Photos of Joseph Lofthouse's Garden

I'm three weeks late planting fava beans this year. Those wheels are 6 feet tall. Might be a while before I start planting.

We had 200% of average precipitation this winter. The highest recorded since recordkeeping began.

Does all the extra snow guarantee that you’ll have enough irrigation this year?

Wow, I haven't seen that much snow in Indiana since the blizzards of 1978. As I recall it started on January 6, and there were still dirty piles of snow around in May. The Ohio River froze completely over for the first and so far, only time, since the high-rise dams were put in place in the 1950s - 60s. At one time temperatures didn't break zero for two weeks. A foot or two of snow at a time, came in a series and it all piled up. I dubbed it the REAL winter and enjoyed it immensely.

Here's hoping your snow melts pretty soon so you can plant and that it does reinvigorate your water supply.

Joseph,  Yes....I think other areas like the Sierra's are getting more press coverage, but my sister informed me that Alta ski resort south of you had recorded 801 inches of snow for this past season.  On the ski slopes it's a packed 230 inches if I recall correctly.  She's worried about another 1983 when the streets of downtown SLC were raging rivers after a rapid melt.  Don't know if the entire Wasatch front range has been receiving the same or if it's only certain areas with heavy snow totals.  Return of the Great Salt Lake?....   Photo below from this morning after feeding the chickens (outside of Fargo ND).  Historically, Good Friday was the target for planting potatoes in the region.  Looks like there will be some delays....   :-?

The irrigation reservoir is expected to fill, and then run-over in a raging torrent. Stream flow in my local streams is expected to be above average through the whole summer. My irrigation comes from a combination of storage water and unimpeded stream flow.

I checked on reservoir levels. Many of the storage lakes, including mine,  are currently dumping water to the Great Salt Lake, in an attempt to save some capacity to minimize flooding from spring run-off.

Doomer Optimism Episode 133
Landrace Plant Breeding and the Future of Food

Joseph Lofthouse and Julia Dakin joins returning guests/co-hosts Shane Simonsen and Simon Gooder. The gang talk plant breeding, landrace style. They dig into hybrids, genetic crosses, wild analogues and fun things like grexes. Joseph and Shane tell everyone how to get started with home-scale plant breeding, and how optimistic they are about the future of food.

Joseph Lofthouse is a sixth-generation farmer, working on the land and with plant varieties is great grandparents made. He started his professional career as a chemist, but due to ethical dilemmas decided to go in search of himself, and seek refuge in a monastery before returning to the family farm. He now develops open-sourced landrace varieties of vegetables, and is an author, and teacher.

Julia Dakin is a farmer and seed activist in Mendocino County, California. She has been involved in agriculture for most of her life, and has devoted the past few years to growing market crops and teaching the benefits of seed saving, local adaptation, and genetic diversity.  She created most of the content available in GoingToSeed’s online courses, and is working on a new course about traditional farming methods in Oaxaca and Guerrero.

Shane Simonsen of Zero Input Agriculture started his professional career in a similar place to Joseph before deciding to commit to growing food on his own farm in Eastern Australia. His focus is on perennial staple crops with the goal of achieving [as close to] zero input as possible, breeding for drought-resistance, productivity, and general resilience. Shane also writes some fantastic fiction, writing under the name Heldane B. Doyle!

Simon Gooder is a gardener, designer, and nature nerd. He helps run Permapeople.org - an open plant database with his co-founders/friends, and is focused on growing perennials from seed, intensive vegetable gardening, homeschooling a child, building things and connecting with community through gift economies and barter.

Joseph, did you know that you got a shout-out in the letters to the editor in the New Yorker a few weeks ago?
Someone had written an article about seed catalogs, and a reader responded talking about how saving seeds for landrace gardening "as popularized by Joseph Lofthouse" was superior to just buying seeds from big companies.
I had no idea you're the big guru. I mean I know you have been doing it a long time & know a lot, but I didn't expect to see a name that's familiar from Permies in a mostly urban-oriented national magazine. Congratulations.

Thanks Ellen: Book sales unexpectedly jumped a week ago, and I wondered why...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/10/letters-from-the-april-10-2023-issue

I spent this week developing springs and swales to feed the springs.

Wow.....Cool

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I'm three weeks late planting fava beans this year. Those wheels are 6 feet tall. Might be a while before I start planting.

We had 200% of average precipitation this winter. The highest recorded since recordkeeping began.

I installed the greenhouse shade-cloth today (50%).

Yesterday, planted the sweet peppers into the kitchen garden, located at lower elevation, and thus warmer than my main field.

Here's some photos of what grows in the greenhouse.

A blog post, about working on a german language translation of Landrace gardening.

On November 16-17, 2022 The Seed Lab Advisory Committee, a group of independent seed professionals, met at Stone Barns Center to discuss their work along with issues that the seed community faces. I really enjoyed my time with the Committee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aDSo55fZoQ

Please join me for a garden party at my farm.

August 19th
Paradise Utah

I’ll host garden tours in the morning.
Intending lunch at the city park’s pavilion that I built as a teenager helping my daddy.
They tell me I have to say a few words before lunch.

Here's a photo of my garden a few days ago. Yes, I gave up on trying to do no-till in this field.

My Monthly Podcast
4 PM Mountain Time
Sunday, July 9th.
Note that this time deviates from our typical schedule to accommodate Shane’s waking hours in Australia.

Dr Shane Simonsen is a former biochemist who ran away to the hills of subtropical Australia to become an experimental farmer. He writes weekly about his efforts at developing zero input agriculture at substack. In his spare time he writes science fiction as Haldane B Doyle. His debut novel “Our Vitreous Womb” explores a distant future where society has rebuilt using purely biological technology.

Zero Input Agriculture: https://zeroinputagriculture.substack.com/

Author website for fiction: https://haldanebdoyle.com/

Book: Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0645724343/

Message me for the Zoom link.

I host a garden tour and party in a couple weeks.

Photos from my recent trip to Row 7 Seeds, Blue Hill, and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

I grow a squash for USDS GRIN.

I speak at the Heirloom Seed Expo next week at Ventura County Fairgrounds.

Going To Seed live podcast
September 9th 3:00 PM Mountain Time
Message me for the Zoom link (same as always)

Mark Reed
Broccolish, sweet potatoes and all things garden


Mark Reed has been a backyard gardener for more than sixty years. He learned basic gardening techniques from his father and grandfather. In the 1970s he abandoned the use of pesticides and purchased fertilizers, and began saving some of his own seeds, mostly tomatoes and beans. Over the years he became more interested in saving his own seeds but at first was largely focused on varietal preservation.

Mark wrote, “… one of the primary goals ... was that heirloom preservation was necessary in case the genetic diversity was needed at some point in the future. I finally realized, now, is the future, and what’s needed isn’t all of those individually named varieties but the genes they contain. Why do I care if my two favorite watermelons cross pollinate, the result is still good watermelons and the problem of isolation distance and population size aren’t really problems at all. Nothing is lost except the names.”

The discovery of a few seeds on an old ornamental sweet potato plant about ten years ago pulled Mark into the world of actual plant breeding and he’s been strongly focused on it ever since.

I first remember Mark Reed from the Homegrown Goodness plant breeding forum. His writings over the years deeply influenced how I think about plant breeding and landrace gardening. His pragmatic, sensible approach calms me, and helps me to take the long view towards my garden and ecosystem.

Finally, after 7 years of trying I harvest a great crop of Solanum galapagense wild tomato.

I cleaned the seed drying rack yesterday. Yikes, it still contained the seed crops from 2020. The last few years seem tough.

I feel content about allowing Acorn and Delicata to cross into a beautiful winter squash.

Two of my favorite corns from South America.

The volunteer beans produced heavily, mostly on semi-vining plants.

A new hybrid bean showed up for the first time: Tan Anasazi.

About 2016, I introduced domestic DNA into a purely wild population of tomatoes. I have been observing minor differences in leaf shape, fruits, and vines since then, trying to select for domestic fruit traits. I estimate that the population is around 90% wild, with just a few domestic genes.

Last year, I finally found a fruit that was much different than wild type.

This year, the difference is even stronger, though most of the plants reverted to wild type, a couple retained domestic type fruits.

Monthly Live Podcast:
Promiscuous Tomatoes with William Clark Schlegel
Sat, October 14, 3pm MDT

William Schlegel is my closest collaborator on the Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomatoes project. We frequently communicate about it, and share seeds and photos. I’m really looking forward to our conversation.

William is an educator and botanist. As an educator he loves to teach students about botany, plant breeding, seeds, and the natural world. As a botanist he is fascinated by the conservation of plants and the effects of climate change on sustainable food systems. He sees plant breeding as a way citizen scientists can help adapt their communities to climate change. He is furthest along on plant breeding projects with tomatoes and fava beans.

Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8702476879

Bio:
https://osseeds.org/ossi-breeders/william-schlegel/

GoingToSeed:
https://landracegardening.discourse.group/u/williamgrowstomatoes/activity

Open Source Plant Breeding Forum:
https://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=10

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/william.schlegel.969

My podcast is now available on all your favorite sites

Joseph Lofthouse, Holly Hansen, and Shane Simonsen feel excited to announce that our Going to Seed podcasts are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcasting platforms.

New episodes should be coming out regularly on the first and third Fridays of every month (though expect a break over the holiday season soon).

Please spread the word to your local growing communities around the world.

Apple: https://tools.applemediaservices.com/podcast/1713240427

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6RLhElDfKqbZootaI6PrNV

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@landracegardening5631

A squash that I grow for GRIN, grew across the top of the greenhouse and down the other side. It filled it end to end, even though it got planted in a corner. The tiniest flower buds begin to form. I intend to heat the greenhouse for a bit.

First frost expected tonight (7 weeks behind average). Makes up for the snow melting 6 weeks late this spring. My irrigation reservoir almost filled this fall, so full irrigation allotment expected next summer.

I intend to grow more early spring and fall flowers for the bees: Willows, tulips, daffodils, and grape hyacinth for early spring, and blanketflower, cosmos, and asters for late fall.

Farmer Support Program

Now accepting applications!

To apply, please complete this application.

Questions? Email us at farmersupport@goingtoseed.org.

The mission of Going to Seed is to inspire a shift in agriculture toward adaptation, community, and diversity. Toward this end, we operate several programs, including online educational courses, a discussion group, a community seed program, and a seed exchange. More information about all of these can be found on this site.

Beginning with the 2024 growing season, we are introducing a Farmer Support Program to provide financial, technical, and marketing assistance to production farmers who want to breed their own locally adapted crops. The guidelines and application form in this document enable farmers to request such assistance. Applications will be accepted as of the time this document is published, and assistance will be awarded to qualified farmers on a rolling basis until the budget for the year is committed.

Evan Sofro

Joseph Lofthouse chats to nomadic farmer Evan Sofro about heritage grains, biophilia and land artistry.

Evan Sofro is a nomadic gardener/ artist musician/ psychonaught / bio-pheliac, ecosystem steward and explorer of freedom. He spent 17 years exploring ecosystem stewardship with a specialization in seed conservation and sustainable/ bio-regionally adapted agriculture and arid lands dry farming. He has worked on and with over a hundred farms in us, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru.

Former farm manger of native Seed-search conservation farm in Patagonia Arizona. Onsen farms and the River Farm in southern Idaho. Evan currently resides in the Klamath Siskiyou bio region.

Evan and I share a deep love for our common mentor Bill McDorman from native Seed-Search, and the Heritage Grain Trials. The promiscuous tomato project thrived under Evans supervision at the River Farm in Idaho. We spent many days together planting, nurturing, and harvesting tomatoes, grains, and melons. Evan inspired me to learn to play guitar, and to have more fun in the garden: Even to howl at the full moon. Evan’s influence deeply influenced my path in life, and what I wrote in Landrace Gardening.

Evan appears in 4 photographs in my book, so I expect a brilliant interview.

All the major podcast sites carry it.

Apple
RSS
YouTube
Spotify

I really love tomatillos that ripen to yellow. I've spent a lot of time selecting for that trait, because of the wonderful flavor. Finally think I'll have enough seed to share.

This population descends from about a dozen populations that went weedy in people's gardens from across the usa.

I expect to send these to Experimental Farm Network, and the Going To Seed landrace seed share.

I reached a permies milestone yesterday...

Going To Seed Podcast, Episode 11

Shane Simonsen and Joseph Lofthouse talk to Mark Shepard about restoration agriculture and breeding staple tree crops with mass selection.

Spotify

RSS

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Check out Mark's work at the following links:
https://restorationag.com
https://www.forestag.com

The best thing I learned from the interview was to select trees for precocious fruiting. That way, more generations can be selected during a lifetime.

My most recent podcast with Holly Hansen:

https://youtu.be/NqFgTF_5DJI

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6v5UQu4tWozAwVhapkEMu8

The Landrace Seed Share went live this morning:
https://goingtoseed.org/collections/2024-seed-collection

I think of this as the most important seed swap of my gardening career.

Hello Joseph,

I would like your advice regarding setting up a Harbor Freight 10 x 12 greenhouse.
We live in a zone 3b area and have had issues with ice heaves regarding our chicken run so naturally are concerned with the same issue in erecting our greenhouse.

I have a Harbor freight 10 x 12 green house that has been sitting in the shipping crate for a number of years and hope to put it up this year.

My question is, have you encountered ice heave issues and if you have how did you deal with it or prepare to deal with it for your greenhouse?

i considered making a ridged steel frame as the foundation bottom so the whole structure is not distorted by changing/uneven plane caused by ice heaves.

That solution is prohibitively expensive and not an option on a fixed income.

I am also considering making a bed of pea gravel that would be one foot larger all around for what would be the foot print of the structure  and maybe 4 inches deep.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Roger

I built three of that style of greenhouse. I used 2"x4" redwood as a foundation. Then drove stakes several feet into the ground at the corners, and in the middle of the long span. Then bolted the stakes to the wooden foundation. I drove the stakes in for wind protection, and only inadvertently made them deeper than the frost line.

I pruned grapes today.

Chopped off the 35 year old vines that had lost vigor. Left behind the new, vigorous shoots growing from the roots.

Took cuttings. Damaged the bark near the bottom end. Treated with rooting hormone. Planted them into a pot of sand, that I leave sit in a saucer of water. I expect many of them to root, for transplanting out in about August.

I took cuttings from 3 varieties that do great here: Interlaken, Glenora, Canadice.

If I get around to it, I'd like to take cuttings of Concord.

I finally finished the 160 foot grape arbor that I've worked on for years. It consists of T-posts every 8 feet, with one grape plant at each T-post, and a piece of conduit horizontally at about 52". Weather cooperating, the grapes aught to thrive this year. Some of the varieties that I planted die back every couple of years. I intend to cull at least one of them this summer.

Joseph, will you be offering your rooted grape cuttings for sale at the Logan Gardener's Market?

Steve Mendez wrote:Joseph, will you be offering your rooted grape cuttings for sale at the Logan Gardener's Market?

I currently don't participate in the Logan Gardener's market.

I expect that I'll make a post to my social media feeds, and make them available at my greenhouse in Hyrum.

Webinar: Gardening with More Joy and Less Work

Sunday, May 19th, 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM PDT

From his days as a chemist contributing to pesticide development, to a life-altering breakdown, Joseph's path took a dramatic turn when he embraced a vow of poverty and became a farmer. His talk delves into Adaptation Gardening, a method born from his commitment to non-violence and ecological harmony. Joseph will share his stories and insights into cultivating diverse, locally adapted crops. You will learn how he came to garden with greater ease and joy, in a way that is more in tune with nature and community.

https://givebutter.com/4NAZRH

i started incubating quail eggs yesterday.