Jan. 6, 2025

Jan 06, 2025

In this edition: Growing pecans on the Pecan Bayou; exploring alternative reality tunnels for our species: Part 1, the promise of Permaculture; and a farewell to Jimmy

Pecan Bayou farm is hiring—and for sale

Just outside Brownwood on FM 2125 is a pecan orchard in the perfect location: along the banks of the Pecan Bayou, just below the Lake Brownwood dam. Pecan Grove Farms includes 36,000 trees on 1,150 acres, and can process up to 60,000 lbs. of nuts per day.

A Facebook post last October advertised “Temporary Harvest Positions Open,” and when I called in mid-Dec. they were still hiring:

https://www.facebook.com/pecangrovefarms1/

According to their website, Pecan Grove Farms operates several other pecan farms in Texas and New Mexico, including pecan nurseries in Bastrop and Fabens, outside El Paso.

https://pecangrovefarms.com/our-farms/

The Brownwood farm was originally planted around 1970, and acquired by Pecan Grove Farms within the last decade or so. The farm has been for sale since March 2024, with a price tag of $19 million. You can read a detailed description of the property including many photos here:

https://www.ekdahlrealestate.net/properties/pecan-grove-farms-pecan-orchard/

Even with an ideal location, and best management practices, the commercial pecan business has its challenges, including the weather, pests and disease, and wholesale prices. Read a Texas A&M Agrilife report on current pecan production here:

https://agrilifetoday.tamu.edu/2024/09/10/texas-pecan-production-continues-challenging-cycle/

Even global trade wars can affect the industry. “In 2018, large tariffs went into place for pecans going into China, and at that point, about a third of the U.S. crop was going into China. When we lost that market, it hit our industry really hard,” according to Blair Krebs, executive director of the Texas Pecan Growers Association. Learn more here:

https://texasfarmbureau.org/u-s-senators-ask-for-fairness-for-pecan-industry/

Brownwood played an important role in the USDA Pecan Breeding Program from the 1930’s-1970’s, at the Field Station located on CC Woodson Rd., just opposite the turnoff to Tractor Supply Co. and Big Lots. According to a USDA Agricultural Research Service web page, this Brownwood location “was designated as the permanent site for the National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Pecan, Hickories, and Chestnuts in 1978.” Learn more here:

https://pecan.usda.gov/History

From Toxi-City to The Edible City

“Picture a thriving urban community where families who live in neighborhoods of private homes also garden together interdependently and live ‘the good life’—sharing tools, using locally available resources, producing much of their food on cooperatively farmed city land. Is this simply the vision of impractical dreamers?”

from The Edible City Resource Manual by Richard Britz (1981)

As we intensify our efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the end of the fossil fuel era, we can foresee the necessity for a revival of urban food production, in home, school, and community gardens.

The Edible City Resource Manual is a detailed case study of what that process looked like in one neighborhood in Eugene, Oregon, (my old home town) in the late 1970’s. By the time I found the book in the early 1990’s, only a few of the Edible City pilot projects remained. Yet the design concepts for developing a strong urban agricultural network remain as sound as ever.

https://www.abebooks.com/9780913232972/Edible-City-Resource-Manual-Britz-0913232971/plp

Here’s a current Dutch version of the Edible City:

https://organicconsumers.org/you-have-to-find-your-own-recipe-dutch-suburb-where-residents-must-grow-food-on-at-least-half-of-their-property/

The Edible City project in Eugene was partially funded by a grant from the National Center for Appropriate Technology, which is still going strong:

https://www.ncat.org/

Alternatives to Capitalism: Part 1

If you are committed to the notion that capitalism is the greatest economic system humans have ever invented, you may just want to skip this section.

If you’re willing to consider that alternatives may be both necessary and appropriate, read on.

Among the many flaws of capitalism: it actually incentivizes the destruction of functional ecosystems, thus undermining the biological foundations that all life depend on. I first heard this explained by noted ecologist John Liu.

This perverse incentive arises from assigning monetary value to the “products” of nature, such as food, water, timber, minerals, etc., while failing to assign a similar value to the intact natural systems that the products are taken from.

While this has begun to change somewhat with the notion of calculating monetary values for “ecosystem services” provided by parts of nature, like trees, shrubs, and grass, or whole systems like rivers and forests, the overriding profit motive driving the capitalist system continues to dominate and destroy the biosphere, with little to no regard for the welfare or future of other species, or our own.

I see this most clearly in the way most urban creeks and streams have been turned into mere storm drains, choked with litter, without regard to the loss of habitat for wildlife, the riparian soils that absorb and filter the water, or the riparian forests that stabilize the banks and cool and clean the air and water.

Learn more about John Liu and his pioneering work in ecosystem restoration here:

https://worldpermacultureassociation.com/the-ecosystem-ambassador/

Perma-what? Ancient Knowledge Revives Hope for the Future

Permaculture Design as we know it today arose out of the political and social ferment of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Australia, more specifically the island of Tasmania. Permaculture is a system of principles and practices for designing permanent, sustainable agricultural systems, as the basis of permanent (as opposed to the currently self-destructing) human culture. These principles and practices were largely drawn from indigenous/aboriginal traditions, as well as the sciences of biology and ecology.

“For example, the Rule of Necessitous Use—that we leave any natural system alone until we are, of strict necessity, forced to use it.” (Bill Mollison)

What sets Permaculture apart from other “organic” or “sustainable” approaches to agriculture and landscape design is its ethical foundation. In Permaculture Design, care of the Earth must guide our relationships with our lands and nature, and care of the people is only possible if we care for the Earth as our first priority. If we care for the Earth, then caring for people, and sharing surpluses equitably, are easily achievable.

I took my first Permaculture Design Course in 1991 on the Big Island of Hawaii. I repeated the same course soon after I moved to Texas, in Dripping Springs, in 2001, and took a Permaculture Teacher Training Course in California in 2004.

My quest to apply Permaculture and share it with others has been both inspiring and elusive. Like any practical philosophy, it has to be tested in our own lives, refined, and constantly re-evaluated. As far as I’ve come in my Permaculture quest, I feel I still have a long way to go. I will return to share my experiences with Permaculture further in future editions.

You can start your own Permaculture journey with Geoff Lawton’s video, “Permaculture for Beginners.” WARNING: This could be hazardous to your current beliefs about what is possible for humanity on Earth!

https://worldpermacultureassociation.com/permaculture/

For a story of one couple’s choice to restore a run-down Southern California farm into a Permaculture paradise (though the term Permaculture is never even mentioned), watch The Biggest Little Farm:

https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com/

Remembering Jimmy Carter

All those Day-Glo freaks who used to paint the face
They've joined the human race
Some things will never change

Lyrics from “Kid Charlemagne” (Steely Dan, 1976)

By the mid ‘70’s, the hippies and revolutionaries were maturing, getting jobs, raising families, and applying their counterculture values to fundamentally reshape American society in countless ways.

Even though Carter was a southern Baptist, his kids were part of the youth culture, and he was sympathetic to many of the progressive impulses of the time. His administration supported research and development of renewable energy, and local self-reliance projects like The Edible City.

The election of Reagan in 1980 put an end to all that. Reagan had tried to crush the rebellious youth as California governor, and hated everything about them. Generations later, the culture clashes continue, to this very day.

Carter’s singular and enduring foreign policy achievement, the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, still impresses me. But the normalization of permanent warfare in that region, enabled by US foreign policy and arms sales, is beyond worrisome. It’s appalling, and unacceptable, and there’s no end in sight.

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Civic Calendar: Your shortcut to citizenship and political participation

Brownwood City Council 501 Center Ave City Hall

9 am every 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday

https://brownwoodtexas.gov/150/City-Council

City of Brownwood Agenda Center posts agendas for Boards and Commissions including:

City Council, Airport Board, B’wd Municipal Development District Board, Building and Standards Commission, Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, Planning and Zoning Commission and more….

https://www.brownwoodtexas.gov/AgendaCenter

Early City Council 960 Early Blvd. City Hall

6 pm every 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday

https://www.earlytx.net/96/City-Council

Blanket City council 718 Main St. Blanket Lions Club

5:30 pm Third Monday

https://www.facebook.com/cityofblanket/photos

Bangs City Council 109 S. First St. City Hall

6 pm 2^nd and 4^th Monday

https://cityofbangs.org/government/city-council/

Brown County Commissioners 200 S. Broadway County Courthouse

9 am most Mondays confirm on county calendar