rckymtnhigh McCoy

This winter after learning more about composting from this thread:

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=342651

I started composting all kinds of things, when I started in the fall I had far to much carbon in my piles. To balance that out I started taking the food scraps from a Chinese restaurant I used to work at, which mostly consisted of cabbage, celery, and a few other veggies.  To my surprise in January when uncovering a pile to add more material i found 4-5 cabbage heads that had rooted and started to grow.  The cabbage had been mostly used by the restaurant and what was rooting was very small pieces of the waste product.  I now pull 4-5 out a week that are rooted and plant them around my gardens. Since then i have found celery, onions, and potatoes that have rooted in my piles.

The only problem with this is that if your pile is hot the roots of the plants might not have very much room to grow in because of the heat.  To counter that in the pile that i am planting in I added more carbon material then added regular garden soil on top to give the plants some time before they got to the compost.

I went all out on our compost pile this winter with it finishing about 15x20x6 so in theory this should be the last time we dig our rows. We are now planning on extensively using sheet mulching and throwing whatever scraps we produce under the sheet mulch to basically have a compost pile everywhere. We will continue to have a compost pile on the side of the garden for excess material and to have compost for potted plants but the majority of scraps will be used under the mulch.

If ever worried about the mulch/compost layer being to hot all that is needed is to add more carbon(mulch).

So yes growing in the compost pile in my opinion is a great idea!

Hi everyone! We just started our new poultry flock with 20 laying hens, 20 broilers and 4 ducks  . I used to work at a restaurant in town and have been taking all of their veggie scraps for the past year and I am starting to wonder if taking the meats scraps for chicken feed could be a good thing as well.

I have read many different accounts online saying it is both good and bad so I am looking here to see if anyone has any insight.  I would have access to Chicken, Pork, and Beef scraps... but probably won't feed my chickens... chicken.

awesome thread guys and I cant wait for spring so i can begin the rest of my gardening life with Comfrey.

I have a friend who I am sourcing some of my root stock from but if any of you have extra you can get rid of let me know I would be happy to pay shipping and a little something for your sore back!

Thought I would add I am in the market for some as well I am happy to pay shipping and can either trade you something from my garden or pay you for your time. PM for details. Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the great info in this thread! I just finished reading it from the beginning and I am very excited to transform my entire plot into Hugelbeets!

I am wondering what everyone thinks about building these beds then immediately planting into them. I have been planning for the last year to transform my garden into a permaculture garden with keyhole beds and now that I am going to do it id really like all the beds to be Hugelbeets.

For now I am just starting the process of collecting logs/brush i have asked neighbors and gotten a large load of very nice logs off of Craigslist so far and plan to continue collecting materials until the time is right(soil thaws).

I also have two massive compost piles and about 200 bags of leaves that need to be composted  . Just waiting for a little warmer weather to head to my nitrogen source before they are added to the compost piles. The two current piles have been 150 degrees through all of the cold weather and little bit of snow we have gotten so i figure we are off to a good start.

I plan on using a heavy amount of compost in the beds when I build them as i figure it will be a good nitrogen source for helping to start the decomposition of the wood. 

Thoughts?

christhamrin wrote:
glad we agree mostly.  my little disagreement hinges on the word 'capitalist'.  i don't care for it & it means different things (salatin clearly is using capitalism-1).  see the following three definitions:

i am an anti-capitalist-2&-3.

Your right we do agree on most things but I would still label your definitions 2&3 Corporatism not Capitalism.

We shred all of our paper and cardboard by hand on a small scale it is not too difficult but if your trying to do alot it can get a little time consuming. I try to use as much of this stuff as I can because I have more nitrogen than carbon sources for my piles. I also use both as a sheet mulch beneath straw to cut back on the amount of straw I have to buy. The cardboard can be ripped into 6x6 pieces and will break down fairly quickly. It also helps to use these materials in your piles because of the different size/shape of the material, when I only used leaves in the past they would mat alot of times and only compost on the outside or not at all.

If you have a surplus of green material you can always use newspaper, computer paper, junk mail, and cardboard to supplement your carbon supply. Those things can always be found for free.

Are you trying to compost sticks or just green leaves? Wood is very high in carbon even if it is a little green when it goes into a pile so if your composting sticks you might not need as much carbon as you think.

If you do have sticks as well why not try a Hugelkultur bed?

Jonathan Byron wrote:
His political and religious views are not of interest to me.

While I am not a religious person so I could care less about the religious part, I think what Salatin has to say about Capitalism and a business "running for profit" is very important for many people on this website.

How do think mankind was able to take time away from food production to create things like the internet for us to discuss things like this?  Was it by producing too little and giving it away? No i think eventually someone somewhere figured out how to profit off of farming which allowed others to to learn new skill sets.

Running a profitable business does not make you a greedy nor evil person.  When I see complaints about Sepp Holzer charging for giving tours or Salatin doing speaking engagements for money it baffles me.  Do you think Salatin would have had time to write, let alone find someone to produce his book "Salad Bar Beef" if he gave it all away for free?

If people have issues with Corporatism i.e. Obama and the Republocrats giving special concessions to the Food Companys(S.B. 510), I completely agree. But if you listen to the interview he talks about government regulation being the PROBLEM for small business not the solution.  IN fact these regulations will only help enlarge the corporations!

There is a lot of talk of permaculture changing the world, for this to happen the economy must change first and also people must change their belief of how government should work.  I for one am delighted every time I see a new Sepp Holzer or Joel Salatin, after all for every wealthy permaculturist there is one less wealthy corporatist.

Joel Salatin calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. He is co-owner of Polyface Farms, which producing meat he describes as "beyond organic", and are raised using environmentally responsible, ecologically beneficial, sustainable agriculture. He has been featured in news stories, books, conferences, and documentaries showcasing his regenerative agriculture through rotational grazing.

Related Books

Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front - book by Joel Salatin
You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise by Joel Salatin
Pastured Poltry Profit$ by Joel Salatin
Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World by Joel Salatin
The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation by Joel Salatin
Homegrown & Handmade: A Practical Guide to More Self-Reliant Living by Deborah Niemann and Joel Salatin
Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin
Your Successful Farm Business: Production, Profit, Pleasure by Joel Salatin
The Frugal Homesteader: Living the Good Life on Less by John Moody and Joel Salatin
BEYOND LABELS: A Doctor and a Farmer Conquer Food Confusion One Bite at a Time by Joel Salatin and Sina McCullough
Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating by Joel Salatin
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food by Joel Salatin
The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer by Joel Salatin
Family Friendly Farming: A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament by Joel Salatin


Related Movies and Videos

Food, Inc.
Fresh: New Thinking about What We're Eating
American Meat
Polyface Farm
Permaculture Voices 1, 2, & 3




Related Websites

Polyface Farms
Musings from a Lunatic Farmer - blog


Related Threads

Joel Salatin on "The Marvelous Pigness of a Pig"
Everything I want to do is illegal by Joel Salatin
Holy Cows and Hog Heaven by Joel Salatin (review)
Joel Salatin
Joel Salatin: Preaching to the Choir
Polyfaces - A movie about Joel Salatin%27s farm