Food Summit: ENCORE!

Good morning, everyone... I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I'm excited to say that the Food Summit folks have released an encore presentation of some of the top speakers. Take a listen, while things are still free! Here's the lineup:

Paul Gautschi, Sustainable Farmer for 55 years; Documentary Star, Back To Eden

Grow Your Own Healthy Food Easily by Modeling Mother Nature

• Growing organic food sustainably and simply.
• Why you don’t have to water your garden!
• Picking and eating seasonal foods the natural way.
• Tips on how to eat more raw and live foods.

  

Joel Salatin, Sustainable, Maverick Farmer; Lecturer; Author

Why Our Current Food System “Just Ain’t Normal” and How to Change It

• Joel has authored such books as Folks, This Ain't Normal, You Can Farm and Salad Bar Beef.
• The farm as a romantic, magical place of awesome mystery and beauty.
• How to promote the cowness of a cow and the tomatoness of a tomato!
• Why decomposition keeps us alive.

  

Paul Stamets, World-renowned Mushroom Researcher; Inventor; Entrepreneur

How Mushrooms Created, and Can Save, the Living World!

• Paul fell in love with mushrooms and became the world’s authority on them!
• Humans have 100 trillion cells in their body, 90 trillion of these are non-human cells--we’re outnumbered!
• The importance of mushroom mycelium as our planetary immune, nervous and digestive systems
• Mycelium as the keystone group of organisms and foundation of the food web.

  

Marjory Wildcraft, Training Course Creator, Grow Your Own Groceries

Growing Your Own Food for Self-Reliance

• Marjory’s DVD has been used by 300,000+ people around the world!
• Why Marjory is called the “most dangerous woman in America”.
• Grow, prepare and preserve your own food and medicine in less than one hour a day!
• Cha-ching! Why growing your own food is like printing money.

 

Mark Forman, Master Composter, Teacher

How to Build a Simple Home Composter to Supercharge Your Garden Soil

• How Mark stumbled into composting, then told the world!
• Using kitchen and yard scraps to boost soil fertility.
• The different ways to compost in your backyard.
• How Mark’s children never knew soup came in cans!

Click here to register, if you haven't already. If you've missed any of the presentations and want to buy the series of 34 interviews (and all of the bonus material that comes with it!) while they're still on sale, click here. It's $47 for the download, and $67 if you want them to send it to you on an 8GB flash drive. 

*Disclaimer: I am an affiliate of the summit, and would receive a small commission on any purchases made through that link. That being said, these are some really knowledgeable speakers sharing a ton of great info, which is why I chose to promote the summit rather heavily while it was available for free.  

While you're checking them out, I'll be clacking away over here on the keyboard, getting things ready for this week. More to come shortly!

Getting Ready for Fall

I know... it's finally summertime, and here I am talking about fall already. As much as I enjoy living in the moment, there are some things that do require some advance planning if you want to do them well. For me, this means making the most of our summer gardening season, because I haven't had much success with winter gardening yet.

It's not hard to plan for fall crops, once you know your first frost date. Ours here usually falls somewhere between October 15-30, with some lighter frosts leading up to a killing freeze. If you don't know your frost dates offhand, go here and punch in your zip code.

Once you have a date to work with, grab a calendar and count backwards to today's date. Alternatively, you can use a countdown calculator online and punch in the dates. Using October 26 as my target date, the countdown tells me that there are 107 days left in my growing season- and that's plenty of time to get in a few more cool-season crops before putting the garden to bed for the winter.

Now, it's time to get out the seed packets. There are a lot of plants out there that mature in under 100 days, so there are plenty of things to choose from. If you aren't sure where to start, check out one of our affiliate links- both Botanical Interests and The Cook's Garden have plenty of seeds that will take you through to fall.

Here's a short list of plants to try: Arugula, Beans, Beets, Bok Choi, Broccoli/Broccoli Raab, Carrot, Kale, Kohlrabi, most Lettuces, Mustard, Parsnip, Peas, Radish, Swiss Chard, and Turnips. Each of these will mature in under 100 days, except the parsnip, which ranges from 100-120 days- but it can stay in the ground all winter.

I found this Fast Food Seed Collection while I was looking up plants to suggest- it's a collection of veggies that all mature in under 50 days. Beans, beets, broccoli raab, lettuce, radishes, spinach and an early summer squash- they look great! I wouldn't have thought to include summer squash, but that's because I always plant more than enough early in the season, so I can dehydrate a bunch for winter use. (I still haven't finished my stash from last year. I need to hurry!)

Fall is also prime time to get some garlic in the ground. I've tried a few times, without success, to grow garlic as a spring planting... it just doesn't work. I mean, it will grow, but you're not going to get anything substantial come harvest time. I'm digging mine up this week to dry out the bulbs, and will be replanting them come October.

So, what are you thinking about planting for fall harvest? Stop on by the FB page, and let me know!








PS: It's Day Four of the Food Summit! If you haven't registered yet, DO IT NOW just so you can listen to Joel Salatin. Click here for the handy shortcut.

Food Summit: Day 3

Happy Wednesday!

On tap today are some more fantastic speakers... I hope you'll check them out. Today's topic is Connecting to the Local Food System and presentations like growing your own groceries and getting started gardening are sure to get the ideas flowing at home. I'm looking forward to learning more about seed saving, myself!

If you're not already registered, click HERE to get your free access.

Food Summit: Day 2

Good morning! Here's today's Grow Your Own Food Summit lineup- if you haven't registered yet for the free series, today's the day! With Erika Allen and Paul Stamets in the queue, it's sure to be another information-packed day.

Click here to sign up right now. All of the presentations are available for purchase at the end of the event, in case you hear something that really resonates, or if you aren't able to make time this week to catch it while things are free. The replays are on sale this week, but I'm told the price will go up later. This link will take you to the purchase page, if you're interested in buying the collection.

Pardon the Interruption

Good morning, everyone-  I hope you all had a safe and wonderful Independence Day!


I'm still regrouping after being sick last week, but I have every intention of being back on track later today. I don't know what it is, but summer bugs always seem to be tougher than winter ones to shake. Anyone else feel the same?

While I work on getting my act back together, you should head over to the Grow Your Own Food Summit and check out the great presentations available today. I'm looking forward to watching them, myself- so much great info in one place!

Grow Your Own Food!

Time for a real food shout-out: I wouldn't be promoting this event if I didn't believe that a) this will provide something of value to you, and b) that growing your own food really is one of the most important things that we can do. I'm pleased to be an affiliate for the event, and I hope you'll take a moment to register today! 

The Grow Your Own Food Summit will teach food-growing people, both novices and experts, how to improve the world more than any other event in the last decade. Learn step-by-step instructions for what you can do today to put healthy, trusted food on your table in the future! Plus, it's ONLINE and FREE from July 7-14, 2014.

  
Enthusiastic food growers and community builders, Valerie Kausen and Gary Heine, have created 34 presentations to show you how growing your own food can change your life. This event is truly for everyone... because growing your own food contributes to improved health and connected community. It’s also an activity for the whole family that builds friendships in your neighborhood as you share each other’s skills and interests.

  

Register for FREE now at the following link:

https://nf130.isrefer.com/go/foodreg/Acorn13/

  

WHY ATTEND?

Don’t let anyone else decide what’s in the food you eat! Change your life. Gain access to the information you need RIGHT NOW to optimize your health and connect with both nature and those you love. It’s that simple.

• Learn how to grow and eat healthy, local food.
• Change your health and life, and that of your family, friends and neighbors.
• Feel satisfied that you can depend on yourself.
• Trust your own ingredients.
• Learn how growing your own food helps make your local community stronger.

  

There are serious issues to address related to our health, our community and our planet. The answers begin in your backyard–growing your own food reduces toxicity, transportation and pollution, and gives you a trusted, sustainable source of nutrition and increased happiness.

  

Here are a few of the incredible presenters:

• The Good Food Revolution is Here... Take Action!, by Will Allen, Founder, Growing Power; Winner, McArthur Genius Grant; Farmer; Author, Speaker
• Why Our Current Food System “Just Ain’t Normal” and How to Change It, by Joel Salatin, Sustainable, Maverick Farmer; Lecturer; Author
• How Mushrooms Created, and Can Save, the Living World!, by Paul Stamets, World-renowned Mushroom Researcher; Inventor; Entrepreneur
• Saving Seeds, Growing Food and Ending GMOs Can Save the World, by Vandana Shiva, World-renowned Indian Activist
• The Food Revolution and How GMOs are Disrupting It, byOcean Robbins, Co-founder, Food Revolution Network; Author, Speaker, Educator

  

With 34 presenters sharing their wealth of knowledge, this invaluable (and FREE) resource is intended for you, whether you live in a city or on a farm!

  

Better yet, if you register today, you'll have access to the following FREE GIFTS as soon as you register!

• Food Growing 101, eBook by Gary Heine and Valerie Kausen
• Saving seeds, growing food and stopping GMOs can save the world, 17-minute presentation by Vandana Shiva
• How to create a simple home composter to supercharge your garden soil, 57-minute presentation by Mark Forman 

Come listen to the Grow Your Own Food Summit ONLINE for FREE and be inspired from July 7-14, 2014.

  

Register for FREE at the following link today:

https://nf130.isrefer.com/go/foodreg/Acorn13/

  

We’ll see you at the Summit!