Recently I have been brushing up on some growing techniques and principles. As much as I like allowing things to grow a little bit wild, I am now refining my focus towards strategies which will more effectively and reliably feed a family, as well as provide extra to market and profit from.
My vision fits somewhere between an intensive market garden scheme, and a more relaxed home veggie patch, combining elements from both to find a happy middle that is enjoyable, not too rigid, but also creates profit.
To that end I have explored John Jeavons bio-intensive method, which outwardly seems like a near perfect system, and it also happens to fit Veganic (Vegan+Organic) principles. I will not know for sure until I implement the design for myself, and follow through for a number of years to discover the full potential of this method.
You can watch the Grow Bio-intensive Guide on Youtube > HERE
This short series is a great beginning point to gain familiarity with the basic principles of Bio-intensive growing.
On the subject of Veganic principles; I happened upon a video featuring Will Bonsall, in which he shares knowledge and ideas surrounding Veganic farming, which I found to be very insightful, and also coincided with many of my own observations and theories developed over years of casual gardening.
You can watch Wills talk about Veganic principles on Youtube > HERE
All of this lead me to further consider my diet. Generally I am quite mindful about eating healthy, but there is always room for improvement, and it's so easy to slip out of good habits and fall into the trap of too often eating 'whatever' with little thought towards nutritional value.
To help myself out I made a document based on the 60/30/10 guide from the bio-intensive method and listed crops under each section, which is also useful to reference when planning meals.
I have only included gluten-free crops because I am coeliac, and prefer to avoid any contact with them. With the exception of those few crops, I tried to include the best examples I was able to find from various sources, undoubtedly there are many more, including perennial crops.
A side note regarding my diet; I am Vegan and Coeliac, but I prefer to avoid eating grains at all. I am not completely rigid on this point, I will eat some grains here and there, however I much prefer to gain my calories and nutrients from fresh water-rich fruits and vegetables, most nuts and seeds also agree with my rather sensitive digestive system.
I hope people find this interesting and useful, as always I cannot encourage you enough to grow as much food as possible, it is invaluable!
Happy growing everyone. c:
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