rich3800 Hatfield

I found a fascinating book by Peter Barnes: Capitalism 3.0 . It can be purchased or downloaded at capitalism3.com . Interesting read. I spend a good amount of time on political Internet boards where people deplore animal abuse, human rights abuse, etc. Barnes' book "Capitalism 3.0" brings everything to light to make sense of it to find solutions to the wild, dark side of the current economic system. He discusses how managed public property trusts can reduce population, save endangered species, bridge economic disparities.

I have some cactus in the back field, where I intend to put some kind of foraging animals. But I worry they would hurt themselves on the cactus spines. Any way to make something good out of the situation? "Something is useless until someone finds a use for it."

I would be curious about the level of transformation of the toxic material by the plants.  Just like the fact that we don't eat manure if we fertilize our plants with manure, not all toxic materials surrounding the plant will find its way into the edible parts of the plant.  Some plants are better at conversion than others.  I've heard about some mushrooms and cattails acting as accumulators of toxic substances.  Any comments?

Alex B. wrote:
You might want to check out eattheweeds.com

Green Dean is in the Orlando area and regularly does foraging hikes where he identifies tons of edible stuff.  I would bet you are already surrounded by more than you realize....at least I know my wife and I were astounded.  He also has a great YouTube channel.

A few hours of my time saved me countless hours in the garden since I had been pulling all kinds of edible weeds...now we make more room for them.

Also there's an active central FL barefoot gardener yahoo group with great people chock full of insight.

Good luck!

Thank you for the info.  I recently received the book I ordered on Amazon: Samuel Thayer's "The Forager's Harvest". Growing known plants will make the plant identification stage smoother, precisely because they are already known.  I recently got in touch with Dean Jordan, to get him to give seminars at my farm.  I look forward to identifying all my farm's "edible assets".

Alex Barcia wrote:
I'm in Lakeland and it spouts anywhere there is bare soil on my farm.  Are you wanting seed to plant?  We grow red amaranth and the native wild stuff shows up with it all over the garden.  The wild stuff may have crossed with the Hopi red we grow but both grow like, well, weeds  let me know where you are and what you're after and I'll see if I can help you out.

I'm in Zolfo Springs.  I'm generally looking for any edible plants.  I want to surround myself with edible stuff, where there are weeds now. I'm looking for seeds, live plants, anything.

For those forum members who are in central FL, I'm looking for pigweeds, or wild amaranth.

Pam wrote:
dunno  but when you say that your motive  partly was  "to do something radical"  and "fight the man"  it is surely no surprise  that "the man" feels attacked and fights back?   

My own opinion is that if you are trying to spread light it's best not to hit people over the head with a lamppost as you are putting it up, esp if you are going to be indignant when they object, and even more esp  if they didn't see the need for a lamppost in the first place.

People these days are concerned about property values and it's a common thing to feel that yards should "look like someone cares" and to most people that means a typical suburban yard of mowed grass and organized flower beds and ..MAYBE..a tidy  well weeded vegetable patch out back, discretely hidden by shrubbery or a fence.

In some cities I have lived in you would have been given a summons and told to get it tidied up and maybe even fined, esp if you didnt take it out right away. One city I lived in  someone was forced to take potato plants out that they had neatly lining the front walk. So your neighbors may actually have been showing a good deal of restraint  in how they dealt with you.  If you are going to turn the neighborhood upside down it's often a good idea to try to get at least some of the neighbors onside beforehand, even if they are only to the point of resignation to your  "crazy"  ideas/experiments. 

Brenda's ideas as well as those of thelight sound great..you could also fit in some concessions to the neighbors such as a sprinkling of someone's favorite flowers here and there or some herb that someone uses which might not readilly available  fresh. If you have stuff in there that people are not familiar with, then cooking some of it up and having  a street party featuring your garden produce  or even having your own barbecue when it's likely your neighbors will be around and offering them taste tests of what you are eating might help them understand a little of what you are up to. Sharing in the harvest is usually something that diffuses tensions..as long as you are sharing something that they know and use.  No point in giving the neighbor 5 pounds of Jerusalem artichoke if they have no clue what it is or how to use it and likely won;t feel it worth while to mess with it in case they don't even like it; or a couple of heads of cabbage when they loathe cabbage.

If you think about how you learn..I bet it wasn't by teachers or someone  taking what you valued and believed,   shoving something totally contrary in your face and demanding you like it /approve.   If you put yourself in the other guy's shoes for a bit, possibly some other approaches might occur to you about how to handle what you want to do without necessarilly totally antagonizing the neighbors.

Respectful communication is a wonderful thing, and need not mean you can't do what you want.

When I put myself in somebody else's shoes, I often find they're too small, figuratively and litterally.

Good news: the transplants seem to be taking hold.  They're sprouting new growths from underwater.

My rooster finally died. I don't know what killed it:  the stress of transportation when I bought him or the mushrooms or polysterene  from my garden or the stress from being chased by a predator.  My rooster spent the night out of the coop one night.  He was somewhat ragged the next day.  Who knows what happened during that night...  In addition, he apparently got a taste for styrofoam.  I wonder if he died of constipation related to eating it?

I remember reading about cacti: the paddles are the plant stem and the spines are the leaves, to cut down on evaporation water losses.