A few good sources of information

 Here are a few useful links. Many are quite vast libraries.


http://soilandhealth.org/  
This contains a large library of downloadable books that I've found of use from soil management to herbal medicine.
 
http://www.swsbm.com/homepage/
Large materia medica library has a lot of late 19th century herbal medicine books.
 
http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/


A good source of agroforestry plants. I use them a lot.

 
http://www.motherearthnews.com/
Very good library of practical solutions to things.

http://journeytoforever.org/
Good self sufficiency library

http://www.pfaf.org/index.php
Online encyclopaedia of useful plants with cultivation details and uses. Over 7000 species listed.
 
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/calendar/
Essential reading for new gardeners and useful for old hands.
 
http://permaculture.org.uk/
Good for networking
 
http://carolynbaker.net/site/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
I subscribed to this woman's mailing list she talks about the state of the world and transition.
 
http://sharonastyk.com/
I like this woman's writing she talks a lot about self sufficiency.

A frosty hiatus

We had a hard frost last night and rain yesterday delayed the compost delivery. We have a Wwoofer all next week (Volunteers on organic farms http://www.wwoof.org.uk/) so they'll work with Matt for the first part of the week and I should get some help from Thursday onwards because I'm visiting a friend in Wales on Tues/Wed next week. The mini digger should also be here by then and we'll finally get on with it. The first beds should be ready for the broad beans and the parsnips in mid February.

I wanted to make clear that we have no budget here. There is only what comes out of our pockets and what time and equipment people donate. Danny isn't being paid for the use of his machinery and wood but he'll get a share of what we produce as will all who work on it but for the next few months there will be no income of any sort from this project.

I've been debating with my self how to start talking about why we're doing what we are and about the importance of systems. I'm not going to go into the details of what's wrong in the world today in this blog. That current systems are unsustainable and at the end of their useful life should be taken as read. The question becomes how do we respond? How do we create a resilient system that will allow us to live in reasonable comfort indefinitely? The most resilient system I know of is Gaea. Life itself. It is a vast interconnected network that passes energy and materials around in a vast array of forms that are all utterly dependant on each other. We cannot exist independently of that web and the more it gets simplified the more it risks collapse into a state that could not support us. Therefore everything we do must prioritise life. 


In an ecosystem complexity produces resilience and productivity. What I am aiming to produce here in the long run is a food producing ecosystem that requires no external inputs once established. A synergy where the system itself becomes self perpetuating. Whatever I produce must do no damage to the life around us and we should aim to increase the diversity of wild life around us. 

That process has been going on here at Brickhurst for many years now. Ponds have been dug in many places around the farm. Many more niches and edges have been created. Edges are where the greatest diversity and productivity is. The more edges we can create the more we can produce. I've seen the diversity of life here at the farm explode since I first started coming here nearly 20 years ago. 

The only thing that I can see will feed the people of the world after the end of industrial civilisation is to permaculture everywhere we live. We have to live in a way that is compatible with life or we will cease to exist. 

One of the most important functions of this project for me is to create a plant bank so we can copy it and pass it on to other people.  I'm planning on growing about a third of each thing I plant for seed. 

There won't be much to report for the next few days but I'll try and get a post or two up. I'm thinking of putting together a list of sources of good information. I'll have a dig into my links and post a few in the next post.

I'll be chatting with Anne tomorrow, Anne is working on a project of her own here and we'll be doing some seed swapping.