My Kingdom for a Teat Rag

A few years ago a friend and neighbour gave me a gift. In return for sending some curds and whey her way she hand knitted a stack of face washers, which proved useful for the routine task of cleaning udders every day before I milked the goats. I have dabbled in various handicrafts over the

Wait Long Enough by the River

There is an old saying- wait long enough by the river and the head of your enemy will float by. I think it is a perfect encapsulation of the “do nothing” impulse recommended by Fukuoka. Often problems will solve themselves given enough time better, and often far better than if you had intervened. A great

Redesigning Zone One

As a general rule I avoid writing posts about my plans- reporting results is much more juicy. This post is an exception since I am at a turning point- redesigning my zone 1 home garden. You could call it a vegetable garden, but it has always been used for so much more. The space in

Bunya Seedling Tubers

A major project on my experimental farm involves a heroic (and possibly fool hardy) attempt to domesticate Araucaria as a new staple tree crop. This involves collecting as much genetic diversity in the genus as possible (both from remnant local populations of bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) and adding a pinch of South American parana pine

Biological Alchemy

The primary focus of this experimental farming blog is adaptation to the unfolding decline of industrialised civilisation. The concentrated resources that allowed industrial technology of the last few centuries are on track to reach their inevitable limits in coming generations. That is the foundation of my interest in finding ways to sustain human life and

Rotate Your Goat

A quick note- I am experimenting with putting my blog on substack. You can access it there and sign up for reminder emails when new posts come out. If my audience grows there I might move the blog over there, though will give readers on wordpress plenty of time to adjust. https://zeroinputagriculture.substack.com/ When we first

Brisk Fiction- A Burr in the Woods

The “Point of Living”. That’s what the billboard had promised. Pemmican Point Seniors Community had long lost hope of achieving that glossy vision. The economy had softened like an overripe peach. Worse, to “save the environment” the district had banned mowers and blowers, whippers and whackers, making gardening a struggle for the Pemmican Point residents

Extraordinary Rendering

This marks the first of three posts, each one focusing on a different macronutrient class (fat, protein and carbohydrates). Fat was probably the key nutrient in human evolution. Protein intake in humans is limited by our kidneys ability to handle waste nitrogen. Carbohydrates are not readily digestible without extensive processing (grinding and cooking). During the

The Orchards of Lebanon

A wise person once said that collapse is already here, it just isn’t evenly distributed. Looking around the world, a growing list of locations serve as sputtering canaries in our collective coalmine. Sri Lanka is the latest to take a nosedive, but in this post I wanted to focus on the situation in Lebanon. The

Weeding the Wasteland

There is an old joke from the Addams family stuck in my brain, where Morticia says she needs to finish the dusting. She then proceeds to apply a thick layer of dust to the room. The English language is riddled with contronyms, words which are their own opposite (depending on context). There is a long