This place, this Braamekraal, often feels to me like Tolkien's Hobbiton. Yesterday we had the illusion well and truly shattered. A neighbour, John, living in a cottage some 2km up the road from us was murdered in his own home, sometime between 10 and 11 in the morning.
We bumped into one of the investigating policemen around 4:30 in the afternoon just as we set out for a walk with the dogs; he was just waiting for the forensics team to get finished before he could go in with his tracker dog. They suspect that the killer came from Keurhoek village, about 5km away.
Update 8 Aug 17:50: We had a visit from the police Inspector this afternoon to let us know that the murderer has been caught. He returned to the scene of his gruesome crime in the middle of last night and burned the house down, presumably to destroy evidence, and the police tracked him to his own house and arrested him at 2:30 this morning. Much relief all round, here, I can tell you!
08 August 2007
03 August 2007
Garden Archaeology
What sort of antediluvian creature wielded this Fearsome Implement?This axe-head is about 50% larger than any I've worked with. Gnarled and knobbled with rust and encrustations, I have to wonder how long it has been lying in the soil...
I dug up this Fearsome Implement a few days ago, just as I was coming to the (final! eventual!) finish of a new deep bed in the veggie garden. About 30cm deep, the fork stopped with a clunk. We don't have many stones in the soil, here, but there are a few, so that was the natural assumption. But nooooo....!
My guess is that the axe-head dates back to about the 1950's, but what do I know? It could be as old as 120 years! In other parts of the garden we've dug up such miscellanæa as Bed Springs, bicycle wheels, many, many glass bottles, ranging from Cheap Booze containers to Patent Medicine bottles, and, once, a Chrome Car Bumper (no doubt 1950's vintage.)
The entire neighbourhood was originally earmarked for the Knysna Woodcutter families -- hillbilly denizens of the Forest in the mid- to late-1800's, and this axe-head is exactly the sort of implement they would have used. The earliest official survey of the Braamekraal plots is dated 1894. Sadly the Woodcutters' descendents have mostly mostly moved on.
But the Woodcutters' allotments, one of which we occupy, their trash and their graves, overlay a much older story. A Bushman1 landscape going back at least fifty-thousand years. Most inhabitants of the neighbourhood have arrived within the last five to eight years, and are profoundly ignorant of the Woodcutter heritage over which they casually, carelessly splash their MacMansions. How much more ignorant are they of the Bushman heritage under thir feet?
[1] This touches on a Whole Big Political Issue, about which I am profoundly ignorant. It seems that, whilst people in the NGO/UN/Politically Correct circles would prefer to refer to the Bushman Peoples -- the First Peoples of Africa -- as "the Khoisan tribes", the Bushman peoples themselves prefer the label "Bushman", finding some distinction between themselves and the Khoisan. I probably have the whole thing wrong. The fact remains that these are amongst the most-discriminated-against people in the whole world. I believe that we could learn a whole lot from them -- or from what tattered remains of their heritage and knowledge still exists.
In SA we have eleven official languages. No single Khoisan language is among them.
31 July 2007
Hoe, Hoe, Hoe
Introducing The Revolutionary Micro-Hoe! Invented by Me; Patent Not Pending; All Rights Reversed. Order Now. One Week Only, Free Cardboard Box1 Included!For ages, now, I've been wanting one of these. See, the problem is that I garden using the Deep Bed Method (about which I shall pontificate at a more apropos time.) This means that a lot of plants get spaced much more closely than recommended by All Manufacturers. In particular Onions and Garlic are a Perennial Problem2. They hate weeds, and suffer them poorly. But they're so closely spaced that any form of conventional hoe is a non-option.
"What to do? What to do?" Enter the Revolutionary Micro Hoe. I managed to bum a bit of scrap off the local metal merchants4 to (finally! eventually!) implement the implement: the Plan I've had in mind for months5.
The metal bit is only about 5cm wide, and sharp enough to shave a sheep, meaning it will fit between cramped rows of Onions, severing the roots off Terrible Weeds without damaging the pencil-thick Onions.
Fields trials seem to show that this one is a winner. Took me less than ten minutes to hoe a 10m2 bed full of Weeds (and a few Onions). It snickedthrough the weeds like... Oh! Enough with the similies!... It cut through them really easily.
I don't have the angle of the blade quite right, yet. It needs to be a bit moreacute an angle (contrary to all expectation) than it is. On the other hand, that involves dismantling the entire contraption, re-sawing the slot in the handle, and re-setting the blade. More than I can face today. In use, the handle has a disconcerting tendency to twist anti-clockwise, and that gets a bit uncomfortable after using the Hoe for a time. But I can live with that, considering how much quicker it is that Hand Weeding!
If you're a Real Human Person wanting to build your own MicroHoe to my design, go ahead with my blessing. If you're a Company seeking Fortune through the manufacture of MicroHoes, please fuck off. It's my design, hereby Open Sourced for Real Human Beings. Only!
[1] Just some random cardboard box, mind you. No guarantee that the MicroHoe would fit into it, or anything.
[2] AKA a Pain In The Arse3.
[3] "Ass" for the 'Merkins.
[4] Too unhip to even have a website!
[5] Could be years, actually. My Scotch-addled brain glosses over time like... well... like something very glossy6!
[6] ...had in mind something along the lines of "like gumboots on a duck-beshitten lawn", but I couldn't make it scan.
24 July 2007
"Oh the Climate She Is a' Chaaaangin'"
(Apologies to Bob Dylan)
Something unnatural's going on. Its Winter. The very middle of Winter. And yesterday I harvested a (Lime Green Salad) Tomato off a plant left over from last Summer.
A Japanese White Eggplant has just fruited. Normally Eggplants don't make it through the Winter, here. The climate is just that much too cool for their liking.
Normally seedlings are safe from cutworms at this time of year.
The volunteer Tomatoes popping-up all over the veggie patch never make it as far as growing their true leaves. This year I have some that have reached 10cm tall and look ready for permanent homes. Whilst I can (and will!) "make hay whilst the Sun is (briefly) shining", I find the whole thing deeply worrying.
There's a small beetle I call the Cabbage Bug, since the Brassica tribe are their favourite food, along with Beets and Chard. My reading seems to indicate that they are a sub-family of Laybug, but, unfortunately, one that eats plants. "Dormant in Winter." I would advise the Neophyte Gardener. Oh! How they would laugh at me now, as I daily watch my Beets, Turnips and Chinese Cabbages -- even Lettuce -- getting shredded by these small beasts. They look something like Ladybugs -- about the same size and shape -- their colours run to red-and-yellow on black, and they seem to have lack any form of predator. Oh the Sin of Hubris! It is soooo tempting to get out some sort of Spray to sort them out. Presumably whatever birds or bugs normally keep them in check are sleeping through the alleged Winter.
Oh well, we will be Powerless for most of the day. The electricity company will be replacing a transformer and improving insulation on the cables upstream from us to prevent birds electrocuting themselves. I'm happy to be powerless for a day in the cause of bird-preservation, even if they are merely the Bloody Noisy Hadeda. I shall spend the day planting Very Early Tomatoes, Chillis, Eggplants and Tamarillos.
(For those of you who may have been following the Saga Of Autumn-Sown Chillis: The Chillis have survived handily so far. My seed-tray mix tends to be a bit heavy and airless, being almost-pure compost, so the seedlings are all a bit yellow and pale, and they really want moving out into better homes. I shall attempt to oblige tomorrow.)
Anybody who claims that there No Such Thing As Global Warming[1] has, I think, probably been eating some of those odd, spotty fungi. I am deeply worried and frightened by the coming Summer. Last Summer we saw the "Hole in the Ozone Layer" larger than ever in recorded history. The Ozone Layer might not be getting the press coverage it was a few years ago -- seems that Al Gore and Peak Oil are stealing the limelight -- but it's still there. And growing. I fear the effect on our crops of ever-higher UV levels. This is part of the reason I am consciously choosing to plant red- and purple-coloured varieties of vegetables where practical; the anthocyanins that cause the red/purple colouration also impart a UV-tolerance. So I'm told. We hope.
Already I'm trying to figure out how to erect shadecloth barriers to protect plants through the heat radiation of the coming Summer's afternoons to avoid sun-scalded Tomatoes and Chillis!
And it is only July.
----
[1] Alright, alright: It's really "Global Climate Change" and not "global Warming". But shorthand works!
Something unnatural's going on. Its Winter. The very middle of Winter. And yesterday I harvested a (Lime Green Salad) Tomato off a plant left over from last Summer.
A Japanese White Eggplant has just fruited. Normally Eggplants don't make it through the Winter, here. The climate is just that much too cool for their liking.
Normally seedlings are safe from cutworms at this time of year.
The volunteer Tomatoes popping-up all over the veggie patch never make it as far as growing their true leaves. This year I have some that have reached 10cm tall and look ready for permanent homes. Whilst I can (and will!) "make hay whilst the Sun is (briefly) shining", I find the whole thing deeply worrying.
There's a small beetle I call the Cabbage Bug, since the Brassica tribe are their favourite food, along with Beets and Chard. My reading seems to indicate that they are a sub-family of Laybug, but, unfortunately, one that eats plants. "Dormant in Winter." I would advise the Neophyte Gardener. Oh! How they would laugh at me now, as I daily watch my Beets, Turnips and Chinese Cabbages -- even Lettuce -- getting shredded by these small beasts. They look something like Ladybugs -- about the same size and shape -- their colours run to red-and-yellow on black, and they seem to have lack any form of predator. Oh the Sin of Hubris! It is soooo tempting to get out some sort of Spray to sort them out. Presumably whatever birds or bugs normally keep them in check are sleeping through the alleged Winter.
Oh well, we will be Powerless for most of the day. The electricity company will be replacing a transformer and improving insulation on the cables upstream from us to prevent birds electrocuting themselves. I'm happy to be powerless for a day in the cause of bird-preservation, even if they are merely the Bloody Noisy Hadeda. I shall spend the day planting Very Early Tomatoes, Chillis, Eggplants and Tamarillos.
(For those of you who may have been following the Saga Of Autumn-Sown Chillis: The Chillis have survived handily so far. My seed-tray mix tends to be a bit heavy and airless, being almost-pure compost, so the seedlings are all a bit yellow and pale, and they really want moving out into better homes. I shall attempt to oblige tomorrow.)
Anybody who claims that there No Such Thing As Global Warming[1] has, I think, probably been eating some of those odd, spotty fungi. I am deeply worried and frightened by the coming Summer. Last Summer we saw the "Hole in the Ozone Layer" larger than ever in recorded history. The Ozone Layer might not be getting the press coverage it was a few years ago -- seems that Al Gore and Peak Oil are stealing the limelight -- but it's still there. And growing. I fear the effect on our crops of ever-higher UV levels. This is part of the reason I am consciously choosing to plant red- and purple-coloured varieties of vegetables where practical; the anthocyanins that cause the red/purple colouration also impart a UV-tolerance. So I'm told. We hope.
Already I'm trying to figure out how to erect shadecloth barriers to protect plants through the heat radiation of the coming Summer's afternoons to avoid sun-scalded Tomatoes and Chillis!
And it is only July.
----
[1] Alright, alright: It's really "Global Climate Change" and not "global Warming". But shorthand works!
17 July 2007
Next Summer's Crops
So here's what I'm planning for the Summer. As usual I don't have enough bed-space for them all, so I'd best get digging! I'm also getting the rotovator fixed so that I can clear some "field" space for the more broadscale stuff. My focus is threefold:
Throw in an assortment of herbs, and that's about it!
- First, and most important, is our food supply -- the self-sufficiency thing. Dried beans, sunflower-seed, grains, winter squashes for storage.
- Second, I am strongly leaning towards selling some produce, hence an eye towards visually appealing varieties, unusual and unique stuff, and things that will appeal to gourmet chefs. My thinking is to sell and exclusive range to just a few upmarket restaurants.
- Third, seed-saving; keeping all the varieties going, plus enough to sell seed.
The List
Salad mix -- more-or-less a year-round thing; the only time it slows down is in Dec/Jan, when high temperatures inhibit germination of the Lettuces. Easily solved with a bit of shadecloth, or by putting the seed-trays in a cool, damp place.
| Squashes & Pumpkin:
Chillis:
Tamarillo Snap Peas - Golden Sweet, Sugar Snap Sweet Potato Potato Sorghum* (for chook feed) Wheat* (maybe, depending on space, energy) Artichokes -- Purple of Romagna Cabbage (a bit neglected in Summer, but coleslaw is always nice on hot evenings) Kohlrabi - Early Purple Vienna (or maybe not) Watermelon - Moon & Stars* Leeks (just a few) Sweet Pepper - Cosmic Purple*, California Wonder* (maybe) Carrots Swiss Chard - Luculus Parsley (plain, flat-leaf kind -- much more flavoursome!) Coriander/dhanya (we eat a lot of curries and Indian dishes) |
13 July 2007
Space: The Final Frontier
Serendipity Happens: A 48-hour power outage last week set me thinking about food preservation. Without the freezer. Today my feed-reader plunksSharon Astyk's post on Low Energy Food Preservation onto my plate. Her blog is always interesting, packed with detailed information and deep insight. Honestly, I don't know how Sharon finds the time for such prolific posting!
We mostly rely on the freezer for preserving our produce, but then, as last week, you begin to wonder whether an entire Summer's harvest is going to survive and ever-lengthening power failure... Forgetting the old permaculture principle, were we: Critical functions must be supported by more than one element. Honestly, it's just too easy to fall into a comfort-zone and stay there.
So we're starting to look at and learn about other ways to preserve food. The catch, of course, with all this preserving of produce, is that you need somewhere to store it all. One of the most serious gaps in our original planning was in not providing for sufficient storage space. Despite having added two small sheds and a garden "cupboard" to our storage, despite using chunks of the 3-car carport for storing bulk chookfood, rotovator, mower, various toolchestsfull of crap, we're still perpetually short of storage space.
Not only do you need somewhere cool and out of direct sunlight to store preserved produce, you also need to store all the empty jars and bottles (and their lids!) until you're ready to fill them up. And you need lots of them! Then you need somewhere cool, dark and dry to store self-saved seed; somewhere where labels and containers won't get mixed up. It's pretty easy for conventional farmers who typically buy-in their seed, and only need to store a few varieties for a short period of time; quite another for a self-sufficient holding, where you regularly keep dozens of plant varieties.
Then there's somewhere to stash tools. And it's not good enough to just say "tools": There are general small tools -- hammers, pliers, vice grips, screwdrivers, measuring tapes and set squares -- specialised and power tools, plumbing-specific tools, gardening tools large and small, powered and handraulic. Some are pretty specialised to a self-sufficient setup: I am planning to make an oil-press and a solar-dehydrator, aiming to acquire a flour mill; they'll all need places to live. Some of these more specialised tools get used only once or twice a year -- the ridging hoe is only needed a few times in Spring.
But they all need safe, dry storage space. Turns out that the one wendy-house outside the kitchen door is not as dry as we expected it to be. Result: a lot of hand tools furred in a fine rust needing cleaning. Trying to be self-sufficient demands a lot more storage area than I expected.
I'm thinking of enclosing a piece of the carport...
We mostly rely on the freezer for preserving our produce, but then, as last week, you begin to wonder whether an entire Summer's harvest is going to survive and ever-lengthening power failure... Forgetting the old permaculture principle, were we: Critical functions must be supported by more than one element. Honestly, it's just too easy to fall into a comfort-zone and stay there.
So we're starting to look at and learn about other ways to preserve food. The catch, of course, with all this preserving of produce, is that you need somewhere to store it all. One of the most serious gaps in our original planning was in not providing for sufficient storage space. Despite having added two small sheds and a garden "cupboard" to our storage, despite using chunks of the 3-car carport for storing bulk chookfood, rotovator, mower, various toolchestsfull of crap, we're still perpetually short of storage space.
Not only do you need somewhere cool and out of direct sunlight to store preserved produce, you also need to store all the empty jars and bottles (and their lids!) until you're ready to fill them up. And you need lots of them! Then you need somewhere cool, dark and dry to store self-saved seed; somewhere where labels and containers won't get mixed up. It's pretty easy for conventional farmers who typically buy-in their seed, and only need to store a few varieties for a short period of time; quite another for a self-sufficient holding, where you regularly keep dozens of plant varieties.
Then there's somewhere to stash tools. And it's not good enough to just say "tools": There are general small tools -- hammers, pliers, vice grips, screwdrivers, measuring tapes and set squares -- specialised and power tools, plumbing-specific tools, gardening tools large and small, powered and handraulic. Some are pretty specialised to a self-sufficient setup: I am planning to make an oil-press and a solar-dehydrator, aiming to acquire a flour mill; they'll all need places to live. Some of these more specialised tools get used only once or twice a year -- the ridging hoe is only needed a few times in Spring.
But they all need safe, dry storage space. Turns out that the one wendy-house outside the kitchen door is not as dry as we expected it to be. Result: a lot of hand tools furred in a fine rust needing cleaning. Trying to be self-sufficient demands a lot more storage area than I expected.
I'm thinking of enclosing a piece of the carport...
10 July 2007
Organic Growing vs. Organic Growing
Over on The Back Forty blog, Robbyn asks, "Are Organic Pesticides Safe?
The short answer could be, "Yes. They degrade rapidly in the environment, and so pose no long term threat."
Another, equally valid, short answer could be, "No! So-called Organic Pesticides, like any other disruptive measure, break the links and cycles in the local ecosystem, so, in the long term, they simply aggravate the problem you're trying to solve, albeit slightly more safely than do conventional pesticides."
As anyone who has taken a more-than-cursory glimpse at our farm website will have figured, I place my self firmly in the latter camp. If I use a poison (of whatever nature) to kill off the aphids presently attacking my Broccoli1, then I disrupt the food supply for the Ladybugs that make a meal of Aphids. Consequently the Ladybug population is going to decline for want of food. Then, come Summer, when I get a real Aphid infestation, I'll surely want for more Ladybugs. But they won't be there, due to my interference. Much better to leave things largely alone.
If the Aphid attack gets too severe -- unlikely, as the weather forecast is for a bit of cold front in another day or so -- I will resort to blasting the Aphids off with the hose, where they will remain as prey to the Ladybugs, but not on my soon-to-seed Early Purple Broccoli.
Remember that the term "Pesticide" still contains the root "-cide": death. It is a paradox to me that so many growers are trying so hard to grow stuff -- to make plants live, so that we in turn can eat and live, live and be healthy -- but spend their time running around trying to kill everything else. Surely the answer to vibrant life, exuberant life-liness, cannot lie in death!
Keep in mind who benefits most from pesticide use!
"But What Is Lurgy?"
All this begs the question, "What is the meaning of the term 'organic'?" I think the "Certified Organic" labels are pretty-much3 a load of crap (depending where in the world you are to some extent.) The range of practise that can legitimately be called "organic" is so wide as to render a single blanket label meaningless. At one end of the spectrum, all a grower has to do is replace the existing fossil-fuel-based fertilisers and pesticides with equivalents acceptable under some-or-other certification regime. At the other end are more "hardcore" practices that shun all such artificial interventions, and aim to build up a vibrantly healthy ecology, especially in the soil, and then rely on the natural health of plants to cope with whatever comes along.
Whilst I consider that my own growing is pretty much towards the "hardcore" end of the spectrum4, I am not knocking the other choices. There have to be paths for "conventional" growers to transition to a more sustainable practise while coping with the realities of the supermarket-oriented supply chain, the bank-beholden, joyless, tractor-enchained existence of industrial agriculture. (I cannot find it in myself to call that "farming", and, evidently, many agro-industry growers I have met agree, shunning the label "farmer".)
I would propose a three-level organic certification scheme. Something along the lines of "Green Label Organic" for the conventional-using-alternative-chemicals approach, "Silver Label" for somewhere in-between, and "Gold Standard" for the hardcore non-interventionist approach. It would take some working out, some marketing to educate consumers about the differences, but would enable price-tiering to the benefit of all. Maybe. It all sounds a lot like working in an office to me, and part of a way of thinking about the world that is soon to pass.
Mike's Answer to Robbyn
So, to answer Robbyn (if you've made it this far!) I would give the Stinkbugs a Round Of Applause. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap! around the bugs, leaves and all. Damage to the leaves is minimal; you get Squashed Stinkbug all over your hands, but that washes off easily enough; the bugs you don't squash will fly away or get knocked off your Tomatoes, and you'll give predators some time to get going. Worst case, the crop will take a knock, but look upon it as a long-term investment in your garden's health.
Longer term, the Big Deal -- what defines "organic" for me -- is to build up your soil. Lots of compost, even if its pretty rubbish compost; as long as you're adding lots and lots of organic matter to the soil, sooner or later things will improve. As the soil becomes healthier -- and plenty of fungal activity is a good sign -- the biodiversity of your garden will improve. Everything derives from the soil/Earth itself, all plant health, all the predators, and ultimately our own wellbeing.
Tolerate the pests. You cannot cultivate a healthy garden without them!
----
1Aphids! In July, no less. I thought the buggers were all in bed for the Winter!
2Trying to remain polite and maintain a "Family" rating, here.
3But not totally! And sometimes very necessary as a way to reassure buyers.
4Even though I have violated the principle myself, on occasion, before anybody calls me out for lying!
The short answer could be, "Yes. They degrade rapidly in the environment, and so pose no long term threat."
Another, equally valid, short answer could be, "No! So-called Organic Pesticides, like any other disruptive measure, break the links and cycles in the local ecosystem, so, in the long term, they simply aggravate the problem you're trying to solve, albeit slightly more safely than do conventional pesticides."
As anyone who has taken a more-than-cursory glimpse at our farm website will have figured, I place my self firmly in the latter camp. If I use a poison (of whatever nature) to kill off the aphids presently attacking my Broccoli1, then I disrupt the food supply for the Ladybugs that make a meal of Aphids. Consequently the Ladybug population is going to decline for want of food. Then, come Summer, when I get a real Aphid infestation, I'll surely want for more Ladybugs. But they won't be there, due to my interference. Much better to leave things largely alone.
If the Aphid attack gets too severe -- unlikely, as the weather forecast is for a bit of cold front in another day or so -- I will resort to blasting the Aphids off with the hose, where they will remain as prey to the Ladybugs, but not on my soon-to-seed Early Purple Broccoli.
Remember that the term "Pesticide" still contains the root "-cide": death. It is a paradox to me that so many growers are trying so hard to grow stuff -- to make plants live, so that we in turn can eat and live, live and be healthy -- but spend their time running around trying to kill everything else. Surely the answer to vibrant life, exuberant life-liness, cannot lie in death!
Keep in mind who benefits most from pesticide use!
Excursion
One of my favourite memories is of a Saturday Morning Gardening show on TV, presented by a well-known local gardening "expert". Mainly the show is a thinly veiled advert for selling more gardening stuff2, as are most of these things.
By his own admission, he knows next-to-nothing about "organic" methods. One particular occasion, he was scripted to shill for a company launching a new range of "organic pesticides and fertilisers", and ended up chatting to an organic veggie grower. (Well, he looked pretty organic!) At the key product-placement-point in the programme, the presenter looks over at the veggie grower, and says, "So what would you use if your crops were attacked by X?" (Some pest; can't remember.)
The grower looked completely blank, frowned, mumbled something along the lines of, "I don't know. Never happens 'cos of the Wasps."
Exit Stage Left.
One of my favourite memories is of a Saturday Morning Gardening show on TV, presented by a well-known local gardening "expert". Mainly the show is a thinly veiled advert for selling more gardening stuff2, as are most of these things.
By his own admission, he knows next-to-nothing about "organic" methods. One particular occasion, he was scripted to shill for a company launching a new range of "organic pesticides and fertilisers", and ended up chatting to an organic veggie grower. (Well, he looked pretty organic!) At the key product-placement-point in the programme, the presenter looks over at the veggie grower, and says, "So what would you use if your crops were attacked by X?" (Some pest; can't remember.)
The grower looked completely blank, frowned, mumbled something along the lines of, "I don't know. Never happens 'cos of the Wasps."
Exit Stage Left.
"But What Is Lurgy?"
All this begs the question, "What is the meaning of the term 'organic'?" I think the "Certified Organic" labels are pretty-much3 a load of crap (depending where in the world you are to some extent.) The range of practise that can legitimately be called "organic" is so wide as to render a single blanket label meaningless. At one end of the spectrum, all a grower has to do is replace the existing fossil-fuel-based fertilisers and pesticides with equivalents acceptable under some-or-other certification regime. At the other end are more "hardcore" practices that shun all such artificial interventions, and aim to build up a vibrantly healthy ecology, especially in the soil, and then rely on the natural health of plants to cope with whatever comes along.
Whilst I consider that my own growing is pretty much towards the "hardcore" end of the spectrum4, I am not knocking the other choices. There have to be paths for "conventional" growers to transition to a more sustainable practise while coping with the realities of the supermarket-oriented supply chain, the bank-beholden, joyless, tractor-enchained existence of industrial agriculture. (I cannot find it in myself to call that "farming", and, evidently, many agro-industry growers I have met agree, shunning the label "farmer".)
I would propose a three-level organic certification scheme. Something along the lines of "Green Label Organic" for the conventional-using-alternative-chemicals approach, "Silver Label" for somewhere in-between, and "Gold Standard" for the hardcore non-interventionist approach. It would take some working out, some marketing to educate consumers about the differences, but would enable price-tiering to the benefit of all. Maybe. It all sounds a lot like working in an office to me, and part of a way of thinking about the world that is soon to pass.
Mike's Answer to Robbyn
So, to answer Robbyn (if you've made it this far!) I would give the Stinkbugs a Round Of Applause. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap! around the bugs, leaves and all. Damage to the leaves is minimal; you get Squashed Stinkbug all over your hands, but that washes off easily enough; the bugs you don't squash will fly away or get knocked off your Tomatoes, and you'll give predators some time to get going. Worst case, the crop will take a knock, but look upon it as a long-term investment in your garden's health.
Longer term, the Big Deal -- what defines "organic" for me -- is to build up your soil. Lots of compost, even if its pretty rubbish compost; as long as you're adding lots and lots of organic matter to the soil, sooner or later things will improve. As the soil becomes healthier -- and plenty of fungal activity is a good sign -- the biodiversity of your garden will improve. Everything derives from the soil/Earth itself, all plant health, all the predators, and ultimately our own wellbeing.
Tolerate the pests. You cannot cultivate a healthy garden without them!
----
1Aphids! In July, no less. I thought the buggers were all in bed for the Winter!
2Trying to remain polite and maintain a "Family" rating, here.
3But not totally! And sometimes very necessary as a way to reassure buyers.
4Even though I have violated the principle myself, on occasion, before anybody calls me out for lying!
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