THREE-YEAR OLD ALMOND TREE PLANTED BY BIRD STARTS FRUITING

Fruits have actually started emerging on the almond tree growing in a drum in my mini-garden. 

This almond tree whose seed was initially sown by a visiting bird in one of the sacks of soil in the premises is in its third year.

The seed is no doubt pure-bred - only God knows where the bird picked the seed from. I think it is likely from a forest or any place where human beings have not tampered much or at all with the growing vegetation.

Ever since it was sown and started sprouting in the sack in Year 2021 till December 2023 when I got it transplanted into a large drum till date, it's growth has been very vigorous. 

The leaves are mostly big and flabby, I even cut off so many of the leaves to use as food wrappers and boil as tea. I also use the leaves in manuring other plants in the mini-garden.

In fact, I planted other crops - turmeric, ginger and yam in the same drum with the almond tree yet it has continued it's vigorous growth. 

I cannot say the same of other crops- the mango tree I transplanted into another drum same December, last year  has been having difficulty in its growth. So I cut off the upper parwhich was drooping in hope the mango tree would grow from the base - I bought the mango from which I extracted the seed from our local foodstuffs sellers- though likely organic grown, the mango  at some point in its growth or lineage may have been tampered with by humans.

Hence, I am having a yearning - a very strong desire to go on forest-combing in search of pure seeds  or seed-bearing fruits and other plant parts that can be propagated. 

Let me whisper something into your ears - currently in our country, most terrorists or extremists with criminal intent live in forests  - is there any wonder they have so much physical strength and do some physically -daring  things? 

You see the more the things that people eat and drink are tampered with instead of naturally growing in pure soils, the less potent they become. 

So generally  the consumers will not be as constantly strong  physically as those who eat items that are grown, processed or preserved naturally. The former will constantly need health-boosting drugs or supplements to stay strong - this eventually wears out the body's inbuilt natural immunity by the Creator.

Any wonder a virus challenged the potency of human-health systems few years ago?  The natural immunity of most people in modern societies  are low mainly because of what they eat and drink which are presumed to be healthy.

Reason I encourage as many people as can, to grow food, is because we live in a world where there are all sorts of anomalies.

These things I am stating here no doubt have been discovered by lots of people - some people use the knowledge for good trying the best they can to produce healthy foods as naturally as possible.

Some people inspite of the knowledge still use chemicals or other toxic means of producing food because they think they have no other choice to get crops to grow so they can make profit.

 There are also extremists who use the knowledge to perpetrate evils - the way to defeat those they regard as enemies is to constantly weaken them, shorten their lives or make them less productive - perhaps one of the means is  subtly introducing health hazards to people's food and drink within their control. How can they be captured or stopped? 

While contemplating that, we can at least come to the point that if people produce, process or preserve food and drinks in such ways that make them  damaging to health, it would become very unprofitable business.

Food in whatever form should not just be to satisfy hunger/thirst or for pleasure/enjoyment, it should keep the body in good health, not damage it. 

#almond

#almondfruit

#almondtree

#vigorousplants 

#vigorouscrops 

#pureagriculture

#agricutureversusgoodhealth 

#minigardenresearch

#growingcornindryseason

#growingcornallyearround

#throughbredseeds

#purebredseeds

#agriculturalmedicine

#gardeningindryseason 

#growingcropsindryseason 

#growingcropsinsacks

#growingmaizeinsacks

#spaceconstrainedgarden

#gardeningincementedpremises

#gardeninginsacks

#growingplantsinsacks

#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening 

 #minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening

CHICKEN FEED: COCOYAM CAN REPLACE MAIZE

Maize - corn has been very expensive and sometimes not available, according to poultry farmers. 

This has been one of the major reasons these farmers are battling for business survival. 

Before the main gist on  how Cocoyam can be used in poultry feed, let me say what I have been saying again and again and again  - highly commercialised crops such as maize that chemical or inorganic elements are used in their production will become less and less productive with time no matter the growth boosters used in growing them. 

If you plant  seeds from such crops and attempt to grow them naturally, it will be so very difficult for them to yield. 

Those using chemical elements like fertilizers, pesticides to grow them will need higher and higher levels of these inorganic elements which are  toxic to boost their growth. 

So such crops eaten as food by humans or fed to animals pose health hazards - they are slow poisons - the accumulated effects of such foods constitute serious health hazards to humans and livestock consumed by people.

So back to Cocoyam GIST 

Cocoyam root meal can be adopted as alternative energy source in poultry feed. 

Also, leaves of Cocoyam can  serve as alternative protein source for livestock, and poultry feeding but they need to be processed by any of these means - boiling, soaking, fermentation or ensillage (sort of drying)

 Cocoyam plant  produces large quantities of protein and mineral-rich leaves during its vegetative period. 

So the leaves can be harvested and processed into livestock feedstuff  that's very high in protein.

 

It is much cheaper than soybean meal, and groundnut cake. But it has been found to contain phytate -an anti-nutrient which limits the absorption of other nutrients given to the livestock  at the same time. The root meal  - the Cocoyam itself also contain anti-nutrients  But any of those simple  preparation processes mentioned above such as boiling or soaking will  deactivate or reduce the antinutrients.

In addition cocociysm root meal  can be roasted and chopped into bits to feed poultry. 

  

Proximate nutrition composition 

0.2 – 1.10% (fat), 

2 – 5% (fibre), 

14 – 23% (carbohydrates), 

390 – 460 mg/100g (potassium), 

24 – 43 mg/100g (calcium), 

79 – 91 k/cal (energy), 

0.3 – 4.8% (protein) and 79 – 110 mg/100g (magnesium).

 Also note that these anti-nutrients affect the absorption of nutrients eaten at the same meal and not the ones eaten hours later. 

So if rearing livestock especially poultry and maize is too expensive or scarce, why not explore Cocoyam? 

Large scale commercial farmers may find this cumbersome but it is doable. But small scale farmers especially those into home farming or gardening and raising livestock can more easily adopt this. 

You can even grow Cocoyam plants for the starchy carbohydrate roots and protein-rich leaves.  As small as my mini-garden is, I am growing some Cocoyam plants in containers -sacks and bucket.

Note that it is not just about saving money but protecting  consumers' health  - a lot of maize in the market contain toxic elements because of the chemicals they have been grown, processed and preserved with. 

If you give your chickens or any livestock toxic food, it's coming back to you

#Cocoyan

#cocoyamasmaizealternative

#cocoyaminlivestockfeed

#cocoyaminpoultryfeed

#cocoyaminchickenfeed

#minigardenfeedformulation

EXPLORING HEALTHY CHICKEN PRODUCTION IN MINI-GARDEN

Do you know our indigenous - local chickens can grow very big, fleshy and luscious? 

I have seen this quite a number of times - these chickens either scavenge for food or get fed with leftovers from the keeper's household  or both.

When they scavenge for food, among other things they eat worms, insects, vegetation and whatever they can pick up.

If kept, they can be fed with many plant-based foods you have to spare such as rice, maize, yam, sweet potato, Cocoyam etc.

For animal-based foods - give them cooked such as boiling the intestines of  fish and other animal products even chicken intesrines and add  organic grown turmeric  or ginger to aid digestion

Also give them out of the organic-grown vegetables you buy or grow especially greens.

I will be adopting the second option- feeding them and sharing my findings, If the chickens are kept in a cage which is more likely option  for urban dwellers with limited space,, ensure there's   space  in the cage for them to take some steps.

There's still a whole lot of discovery  to be made - no matter how much you have read or heard about any endeavour especially different aspects of farming, until you have actually practised  it, you cannot get the experience needed to go into very large scale production.

I have chosen local chickens because I want to avoid the use of antibiotics and other drugs for survival and growth boosting
usually given to the breeds reared by modern commercial poultry farmers .

I hope to prove what I said at the beginning that local chickens can also grow big, fleshy and luscious enough to grace the plates of food at home or at social functions.

Such chickens would of course be much more  healthier. Their eggs also would be free of toxic elements that may be introduced through drugs which can affect the health of human consumers.

One of the goals of Farm Cafe Information Service is to ensure people eat what will nourish their bodies not damage it.

Farm Cafe's mandate is to prosper Agribusiness through ICT- soon producing healthy food  would be the only way to prosper if you are doing food production, processing or preservation aspects of agribusiness.

Producing truly healthy food will become good business

#poultrykeeping
#chickenrearing
#producingchickens
#localchickenproduction
#healthylivestockproductiom
#healthypoultryproduction
#healthychickenproduction 
#pureagriculture
#agricutureversusgoodhealth
#minigardenresearch
#growingcornindryseason
#growingcornallyearround
#throughbredseeds
#purebredseeds
#agriculturalmedicine
#gardeningindryseason
#growingcropsinsacks
#spaceconstrainedgarden
#gardeningincementedpremises
#gardeninginsacks
#growingplantsinsacks
#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening
#minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening

A KIDNEY HEALTH SOLUTION PLANT IN MY MINI-GARDEN

I don't know whether I should shout Eureka! yet but I think it's very close to it.

There's this plant I noticed  over a week ago. Like some other plants it  has sprouted in my urban cemented, mostly  sack-cultivated mini-garden. 

 Weed! I initially thought  but as I am also a scientist,   I was curious to first find out about it 

 So I searched and searched online, discovered its name: Phyllanthus niruri- stone-brreaker plant that helps solve some if not all liver/kidney health problems. 

I took some photos of it and was going to talk about it last week but held back because I have not  yet tested it. 

Lo and behold, going through Social media posts last week Tuesday, a fellow herbalist on IG had put it up for people to discuss on what they knew about it. 

Quite a number of people had used it for liver/kidney health issue. You may say, 'I don't have liver or kidney problems so I am not interested.'

Eeehhh! You must be interested o. Why? Do you eat food grown or processed or preserved by others? Are some if not all the food and drinks you take bought in the market? Do you take drugs even medicinal drugs? Let's not mention about alcohol and substance abuse or your  inhaling some harmful substances in the atmosphere through no fault of yours. 

If you are in any of these categories, there will certainly be inorganic substances that get into your body system. 

Inorganic substances in the human body are like plastics that are not  bio-degradable such that they pollute the seas, rivers and other water bodies and negatively affect aquatic life,

These inorganic substances  that get into our human bodies also  do not fully degrade or digest. So they have difficulty passing through the liver.  If they eventually  do, they  harm the liver and would also likely harm the kidneys or other organs  such as the ones for defecation. 

If such harm keep happening over time,  the person may have difficulties  urinating or  passing faeces and need serious medical intervention.

If these inorganic substances stay for so long in the body due to not passing through the liver, they build up over time and may become cancerous.

Certain foods like chemical-free vegetables and fruits  and spices like turmeric can help boost liver and kidney health and aid safe passage of these inorganic substances out of the body. But consistently taking in inorganic substances through any of the means mentioned above can really harm the performance of the liver and the kidneys.

 Many people may have only slight discomforts  from time to time especially if they also eat very healthy foods devoid of inorganic substances. This is because the body and organs generally are on healing mode. 

But since you cannot always know for sure  if inorganic substances have been used in your food at some points, you may be taking in a whole lot of inorganic substances.  It may also be through the other means highlighted above. 

So, in order not to wait till there's a major problem and since we cannot yet fully control all our food systems, having a herb that can further breakdown the inorganic  substances such that they have easier passage through the liver and kidneys is marvellous, isn't It? 

I have been taking the juice of this plant everyday for a week now. 

I was able to eat certain highly commercialised food that I have been avoiding without some of the after-effects - terrible inflammation in the body usually with aches and pains, some hurting in the eyes, and temporary flare-up in skin break-outs  and itching and emergence of grey hairs😂.

The reason for body discomforts from taking food containing inorganic substances  is that the longer those inorganic substances stay in our body system due to difficulties passing through liver and kidney(s), the more havoc they wreck.

When they eventually pass through, they do some harm to the liver and kidney(s) and if such inorganic substances keep getting into the system they will keep on damaging these organs  and may lead to very serious problems.

While the Phyllanthus niruri

 - stone-breaker plant can help resolve to some extent liver and kidney health issue, prevention of causal factors to our body ill-health should be our goal - eat healthy, make other good  lifestyle  choices. 

P. Niruri seems to be a seasonal plant and hopefully should be sourced from places it's safely grown. Note, it is bitter, not something you will enjoy taking. 

But it's so good to have such plants that can  bring relief to our health while we keep on encouraging commercial food producers to  stop any practice that pose health hazards. 

God has indeed given us everything we need for life.....

Also, if you can, grow as much of your own food as possible or buy directly from accredited organic food producers. 

#Phillanthusniruri

#Stonebreakerplant

#kidneyhealth

#liverhealth

#pureagriculture

#agricutureversusgoodhealth

#minigardenresearch

#throughbredseeds

#purebredseeds

#agriculturalmedicine

#growingcropsinsacks

#spaceconstrainedgarden

#gardeningincementedpremises

#gardeninginsacks

#growingplantsinsacks

#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening 

 #minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces

HOME-GARDEN FARMER CLIMBS ROOF TO ASSESS DRUM- GROWING ALMOND TREE

...seeds brought into my garden by flying birds grow faster, vigorously...

This morning while working in the garden I noticed that my almond tree growing in a drum appears set for fruiting. 

I am not so sure but I just hopped onto the store roof to check. The sun was beating hard on my face but I was still able to take selfies while on the rooftop😀 - that's part of the fun-catching I recommend people to have while doing any tasking work  particularly farming.

So will this Almond tree  initially planted in a sack by a bird start fruiting in its third year? It is now  growing in a drum with other plants also growing in the drum yet the almond tree  growth has been so vigorous.

Recently I discovered that birds bring very potent seeds.  If you create a friendly environment  for them to perch in, the birds will likely bring you seeds from plants in the forests that are still very vigorous  because humans have not altered  them. 

If you are fortunate to get such seeds to plant, those plants would survive under almost any condition.  I have cut the leaves of this almond tree so many times to boil as tea, to  use in wrapping food and to manure other plants in the garden yet it continues to grow so vigorously.

 Likewise the fig tree also growing in a sack in the mini-garden - the seed or planting  part was sown by a bird.

 Also the seed of the Neem  (Dongoyaro) tree was also brought by a bird. I have attempted about four times to get rid of that Neem tree because it is planted directly in the ground and pose threat to built structure. 

 But even when cut to the base and engine oil applied to kill it's roots, once  seasonal rains start, the Neem tree would sprout again and start growing vigorously. I am always decapitating it by cutting off it's vital parts aggressively so it wouldn't grow too big but the tree has stubbornly stayed alive and it's vigour undiminished.

For  some plants though, got or bought in human circles, the story is not same. When the seeds are planted, apart from taking so long to germinate, when transplanted it is usually a very big struggle for them to survive naturally. This has happened to the Avocado seedlings, Soursop seedlings and black star apple seedling in my mini-garden. 

Yet recently I  transplanted  a seedling I believe to be cashew.  Most likely the seed was also sown by a bird. 

After a week of transplanting,  it's still doing fine - it has not dried or lost it's vigour like seeds or seedlings  that have passed through humans and most likely tampered with through using inorganic growth boosters to grow the plants they were procured from.

Recently I planted another Avocado seed and tamarind seeds - I bought the fruits. I know Avocado should take longer to germinate(hopefully it would). But in a week I can see a sprout I believe is tamarind seedling - tamarind is not as commercialised - it's demand is not as high as avocados, soursops and apples, so  it's not likely it has been tampered  with by humans.

The less altered or more purely-bred a fruit  or plant is, the more vigorous it's seeds or cultivated parts would be when planted. 

Abeg o, we human beings should try as much as possible to let plants grow naturally - apart from the safety to human health, it also helps the plants to maintain their natural vigour. 

I believe and I will prove through research that humans that mostly eat edible parts of vigorously growing  crops will live longer and not lose their natural vigour if they don't get killed through other unnatural means such as accidents. 

A major reason you need those growth boosters like chemical fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides etc is because most seeds and other planted parts of crops have lost their natural vigour through their plant lineage being subjected to such inorganic treatments.

Can you see how an almond seed sown by a bird in a sack and replanted  in a drum has continued to grow vigorously simply by adding organic matter - kitchen wastes and garden wastes? Third year, it's already set for fruiting. 

So, 

STOP TAMPERING WITH NATURE!

#vigorousplants 

#birdsbringseeds

#purebredseeds

#pureagriculture

#agricutureversusgoodhealth 

#minigardenresearch

#growingcornindryseason

#growingcornallyearround

#throughbredseeds

#purebredseeds

#agriculturalmedicine

#gardeningindryseason 

#growingcropsindryseason 

#growingcropsinsacks

#growingtreesindrums

#spaceconstrainedgarden

#gardeningincementedpremises

#gardeninginsacks

#growingplantsinsacks

#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening 

 #minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening

#intercroppinginsoilsack.

HEALTHY COST-CUTTING TIPS IN GROWING, PROCESSING, PRESERVING FOOD

One of the things that improves the quality of a person or people's lives is not only having more money or resources but very importantly also managing effectively/efficiently what they have. 

For instance, a person may work very hard, make a whole lot of money and save  and invest so much. But if ill-health especially the sort that are prolonged and so serious that the expenses go beyond health insurance happens, it could gulp all or large chunks of the savings or investments.

 God forbid! most of us would quickly say. Indeed God forbid, hence God  provides means for people to know  how to prevent such happening. Ill-health is most often not demonic- it is caused by the activities of human beings ignorantly or even deliberately in food, drink, body care, environmental pollution etc. 

Ensuring good health through food and drink need not be expensive though it would cost people something. But we can ensure it is cost effective by preventing   wastages and carelessness, using what is available maximally. 

These would be explored more  extensively and made available in  online trainings. 

Let's explore some  things now:- 

WATER

Water to be used in watering plants need not be treated - it should be as natural as possible. Hence, reason rain water is so very  good for crops. While we shouldn't depend on rain-fed farming, let your crops get adequate rain water-  ideally rain water  has natural boosters  for crop growth. 

WASTES

We have already explored previously the use of  remnants of foodstuffs or kitchen wastes in manuring. It  also includes some of the wastes from the garden or farm itself.  

Stop the use of inorganic elements in growing food, even in livestock production - STOP IT! The future health of human population is at stake with this widespread seemingly harmless but actually dangerous practices of using even small quantities of chemicals in food. 

PROCESSING

When processing, as much as possible, use sun-drying except when it wouldn't work. For some food items you may dry a little in a dehydrator or oven before sun-drying so as not to denature the food - processing should retain the nutrients- essential elements in foodstuffs. 

PRESERVATION

When preserving, use natural preservatives like turmeric powder and ginger-powder but be sure they are organic-grown. 

CONTAINERS

If doing home farming or gardening, use containers that are idle in the home but suitable for growing crops. If using plastic, try to line the plastic container with organic materials like leaves. 

As the sun eventually, gradually melts the plastic, the leaves or organic matter will absorb the inorganic elements in the plastic so they they won't leak into the soil.

 Inorganic elements mixing with soil would likely be absorbed by roots of growing plants and transmitted to the parts of that plant to be eaten or used on the human body. Such food is even not appropriate for feeding livestock especially those to be eaten by humans. 

RECORD-KEEPING 

Keep records or taps on expenses. For instance, when I arranged for a bigger tank to replace the former tank used in our premises, I already calculated that the difference in litres between the new tank and former tank would be more than enough to water my garden crops for at least two days or even longer if it rains. 

A vital reason to keep records is so that you can track wastages and block loopholes.  If crops in any section of the garden or farm are not doing well, keeping records can go a long way in helping to detect the  cause(s) of the problem.   

IDLE SPACE

If there's any unused space  in your home, or in an office, school or hospital premises, consider growing something useful for human use.

A lot of city-dwellers who genuinely don't have any space at all in their current abode, likely have parents or grandparents living in premises with some patch of land. 

Why not seize the opportunity of visiting your folks regularly to help cultivate some foodstuffs in such space? 

Parents, if you have grownups still asking you for money or food, and there's land in your premises or nearby, encourage them to come and help in cultivating such land for healthy food or some other useful crops. 

While we should keep in holding the government accountable, we  should also be doing what we can to safeguard ourselves from hunger and ill-health 

#costcuttingmeasures

#keeprecordsingardening 

#pureagriculture

#growingmaizeindrum

#spaceconstrainedgarden

#gardeningincementedpremises

#gardeninginsacks

#growingplantsinsacks

#minigarden #urbangarden #urbangardening 

 #minigardening  #integratedgardening #gardening #gardeninginsmallspaces #integratedgardeninginsmallspaces  #spaceconstrainedurbangardening

CONFIRMING IDENTITY OF THIS PLANT - A SEEDLING THAT SPROUTED IN A BUCKET IN MY MNI-GARDEN

From Plant app search and Google search - this seedling in the Photo appears to be the cashew tree seedling.

If it's indeed Cashew seedling, I'll have to reactivate  my Super-Gecko Muscles to provide adequate soil and organic matter for it. I would also need to deploy resources to get a very big container for it to grow in .

How did the seedling get there? How did I get the seed?  I will share a secret very soon on how to get very highly prolific seeds without spending a kobo, a penny or dime or whatever. 

Meanwhile the Avocados I have been spending money to buy so as to extract the seeds and plant are having tough time growing.

I planted another Avocado seed this morning - the 9th or 10th in the last two years. The way the Avocado fruits  get so terribly rotten  is so worrisome. It's somewhat scary eating those Avocados -I find them so repulsive - if not for the seeds, I wouldn't buy them - I also use the seeds as one of the ingredients in my body cosmetics. But obviously the potency of the seeds have been weakened by the inorganic manipulations in the growing of the Avocados- sighs! 

 Not studied yet how Tamarind seeds are planted but I also planted the Tamarind seeds I had with me the usual way seeds are planted.

If a seed is from a plant that has been grown naturally, once it touches a fertile soil, it will most likely germinate whichever way you place it.

If you have a Garden or Farm, you may have noticed that at this period lots of plants are just germinating naturally. 

 Start deciding which ones you want to nurture to maturity and which ones you want to discard. 

#cashewtreeseedling

#growingavocado

#growingtamarind