Best garden design books according to redditors

Actually, in most cases it isn't, but it is pasteurized. Sterilization would make the medium insanely contamination-ridden, due to the lack of competing microbes. Once mold starts growing, you've gotta toss the medium completely. While this is probably a nice hippy-dippy way to sell mushrooms, there's no way it's going to maintain healthy flushes for long with a "tame" culture like agaricus bisporus. It just can't compete with molds like trichoderma, which is possibly the most common mold on earth. That's not counting the possibly hundreds of people touching the growth medium, throwing their trash in it, discarding unwanted mushrooms into the pile, and the like.

I've read a lot about it (I was once an aspiring mushroom farmer) and I believe it has something to do with pressure+heat killing fungal spores, but leaving beneficial bacterial endospores intact. Essentially, the bacteria and other microbes take up real estate until the fungus shows up, and then it moves into their turf and consumes them as well.

The interesting thing is that in commerical mushroom grows, pasteurization temps are reached naturally due to the size of manure piles. The mass of the piles coupled with the immense activity of microbes within them raises the internal temperature to anywhere between 140f-170f.

Source: Paul Stamets, The Mushroom Cultivator and Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms.

Edit
Here's some more places to find information about mushrooms, since I'm hardly an expert. I'm just a guy who reads a lot, essentially.

Books:

• Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, Paul Stamets
  
• The Mushroom Cultivator, Paul Stamets
  
  Those are the standard grow manuals, but if anyone has a suggestion for a more comprehensive or up-to-date manual, it'd be welcome. Mycelium Running is a great book if you're just looking for a fun read about mushrooms.
  
  Websites:
  
  
• /r/mycology - The subreddit devoted to mushroom growing and identification. Probably more relevant info here if you're interested in growing mostly edibles.
  
  
• Fungi Perfecti is good for equipment (I bought all my HEPA filters there, at the time they were the cheapest around). I think they have a YouTube channel too, and that's got some interesting stuff on it.
  
  
• Shroomery.org is a moderately famous mushroom growing forum, with a bit of a bent more toward psychedelics. However, I found tons of great people and information in the edible mushroom forum, and I received a few commerical grade cultures from a very generous member. There can be a bit of a circlejerk surrounding some "celebrities" that post there, but take what they say with a grain of salt, and always fact check against your grow manual. If you see something that looks stupid, it probably is, unless it works. Edit: I don't think Reddit likes linking to the Shroomery, removed the formatting.
  
  Videos:
  
  
• TED Talks: Paul Stamets - Six Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World - This is basically his "standard" speech he gives when he does talks. There have probably been additions and improvements to it, but the message hasn't really changed. This is "Mycelium Running" in about 5 minutes. Watch this to decide whether you want to read that book.
  
  
• Let's Grow Mushrooms! by Roger Rabbit - One of the aforementioned Shroomery celebrities. His videos are helpful, but make sure to fact check why you're doing stuff, because he tends to leave a lot of that out. This is very nuts and bolts demonstrations of how to prepare substrate, how to provide humidity at a low cost, and several different methods of growing for different species of mushrooms.
  

If you move the decimal over. This is about 1,000 in books...

(If I had to pick a few for 100 bucks: encyclopedia of country living, survival medicine, wilderness medicine, ball preservation, art of fermentation, a few mushroom and foraging books.)


Medical:

Where there is no doctor

Where there is no dentist

Emergency War Surgery

The survival medicine handbook

Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine

Special Operations Medical Handbook

Food Production

Mini Farming

encyclopedia of country living

square foot gardening

Seed Saving

Storey’s Raising Rabbits

Meat Rabbits

Aquaponics Gardening: Step By Step

Storey’s Chicken Book

Storey Dairy Goat

Storey Meat Goat

Storey Ducks

Storey’s Bees

Beekeepers Bible

bio-integrated farm

soil and water engineering

Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation

Food Preservation and Cooking

Steve Rinella’s Large Game Processing

Steve Rinella’s Small Game

Ball Home Preservation

Charcuterie

Root Cellaring

Art of Natural Cheesemaking

Mastering Artesian Cheese Making

American Farmstead Cheesemaking

Joe Beef: Surviving Apocalypse

Wild Fermentation

Art of Fermentation

Nose to Tail

Artisan Sourdough

Designing Great Beers

The Joy of Home Distilling

Foraging

Southeast Foraging

Boletes

Mushrooms of Carolinas

Mushrooms of Southeastern United States

Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast


Tech

farm and workshop Welding

ultimate guide: plumbing

ultimate guide: wiring

ultimate guide: home repair

off grid solar

Woodworking

Timberframe Construction

Basic Lathework

How to Run A Lathe

Backyard Foundry

Sand Casting

Practical Casting

The Complete Metalsmith

Gears and Cutting Gears

Hardening Tempering and Heat Treatment

Machinery’s Handbook

How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic

Electronics For Inventors

Basic Science


Chemistry

Organic Chem

Understanding Basic Chemistry Through Problem Solving

Ham Radio

AARL Antenna Book

General Class Manual

Tech Class Manual


MISC

Ray Mears Essential Bushcraft

Contact!

Nuclear War Survival Skills

The Knowledge: How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm

> Any ideas where I can read on long term strategies?

Go to our sidebar and look at the recommended reading.

If you only read one book, make it Tim Hale's Smarter Investing.

> I've got a LS fund with a 20% equity exposure because I think the market is going to collapse.

20% equity exposure and 80% sovereign bond exposure.

If you think the market is going to collapse, why have any risk assets at all - why not have everything in cash?

I would note, that over the next 40 years of your life, I would expect the market to collapse at least 3 or 4 times. The long-term expected returns factor that in.

For instance, even if you were the worst market timer ever, you'd be surprised at your performance, historically: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/27/the-inspiring-story-of-the-worst-market-timer-ever.html

I would strongly suggest reading the book mentioned (and the sidebar details) if you think a collapse in the markets in the short term is something to worry about for a pension fund at age 24.

If you believe a collapse in the markets is going to happen that will cause a fundamental collapse in the economic and social order, then I would skip Tim Hale's book and instead pick up Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening and training in conflict resolution.

>given the fact that the source of something can be literally anyone from an absolute expert to someone who is literally pulling total and blatant lies out of their ass.

I do agree with your sentiments here. And honestly I think much of the same strategies from the era of deconstructing bias in conventional news media are still useful today. I reference of course Adorno and Horkheimer's respective treatises, "Culture Industry" and "Dialectic of the Enlightenment", wherein degrees of simulation are used as a framework for explicating the way in which news media alienates the meaning of events as information is passed down the chain.

This type of thinking may have lead Orson Welles to make Citizen Kane in 1949 (And by may, I mean most certainly did; the rumor goes that Welles only made Citizen Kane to spite William Randolph Hearst because Hearst threw Welles out of a dinner party at his Castle for having more than two pre-dinner drinks) and Welles actually gives us a strategy for moving backwards from the third degree of simulation in an attempt to "reegender the meaning of a given event" by virtue of hearing as many people lie/provide opinions regarding that event as we possibly can, therein building an understanding of narratives as narratives rather than narratives as facts.

This of course recognizes the inherent bias (a predisposition) on the part of every human, and utilizes it to afford the modern consumer of information with exactly the strategy necessary to become as informed as possible.

Amalgamate perspectives and suddenly falling victim to a lie is nearly impossible; the internet is critical indeed.

Square Foot Gardening. (Check your local library; you want the second or third edition.) The book will take you through all the steps. It was designed to be an easy, reliable, and complete method for growing vegetables. A few tradeoffs: Raised beds need to be filled with something, which can get expensive. (SFG uses a combination designed for consistent results called "Mel's Mix", which IIRC is equal parts vermiculite, peat, and compost.) OTOH if you're in an area where the soil might be contaminated, you'll need a raised bed anyway. Raised beds aren't great in really hot areas; they overheat and dry out too quickly in the summer. The normal SFG raised bed is only 6" deep, limiting the kinds of vegetables you can grow; 12" is more versatile but also more expensive.

I would say yes, but with a few caveats. I myself am a bit of an autodidact, and I study philosophy as a hobby in my free time. I am currently a university student who works part time, so I sympathize with your concerns about limited time and energy. Some things I think you should be aware of:

• Studying on your own will be slower and generally less efficient than getting a degree. You won’t have the same obligations or motivators that university students have.

• You will lack access to resources that university students have. This includes both academic material (journals, essays, books) but also an environment with instructors and fellow students to consult when you’re confused.

• You will not have the benefit of writing essays and having them graded by an instructor.

Despite this, I still think there is a lot to be gained from self study. You have the freedom to pursue whatever you want, and you can go at a pace that’s comfortable to you. Plus there’s something to be said about challenging yourself and doing constructive things in your free time.

It may be best to start with introductory texts like Copleston’s history to get a general idea for each philosopher and to find what interests you. If you are still interested in the thinkers you mentioned, you should move on to primary sources. I’d recommend the following reading plan which should cover some of the “essentials” and has a sort of progression from one thinker to the next:

1. Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy: From Thales to Aristotle
   
2. Descartes: Selected Philosophical Writings by Descartes
   
3. Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals by Hume
   
4. Critique of Pure Reason by Kant
   
   These four books will give you a solid foundation in western philosophy. You have the fundamental ideas and questions from the Pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle, rationalism from Descartes, empiricism from Hume, and the synthesis of the two in Kant. Moving on:
   
   
5. Logical Investigations by Husserl
   
   
6. Being and Time by Heidegger
   
   
7. Being and Nothingness by Sartre
   
   These three cover your interests in phenomenology, from its foundations in Husserl, to Heidegger’s magnum opus, to Sartre’s interpretation and his development of existentialism. Finally we have:
   
   
8. Dialectic of Enlightenment by Horkheimer & Adorno
   
   
9. Speech and Phenomenon by Derrida
   
   These two cover Horkheimer & Adorno’s critical take on enlightenment rationality and Derrida’s deconstruction of Husserlian phenomenology.
   
   None of these books are particularly easy (especially Husserl and Heidegger), but I encourage you to try! Take it one book at a time, read slow and take notes, and consult the IEP and SEP if you’re confused, watch YouTube lectures, or ask on this subreddit.
   
   Good luck!

Hey friend! That's kind of a big question with a lot of detail. All the information is out there, but it can be tricky to find. I think we can all empathize with you there.

Generally speaking, all the concepts are the same, it's only the equipment that changes. Essentially, all you're doing is the following, without any of the details:

 

1. Get a small culture and expand it
   
   
2. Wait a few days/weeks.
   
   
3. Use the expanded culture to inoculate some spawn. Alternately you can just buy the spawn online and skip to step 5
   
   
4. Wait around a few days/weeks for the spawn to colonize (if you didn't buy it online).
   
   
5. Prepare some substrate (usually sawdust/wood chips that have been pasteurized, or sawdust/wood chips supplemented with a grain bran that has all been sterilized) and inoculate it with your spawn. You can usually source hardwood sawdust/wood chips for free on places like CraigsList. If not, you'll have to buy it in the form of mulch or pellets.
   
   
6. More waiting
   
   
7. Expose the colonized substrate to fruiting conditions
   
   
8. More waiting
   
   
9. Take pictures of your grow and pretend it was all easy
   
    
   
   I usually advocate for getting a pressure cooker and beginning with grains/jars; but you said you were on a tight budget, so I'll give you some beginner-tier options to get the above accomplished. The caveat here is that they're by no means the best or least-risky methods, but you asked for a cheap way forward that is still effective, so that's what I'll give you. It would be impossible for me to list out every detail, so just ask me questions and I'll fill in the rest one thing at a time:
   
    
   
   You could pasteurize prepared wood chip/sawdust mix (substrate) in a coffee can or plastic tub (with a lid) and buy pre-made spawn online. Spawn is ≈$10-25USD and comes as bags of grains or sawdust. You can find tubs all over the place for cheap. Then you just combine the two, wait for the substrate to colonize, and fruit from there (Steps 5-9).
   
   You could also buy a grocery store Hericium mushroom, chop it up into slices, spread that out over moist cardboard, and let that colonize. This is a little more risky with Hericium (v. Pleurotus, which is much more aggressive). After it finishes, you would add that cardboard spawn to some pasteurized wood chip/sawdust mix in layers, then wait for it to finish colonizing before fruiting it (Steps 3-9).
   
   Those are both cheap ways to start out, but don't skimp on the spawn.
   
   Depending on the tote you use, you might need to make a ShotGun Fruiting Chamber (SGFC), which is just a tote with holes in it on all 6 sides, with some perlite or grow stone at the bottom. It's as expensive as it is to buy a tote. You'll need to find a drill and bit to make the holes. I can run you through that, too.
   
    
   
   All of this is just a basic idea to point you in a direction given your low budget. It's slightly more risky, but cheap and easy. That's the tradeoff.
   
   If you're in college, you might have access to a biology lab and be able to use their equipment. Glass Petri dishes, bio-safety cabinet, autoclave, possible supply of agar, etc. Let me know if you do and I'll walk you though some more advanced techniques that also meet your budget. All you'd have to do is buy a few bags at ≈$1USD each and either some liquid culture (≈$10), or even a store-bought mushroom will do.
   
    
   
   That's a super rough, dirty version. People will probably yell at me, but that's ok. I can't type out a novel here, so just ask questions about what you don't understand and we'll go from there. If you need a source that takes you front to back, go to your college library and Inter-Library-Loan "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms" or "Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation: Simple to Advanced and Experimental Techniques for Indoor and Outdoor Cultivation".

I second the idea that it really depends on what languages/literatures your cousin is thinking of studying. I'd hesitate to recommend anything too theoretical for an incoming freshman. But, if you are going to go that route, here are some suggestions:

Erich Auerbach's Mimesis is the closest thing that the discipline has to a foundational text. Generally, this is required reading for a first-year graduate student. Not sure how I would've handled this as an undergrad. That said, I wouldn't hesitate to assign a chapter or two from it to any class I teach, provided it relates to our other readings. It's a kind of survey that traces the development of Western Literature from Homer's Odyssey to twentieth-century lit. Each chapter deals with a different text. https://amzn.com/0691160228

You could also try a reader of some kind. I worked with this text as an undergrad in one of my classes: The Cultural Studies Reader. It's basically an anthology of theoretical texts that catalogues different theoretical approaches and introduces you to a lot of major thinkers. I thought it was great and it really sparked my love (...ahem..."love"...) for theory. In my opinion, it's a bit more approachable than something like The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature, which is also a good option if you're looking for something more serious.

If you're looking to follow up on /u/Caitlionator's suggestion suggestion about Critical Theory, I would suggest Adorno's and Horkheimer's The Dialectic of Enlightenment. Dense reading for an incoming freshman (IMO), but worth it for someone interested in Marxist-oriented theory.

If all of this is seeming too serious and/or dense (which it might be for an incoming freshman), you could try some of the graphic guides published by Icon books. Here's an example: https://amzn.com/1848311818. There are all kinds of options for these. To be honest, I don't really think these are that great; but the few that I've seen seemed fun and interesting. They provide some good context, so they might work as a kind of springboard for you cousin to explore some of these subjects further on his own.

Other than that, it's hard to make suggestions without knowing what your cousin's interests are. As an undergraduate, I always would've preferred to receive a literary text as a gift rather than a theoretical text (unless it was something I really wanted). Maybe a book from one of his favorite authors, or one of that author's favorite authors? Does he like Classics? Maybe a nice copy of Homer?

Edit: spelling

Cut a slab of agar out of a clean plate and cover that entirely with it. The mycelium knows which way is up and can easily emerge on top. The bacteria will remain trapped beneath. Source: Paul Stamets

Buy a regional guide. Here are a few if you are in the US. It's important to know the terminology that goes along with mushroom hunting.

Also Use the links in the sidebar here, they will tell you the active mushrooms in your area. Once you do this do individual research on each one.

Regional guides

Alaska

Common Interior Alaska Cryptogams

Western US

All The Rain Promises and More
Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest

Mushrooms Demystified This is an old book, while still useful it definitely needs updating.

The New Savory Wild Mushroom Also dated but made for the PNW

Midwestern US

Mushrooms of the Midwest

Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States

Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest

Southern US

Texas Mushrooms: A Field Guide

Mushrooms of the Southeastern United States

Eastern US

Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians

Mushrooms of Northeast North America (This was out of print for awhile but it's they're supposed to be reprinting so the price will be normal again)

Mushrooms of Northeastern North America

Macrofungi Associated with Oaks of Eastern North America(Macrofungi Associated with Oaks of Eastern North America)

Mushrooms of Cape Cod and the National Seashore

More specific guides

Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World

North American Boletes

Tricholomas of North America

Milk Mushrooms of North America

Waxcap Mushrooms of North America

Ascomycete of North America

Ascomycete in colour

Fungi of Switzerland: Vol. 1 Ascomycetes

PDFs

For Pholiotas

For Chlorophyllum

Websites that aren't in the sidebar

For Amanita

For coprinoids

For Ascos

MycoQuebec: they have a kickass app but it's In French

Messiah college this has a lot of weird species for polypores and other things

Cultivation

The Mushroom Cultivator: A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home (If your home is a 50,000 sq ft warehouse)

Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation: Simple to Advanced and Experimental Techniques for Indoor and Outdoor Cultivation

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms

Mycology

The fifth kingdom beginner book, I would recommend this. It goes over fungal taxonomy Oomycota, Zygomycota and Eumycota. It also has ecology and fungi as food.

The kingdom fungi coffee table book it has general taxonomy of the kingdom but also very nice pictures.

Introduction to fungi Depends on your definition of beginner, this is bio and orgo heavy. Remember the fungi you see pop out of the ground (ascos and basidios) are only a tiny fraction of the kingdom.

It really depends on what kind of mushrooms you'd like to grow; I wouldn't suggest the white mushrooms you see at stores to grow first; they have some pretty specific requirements to grow that makes it difficult for the home cultivator. Shiitake are really simple to grow; get some oak logs with holes drilled in them, shove some spore plugs in it, and bam, in about a year's worth of time you'll have shiitake mushrooms and they will keep coming back for many years. (With more and more every year)

Also some mushroom tips:

• Keep everything spotless and disinfected while working. Whether you go with store bought or spores cross-contamination is a serious problem with mushrooms. As in, if you don't sterilize you will not have mushrooms. You'll have random mold and... stuff.
  
  
• Bleach and bleach wipes are your friends
  
  
• Sterilize EVERYTHING (Especially soil and growing mediums)
  
  
• keep your hands washed and ultra clean
  
  
• Keep hair tied back, latex gloves, and even a face mask to prevent your nasty mouth germs from getting on your shrooms
  
  Generally it's a good idea to watch videos and search for the kind of mushroom you want to grow; Paul Stamet's Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms is an awesome resource as well. You can also find a (not sure about the legality) free PDF version if you just search for it + pdf. It contains general growing information as well as specific cultivation tips of almost every mushroom you could want to grow.
  
  
  But anyway, here's some things to consider:
  
  Mushroom spores:
  
  
• Wider variety of different kinds of fungi to choose from
  
  
• Tends to be pretty expensive, but it's usually a one time investment if you're good at the mushroom growing
  
  
• Some companies are super nice and will send you cultivation instructions/hints which you might not find
  
  Mushrooms from Stores:
  
  
• Small selection, usually limited to portobello, shiitake, oyster, and chantarelles (white mushrooms are reeeaaallly difficult to grow from what I've read; I've never tried to grow them)
  
  
• I find you have a higher chance of cross-contamination with store-bought mushrooms.
  
  
• Much much cheaper than spores.
  
  
• It can be pretty difficult to get spore-prints and keep them sanitary.
  
  
• Best variety for growing from store-bought mushrooms is oysters. You can find lots of youtube tutorials on choosing which ones to get to start your mushrooms to the best growing medium, etc. etc.
  
  Hope this helps!
  

Oh, cultivating mushrooms for food is another good skill. They'll grow (if you pick the right kind) on any kind of wood or paper scrap. They don't need soil or light, just a little water misting and ventilation. The spent growth medium also makes for fantastic compost and you may even get bonus mushrooms in your garden!

The main challenge in mushroom growing is sterile technique, since any environment that's good for mushrooms is also great for growing mold. Sterile technique takes practice, but the equipment needed is minimal. The main thing you need is a pressure cooker, which is also extremely useful for canning and cooking — essential prepper equipment, imo.

You can also use mushrooms to decontaminate soil — "mycoremediation". I can't speak to the effectiveness, nor the safety of eating the resulting mushrooms (I would throw them out; some organic molecules will be broken down, but not heavy metals). However in a survival situation, this could be a good way to get more usable land for plant cultivation.

Check out Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets. I recommend starting with oyster or shiitake. In fact you can buy prepackaged kits for growing these, which makes a good beginner project.

Check out this book:

It's the best resource I've found, with deeply detailed instructions on everything from layout to composting and more.

Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening

Because this post hits very close to home I want to help.

Warning, just like my flair denotes, I am a novice to Gardening. I have all of three months of experience. However, my Garden is doing great and I can still show you to sources of good information, even if I am a bit daft at times.

Some of my suggestions may have already been made but I will do it again just to drive the point home.

Anything with MONTY DON in it. This one is called "Big Dreams Small Spaces".

Garden Time TV. IDK where you live but these folks are local to the PNW, so that is great for me, and have over a decade of stuff out there. Amazing source of information.

Gary Pilarchik (The Rusted Garden). Another amazing source of information. He goes into depth on many topics and makes it so simple to digest. Often will walk you through the process step by step!

Hollis and Nancy's Homestead.. Great comprehensive growing guides. They do have, at times, a religious tone to them but often they do a good job and only have that in the introduction and outro. Good source of information.

Roots and Refuge Farm.. Another good channel to check out, this lady is a fanatic of Tomato plants, much to learn from her!

MIgardener. MIgardener has some of the most down to earth and solid videos to learn from out there. This is a big go-to source for me. Years of videos!

CaliKim29 Garden and Home DIY I will be upfront and let you know this person, while a decent source of information, does ALOT of pushing of her products and what not. If you can get past that, use this channel to better help yourself!

Charles Dowding, the King of No-Dig (to me) Gardening. What a lovely channel to watch. This man is always calm and smooth. No crazy cut scenes from today's video trends or clickbait stuffs. Just a nice human trying to do nice stuff with plants and soil.

Anything from OSU Master Gardeners. This is just a sample, it is about Mason Bee's!! You really should learn about these bees.

Rainbow Gardens.. Another great source of information. Also does SFG (square foot gardening).

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. If you have read down this far good on you! If you cannot afford this shoot me a PM and I will get it for you no questions asked. While I may be a novice at Gardening, the structure from the SFG technique has made me do so much more than when I just winged it. If nothing else, please try this.

Now, I know I just linked you a ton of things, some with video catalogues that span over a decade, but I emplore you to just submerge yourself in this. Use these videos not only as a guide to help you become a better Gardener but also as some sort of escape for a few hours each day where problems are not allowed in, both mentally and physically.

I have watched probably an unhealthy amount of videos in a short timeframe (haha), but it was a nice getaway for me. I have had to rewatch almost every video at least once, most many more times than that. What I am attempting to convey is, if you have the time to watch toooooons of these videos - you will come out the other side much smarter.

I am rooting for you! Good luck in the garden friend.

<3

Ray Mears is the man to watch and read if you are thinking about long term sustainable survival.

If you are thinking about eventually getting out of the primitive I would suggest adapting the practices of permaculture for your situation (and the cheaper condensed version though just as good!).

Things like a compost toilet and digesting methane for fuel might be things you'd like. There's the Humanure Handbook which I have read from front to cover several times and I highly recommend it. I also experimented with humanure and have nothing but good things to say about it. Anyway, I don't want to talk to much so Google permaculture, there's a /r/permaculture subreddit, read, research, think a lot about what you're going to do before you do it and good luck.

EDIT: here's a good book about a permanent shelter you might like

I would add pasteurized chopped cardboard or sawdust to the coffee grounds in a 50 / 50 mix. You will get a better block.

If you don't already have it, this book is worth the $30.

Umm, I must say that I wish we could use the German original, but I don't know German, and I guess that most others in the sub don't know either. I do think there will be meanings we'll be missing, and others we'll take completely wrong. That's a common problem that every bilingual faces (me included). It is your decision, and if my partner in crime will be using the original German, there's an even greater incentive. Just take in mind that due to most of us reading in English, reading a German edition will put a certain pressure on you to translate back and forth between the languages.

With that being said, I'll be using the English translation present in this link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0804736332/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522167390&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=dialectic+of+enlightenment&dpPl=1&dpID=51d%2BeDj%2Ba%2BL&ref=plSrch

http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Gourmet-Medicinal-Mushrooms-Stamets-ebook/dp/B004GTLS2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396469718&sr=8-1&keywords=growing+mushrooms

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mushroom-Cultivator-Practical-Mushrooms/dp/0961079800/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396469733&sr=8-2&keywords=growing+mushrooms

My complaint about these books is that they are geared for exactly what you're talking about and not necessarily low-tech home cultivation. They cover just about everything you would need.

You may or may not get some oysters ;)

Have you read Stamets' Growing the Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms?

This should get you as far as you'll ever want to go

> Finns det någon fråga som lyder "Varför är X nödvändigt?" eller "varför är X viktigt?" som INTE har ett godtyckligt svar?

Detta är en extremt liberal ståndpunkt -- en ren värdenihilism, av den typ som liberalism, kapitalism, och upplysningen gett upphov till i den västerländska kulturen. Vore jag fascist är det nog precis detta tankesätt som jag hade identifierat som roten till all den dekadens ni fascister älskar att identifiera.

Att hålla den ståndpunkten är vad sofisterna höll fast vid i det gamla Grekland, och vad en del upplysningstänkare i alla fall orsakade andra att tänka. Se till exempel Hume, för vilken det inte var irrationellt att föredra mänsklighetens undergång före ett myggbett.

Om du vill kunna ge ett mindre svagt och godtyckligt svar på den frågan föreslår jag att du läser de tänkare som argumenterat mot detta intellektuella förfall, och som har identifierat det. Ett par boktips. (Varje ord en egen länk)

>Det finns många problem med kapitalismen, jag nämnde bara ett par av dem.

Så vilka är de andra problemen, och hur löser din fascism dem?

>Hur samhället ska vara organiserat? Svaret på den här frågan skulle kunna bli oändligt långt. Kort sagt, jag vill imitera det gamla tyska Gausystemet, bevara parlamentarismen men avskaffa allmänna val i alla dess former, decentralisera vissa frågor som inte berör storstadsbyråkrater och så vidare. Du får nog vara mer specifik i din frågeställning om du vill få ett mer tillfredsställande svar.

Du skrev att: "Strukturerar vi vårt samhälle på så sätt att det präglas av stark sammanhållning och tillit på folkgemenskapens grund, och att den styrande eliten hamnar i maktposition i kraft av sina förmågor och sin genuina vilja att göra gott, och inte i kraft av ärvd makt eller ärvda rikedomar, så ser jag inte hur det hela skulle kunna misslyckas.".

Hur uppnår denna organisation detta mål?

>Kan du ge något exempel på länder i vilka man förändrat samhället på det sätt även jag vill, men misslyckats på något sätt? Vilka historiska exempel är det du tänker på?

Mig veterligen kan jag inte ens ge några exempel där man ändrat samhället som du vill och lyckats.

Däremot finns det gott om exempel där man inte ändrat det som du vill och ändå lyckats.

read this book https://www.amazon.com/Reimagining-California-Lawn-Water-conserving-Practices/dp/0978997123

well. A book that changed my life back when I was 15 was Walden from Thoreau. I threw away everything I owned. yeah I mean everything even my bed. I own nothing that dates from before I was 15. Would this have the same effect today? who knows.

back then, the book Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche had something to to with me ''taking a break'' from school, contributing too did: genealogy of Morals, into the wild, Adorno - dialectic of Enlightenment ( had no idea what that guy was talking about back then but made me real queasy about the world nonetheless.)

books that changed my life recently: Lying from Sam Harris. Steven Pinker - Enlightenment now made me pick a lot of fights with people who like to hate this world.

Insanity of Normality made me forgive some people I had real bad feelings toward, though I'm sceptical now of what is said in the book

unless you understand german you won't be able to read this: Blödmachinen , made me a snob in regards to media. Bernard Stieglers books might have the same effect in english

oh and selfish gene by Dawkins made me less judgmental. Don't know why. I just like people more

EDIT

oh lest I forget: Kandinsky - Concerning The Spiritual in Art made me paint my appartement black blue; Bukowski and the Rubaiyat made me drink more, Born To Run made me run barefoot, Singers Practical Ethics made me donate money and buy far less stuff.

I can't help you with choosing a herbicide - other than to ask you to please not use one near me. Since you posted this in a gardening sub instead of a lawn care one, I have to plead you to consider food, not lawn.

If this isn't for you, then I wish you the best.

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets

I'd recommend buying that book and reading through it once or twice before you buy equipment or anything. It covers a ton of aspects of growing mushrooms of all varieties. It's important to understand why you're doing things as opposed to just following someone's recipe. It will also make it easier to ask questions about problems you're having and understand the answers given.

Almost anything you could want to know about mushroom cultivation is in that book and it's the most important piece of equipment you could spend money on. Also the most value-per-dollar spent.

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer wrote on this topic in The Dialectic of Enlightenment, particularly in a chapter entitled "The Culture Industry." For a quick introduction, take a look at the SEP article on Adorno, in particular the section on Critical Social Theory. There is also a collection of Adorno's essays on the topic entitled The Culture Industry: Essays on Mass Culture.

Read Paul Stamets book Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, and also The Mushroom Cultivator which details a lot of info on spore storage and culture practises.

Its so easy to get one contam spore into whatever you're doing - ordinary air has so many contam spores in just 1cm^3, its almost impossible to work 100% sterile. But not to worry: the best we can do as cultivators is hold off the inevitable. A good cultivator will do what he or she can to work clean but all the time understands that all grows will ultimately end in contamination - thats just natures way.

The contaminations themselves often sporulate on the surface of cube spores which after finding residence on nutrient media will then 'piggy-back' using the spores which touch each other. The contaminations can often be 50 times smaller, and so can easily rest like a pest on the spores surface. An electron microscopy picture can really show you well what I'm trying to say here. They also reproduce far faster than their larger basidiospore cousins in the cubensis family, so can out compete them for the available resources that you have so kindly provided for them.

Its not that having a lot of spores in a syringe is a bad thing, its just that throughout my experience with cubes I've found that 'less is more' - the more spread out the spores are from each other, the more you can isolate the good strains and culture out the contams. :)

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

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amazon.es

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amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

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Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

That warm tray looks like it will work just fine for this project.

In the future, I would recommend Pleurotus ostreatus (Blue Oyster) for cooler growing temperatures. It is an oyster, so it is aggressive and easy to grow, and it has a lower optimum temperature for colonization and fruiting.

There is a good book by Paul Stamets called Growing Medicinal and Gourmet Mushrooms. It contains break-downs of the optimum growing conditions of pretty much any kind of mushroom you could think of growing. If you want to continue with indoor growing, it is an incredible resource.

Warning: Stamets is a little crazy.

I'd highly recommend starting off with Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's article on Adorno. SEP does a great job of summing up the life and works of various philosophers. SEP also has an article on Max Horkheimer, who was a close associate of Adorno and authored a couple of important works with him.

I've read Dialectic of Enlightenment, written by Adorno and Horkheimer, which was okay. I thought it read more like literature than hard, useful theory. If anything, read The Culture Industry: The Enlightenment As Mass Deception which is a chapter out of that book (the link takes you to the full text). I think its a decent appraisal of Western mass culture.

In general, I don't think that the Frankfurt school in general is that useful or important. But I haven't read all that much of their stuff, perhaps others have found more use for their work.

Momentan citesc Growing Gourmet Medicinal Mushrooms. :)

Inainte de ea am terminat 12 Rules for Life.

Urmatoarea probabil o sa fie Skin in the game.


> Bonus: Cartea preferata.

Nu prea mai am o carte preferata. Sunt mai multe aflate la nivelul maxim din varii motive si nu prea pot alege intre ele.

"The Gift" a lui Hafiz si "Felicity" a lui Mary Oliver sunt doua carti de poezie care mi-au placut enorm si pe care le pot recomanda fara ezitare. :)

I'm currently reading this book by Sepp Holzer, which had a really neat section about how he handles poultry. He uses natural protection for his birds, specifically mentioning rose hedges. Perhaps his method could work for your situation, too?

Is this the article in the LA times you're talking about. The book they reference is Groundbreaking Food Gardens.

Again, great questions. Here's a video I did on hugelkultur a bit ago. I don't recommend going to my website at the moment though because it's been recently hacked and I'm working on cleaning it up. The youtube video will be fine though. Check out that video, if you have more questions, feel free to ask.

You can do the flat raised bed idea, and I did the same last year, but I believe you will get more benefit from doing the piqued hills.

Grey water collection and rainwater harvesting are excellent ideas. I don't know if you could make use of it, but here is a super cool idea for a ram pump which requires no external input other than elevation change. Other than that, I don't know much about water tanks.

One really cool thing I've seen used is where people dig a trench under their garden and bury weeping tile in that trench which snakes around their garden. Then they connect that weeping tile to their downspout from there gutters and when it rains, they get a massive deep soak in their garden.

Swales are a fantastic thing to think about as they will help keep water on your land. Swales mixed with heavy mulching are a huge force in keeping your land irrigated. Check out greening the desert for more on that.

As for the PDC, you don't even have to pay for it. I googled free online PDC and found this.

http://www.permaculturedesigntraining.com/

If you want to learn more about it, there are amazing books which can help.

Gaia's Garden and Sepp Holzer's Permaculture

That's awesome that your SO is taking that course. She'll probably learn some really cool sustainable farming things.

Also, check out http://www.permies.com. There's tons of info there, and super amazing people who are very helpful.

i think ordering chickens off the internet is absolutely fine, just make sure its an established hatchery that guarantees the health of their birds. we use murray mcmurray and enjoy some of the rare breeds they offer.

so much to read. a holistic urban gardening/farming manual i love is food not lawns, which has a DIY slant i get geeky about. also, barnyard in your backyard is a good one too.

Check out Edible Landscaping, Landscaping with Fruit, and The Edible Front Yard for inspiration.

Books are always a good place to start, free at your local library or in different formats from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_19?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=midwest+landscaping+books&sprefix=midwest+landscaping%2Caps%2C339&crid=2EK7PDY9J9Q6U


https://www.amazon.com/Midwestern-Landscaping-Book-Craig-Bergmann/dp/0376035250/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1493247179&sr=8-2&keywords=midwest+landscaping+books

I don't have any specific design input, but it sounds like you need help with the vision. Check this out: https://www.amazon.com/Reimagining-California-Lawn-Water-conserving-Practices/dp/0978997123.

California Native Grassland Association had a series of workshops for people ripping out their lawns. I don't see any schedule for 2017 but are some info materials here: https://cnga.wildapricot.org/New-Front-Yard. You might look at the Sacramento or Merced brochures, a similar climate. Also have you looked for local lawn replacement resources? Look here: http://www.fresnogardening.org/. Also worth looking into turf replacement rebates if you haven't already.

https://www.facebook.com/events/172682489844610/.

https://clovisbotanicalgarden.org/the-garden/. Not sure how well this garden is maintained but it's good to see some examples for inspiration and take notes on what you like. Might be worth a visit.

I am a huge fan of working California native plants into gardens. If you're not familiar with them, I encourage you to learn about them! So many awesome plants and well suited for our climate.

http://www.calscape.org/plant_nursery.php

http://www.laspilitas.com/easy/easy.html

Many others have said it but by far your best two options are:

1. Wildflower Center native plant sale (April 7/8)
   
2. The Natural Gardener
   
   Go to these first. Don't buy plants at big box stores.
   
   If you want help selecting specific natives, look at Xerces publications for plant lists. https://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Butterflies-Attract-Beautiful-Beneficial/dp/1604695986/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1486417041&sr=8-2&keywords=xerces

Look into local chapters of the mycological society or mushroom hunting groups/clubs in your area. This site lists a few options. Looks like the one in Albion may be near-ish to you.

I've also found many of the links in the sidebar helpful, especially mushroom observer and the mushroom hunting and identification forum on The Shroomery. The Shroomery's ID forum is where I go to confirm my suspected ID's after keying out specimens on my own.

I use Mushrooms Demystified, by David Arora, as a my post collection ID book. It's both huge and dated (i think it's latest edition is from the early or mid 80's) so it's functionality as a field guide or the final word in ID is lacking. Even so, it is good to learn to work through dichotomous keys like the ones that it employs and it usually gets you headed in the right direction. Other guides like Rogers Mushrooms, All the Rain Promises and More, and The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms are good resources, too (I'm sure other folks can add to this list, I'm just dropping the names that first come to mind).

As much as I clash with some of his professional/ethical decisions, Paul Stamets has contributed a ton to the accessibility of Mycology to the masses. Check out Mycelium Running and Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms as introductions to the Fifth Kingdom.

I'm also really enjoying Tradd Cotter's new book, Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation

Fungi for the People and The Radical Mycology Collective have also been hugely influential in my personal growth as an amateur mycologist. If you ever get a chance to attend any of their events, I would recommend doing it.

Best of luck and enjoy your journey!

Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening

the Diamond Age

Friday

the Sparrow

the Blind Assasin

Parable of the Sower

You might consider what kind of gardener you want to be more philosophically, too.

Do you want to grow a food ecosystem? Permaculture is your thing - Gaia's Garden would be a good book for you

https://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-Guide-Home-Scale-Permaculture/dp/1603580298/

Do you need compact lazy-persons garden? Square Foot Gardening

"Square Foot Gardening" (Beginners Guide) as a start.

Like the idea of a themed garden like u/SedatedApe61 recommended? Groundbreaking Food Gardens has loads of ideas along those lines

https://www.amazon.com/Groundbreaking-Food-Gardens-Change-Garden/dp/161212061X/

There are as many ways to garden as gardeners. Finding the plants that suit both your location and your style of gardening goes a long way.

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Gourmet-Medicinal-Mushrooms-Stamets/dp/1580081754?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1580081754

I’ve been thinking along the same lines of a garden to allow me a full diet with lots of variety. Good luck in your journey!

I have been considering using the [Square Foot Method](All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd Edition, Fully Updated: MORE Projects - NEW Solutions - GROW Vegetables Anywhere https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760362858/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_p8uSCbBV7NCH2) to keep everything compact.

So far, it seems that it’ll be a slightly higher startup cost, but if I can compost effectively, building the boxes is a weekend project with some spare wood. I’m hoping it’ll allow enough nutritional variety, plus I plan on building a lot of solid companion plots to let nature do what she does best.

Haven’t started any of it yet, but I felt it was a great resource to change my perspective of how much I would really need and how much I could practically take care of.

I’m also considering aquaponics, but that’s a project for waaaaaaaaaay down the line.

Northeast

Midwest

Very similar to Sunset is the Southern Living garden Book

you can pick them as soon as the veils start to break, they wont get any bigger. They will just open more and begin to start releasing spores. the reason is that they are most potent at this point (how much more potent is arguable). If you are not making spore prints, i would pick them as soon as the veil breaks, but it wont hurt anything to let them open. if this is your first grow I recommend letting a few open all the way just to see the process.

This book is highly recommended and help me through my first few grows: https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Gourmet-Medicinal-Mushrooms-Stamets/dp/1580081754


Be very careful using Reddit a resource for mushrooms, I have seen horrible information and really bad advise on here.

send me a message if you have any more questions.

Not sure where you are located but I just bought a book on Amazon I found really useful. Looks like they make it for all different locations. It has a nice layout, explains things about each plant, and gives ideas for sun and shade.

Northeast Home Landscaping, 3rd... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580115152?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I use Stamets Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms . What substrate are you using? How did you prepare it? What form of inoculation did you use?

Sure, how about you read a book as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Dialectic-Enlightenment-Cultural-Memory-Present/dp/0804736332/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509839887&sr=1-1&keywords=Dialectics+of+Enlightenment

So next time some writes a piece of bullshit like this

>Critical Theory was essentially destructive criticism of the main elements of Western culture, including Christianity, capitalism, authority, the family, patriarchy, hierarchy, morality, tradition, sexual restraint, loyalty, patriotism, nationalism, heredity, ethnocentrism, convention and conservatism.

>Critical Theorists recognized that traditional beliefs and the existing social structure would have to be destroyed and then replaced with a “new thinking” that would become as much a part of elementary consciousness as the old one had been.

you can recognize it as such

I don't actually know a lot about it, I've grown a couple batches, and read Paul Stamets huge book on the matter. But Stamets is most focused on farm scale cultivation, only a bit on log culture. Basically, to make your own loaf type thing would require a cleanroom and autoclave, although you could make small ones in a pressure cooker. Oyster mushrooms are hardier, pouring boiling water over sawdust is good enough for them. Or you could drill holes in fresh logs and put inoculated sawdust inside. This is cheap, natural, and reliable, but in that scenario the fungus decides when to fruit.

Field and Forest has some good basic instructions, especially the links at the bottom of the page. Include a heavy duty corded drill in the budget for the project, green oak is tough.

Grab a copy of this: http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Gourmet-Medicinal-Mushrooms-Stamets/dp/1580081754/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324996206&sr=8-1 I received a copy for xmas, and it's close to encyclopedic.

Good tip on getting coffee grounds; I'll check w/ my local 'bucks.

Food Not Lawns!

I just met the author in California. She's an unusual woman to say the least. Very cool presence.

It really depends on what kind of resource you're looking for - there's not one really great all-around resource, though the closest I can think of is Mini-Farming: Self-sufficiency On a 1/4 Acre by Brett Markham.

Paul Stamets' (arguably the world's leading mycologist) "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms."

Also, check out his TED talk. Not much on growing, but cool stuff about mushrooms, nonetheless.

• The End of Eternity by Asimov
  
• Growing Medicinal and Gourmet Mushrooms by Stamets

You can google "how to tell your soil type" for all kinds of videos and sites to get info on this. Here's a video on how to tell your type. There's a lot of them so look for one that makes sense for you. You can also get a soil test kit to check the ph of the soil. This can help you determine how acid or alkaline the soil is. Vegetables like a more acid soil typically. Here's kits on Amazon and as you can see they vary from cheap simple on up to digital meters etc. Also universities and counties sometimes have agricultural extension services that offer soil testing and area gardening information. Check your local library for gardening books. Often they'll have books that pertain to your areas climate. If there are any local garden supply/greenhouse businesses they are a good source for local information.You might see if there are any garden clubs in your area, they can be a good resource for local info. And there are an overwhelming amount of books online of course. Something like this is good. It's a classic for small spaces.

It can be overwhelming with so much info available, but go slow and simple and experiment. You can have early successes or quick failures. It can be trial and error. By the looks of your spot plants like it there. And most of all get your hands dirty and have fun.

No problem! They are not so much "permaculture" focused, but more of a holistic view. If you want something on just permaculture, you might want to check out something by Sepp Holzer. He is pretty much considered the granddaddy to modern permaculture. If you are not already, I would also subscribe to /r/permaculture. It is a decent sub with some really helpful links. Sorry about not getting back to you sooner, I do not get on Reddit as much as some.

The best starting advice is to read this book. Paul Stamets is like the pope of mushrooms and the book covers not only the biology but the economics of mushroom growing.


https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Gourmet-Medicinal-Mushrooms-Stamets-ebook/dp/B004GTLS2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536675476&sr=8-1&keywords=paul+stamets+mushroom+book

​

As for morels, my understanding is that they require the trees they grow on and the microbiome they create. Nobody has learned how to create that condition in a controlled environment yet.

Welcome!

I'm not sure what kind of mushrooms you are interested in, but I would say the simplest way of starting to grow gourmet mushrooms would be purchasing a pre-colonized mushroom kit. These are usually only a week or two from producing fruits and will minimize the chances that you will get contamination.

I haven't purchased from them, but something like Fungi Perfecti's indoor mushroom growing kits (link) would likely be a good starting point. This will give you an idea if you like the most straightforward parts of the hobby.

If you find that you enjoy that and find which mushrooms you want to grow more seriously, you can move on from there.

If you want to get more information, a lot of books by Paul Stamets are considered required reading, such as Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. There is a ton of information in these, but if you've already gotten an idea of what kind of mushrooms you like, you can find a ton of information about each mushroom in this. A lot of excerpts from this are also available on the shroomery.org pages for different mushroom growing parameters.

I hope that this is useful. Feel free to ask any questions! I'm definitely new around here, but it's definitely been a welcoming community.

Go to your local library and check out some books like this.

[Southeast Home Landscaping] (https://www.amazon.com/Southeast-Landscaping-Creative-Homeowner-Landscape/dp/1580114962/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?srs=17608448011&ie=UTF8&qid=1539447528&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=landscaping+kentucky), or [Sustainable Gardening for the Southeast] (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61UJjnHkA-L._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg).

You did not trouble me at all, please keep researching because there is lots of good information on here and you may come a crossed and expert who could really help you more. I would recommend you order this book from your local library “ Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms” by Paul Stamets

Amazon link:
Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580081754/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pNRIBbYJKPYP1

YouTube video: of Paul Stamets and Joe Rogan interview
https://youtu.be/mPqWstVnRjQ

I haven't read it, but this book might be good. I'm currently reading another of her books, and she is very easy to follow. She is also (which is why I'm suggesting this particular author and book) a "certified Master Gardner." So she can actually suggest good plant care, and not just magicky stuff. :)

I can

Sepp Holzer's Permaculture
more practical, experiential knowledge. some really interesting hacks and tricks.

Creating a Forest Garden
more technical ecology stuff. more on the scientific side.

One Straw Revolution
Essential. The philosophy of do nothing farming, know nothing farming. Humility before nature and complex systems.

First, you start her off with the obvious connection, White Tiger, then you delve a little deeper with The God of Small Things, then a triple KO punch of Sleeping in Flame, Bel Canto, and The Blind Assassin.

Responses to articles, part one

As an aside, I do recognize that the greatest challenge facing veganic farming is the need for fertilizer and, ideally, a closed nitrogen cycle. Many (but not all) veganic alternatives to manure require the direct mining of the relevant minerals, which is terrible for the environment and workers. I think the strongest case for the use of animal products is crop fertilizer. There are some vegan agricultural practices that do away with fertilizer entirely, but these are difficult to scale up and only work withing certain ecosystems.

I don't think this justifies killing animals before they can live our their natural lifespan, but it might suggest that until the requisite paradigms are in place, (in the developed world) animals be kept in sanctuaries or reserves so we can utilize their manure. That, or increase our use of human waste for these purposes.

That said, I didn't find much in the articles you linked that support the idea that exploiting animals is necessary to feed the world in a sustainable way. In general, the sources you are pointing to support, at best, the idea that the use of animals is some ways can help with making agriculture more sustainable; I have not yet encountered an argument in these sources that it is necessary. And many articles fails to show even that.

> The use of agricultural resources for global food supply. Understanding its dynamics and regional diversity - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303445365\_The\_use\_of\_agricultural\_resources\_for\_global\_food\_supply\_Understanding\_its\_dynamics\_and\_regional\_diversity)

This is a thesis, so I won't have time to read the entire thing. However, the abstract does not seem to support the necessity of livestock in agriculture. The primary findings are about the need for nitrogen-rich fertilizer in developing countries with poor soil. The other findings are about the differential resource requirements for affleunt and poor diets, which didn't have much to do with meat at all. (In fact, meat is mentioned as a "luxury" element of the former).

The most relevant point I could find is this:

>some regions have traditional vegetarian diets with dairy products which do not necessarily use fewer resources than diets with large consumption of meat.

But this is extremely inconclusive. For one, the diet is vegetarian, not vegan. Two, the claim is that these diets do not "necessarily" use fewer resources than a meat-based diet; the relevant claim for your purposes would have to be "diets with large consumption of meat necessarily (or often) use fewer resources than a plant-based diet."

>The future of food and agriculture. Trends and Challenges - http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6583e.pdf

Initial skepticism: The FAO is an arm of the UN, but part of its stated mission is to support sustainable animal agriculture and fisheries. So again, I would not consider this a great source.

Anyway, this is another massive document that covers lots of things irrelevant to our discussion. In the future, it would be nice if you could point to the relevant sections rather than have be look through hundreds of pages.

The report is about how to feed the growing population sustainably. Skimming through it, I did not kind much that showed that we need animals in order to do this.

The report does mention the important of agroecology and changes to farming practices to reduce the need to import nutrients:

>Recent years have seen a growing trend towards the adoption of conservation agriculture. This approach seeks to reduce soil disturbance by mechanical tillage, maintain a protective organic cover on the soil surface, and cultivate a wider range of plant species – both annuals and perennials – in associations, sequences and rotations that may include trees, shrubs, pastures and crops. It promotes, for example, the integration into cropping systems of pulses and legumes that help build up and maintain soil nitrogen levels.

None of this essentially has to do with livestock. If there are parts of the report that do argue this, I am happy to have them pointed out to me.

The report does assert that " Healthy livestock is crucial for achieving the sustainable production of nutritious and accessible food for everyone." But is just that; an assertion. It's not part of the data, nor is it backed up by any of the data presented in the report.

It is undeniable that many people in poorer countries now require livestock to survive. I am not arguing that we should take the livestock of these people away. Vegans are mostly focused on the developed world, and this report does nothing to suggest that the developed world needs to either consume meat or use animals in others ways in agricultural practice in order to sustainably survive.

Another good one is sepp holzers book

A kit is pretty good. You may actually want to see if there are labs you can send it to, since you're now dealing with what may be random chemicals in your soil. I don't really know the process on that, to be honest. Was never forced to do it.

Reshaping the walk will open everything up. It also may give you the chance to use potted plantings if your soil is shit. I've seen white rock used decoratively like that.

Buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/Northeast-Home-Landscaping-3rd-Including/dp/1580115152/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367969926&sr=8-1&keywords=landscaping+in+the+northeast

I have used other versions and it has spectacular designs.

Flabbergasted!

Congratulations on your decision to go back to school! I also decided to go back to school this year, for Environmental Science. Something fitting from my wishlist.

Thanks for the contest!

Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community

https://www.facebook.com/GrowFoodNotLawns

http://www.amazon.com/The-Edible-Front-Yard-Grow-More/dp/1604691999/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Paul Stamets has several excellent books on the subject. Check out this one, for instance.

Why in the world would you want to make a mandragora? Lol

I believe this was the book, but I had a couple and my studies were years ago.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0738703184

International Studies major here to say that this video is apologetic pablum. Many assumptions are made, including the implicit assumptions that countries develop in a vacuum and that all countries' trajectory began at the same point in time on a level playing field. The video assumes that strong institutions and cultural beliefs affect degree of development instead of being a product of it. Nowhere is there any mention of core-periphery relationship, history, etcetera.


If you want an introductory understanding of uneven development start with Ankie Hoogvelt's Globalization and the Postcolonial World, Immanuel Wallerstine's World Systems Analysis, and Edward Said's Culture and Imperialism. For an intermediate understanding complete the first 3 then read Adorno/Horkeimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment, Marcuse's One Dimensional Man, and Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.

While it's won a fucktonne of awards, I'm yet to find anyone that has actually finished it, or can tell me what it's actually about. It's the most warped book in existance. With little/no punctuation, poor writing style and confusing plot jumps it's just completly warped.

I won a copy of this book and started to read it. When I gave up I put a notation in the book in pencil "dannyr got this far and gave up". My wife, four co-workers, a few friends of my wife etc have all similar marks in the book.

It's almost a standing joke in the family. Whenever someone says they're looking for a new book to read I give them this.