Photos of Joseph Lofthouse's Garden

Hello, I would like to enter the drawing to win Joseph's book.  I also want to ask Joseph, have you tried planting things in a less orderly way, Masanobu Fukuoka style?  If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts on how it worked, or didn't, work. :)

Joseph, what can you tell me about the Purple Heritage Plum?  Is it free stone?  I love Stanleys because of the ease of putting up large amounts of food into storage, i.e. drying is easy, canning is easy etc.  But i have lost 3-4 trees over the years to sun scald.  I have transplanted some similar, seed grown varieties, from a neighbor and they have a silvery bark which i think will help reflect and not allow sun scald.  I am in Cache valley too so i am looking to how you have solved these problems.  Thanks.  And if you have any of your nut and fruit tree landraces available.

The thing about heritage trees, is that they are often older than the memory of anyone now living. They have survived the drought years, and many decades of cold frigid winters. And bugs. And neglect. And critters. And blights. Whatever. Offspring tend to strongly resemble their parents and grandparents. Therefore planting seeds from them often gives great new varieties of trees, that also have what it takes to survive local conditions.

Swapping propagules of nuts and trees tends to be highly seasonal.

On Friday, radio station KRCL in Salt Lake city broadcast an interview we did at my farm. My segment begins at 35:42.

https://krcl.org/blog/radioactive-summer-break-july-9-2021/

Recent photos from my garden.

I'm teaching at seed school and grain school in Mancos, Colorado on August 12th and 13th. Registration is still open. http://rockymountainseeds.org/

We are having a potluck dinner both nights to which the interested public is invited. We are screening a seed/food related movie each night.

I'd love to see you. I'm bringing a couple of  guitars in case anyone wants to jam.

Just read the whole thread! Very interesting to follow your garden. Have to add the book to my wishlist.

Is there a way of knowing when crossed offspring plants are sterile/male sterile? I'm trying to plan ahead for next year's garden (s) and hoping to separate the squash varieties quite a bit. I'd like to keep my own seed from the ones that do best (that I like best) and try planting some together to see what they produce. And they make terrific feed for the sheep in the fall to flush them for breeding, not to mention the rest of the critters, so no such thing as excess.
I have: lemon squash (summer), Connecticut field pumpkin, new England sugar pie pumpkin, acorn squash, butternut squash, Georgia candy roaster, jarradale squash.

Thanks for a wonderful thread!

Sterility among crosses is very rare, except in the case of inter-species crosses or laboratory modified lines.

In most cases, male sterility is obvious, because the flowers are missing anthers, or the male flowers shrivel up before shedding pollen.

I love this tomato plant. It's from the Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomato project. Meets nearly all of the selection criteria for the project, except for flavor.

The tepary beans did well despite this year's drought.

Deep winter here. I let the tomatoes in the greenhouse freeze. Still surviving inside it are lettuce, spinach, bock choi, and mallow. I ate some of the mallow for breakfast on Christmas. What an amazing species!

The Chinese language version of my book, Landrace Gardening, just showed up at the Internet book seller sites, and I got author copies to share. The title of the book translates back into English as: "Gardening with Local Varieties: Guidelines for food security in permaculture using biodiversity and cross-pollination".

It's a race to see if the Hindi or Spanish translation will get completed next.

I'm attending the Utah Farm and Food Conference on Jan 13-15th. I'll be speaking, signing books, and bringing seeds for the seed swap. We'll be filming for my new video course about landrace gardening.

Here's a trailer for the course:

About 54 years ago, I helped my daddy plant these conifer trees.

I wonder, during all those years how many birds have fledged in them? How much oxygen, water, food,  and compost have they gifted into the ecosystem?

If that were the only thing I ever accomplished in my life, I think that it would be sufficient. That row of trees means more to me than anything I accomplished in school, or the chemistry lab.

I've been having a lot of fun making video stories based on the contents of my book. Here's the one we released today about muskmelons, my earliest attempt to breed a landrace variety specific to my farm.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Yesterday, I cleaned and winnowed seeds: Beans, corn, and sunflower. Next step is to cycle them through the freezer to kill insects. Germination testing after that.

Do you leave them in the freezer for a certain length of time? Luckily I haven't had seeds get bug-y but would be very good to know :)

kadence blevins wrote:Do you leave them in the freezer for a certain length of time? Luckily I haven't had seeds get bug-y but would be very good to know :)

I leave them in the freezer a few days. Up to a few months, if I forget to take them out.

Today, I'm the featured guest on Christi Wilhelmi's Gardenerd podcast.

Christi Wilhelmi wrote:
This week on the Gardenerd Tip of the Week Podcast, we journey down an unconventional rabbit hole with Joseph Lofthouse. He spends his days developing landrace seeds on his 6th-generation family farm in northern Utah.

He’s also the author of Landrace Gardening: Food Security through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination. What’s a landrace you ask? Listen to find out. He opens our minds to resilient possibilities.

Link to podcast blog

Direct link to podcast

The snow melted last week.

Since then I have planted wheat, rye, barley, favas, lettuce, spinach, hazelnuts, apricots, mustard spice, orach, poppies, mullein, and whatever I forgot to mention.

I dug up the parsnips, sorted them, and replanted so that they can make seeds. Last year was a drought year, and I didn't thin or weed. Selecting for those that do best under those circumstances.

I'm speaking at the Baker Creek Tulip Festival, April 10th, Mansfield Missouri

https://www.rareseeds.com/heritage-days-festivals

The lettuce and spinach in the greenhouse have thrived.

About 6 years ago, this lettuce appeared in my garden as a hybrid between domestic lettuce, and wild lettuce. I have finally got it selected for non-bitter, and non-spiny. And it grows super vigorous, and is winter hardy, so that it can be planted in the fall, and get a huge head start in the spring.