A

Breakfast of the Future?

Is this the breakfast of the future,
or a heart-attack waiting to happen?

Raw goat kefir, raw egg yolks, raspberries and blueberries
from my garden, and hempseeds from Manitoba Harvest.
I throw a dash of sea salt on to balance the sugar of the berries,
and then...indulge.

If you think this is a heart attack waiting to happen, why?
Were you told something by authorities?
Are these the same health authories that told you to eat
6 servings of refined carbs a day?
To eat vegetable oils such as soy, corn, and canola?
To drink fluoridated and chlorinated water?

Do some research on the studies done that vilified
cholesterol, and you will shortly see that the results were completely
cherry-picked to support the low-fat processed food manufacturers
and big pharma who makes BIG bucks selling pills to reduce cholesterol.

You may think that the meat and dairy industry is a big player,
but compared to big pharma and the processed food industry,
they are peons. Do your research and come to your own conclusion.
I have.

HERE is a very biased place to start, but it will pique your interest.

When I eat foods like above, I have no desire whatsoever for sugar anymore.
I used to have the craziest sugar cravings when I would abstain from
fat, and now it doesn't cross my mind. Truly liberating.

And just so you know, those animal foods were purchased
from a small farmer 10 miles away from me.
All grass fed. Uncle Sam didnt get a penny.

Anthony

Nobody is Smarter than YOU are.

Terence McKenna was an absolute gift
to this planet...coming across his work has
helped me in uncountable ways.

Food Forest Update and Some Grass-Fed Butter....

Do you think you know stillness? Learn from the pros.
Chilling on a fig leaf in the dome greenhouse. Perfect.

Work was slow in NY, so I hopped in the car at 10am and did 1400 miles
in about 22 hours. Slept for 5 hours at a rest stop, and made it back to
the garden by 11am the next day. I stopped in Minneapolis to stock
up on grass-fed seasonal butter for the winter, then continued on.

This butter is only created from June to September,
so I was sure to stock up for the rest of year. Really primo stuff.
Check out this comparison between grass fed butter
and grain fed butter...astonishing.

Grass fed on left...soy, corn, and ??? fed on right.
Grass-fed butter will not clog your arteries!
The body tries to heal itself from refined carbs in the bloodstream
by laying down a thin layer of cholesterol. Its a healing mechanism
that targets interior inflammation.
So...People keep eating refined carbs, and the body keeps putting
out the healing layers of cholesterol until its too much and
blood flow gets cut off. People have been eating diets high in
animal fats for MANY MANY MANY years, and suffered
no coronary problems. Its only by adding in the refined carbs
do the arteries start to close up. Seriously.
Don't believe it? Check THIS out at least before judging.

Back to the garden.
I come upon this scene, and all was well with the universe.

This dome didnt even exist until October 2008,
and now it is an utter oasis supporting untold
amounts of life and biodiversity.
I sit there and say to myself:
"I created THIS" What a feeling.

This is what it looked like this June.
The volunteer pumpkin was taking over,
and I liked the greenery, but she had to go.

It was time for a chop and drop.

I apologized to her (the pumpkin) and told her
that it was for the greater good of the greenhouse.
(I doubt that SHE agreed).
This looks like a small amount, but it was about six inches thick.
Two days later the worms were ALL OVER it.
I did the chop and drop in the middle of the night,
hoping not to disturb the other plants nearby
that might be a little rattled by one of their friends
getting chopped to bits. (Im not crazy.)
I eventually planted the pomegranate that was in a container
up until now, and you should see the new growth shooting out.
I then covered that area with newpapers, and then straw.

My biggest annual success was the growth of tomatoes.

This was supposed to be a yellow pear (all the others were)
but this special specimen turned out quite a bit different.

Copper tools and a varied Tomato/Tomatillo Harvest. Genius.

I have paid my tariffs to nature though.
The deer are pretty relentless, and the lack of
human and canine activity up there leads to brave deer.
Its a tax Im willing to pay. They poop all over, so I thank them
for their contribution. I wish they would have eaten the whole squash though.
Into the compost bin it went.

They would mess with the corn as well. I don't mind that much
since I just chop it all up and lay it on the garden floor anyways,
and most of the corn was from decorative indian corn so I would
just make tortillas out of it anyways. I used it more for a border
anyways, so again...a tax paid to nature. So it goes.

And the bees...hitting the red clover. Im glad I planted it all over the place. Just when the buckwheat was finishing, the red clover was taking over. Its good to plant lots of bee food in your garden to keep them close to home and out of trouble. I devoted much of my garden (non-sq foot garden that is) to bee food. It has paid off.

Its all about give and take. The more you give your food forest and the animals that live within it, the more you get back. And Im NOT really talking about food, but something much more intangible, deeper, and fufilling. Sitting in that greenhouse at midnight and listening to crickets and frogs is something that I could never replace with some crap TV show or a movie. Something is so pure and true about it, and to know that I was experiencing it because my former self of one year ago was determined or crazy enough to build that dome greenhouse is a really awesome feeling.

Time is NOT running out for your garden.
Make deposits to the bank (the soil) by adding in cover crops,
manure, and sea minerals. Do some landscaping and plant some perennials.
Its not too late. Dont call it quits so soon, especially for you fellow northerners.

Food forest creation is a 10 month a year task.
Food forests WILL save us if we are smart enough to start
creating them now. Your kids and grandkids will thank you.

Australian Food Forest

Time to get inspired...START NOW.

Ron Paul is Right On.

Ill be doing a big post about the permaculture update and will
be making some food videos really soon.

We've got 7 little fruit trees in the
window and they are LOVING it.