Since the advent of F1 Hybrid seeds in the early 20th century much f the work to maintain the open pollinated varieties that had been what fed humanity for millennia has languished. This is, in my view, because greed and profiteering found a way to create monopolies to maximize profit with proprietary hybrids. The new wave of Small scale, farm based seed companies are thankfully putting in the hard work to change this paradigm by curating and stewarding the heirlooms of tomorrow with on farm plant breeding and elevating seed work to the craft that it is.
Don shares a fairly in depth analysis into a comparison between Open Pollinated (OP) and (F1)hybrids, including exploring the ethically questionable laboratory breeding techniques used in many modern hybrids that you may find in the bigger seed catalogs or at your local farmers markets.

Check out more at:

www.dontipping.com

Courses & Farm Tours: https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/pages/workshops-and-tours

Seeds & Tools - https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/

Growing Tips https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/blogs/news/

Current World events have the topic of petroleum on everyone's minds. While not widely understood well over half of all agriculture is only made possible because of the Haber-Bosch process of converting atmospheric nitrogen into urea, anhydrous ammonia and nitrate fertilizers. The disruption of natural gas supplies in the Persian Gulf stands to impact the global food supply sooner than later. Here in Episode 22, farmer Don Tipping provides a basic overview of the role of Nitrogen in the environment as it applies to plant growth and maintaining fertility of agricultural lands. The existential threat to our food systems compels us to develop and strengthen local food production, distribution and storage to ensure resilient Agrarian communities. Be the solution!

Here is the audio version on Spotify

More at:
www.thetippingpoints.net

Seeds & Tools - https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/

Show notes:
The Party's Over, by Richard Heinberg
https://richardheinberg.com/bookshelf/partys-over

World Fertilizer Use:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertilizer-total-use

Check out more at:

www.dontipping.com

Courses & Farm Tours: https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/pages/workshops-and-tours

Seeds & Tools - https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/

Growing Tips https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/blogs/news/

The Spring Equinox invites us to embrace new growth, ideas, paradigms and concepts. Current events compel us to redefine wealth to usher in an Agrarian Renaissance in your local community. What resources/assets can you contribute?

Here is the audio version on Spotify

More at:
www.thetippingpoints.net

Seeds & Tools - https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/

Show notes:

Check out the following books by Ursala Le Guin:
The Dispossessed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed
Alway Coming Home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always_Coming_Home

Check out more at:

www.dontipping.com

Courses & Farm Tours: https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/pages/workshops-and-tours

Seeds & Tools - https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/

Growing Tips https://www.siskiyouseeds.com/blogs/news/