R White

Varina Lakewood wrote:It's interesting. I looked up that verse in one of the fairly accurate more modern versions of the Bible.  It read: "Do not plant two crops in your vineyard, or both will be ruined."
Sounds like crossbreeding to me. If you think about it, it makes sense, because the FIRST thing you learn when you check into breeding plants is that most hybrids are weaker and less desirable than the parent crops, not only that, but they don't come true to seed. (Hard to remember, I guess, when we have so many successful hybrids on the market, but actually quite true.) If you interplanted all your seed crop and the seed came out hybrid...well, they say it takes 8 generations of plants to successfully stabilize a hybrid into an OP variety. In the meantime, if that was your main food crop, you could starve to death. If it was your main cash crop, you would lose money and customers, and put yourself in a bad spot. Even if neither of these was true, you'd still have lost the true heirloom strains that had been in your family for generations, which would be a different kind of tragedy.

I reflected for a while on this and have a slightly different view on this, without not necessary contradicting the other views. For me this goes into, not deceiving in business, but towards the "What you see is what you get"-principle:

- When you put different seeds into the same fields, it gets difficult to assess what the harvest actually is. What's the percentage of which field fruit which may have different values? Bear in mind that this was offered to others as well as a medium of exchange. So what would be the right price for it and how would the other side have to estimate its value.
- Different kinds of cattle is another thing there. One gets something like "hybrid vigor" in the F1 generation. That makes the animal look healthier in terms of phenotype, but doesn't tell you everything about the genotype you are actually dealing with. The F2 and following generation may yield far weaker results then. And cattle was again used as capital for further breeding by the buyer. Who may have overestimate the value, he's getting as result of mentioned effect.
- Mixing linen and woolen is similar, how can the buyer assess what he's getting there? Bear in mind that buyers includes people that may just lack the essentials of doing a accurate and precise assessment.

Those honesty rules become more clear as such, when you look-up the verses a bit earlier:

Leviticus 19:11Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 12And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. 14Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD.

15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. 16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD.

17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. 18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

It then goes further with the rules in question:

Leviticus 19:19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

So it may be less a matter of agriculture/technical question than a matter of business ethics and practices that start in production of the commodities.

Drew Moffatt wrote:Same, ask people in the street what giblets are...
It's all in our head I have recipes for calf and lambs head and brains I just haven't gone there yet, other offal is good as.
I hunt/shoot feral goats I try pick younger nannies but we've eaten some stinkies the really stinky stuff like old billies and big wild boars gets turned into tasty pickles and salamis.
You could find someone who knows how to cut him, we do it to lambs and bulls. A sharp knife is all you need and you'll have a wether.

Almost anything on an animal can be used for something. When my grandparents slaughtered a goat or pig, everything was put to some good use.

I hear some people complain about buck smell and taste, but I personally do not mind

David Hernick wrote:+1 to jujube and Mulberry.  Prosopis chilensis or chilean mesquite is pretty amazing and is cold hardy to zone 8.  Oikos tree crops sells a northern Pecan, Pecan are a bit more tolerant to adverse conditions than walnuts.  

We do plant Pecan trees, even in the Karroo, which is a semi-desert to Steppe climate. That's if there is water available for irrigation. Walnuts I wonder about, but should work as well. What makes a walnut tree more sensitive to adverse conditions?