Sba Farms Collective

Michael — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:48:03 +0000

We Used To Have 307 Kinds Of Corn. Guess How Many Are Left? (via http://www.occupymonsanto360.org)

Just a brief look at the biodiversity loss in our modern food system. Biodiversity is like a bank for nature, the more you have in it the more you make, the more you take out the closer you are to going ecologically bankrupt. ORIGINAL: Found on National Geographic

Michael — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:44:53 +0000

Simple Guidelines to Building an Ideal Chicken Coop (via http://www.occupymonsanto360.org)

If you’ve determined to build your own chicken coop you might be a part of an evergrowing group of US residents who are saying “No” to economic downturns, and also doing one thing positive by themselves, their family and own diet. Raising chickens and collection your own eggs dates back to simpler…

Michael — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:07:17 +0000

In the Garden: How to Make Your Own Homemade Organic Insecticides and Pesticides (via http://www.occupymonsanto360.org)

By Andrea As I was watering the garden this morning, and carefully inspecting the plants, I noticed the first signs of aphids in the peppers! Given the mild winter, I fear that we may have trouble with pests this year — and that’s just the reality of growing your own. While there are many, many…

Michael — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 23:04:41 +0000

Getting Started in the Garden: 13 Tips for “Veggie Virgins” and Other Inexperienced Food Growers (via EcoLocalizer)

This is a post we received from a guest author for Earth Day that I held off on publishing on that day, but wanted to feature on our site. It’s a great post and everyday is Earth Day on our site, so here it is. Ellen LaConte, author of Life Rules: Why so much is going wrong everywhere at once and…

Michael — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:57:59 +0000

Patio Container Gardening (via 21C Woman)

Benefits of Container Gardens: There can be many reasons for planting a container garden. It may be because of a space issue, or maybe the time and work a large garden would take just seems daunting. Either way, a container garden can be a beautiful addition to any home, and can become a fun hobby…

Michael — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:52:59 +0000

How Does Your Garden Grow? Tips for the Home Organic Gardening Beginner (via sustainablog)

Food is a hot topic in green living. With climate changes and pollution headlining the news, food sources are coming under greater scrutiny. Where we get our food is almost as important as how we get it. Deciding to incorporate a healthier diet is always good, and there are ways you can do that…

Congratulations to our dear friend’s Sara and Michael

Michael — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 21:45:19 +0000

A real life fairy tale romance.

Our warmest congratulations to our Dear Friends Sara and Michael on their wedding. Sara is one of our longtime supporters and dearest friends. She is the source of much inspiration and beauty. A true reminder to follow your heart, never fear, always express love in all situations and to be kind no matter what. We are so very happy for them both. This is a true blessing. Peace and light be with them and their family forever.

Keep Monsanto OUT of Your Veggie Patch

Michael — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:51:07 +0000

The following is a repost that we felt was very timely as many of us are starting our spring gardens seedlings and for the most part, people just purchase seeds at the place that is the most convenient. We suggest that may not be the best idea any longer. Please consider supporting local, independent garden shops that collect and share their own heirloom seeds or have truly organic seeds due to diligence. The post is from one of our favorite garden blogs that offers practical advice and insight, was published originally on February 6, 2012 it can be found at “

A Garden for the House

Home & Garden Inspiration from Kevin Lee Jacobs “

He also offers, as we do, a newsletter that is a sumary of posts and musings from the prior week. A great site.

************************************************************************************************

I HOPE THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN TO YOU. When I bought ‘Early Girl’ tomato seeds back in 2010, I unwittingly voted for a corporation I vehemently oppose. Which corporation? Why, the evil empire known as Monsanto. Here are a few facts about this loathsome company, along with a few ways to keep it out of your veggie patch:

Monsanto is the agricultural-biotechnology monster who brought us Agent Orange and Round-Up. They also brought us “Round-Up Ready” corn, soybean, cotton, and canola seeds. These seeds, which are sold to industrial farmers, have been genetically engineered to withstand overhead spraying of glyphosate, the herbicide found in Round-Up. Monsanto’s latest horror, Round-Up Ready alfalfa, which spells the end of organic dairy products, was approved by the Obama administration in January, 2011.

And now the company wants to poke its greedy fingers into our home gardens. In 1994, they quietly purchased Seminis for $1.4 billion in cash. Seminis seeds are carried by some of the best-known gardening catalogs, including Burpee, Park Seed, John Scheeper and others. This purchase, plus the purchase of several smaller seed concerns, has given Monsanto an estimated 40%-80% share of the home vegetable seed market.

If you don’t wish to contribute to a company who seems hell-bent on destroying the environment, I suggest you do these three things. First, strive to buy only heirloom or open-pollinated seeds, and then save these seeds at the end of each growing season. Seed Savers Exchange will gladly tell you how to collect and store seeds. Next, make sure your seed-dealer has signed the Safe Seed Pledge. Finally, acquaint yourself with the home-garden seeds that Monsanto owns the rights to, by checking the Seminis catalog. You’ll undoubtedly spot some familiar varieties there, which run the gamut from beans to watermelons. Among the tomatoes listed under “B” are Beefmaster, Better Boy, Big Beef, and Burpee’s Big Boy. The rest of the alphabet turns up other commonly-planted tomatoes.

My heart sank when I discovered Monsanto owns the colorful ‘Cheddar’ cauliflower, which is currently listed in John Scheeper’s Kitchen Garden catalog. But it is a variety that will never see the raised beds in my Kitchen Garden. I’ll opt for an open-pollinated variety instead.

If you have strong feelings about Monsanto, or wish to suggest other ways to avoid deepening the the company’s coffers, please speak up! Post your comments below.

Don’t miss anything at A Garden for the House…sign up for Kevin’s weekly newsletter.

******************************************************************************************

We greatly appreciate your taking your time to visit our little site. Please leave a comment, either about this post or the site in general, let us know you were here. Suggestions are always appreciated. Peace and light.

The Drought in South East Texas

Michael — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:32:59 +0000

In September 2011 the nursery pond.

For the past two years we have been experiencing an extreme drought in Texas, according to the National Weather Service, the worst in over 50 years. Here at the collective Hurricane Ike, in Sept 2008, was the third costliest Hurricane to have ever hit the United States and came straight over our little farm, leaving it in total devastation. We had three feet of saltwater covering our entire farm and destroying 30 some odd years of work. It totally killed our entire aquaculture system. We have three small ponds, a nursery pond in the back, an intermediate pond and our main pond closer up toward the main residence. As you can imagine salt water did them in totally.

******************************************************************

We have always been totally organic at our collective from the outset. We sought advice about how to heal our ponds and our soil to re-mediate the effects of the salt water. Every where we turned we were told to add this chemical or that chemical, plant this gmo or the other. or JUST WAIT. So we chose to wait. Slowly over the next several years, as evidenced by continuous monitoring, the salinity levels in the soil and ponds returned to normal. No chemicals used. Just patience and nature.

*************************************************************************

By the end of 2010 the ponds were supporting life, albeit slowly, and the gardens were at least attempting to produce a bit. Then the drought struck. Above you see the nursery pond in Sept of 2011, below the condition of the same pond by October 2011. With a great deal of effort my son Christian had spent days moving each and every little fish to the intermediate pond, and then finally to the main pond. He has managed these ponds with love and devotion for almost their entire existence, since he was an adolescent, he is now 34. As children he and his sisters, Taryn and Kathryn (RIP) all learned to drive a bulldozer when we constructed them. His love and care saved the lives of hundreds of small fish and intermediate sized young fish. This is just how we do things here. We respect all the things that nature provides and care for them in the best way we can as circumstances change.

In October 2011 the same nursery pond.

This winter has been extremely mild, period of extreme cold, but overall mild and much wetter than normal. When the rains returned they have really not stopped. Slowly but surely now the water table is back to normal and the ponds are healing again. For years the back pond was adjacent to a constructed wetlands that we had worked on for years hoping to eventually construct elevated walk ways through for educational purposes. That project had been set aside the entire time we have waited for the salinity levels to normalize and then the drought to break.

***************************************************************************

This afternoon we drove back to the nursery pond to check on it after over about 10 inches of rain in the last few days. What we encountered is shown below. The blessing of patience and nature has not only restored the nursery pond but restored the constructed wetlands. It is such a pleasure to see. My old tired eyes, the young mans eyes of my son and the youthful eyes of my Grand daughter Grace all were all blessed by a vision that had long been absent in our day to day care of our small piece of the mother earth. It is truly a blessing. You can see the pond, the top and bottom pictures are taken from the same end of the pond because we would have gotten our little truck stuck had we driven to the same end as the middle image. The rains just stopped this morning. You can see the area that was our constructed wetlands to the left of the image below. It is truly a thing of beauty to us here at the collective.

*************************************************************************

Hopefully the water table is restored enough that with the rainwater collections systems we are installing and the gray water systems we have underway we will make it through the next year without the devastation that the drought has wrought on our farm this past two years. Peace and light be with you all.

The Nursery Pond and Constructed Wetlands Feb. 20 2012

New Site addition for pages

Michael — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:22:05 +0000

Namaste, we appreciate your visit. For your convenience we have added a pages listing on the bottom left side of the page. Just click on the listing Home and a drop down menu will display all of our pages and subpages. We sincerely hope this makes it easier to navigate the site as it is growing in leaps and bounds. Thank you for your support and your comments.