The Old Ways

I have become addicted to this series. The Victorians were quite clever when it came to providing a year round food supply, all from one very productive garden.

 Purposefully this program shows practices that might be somewhat out of date. Double digging for example has fallen out of favor. When soil is turned over there are many adverse effects that damage it's fertility in the long run. Amending the soil with compost, manure and other fertilizer does help restore and mitigate this action, but ultimately is unsustainable.

Imagine all the work that went into cultivating a crop for a specific genetic trait, and that for hundreds of years the produce that we eat today looked and tasted very different. Using old varieties of plants in your garden is a great way to add diversity from the garden right to your dinner plate. Although they are harder to come by some catalogs specialize in this fare. Heritage and heirloom seed exchages are gaining traction, Seed Savers Exchange has a phone book sized directory. There is such great variety out there, the only way to eat it is to grow it yourself.