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Recent reading
Aug. 3rd, 2025 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaYes, these are truly all the books I have read since my last reading post. *facepalm*
The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka (1975)
Borrowed from my crush. This was an interesting view on organic farming from the Japanese perspective. Not all of it feels applicable ("you only need to flood the fields for a short time, not the whole growing season!"), but the basic principles of no artificial fertilizer, no pesticides or herbicides, and as little plowing/digging as possible do seem the same as in Western organic agriculture, and I like his focus on trying to use ecological processes to minimize manual work. Very cool that in Japan you can grow rice for the summer season and cereal for the winter season and thus get year-round crops, and he describes an interesting way of doing that which minimizes weeds without excessive manual labor. Such year-round cropping is not possible in Sweden, not only because of cold winters, but also because there's too little light in winter. Is his method now wide-spread in Japan or not, I wonder? The philosophical aspects of the book are interesting, but I find them somewhat contradictory. You can't both say "nature is unknowable to us!" and "I know the way of farming according to nature, and if you deviate from it you will go wrong". I also wonder about his claim that vegetables which are closer to their wild relatives are always healthier--what about cases where there are toxins which are bred out of the wild version, which we are better off not eating? And finally I find him somewhat joyless on the topic of food, where he claims that you should just eat the food in as close to a natural state as possible and not do things to it just to make it more tasty. I want my food as tasty as possible, thanks!
Konsten att sköta ett äppelträd by Görel Kristina Näslund (2019) [The Art of Managing an Apple Tree]
Lots of good info on growing apple trees! I'm eager to try grafting next year.
The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka (1975)
Borrowed from my crush. This was an interesting view on organic farming from the Japanese perspective. Not all of it feels applicable ("you only need to flood the fields for a short time, not the whole growing season!"), but the basic principles of no artificial fertilizer, no pesticides or herbicides, and as little plowing/digging as possible do seem the same as in Western organic agriculture, and I like his focus on trying to use ecological processes to minimize manual work. Very cool that in Japan you can grow rice for the summer season and cereal for the winter season and thus get year-round crops, and he describes an interesting way of doing that which minimizes weeds without excessive manual labor. Such year-round cropping is not possible in Sweden, not only because of cold winters, but also because there's too little light in winter. Is his method now wide-spread in Japan or not, I wonder? The philosophical aspects of the book are interesting, but I find them somewhat contradictory. You can't both say "nature is unknowable to us!" and "I know the way of farming according to nature, and if you deviate from it you will go wrong". I also wonder about his claim that vegetables which are closer to their wild relatives are always healthier--what about cases where there are toxins which are bred out of the wild version, which we are better off not eating? And finally I find him somewhat joyless on the topic of food, where he claims that you should just eat the food in as close to a natural state as possible and not do things to it just to make it more tasty. I want my food as tasty as possible, thanks!
Konsten att sköta ett äppelträd by Görel Kristina Näslund (2019) [The Art of Managing an Apple Tree]
Lots of good info on growing apple trees! I'm eager to try grafting next year.