Growing your own

Hi there - I am new to macrobiotics and currently grow most of my own food. I noticed that a lot of the recipes in the various books I've been reading have a lot of ingredients that are either 1. not possible to grow where I live (Maine) or 2. require a lot of processing which I'm not sure about. Anyone out there growning their own food and eating a macrobiotic diet up north? hailartemis@gmail.com

[Bruce Paine]

hailartemis,

Though one might guess that the general climate would be the controlling factor when trying to grow food in Maine, in fact, it could be the frost that controls the length of the growing season, there.

Find a cost effective and efficient way to keep the frost at bay, and you can extend your growing season, in cold climates like Maine.

Scott and Helen Nearing ( http://www.google.com/search?q=The+N...en-US:official
) (at least, twice subjects of the former macrobiotic "East-West Journal" magazine articles). devised a method of extending there Maine produce garden's growing season by at least two months by digging a trench three to four feet deep and at least 2 feet wide and filling that trench with carefully placed stones and boulders to ultimately create a stone fence that stood at close to four feet above the ground surface and this fence surrounded a very large garden that was not only protecting the crops from a frost that travels deeper and deeper underground going South to North but also kept the deer from getting at their growing produce.

You could learn a lot about living in Maine and growing food there from The Nearings and their various neighbors like Eliot Coleman ( http://www.specialneedsfamilyfun.com...ot-Coleman.htm ).

Of course, most macrobiotically oriented farmers and gardeners are familiar with the Natural Agriculture methods taught by Michio Kushi (Book of Macrobiotics: The Universal Way of Health, Happiness, and Peace http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...466926-6154243 , and Healing Harvest:Michio Kushi's Guide to Sustainable Home Gardening and Food Production http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...466926-6154243 and Masanobu Fukuoka (One Straw Revolution, The Road Back To Nature, and The Natural Way Of Farming http://www.seedballs.com/2seedpa.html .

Another great book for macrobiotic home gardeners and farmers is Natural Home Gardening : A Practical Guide to Growing Vegetables for Macrobiotic and Natural Foods Cooking by Masato Mimura and Michio Kushi http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...466926-6154243

Besides the fact that you can grow most of the foods used in the macrobiotic diet in places as cold and northerly as Maine (where do you think the macro folks in Alaska http://www.ionia.org/index.html are getting much of their vegetables? ) you have one of the best vegetable seed companies in the world in your own backyard http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/o...s&selected=yes

Have I given you enough evidence to prove that you can grow most of what you need, Downeast, where you live?

Thank you, very much.

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Bruce Paine

Bruce...you rule! Thanks so much for all the great direction!!!

-Amy