This morning I read this article from a group called Desteni out of New Zealand. They are trying to start an equal money society and they have modeled it basically like a MLM. You pay for your lessons about $250 and then you get 10 others to subscribe at the same price which gives you $2500. I don't quite understand how you get the residual pay from your downline but anyway it is supposed to give you financial freedom eventually. That said.
I started wondering what would happen if you did that with trees? You plant 10 food bearing trees and convince 10 others to do the same. You don't get the trees but it seems like if we continued to do that we would have food forests doting our land. Just a thought. If all your downline was local and you all shared your profits, each 1/10 to the community group that might lead to food self sufficiency.
My simple life in the Arizona desert on my little farm. Thoughts on life and my everyday life.
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4 comments:
Good Morning Anna...I stumbled across your blog space and your title Living a Simple Life .. caught my interest as that is what I've always strived to do.
I read your blog and I am so into the idea..I would love nothing better than to live off my land and trees... what a wonderful place that would be ...
It used to be that way at one time, its a shame that its changed !!
Moni .
ps I'm new to this blogging , so I'm just checking it out...
learning as I go ....
http://74.119.217.120//vb/showthread.php?t=51900&highlight=seaver
excerpt Can these trees, shrubs and hardy perennials really produce enough feedstock in small-area plantings to provide true alternative resources? Well, here's what Earle Barnhart said in Tree Crops, an article published in the Journal of The New Alchemists: "Tree crops can match row crops in both protein and carbohydrate yield per acre. Modern hybrid-grain crops such as corn, wheat, and soybeans only outproduce tree crops such as Persian Walnut, filberts, Chinese chestnuts, honey locust and black walnut if they are highly subsidized with fossil-fuel inputs such as pest protection, weed removal, nutrient enrichment and constant, adequate water."... "large fields benefit from being sheltered; the approximate 5% used for windbreaks is well-compensated by higher productivity from the remainder. Tree products such as acorns and honey-locust pods can match corn and oats pound-for-pound as winter feed supplements for livestock." Or us.
"Other woody plants do even better, such as mesquite. This small deciduous tree, native to our Southwest, is so hardy some folks claim it is related to the coyote -- indestructible.! Cows relish its seedpods, and so did the Indians. Pods, minus the seeds, contain much sucrose, about 8-12% protein and are rich in calcium, iron and phosphorus. Mesquite beans which must be ground for human consumption, contain a whopping 60% protein." In fact the whole tree was of vital importance to early natives of the Southwest. The mesquite gives shade, building material, firewood, food and its fibruous bark can be woven into fabric. The honey mesquite in particular is a favourite of honey bees, hence its name: and both it and the velvet mesquite exhibit exceedingly attractive foilage, often planted as ornamentals.
Like the eastern locust, mesquite is a nitrogen-fixing legume. And also like the locust it has many sharp spines, making it ideal for trimming into a dense man-or livestock-proof hedge. Growing to 20 feet tall, this plant provides security in more ways than one. Prowlers or potential looters can easily be disheartened by such a barrier surrounding a house. Nor would its wealth be evident to the gaze of the average brigand searching for food stocks and other valuables.
Honey and mesquite locust grow well south of northern Oklahoma, southern Colorado, Utah and central Nevada. They both tolerate a wide range of conditions: 100-150 days of frost per year, up to 30 inches of rain (or as little as 6 inches), and they grow in sand, gravel, rocks, loam or clay; with either alkaline, saline, acid or neutral soils.
http://74.119.217.120//vb/showthread.php?t=97986&highlight=millions+acres+free+food
http://www.spmesquite.com/articles/ancientfoods.html
excerpt Going back to one's roots could soon take on a more literal meaning for the Indians of the American Southwest, as well as for peoples elsewhere in the world who are poorly adapted to rich, refined foods.
For the sake of their health, as well as their cultural heritage, the Pima and Tohono O'odham tribes of Arizona are being urged to rediscover the desert foods their people traditionally consumed until as recently as the 1940's.
Studies strongly indicate that people who evolved in these arid lands are metabolically best suited to the feast-and-famine cycles of their forebears who survived on the desert's unpredictable bounty, both wild and cultivated.
Thank you both for your comments. Moni, just get started!
Vlad that was very informative and I'm so glad you posted it. The more leguminous trees I plant the more I will improve my soil and the more bean trees to produce. I'm working on it and it makes progress at my slow pace.
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