Sunday, February 07, 2010

Food Forests and Hemingway

The weather has not cooperated much lately, consisting mostly of cold rains. So my time has alternated between getting soaked while feeding cattle, and stripping off to try to stay warm until next time I had to go out to feed cattle.

During the times spent drying off and getting warm, I have been following the rabbit trail of links on permaculture and food forests. The basic concept of a food forest is to create seven natural levels of the forest with various complementary plants which will provide harvestable food with minimal care. In fact the food forest is a type of no-dig gardening once established.

Now before I get too far into any explanation, I have to admit that I have only just begun to really start to think about, learn about, and consider the concept, so I am not really in a position to provide any more than that basic explanation.

So off I go again on a book search, this time to find a really good book on food forests in the hopes of being able to create a wonderful environment of mixed edibles, from fruit and nuts, all the way down to potatoes growing at the base of these trees and shrubs..

And speaking of books, I have just finished Hemingway's Snows of Kilamanjaro. It was a slow read and most of the stories just were not compelling, unlike his longer works. However, that cannot be said of the last short story in the book: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. This one read like Hemingway at his best. This one story justifies keeping the book (not that I ever need much justification for that!) and certainly will keep me reading through the Hemingway library.

So that makes book number.. 12 if my count is right.

I am already reading The Sword of behleu by Lawrence Watt-Evans, which is about half completed. Hopefully the Agorist Primer comes in soon as it seems time for a non-fiction work, though to be honest a history of some sort, such as a history of science is really more the flavor of what I am in the mood for. Well that or something on food forests of course..

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