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Joseph Lofthouse

author & steward
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since Dec 16, 2014
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Biography

Joseph Lofthouse grew up on the farm and in the community that was settled by his ggg-grandmother and her son. He still farms there. Growing conditions are high-altitude brilliantly-sunlit desert mountain valley in Northern Utah with irrigation, clayish-silty high-pH soil, super low humidity, short-season, and intense radiant cooling at night. Joseph learned traditional agricultural and seed saving techniques from his grandfather and father. Joseph is a sustenance market farmer and landrace seed-developer. He grows seed for about 95 species. Joseph is enamored with landrace growing and is working to convert every species that he grows into adaptivar landraces. He writes the Landrace Gardening Blog for Mother Earth News.
Farming Philosophy
Promiscuous Pollination and ongoing segregation are encouraged in all varieties. Joseph's style of landrace gardening can best be summed up as throwing a bunch of varieties into a field, allowing them to promiscuously cross pollinate, and then through a combination of survival-of-the-fittest and farmer-directed selection saving seeds year after year to arrive at a locally-adapted genetically-diverse population that thrives because it is closely tied to the land, the weather, the pests, the farmer's habits and tastes, and community desires.
Joseph lives under a vow of poverty and grows using subsistence level conditions without using cides or fertilizers. He prefers to select for genetics that can thrive under existing conditions. He figures that it is easier to change the genetics of a population of plants than it is to modify the soil, weather, bugs, etc. For example, because Joseph's weeding is marginal, plants have to germinate quickly, and burst out of the soil with robust growth in order to compete with the weeds.
Biodiversity
For More
Cache Valley, zone 4b, Irrigated, 9" rain in badlands.
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Forums and Threads

Recent posts by Joseph Lofthouse

At my place, some areas remain off limits during some weather patterns and seasons of the year. Perhaps reassess why vehicle access seems immediately necessary (during times of year with soggy ground).

Perhaps consider other types of vehicles. (A dog sled for example)
1 day ago
During my childhood, our woodlot contained 6 acres of very mature forest -- primarily riparian cottonwoods. We logged it a little, and harvested the small wood from the logging as firewood. It grew faster than we could harvest. Our very large home derived most of its winter heating from passive solar. We insulated amazingly. We mostly had to burn wood in the spring months, when the ecosystem was still chilly and overcast skies minimized solar gain.

5 days ago
Start the forest garden the same week that you get a new piece of ground to steward. Even if you expect temporary residency. I value trees planted ten years ago much more than I value trees yet unplanted.

5 days ago

Andrew Parker wrote:Joseph,

I have often thought that it would be advantageous to harvest the ice fog that curses our valleys during long dry Winter inversions.  Any ideas?



A minuscule amount of water could be obtained from winter  ice-fog, and it comes during the season of the year with abundant water, making it much less valuable than water collected in mid-summer.
5 days ago
I have eaten kombucha scoby. It's not something that I want to put in my mouth again... Nothing bad about it. Just doesn't seem like food.
1 week ago
To make stronger vinegar, start with higher concentrations of sugar.

During the initial fermentation, half of the sugar is converted to alcohol. Then the alcohol is converted to vinegar.

So starting with 20% sugar would yield ~10% alcohol, and eventually, ~10% vinegar.

Kombucha typically starts with around 6% sugar, so you'd end up with a ~3% vinegar solution.

1 week ago
The Landrace Seed Share at Going To Seed feels like the culmination of my life's work.

I feel grateful to permies.com for being the first group to really understand and adopt my suggestions and practices.
1 week ago
Tomorrow is the big day! The 2025 landrace seed share begins. I've scheduled an email for 9 AM tomorrow morning with the URL. If you'd like to receive the link via email, please sign up for my newsletter on the bottom of the page at https://Lofthouse.com

Here is my contribution:
Fukuoka's Grab Bag
Everything Else


The Fukuoka Grab Bag exists to honor the life and work of Japanese farmer Masanobu Fukuoka, who wrote One Straw Revolution, and Sowing Seeds in the Desert. Fukuoka recommended combining many species together into clay balls, and spewing them into the garden willy-nilly to discover which ones might thrive.

This mix also tips the hat to Gurney's Seed Company, which sold a Jumbo Packet of mixed seeds for one cent. My first garden was grown from this packet of seeds, and inspired me for my entire life. I still remember the huge size of the nasturtium seeds!

This year's Fukuoka Grab bag contains about 40 or more species.

Amaranth
Arugula X3
Beet, Going To Seed
Chicory
Cotton
Eggplant X2
Endive
Escarole
Fava
Lambsquarters
Lettuce X2
Luffa cylindria
Lupine, sweet X2
Mayapple, American
Millet
Moonrose
Moringa
Mustard spice, Yellow
Mustard, leafy brown seeded X4
Okra
P Doumous
Parsley
Parsnip, X3
Peanut
Penstemon
Physallis longifolium
Radish Grex, Going To Seed
Roselle
Rye, Cache Valley
Sage
Serviceberry
Shiso X2
Solanum lycopersicon
Solanum peruvianum
Solanum pimpinelifolium
Spinach
Sunflower X2
Sweet Cicely
Thlaspi
Turnip X2
Wheat, Rocky Mountain

We may have forgotten to write down some crops. We measured out 1 Tablespoon per packet. Then added a few larger seeds by hand. We ran out of peanuts half-way through.
1 week ago