[Virosponna]

so let's open this up even further. we live in an age of incredible ease and abundance, and truly all most of us can do is give lip-service to the idea of actually sustaining ourselves. i own my home and it has a small yard which my wife and i intensively garden. we have fruit trees and do our best to freeze, dry, or can all that is possible come harvest time.

do you know what we can grow enough of to get through the whole year on, including seed or stock for starting the next season's crop? garlic and cayenne peppers. and apples (dried or otherwise prepared).

really people, our ability to provide our own food is virtually non-existent. i garden for joy and health. i don't know that it saves that much on our food-bill as gardening has its own expenses (the rising cost of water being one of them, although its cost isn't rising like food at the store!), but the product is superior if only in that it is food i have been physically present and involved with, that i have imbued with as much love as i can.

but we are doing what we can to close the circle, to cut out the waste of transportation of food, to use the debris for our compost, to make the most of that which we have. frankly, while it is only garlic i can grow enough of to last all year, what if everyone grew enough garlic to last a year? it doesn't take much space at all and the reduction in diesel fuel used to transport garlic all over heck and back would be huge!

i've gotten perpendicular here though. we have chickens as well, kept for the eggs. they are loved, but we were careful to name them things like dumpling, potsticker, and barbie (i think her last name was "q" something!)
because in taking on chickens as part of our trying to close the circle, as it were, we have taken on all that is implied therein.

this year we got eight new birds as our four that were left are finishing egg production. this weekend it is time for me to thin the flock as we can't afford to feed chickens that aren't closing the circle anymore, y'know? organic chicken feed just went up $5 a bag. i am going to harvest the eldest chickens and add them to the circle (likely as enchiladas or chili).

they have been part of our circle, eating our leftovers, creating hi-test fertilizer for our garden, providing eggs for our larder, and ultimately providing protein of themselves to the table.

and it is a huge amount of work, but it is hands on and honest.

there was one comment in this thread along the lines of "well, at least i don't get the bad karma of actually killing an animal." i have to disagree, and say with this, as with anything, there is no single right or wrong on this free-will plane. i agree slaughter-house practices are deplorable, and egg-farms as well (another reason i raise my own chickens). so it seems very silly to think that i could be so fully and consciously involved in a process, trying to close the circle and lessen my impact upon the planet, and taking personal responsibility with as much love in my heart as i can, and i'm gonna end up sucking bad karma eggs for honoring my circle?! i think not.

and free will sez you may not like it, but that doesn't mean you can legislate against it. so easy there jadde44! if we can reach a global consciousness of love and eradicate the need for protein production (it is very inefficient raising, say, cattle, compared to what the feed would provide people directly) that will be wonderful. if we don't attain such consciousness, well, i'm gonna need to feed my family. you too. what then?

some of our ideas are based on the concept that the world food supply and local economies are going to allow the continuing choice of organic or not, meat or not. we are omnivores for a reason. beyond these great choices we currently have lays necessity. faced with necessity much of what is spoken of in this thread would be moot, philosophies that won't fill the belly.

let's bless the abundance of choice we have and seek that world-wide epiphany! between here and there, respect, love, and gratitude to all.

and pardon's for the length of this...