Netzingers -- Explicit coquina que est optima medicina.

The New Jerk dictionary defines antidisintermeditationism (adverb) as taking a stand against removing the middleman and brokers who add value and expertise to the supply chain.  While fdirect service delivery is often noted for being cheaper and more "efficient" by supply-side fops,  disintermediation is most often a cover for hiding producer weakness and allowing the shifting of sub-standard goods.

It was a busy day in the garden, despite a morning devoted to Thanksgiving potluck for church.  When we were coming out of Fern's house after dropping off her meal, Diana circled the large Nopale bush in the front yard of the complex.  A pad had fallen off, and before we could scoop it up, the owner came out and offered up the berries and some pads.  So we ended up with a loose pad, a branch, and a whole stem with a single root dangling down. 

The nopale pads we planted along the driveway, filling in a gap between the fig tree and the horseradish.  It was a dream fulfilled for Diana, who loved the large plant and drooled over it every time we went past it.  

The fruit I am planning to singe with a Sterno campsite burner we bought after the big ice storm.  I am pretty sure you need the prickles off before you stick it in your mouth.  

Originally we had planned to dig some holes for the coming shipment from Starks, so I set out to dig another hole for an Sharpblue blueberry on the southwest side of the house.  This is a boggy spot where the other blueberries grow the best.  

Then after that I drilled out a good size (4 gallons maybe) hole behind the the propane tank where a Issai hardy kiwi will go.  What I am thinking as the kiwi grows out I can clear the hedgerow for a trellis, running east to west.  I expect the plant, if it survives our strange winter weather, to range maybe 20-30 feet. 

I started clearing out a good-sized spot behind the tank, and whacked out a good bit of forsythia and honeysuckle, the twin demons of American gardens gone wild.  Machetes and mattocks were the order of the day.  I also moved a stake from a failed red raspberry planting to where one had come up again after getting squished under the falling pine tree.  

How to Survive Popular Wisdom

If it is a "Movement," then it is probably wrong.  Movements should be limited to plate tectonics and bowels.

If it is something that most people view as crazy and impractical, then it is probably right.  Most folks see the right thing as unpleasant and tiresome.

If it is something  radically new and different, then it is probably not a good idea.  Finding the value of new ideas takes time, and like asbestos and bloodletting, may take longer than you have to discover the drawbacks.

It is always easier to make better the good than remedy the evil.  Let natural selection be your judge.

Dear Secretary Vilsak:

As a member of a rural farm community, please support the small farmers.  We need more fresh fruits and vegetables, not more cattle ranches. Please push for parity for the fresh market with animal agriculture.

Respectfully,

Jim Wiegand

"The sound body is the product of a sound mind."

-- George Bernard Shaw

High school students in Arkansas eat fewer fewer fruits and vegetables than students in any other state.  This is not surprising in a state where a vegetable is something cooked in the bottom of a roasting pan and left on the plate after the meal is over, and a fruit is something used to decorate the far end of a dessert buffet. 

It makes me shudder to think of where half these kids will end up in thirty or thirty-five years.  Already I am seeing the middle-age gap, where on one side you have folks dying in their forties and fifties, and on the other side you have old folks in their late seventies and eighties who had no choice but to eat their vegetables growing up.

Soon, a decent lifespan will  come to mean making it past 50.  Again.