The Alternative Kitchen Garden: an A-Z

I have been thinking about reviewing a few of the gardening and self-sufficiency related books that I so dearly enjoy reading. One of the things my wife and I love to do during the winter months is to "try" and catch up on our reading so that we can justify spending a day every so often tooling about the used bookstores in our area in an attempt to uncover more of those hidden gems that are tucked away on dusty shelves just waiting for us to find. Some of my most rewarding accomplishments are those that I have taken from the page of a book and turned into a reality, having an idea manifest from mere words to an actual tangible creation is always an enlightening experience.

That said, I thought it would be fitting to start off with a newer book I just finished reading that, in my mind, truly exemplifies the pure unadulterated joy of gardening, The Alternative Kitchen Garden an A-Z written by Emma Cooper. This young author tends a very diverse garden plot where her and husband Pete can be found enthusiastically growing and experimenting with a wide variety of different vegetables, herbs, fruits, and berries...anything that can possibly be grown in their climate. Emma also keeps plants going in their geodesic dome greenhouse and raises chickens on her property in the UK. I have found that some of my favorite gardening books come from this region as the climate is so very similar to our own in the Pacific Northwest, thus the advice given is most pertinent.

One of the things I like about this particular book is that it's an especially valuable resource for those with small garden plots, showing the limitless possibilities of what can be achieved in a modest area of land. Emma shares her personal thoughts and experiences growing organic food and raising chickens on her small homestead with a refreshingly witty and down to earth sense of humor that sets this read apart from many of the stodgy and strictly serious gardening books out there. I should also mention that all of the information in this book is presented in a very environmentally conscientious manner.

Perhaps what really piqued my interest was the wide diversity of topics and plants that she covered. Do you know what xynophyl is? Want to try growing Achoca? Well, besides covering all of the "normal" garden veggies one of Emma's passions is to try new and unusual varieties in her garden...me too. All in all I thoroughly appreciated this book for the reasons listed above plus the fact that Emma is a fellow blogger whose thought provoking posts about gardening always impart on me a little more knowledge than I started with. So check out her book and blog sometime...you just might like it too.

Emma's gardening blog can be found at http://coopette.com/blog/ and she also produces The Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast (an online radio show).

Homegrown Puppy Chow

One of the things that we have been striving to be more self-reliant in is the ability to feed our pet's food that we can obtain or produce ourselves. After consulting with a fellow blogger whom I trust goes to great lengths to care for her own dogs and doing a lot of reading on the subject of canine nutrition we have come up with our first homemade dog food recipe. Having realized that a dogs natural diet could consist of a wide variety of different foods we started offering small samples to our puppy, Rowdy, early on so that he would develop a taste for them, and boy did he ever. He loves to eat everything we have given him...fruits, veggies, nuts, chicken poop (his idea not ours), etc...

In the wild, a wolf, coyote, or dingo's diet consists of more than just meat. Being opportunistic in nature their diet, while based on various types of meat, can also include some fruits, berries, grass, vegetables, and other plants. I've read that coyotes are even known to raid farmers melon patches upon occasion. So we came up with a cooked puppy food that is approximately 50% meat and eggs and 50% plant based. This is of course subject to change depending upon how well the dog does on this diet and any new information I might obtain.

Here is a fascinating video of wolves supposedly eating raspberries. Although they look more like rose hips to me.

Our first batch consisted of a couple pounds of good quality lean ground beef, eggs, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, peas, plain tomato sauce, berries, apples, chicory root, parsley, celery, and steel cut oats to bind it all together. All of these vegetables, and the steel cut oats, are supposed to be easily digestible for dogs unlike some of the cheap corn and soy based "filler" ingredients, full of chemical additives, that make up the bulk of some pet foods...or so I've been reading in Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide To Natural Health For Dogs & Cats and various other sources. For the record, while a very interesting book, I don't necessarily agree with everything in Dr. Pitcairn's book.

Anyway, this mix will last him about 25 days (keeping in mind that this is a small puppy...for a while) and is served as an addition to his constant supply of dry dog food and the occasional serving of kefir or milk, extra eggs, raw fresh veggies, fruit, berries, and any voles or mice he might catch. We measured out the daily portions and froze them for ease of use.

Grandfather tested and puppy approved homemade dog food right out of the garden.:)

He absolutely loves his new food, it was so good I even had a bite. If I have to start eating dog food in my old age this will be my brand of choice, not very tasty but pretty darn healthy.:) We will probably add a little more protein in the form of beef, fish, broth, legumes, and eggs as he continues to grow. Other possibilities include the addition of spinach (?), garlic, eggshell powder, broccoli, squash, rice, flax, and kale to the mix. He goes nuts over our kale for some reason, he was with me while I was picking it one day, probably thought I was grazing on it, and has been stealing it from under the row covers ever since. Now if I could just figure out how to make a high protein healthful dry dog food, and then there's those hopelessly lazy and finicky cats to deal with.

So far Rowdy is a very healthy, happy, and energetic puppy who loves to take walks in the wetlands. Beside harassing our cats his favorite pastimes include catching goose feathers that are floating down stream, hunting for voles, and quality time with the chickens...more on that later.

A Pennies Worth Of Thoughts

I recently purchased one of the most revolutionary books on gardening I have ever read... for only one cent. A new and exciting book all about growing ones own fruits and vegetables. It consists of almost 1,000 pages that contain some of the most up-to-date information on organic growing that I've come across.

Some of the radical topics covered in the pages of this book include:

1. Growing food not lawns in these unprecedented economic times is much more feasible then having to pay for it at the local grocer and a better use of our precious resources.

2. Explores the many benefits of organically grown food, and suggests people have to make a conscious decision to stop buying food that has been drenched in poisonous pesticides and opt for organic produce in the grocery stores, farmers markets, and especially your own back yard.

3. Exciting information that shows a diet high in fruits, vegetables and leafy greens can greatly increase ones health and help to prevent many life-threatening diseases that afflict us in today's modern world. In the forward Dr. John Duge states:

"My 4 children, I think, are just about the healthiest and smartest in Southern California. Practically never ill, rarely a cold and, " concludes the busy doctor, "mostly the result of eating fruits and vegetables from our organic garden."

4. New and exciting ways of gardening such as the no dig method, intensive planting techniques, soil fertility, gardening in harsh climates, furrow irrigation, creating super compost, and season extenders such as green houses and cold frames are all discussed at length.

This book truly is ahead of it's time, written by a visionary in the organic movement, J.I. Rodale.















Unfortunately, although new to me, it is far from being a new garden book as it was first published over fifty years ago in 1958. I purchased it for 1 penny not including $3.99 shipping as a used book on Amazon.com.

Apparently not many people read it back then - I know I did not as I had yet to be born. From my perspective, it seems the only difference between now and then is that everything has gotten much worse...Where are all the home gardens? Why is organic produce the newest thing to hit many "stupermarket" shelves?

I've recently read a couple of other older books on health and nutrition. One written in the early 1900's by a dentist and naturalist Weston A. Price. called "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration." He found that the health issues of modern civilization were not present in those cultures sustained by homegrown diets. However, within a single generation these same cultures experienced all modern ailments with the inclusion of Western foods in their diet; refined sugars, refined flours, canned goods, etc... Another, "Centenarians of the Andes" written in 1975 studied the effects of diet in relation to longevity. From the books introduction:

It seems that those people who have the best chance of a healthy and active old age are those who use their minds and bodies much, even toward the end of their span. This is certainly true of the centenarians in southern Ecuador.
-the greatest ages were found in the areas where people lived on a subsistence diet, and one very low in calories.

The conclusion reached was that diet and exercise as nature intended not only greatly increased life expectancy but also prevented disease.















Had the information that was available to us then been followed early on we would certainly not be in the sorry shape we are today as a nation - health wise anyway. We truly are blind to the obvious. How sick does society have to become before they realize the simple solution to health?

So, not only is every one's health suffering but my wallet is really aching due to the high cost of medical insurance. Insurance that although I am forced to pay an exorbitant amount of money for, I really do not use, and am seriously considering doing away with altogether. What happened to the days when you could barter eggs, produce, or whatever with a local doctor?

So many questions but, alas, I am fully aware of the answers.. I just don't like them very much.