Stewardculture no5

Stewardculture magazine

Permaculturalist Matt Powers is touting relocalization as a needed change Documentary film review: Polyfaces: A World of Many Choices Can using a refractomer help you on your farm?

Book review: Organic Wesley

Stewardculture magazine is a quarterly electronic magazine containing news, articles and features about regenerative farming and gardening that is God glorifying.

Stewardculture seeks to promote Bible-based stewardship agriculture. This simply means we advocate for creation-friendly thinking that emphasizes the fact that we do not own the Earth or even some small piece of it. Creation is simply a gift given to humans who are commanded to be its stewards as God’s representatives.

Our editorial and promotional content is designed to inform, educate and motivate nearly anyone connected with growing things, with content targeted to redeemed Christians. Each issue will cover a wide range of editorial and promotional content including tips and how-to articles, opinion pieces and feature stories.

Stewardculture’s editor happily accepts by-lined editorial submissions with the right of final editing for style, tone, length and voice.

Editorial and graphical content may not be used in any form, printed or digital, without permission of the editor and attribution.

INSIDE

Stewardculture

Cover story

Page 4

Book Review: Organic Wesley

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Hog lessons the hard way

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Matt Powers of The Permaculture Student Online shares his emplassioned plea for a society that is decentralized.

Hendrick Kimball shows how the founder of the Methodist church was an agrarian ahead of his time.

Read a handful of lessons learned from a first-time hog owner and maybe you can avoid his challenges.

Film review

Page 10

Refractometer’s value

Page 13

Seeing through God’s eyes

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Part 3: Tree of knowledge?

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Dan Grubbs gives readers his take on the new documentary Polyfaces: A World of Many Choices.

We examine the use of a refractometer to measure Brix values on the farm. We think it’s an affordable way to track what’s going on with your crops and soils.

As we look out over creation, do we see the systems and interconnections the mind of God has designed?

Publisher and editor: Dan Grubbs Stewardculture 13605 Jesse James Farm Rd. Kearney, Missouri 64060 816-729-4422 stewardculture@gmail.com

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Jonathan Dodd continues his multi-part exploration of what the book of Genesis teaches us as agriculturalists.

Front cover image by Sierra Hills Photography Back cover illustration: PSALM 85 Copyright 2003 by John August Swanson Serigraph 24” x 28.75” www.JohnAugustSwanson.com

From My Tractor Seat Observations and opinions from the editor stewardculture@gmail.com

Oh the depth of meaning in the letters P – U – T.

comfort, to be quiet and to dwell.

Sometimes three-letter words can mean so much and yet be overlooked. My case in point can be found in Genesis 2:15, which is part of the account of God creating a habitation for Adam and Eve. As many agrarians through time have done when they examine this verse, they focus on the role God had for Adam in the garden. When we do so, we miss a meaningful lesson in the simple English translation of “put.”

Though I prefer the notion of rest as the translation of “nuach,” I can accept dwell as a good translation because it still makes my point. The all-powerful, limitless God of creation designed a habitation for Adam and Eve and it was complete and had all that was necessary for a quality life of rest and comfort. And, more importantly, it was a place where Adam and Eve’s attention would not be distracted from God. It was a place of wholeness, a place to settle at peace.

“Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”

I have focused my attention in this space on my displeasure of the translation of “cultivate” and “keep,” but that is not my purpose here. Instead, I want us to examine the word “put.” The word is translated from the Hebrew word “nuach” (noo’-akh). Though it is a primitive root, it is not the same word found in Gen. 2:8 where God placed Adam in the garden.

The earlier reference in Verse 8 is the Hebrew word “sum” (soom) which, in the usage in Verse 8 is the more literal idea of someone doing the putting of something somewhere. In this case, it was written evidently to emphasize that it was God who was doing the putting.

Verse 15 is entirely different in meaning. “Nuach” means to rest. Granted, this can mean come to rest, as when a ball stops rolling. But Moses choosing a different word from Verse 8 is telling, in my opinion.

Moses could have used the word “sum” and the idea most of us understand about Verse 15 would not have been altered. Yet, the inspired writer chose “nuach” to help illustrate what kind of place it was God created for Adam and Eve and His intentions for them both.

With this new – new for me – picture of Verse 15, it reinforces that Adam’s role was not to cultivate.

Cultivation is not necessary in the place of rest God designed for Adam. Instead, Adam’s role was to serve and protect the garden, not desecrate it.

What are we to take away from this since we are on this side of the Fall of Adam? Though we have to work hard, we still are working with God’s design. If we want to find that place of contentment, that place of rest in our landscapes, we must collaborate with God’s design, not work contrary to it.

Much of what we publish and advocate in Stewardculture Magazine is about our stewardship of God’s creation. We cannot steward this place if we are not in touch with the Creator and have poor understanding of how His creation works.

We each find ourselves in a place where God “nuach”ed us. Will we live in rest or will we live in chaos in that place?

The concept of rest in the Bible has theological significance. Though it’s not the same word God used on the seventh day of creation, the idea of completeness is still contained in “nuach.” It can even mean to give

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Centralization has failed: t

by Matt Powers

Centralization is a way of simplifying a situation to better manage or control that situation or the people within it. It does not approach problems holistically (from all sides).

When we have society setup in centralized systems, we create built-in dependencies that weaken it overtime even as it strengthens a portion of that society.

Overall integrity is more important than any single aspect that is strong - a well-equipped military is worthless if your soldiers lack morale. We need decentralized stability if we really want a strong nation, economy or culture. Every niche needs to be vibrant, rich, diverse and independent.

Nature has no dependencies outside its cycles. The cycles interrelate and build upon each other increasing in complexity on into illegibility. It uses what is in place in each ecosystem or the edges between ecosystems to exchange energies and materials to further life and its processes. The fact that human culture and economy currently are simplifying ecosystems and exterminating life and its processes is disconcerting and should be the focus of all our efforts to reconcile.

We can’t just change one part of the system either. We have to decommission the dams as we switch everyone over to collecting and filtering their own rainwater at home and transition cities into trapping it in cisterns and recycling all waste water. We have to move from the macro to the micro in one sweep. We have to act as if we have already reached the end of oil because we need to before we bypass the ability of the environ4

ment to recovery fully. We have to stop consuming nature at the rate we are and start living off of what we generate locally only.

RELOCALIZATION From our food to our fuel we are dependent in our communities on resources from outside our area. We need to think beyond food and more about permaculture and locavorism: we need to apply this thinking to everything. We need to be independent in terms of food, fuel, electricity, seed, fiber and water. We cannot expect to build our communities if wealth perpetually leaves them. We cannot build them if we spend our money at businesses that aren’t locally owned and selling locally generated products.

Walmart has effectively killed many American small towns by reducing several small businesses into one centralized location where wages are low guaranteeing the need for government assistance while all expenditures enrich foreign interests and one of the richest families in America.

The drain on our economy locally and nationally is immense. First came independence then came democracy. If we want to have strong communities, a fair shake and a strong economy, we have to relocalize.

RENAISSANCE OF THE HOME AND FAMILY Once upon a time the family needed both parents and as many children as they could have to run a prosperous farm even in the best of times. It may be that way again, though the definition of families may expand to include our neighbors and friends.

the future is decentralized If we are to have a renaissance of our local economies, watersheds, coasts and forests, we must have a revival of the home and family. From the family orchard to the kitchen garden to the root cellar from the past to a cutting edge rocket mass heater or compost tea brewer, we need to embrace all we can to strengthen the homestead.

photo by Michael Costa

Places like Arizona and Los Angeles get enough rainwater every year but don’t utilize it. If we catch all our rainwater for our gardens and home usage, we won’t need water companies. If we generate electricity with small solar, wind and hydro units, we end the horrific waste our power companies try to conceal and guarantee cleaner energy for all.

If parents work from home and if children learn in local cooperatives or at home through working on the homestead and traditional educational means, we will see a return of ethical interactions with nature and each other. Families held more depth and meaning when they all worked together at home for each other’s wellbeing on concrete issues that required hard work, problem solving and cooperation.

Nature has many lessons waiting but so do we for each other; we just need to have the time and place to experience them.

We are at a cusp moment in time. We have a very clear choice: we can participate in the cycles of nature to improve our situation by decentralizing into sustainable systems or continue towards extinction. The future is ours to choose.

Matt Powers is the founder of The Permaculture Student Online education system and is the permaculturalist and founder of Powers Permaculture Family Farm in Sebastopol, California, with his wife Adriana and two children.

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Book Review

Organic Wesley: A Christian Perspective on Food, Farming, and Faith

by Herrick Kimball

I have just finished reading William C. Guerrant’s newly published book, Organic Wesley. Subtitled, A Christian Perspective on Food, Farming, and Faith.

It could more accurately be subtitled, John Wesley’s Perspective on Industrialized Agriculture and the Modern Food System. That is not a criticism on my part. Just an observation.

I suspect that most everyone reading this is, to some degree, part of this food movement, which is to say, you are aware of industrial food dangers and make an effort to eat more natural, wholesome, ethically raised foods.

For those who don’t know, John Wesley was a famous 18th Century Protestant evangelist. He lived from 1703 to 1791 and was a primary founder of Methodism, which was the beginnings of what would become the Methodist denomination, from which would later come the Wesleyan denomination.

In Organic Wesley, Guerrant makes the observation that many Christians are involved in the food movement; that various aspects of the Christian ethic compel them to be actively involved.

It’s an apt observation.

Organic Wesley begins by taking a look at The Rise of Industrial Agriculture and the Emergence of the Food Movement. That is, in fact, the title of the book’s first chapter (which is available to read online).

Guerrant statistically contrasts how agriculture and the food system once was against how it now is. He makes the point that the modern revolution in food production isn’t the agricultural panacea presented by those who have developed, perpetrated and profited from it.

While, admittedly, industrial food is now relatively cheap, and certainly abundant, industrialized agriculture has also brought the proliferation of toxic chemicals, genetic manipulation (GMOs), increased use of synthetic hormones and antibiotics in the meat industry, and widespread, systematic animal cruelty (CAFOs). All of which has had significant adverse health effects on those people who are dependent on the industrial food paradigm.

An increasing awareness of the negative realities of industrialized agriculture has brought about a multifaceted populous reaction that Guerrant refers to as the food movement.

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What I’ve just written is a summation of Chapter 1. After that, comes John Wesley. A brief biography of Wesley’s life and ministry in Chapter 2.

Here we also learn that when John Wesley was a student at Oxford (1724) he read a book that would lead him “to connect food and faith in significant ways.”

The book was Dr. George Cheyne’s, An Essay of Health and Long Life. Here is a quote from Organic Wesley: Wesley enthusiastically embraced Cheyne’s teachings and became a lifelong admirer of his work. Cheyenne’s call for temperance and dietary discipline resonated with Wesley, who along with his Methodist cohorts had already adopted the practice of twice-a-week fasting and other forms of self denial that they believed were characteristics of the earlier Christian communities.

Wesley immediately incorporated Cheyne’s advice into his own personal practices, faithfully following Cheyne’s recommendations for the rest of his life.

Wesley himself was a prolific writer, producing more than 400 books and tracts, including some on the

subject of living a healthy lifestyle. Guerrant states...

“Within this abundant body of work, including sermons, treatises, tracts, letters, and journals, there is evidence from which we can discern where Wesley’s views might locate him within the contemporary food movement, and from which we can identify the elements of a Wesleyan food ethic.”

With a background in law, Guerrant (now a farmer) proceeds to do an excellent job of presenting his evidence. After reading it, I’m now persuaded that John Wesley, were he alive today, would be railing against industrialized agriculture (along with industrialized medicine), and actively involved in promoting a contrarian (Wesleyan) food ethic among the faithful.

After presenting his evidence for a Wesleyan food ethic, based on Christian ethics and promoted by John Wesley more than 200 years ago, Guerrant relights the torch. The last chapter of the book, Living The Ethic, is an encouraging call to action.

Though I am not a Methodist, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a well written thesis that brings together history, theology and agriculture in a compelling way. It speaks to critically important issues of our day. It offers valid personal responses and solutions to the serious harm being inflicted on individuals and families by the industrial food juggernaut.

Also, from my perspective as a Christian-agrarian, I interpret Organic Wesley as a contra-mundum book that should be in the library of every Christian-agrarian believer.

As I’ve stated in the past, the dominant, modern, centralized, corporate-industrial food system is, ultimately, a Babylonian system of control and enslavement. Of all people, Christians especially should be actively working to lessen their dependencies and separate themselves from this ungodly system as much as they possibly can.

A pertinent quote from the book to close this review... “…it is not just modern-day Wesleyans who stand to benefit from attention to a Wesleyan food ethic. Recovery of the historic Wesleyan food ethic might be profitable not only to those in Wesleyan traditions, but to all Christians who are looking for a point of entry into our ongoing cultural conversation about food that is grounded in faith and in the history and tradition of the church. Indeed, an ethic that explicitly defines good food as that which is nutritious, eaten in moderation, and ethically sourced, should resonate broadly among those of all backgrounds, whether Christian or not, who are looking for a way to engage the food movement that is motivated not only by a desire for personal well-being and pleasure, but also by a desire to improve the world, help others, and honor the Creator.

Wesley’s teachings about food must be seen and considered within the context of his larger call to a cultivation of personal and social holiness and a striving toward the perfection that God intends. So while Wesley taught that disciplined ethical eating was a means of obedience to God and part of the cultivation of personal holiness, he was not merely some sort of food Pharisee. He did not call upon his followers simply to obey a list of rules about eating. Rather, he encouraged them to eat in ways that would contribute not only to their personal health, but also to the betterment of the world, celebrating the goodness of creation in life-affirming ways, while advancing God’s kingdom and glory.”

Herrick Kimball is the author of the blog The Deliberate Agrarian and the book Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian. In his words, he has been “blogging about faith, family and livin’ the good life since 2005.” You can find his blog here and his book here.

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Lessons from a first-time hog owner

by Jared Stanley

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Maybe you just cannot get your mind off of bacon. Trust me, I understand. Maybe you see hogs as versatile animals that help you till and maintain land while being powered by nothing other than the land itself and food scraps. Whatever your purpose, you have decided that you are going to buy some hogs and you need to know what to expect.

Here are some lessons we learned when we decided to raise American Guinea Hogs. Your experience may vary depending on the needs of the breed you choose: • Fencing: The electric net fencing we installed before purchasing our hogs was not sufficient for young pigs. The holes were too big and it was too easy for them to squeeze through a hole or lift the net. A single wire, while not portable, might have been a better choice. If you do go with the net you may wish to purchase some tent stakes to help hold the fence firmly to the ground at every single slight elevation change.

• Food: You have to understand the nutritional needs of your breed. We have to provide pasture or other forage and use pellets sparingly. As such, adequate storage for large quantities of hay and a good rotational grazing program are some things we had to implement.

• Pasture/Forage: They will clear the area they are in completely, and since they go for the roots as well it can take a long time to grow back. Keep your animalto-area ratio in check, rotate their pastures and prepare to provide additional forage, either with hay or cut foliage.

• Your Toes: Ours decided to take a nip at the tips of our boots a few times. We were thankful to have boots on at that occasion. Mind your toes and ankles.

• GPS: When our hogs got out during that first week we acted like the typical panicked human: we tried chasing them down. What we learned is that hogs are very smart and quickly learned the layout of the land. After exhausting our efforts of finding 20lb pigs in acres of thicket and woods we gave up - just to find them grazing around in the front yard the next morning.

• Electricity Sensors: As with many other animals they seem to be able to sense if the power is off on the electric fence. When that happens, they will get out.

Check your fence, often.

There are, of course, standard animal-keeping items to consider, such as keeping them warm when cold and vice-versa, but the items above are some of the lessons we didn’t expect to learn when we invested in hogs. Hopefully you can avoid our mistakes and jump straight into enjoying your new animals.

Jared Stanley of J&J Acres homesteads in Toomsuba, Mississippi, with his wife Jennifer and children. He also hosts an active YouTube channel you can view and subscribe to here.

Jared is also a certified permaculture design consultant and you can view his website here.

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Film Review

Documentary delivers message: Needed change in food system is at hand

by Dan Grubbs

Despite having a compelling subject to shoot – Joel Salatin and the extended family of his farm – the filmmakers of Polyfaces: A World of Many Choices convey something more important. What I took away more than anything else was the key message that consumers are a sleeping giant who, if awakened to truth about humans and food, can change the face of agriculture in the U.S. and around the world.

duces the audience to the film’s subject in a dinner speech. Doherty quotes, “Today’s radicals are tomorrow’s conservatives.”

I see this as hopeful prophesy on Doherty’s part because what is taking place on Polyface Farms near Swoope, Virginia, led by Salatin and his son Daniel is nothing short of heresy to large industrial agribusiness and their Washington lobby, but what Doherty and others seek to be the norm in the near future.

Opening the film, Lisa Heenan, producer and co-director, said, “ConShot and edited wonsumers make choices evderfully in traditional ery day. And they have documentary style, it more power than they becomes easy for the realize to change the way audience to get caught food is produced. We can up in the operation of Joel Salatin regenerate our landwhat goes on at Polyface scapes, communities, Farms. The people are economies, our health, and most importantly, our soils compelling, the animals are compelling, the landby becoming more conscious as consumers.” scape is compelling. If the viewer allows it, they can Invoking Mark Twain, Heenan’s husband and famous regenerative farm designer, Darren Doherty intro-

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be distracted from the key message about consumer choice because the story of the successful operation

of one farm and its charismatic leader is captivating.

than is practiced at scale today can supply nutrientdense and healthful food. In referring to Polyface So what are the consumer changes the filmmakers are trying to communicate? In short, for people to take on Farms’ approach, Pollan said, “The idea that we can take beautiful food off the land and heal it at the a mindfulness of food. same time and sequester carbon and create more According to a USDA factbook, U.S. producers in soil, create better soil, that’s a very hopeful lesson.

2000 provided the equivalent of “3,800 calories of Because it’s bigger than food or farming. It suggests food per person per day.” That’s an increase of 500 that as long as the sun shines, there is a free lunch. calories above the 1970 level.

That you can capture that These calories are produced, energy and run it through a Turkeys at Polyface Farm in large part, in an unsussystem and not diminish the tainable way, according to world.”

Doherty. What is needed, the Another farmer featured in film helps us understand, is the film who lives near Polythat consumers can change face Farms has observed first agriculture by demanding hand that the change can those calories be produced be made. He is now adoptdifferently. And, the filming on his own farm the makers show us the example planned grazing techniques of the kind of regenerative agriculture that can be employed to supply these sus- the Salatins employ. We’ll call him Neighbor Oakley.

Though he does seem to be convinced the techniques tainably produced calories to an informed consumer are the way to go, it’s clear he had to get to that point base that is willing to even pay just a bit more for it. of understanding which apparently took some time.

Author, speaker and food expert Michael Pollan, an He said, “I think Joel’s way is going to be the future. important subject in the film, helps the audience Someone is going to have to open our eyes and say make the connection between food and agriculture ‘what he’s doing is great and it’s building our country and reinforces the idea that a different agriculture back up.’” I believe Heenan, Doherty and co-director,

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Isaebella Doherty, have said exactly that.

Doherty gives us a summary of what’s being portrayed. “Polyface methods can be applied to other farms. The environmental footprint of these regenerative farms is so much more positive than the pollution of industrial agriculture.

It gives us hope that if more farmers pursue these common sense farming methods that it will stop being seen as radical, and these beautiful ecologically beneficial food systems will become the new normal.” Along with showing us the beauty of Polyface Farms, the filmmakers have also shown that consumers will make a choice in favor of these farmers because the food is better and the process to produce the food is regenerative rather than degenerative.

Will every farmer change? No. And Pollan points that out in the film. But, there is hope because there is a generation of people who are interested in farming in this way. “There are plenty of young people arriving at Polyface wanting to farm, want-

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ing to farm in more regenerative ways,” Doherty said.

During the annual field day hosted on Polyface Farms, consumers get a first-hand look at how food is produced on such an operation. And in a glimmer of future-looking hope Miss Doherty’s camera captures a child catching a chicken and exclaiming proudly to those within earshot, “Look what I can do!” Look what I can do, indeed. Out of the mouth of this babe is the nugget of truth of just how powerful people can be if they understand where and how healthful and delicious food can be produced in a way that enhances the landscape.

The filmmakers have set it before us. They laid it out and now, in effect, are saying “it’s up to you!”

Polyfaces: A World of Many Choices http://www.polyfaces.com/ Producer and co-director: Lisa Heenan; original concept: Darren Doherty; co-director, director of photography: Isaebella Doherty; editor: Bergen O’Brien Available video on demand and disk at polyfaces.com

Lisa Jane Heenan and Darren Doherty with their family during a visit to Polyface Farm.

Is a refractometer in your future?

This affordable tool can be a valuable asset for the information-based grower.

Have you considered use of an optical refractometer on your farm or homestead? As more holistic growers better understand the biochemistry of growing plants and soil, they are adopting use of this simpleto-use tool to help determine the health or nutritional value of their crops.

A hand-held refractometer is a relatively inexpensive optical instrument that measures the particulate level in an aqueous solution compared to mass.

What that means in everyday language is that the tool gives an indication of the amount of sugar (and a few other things) in plant juice.

“Putting it simply, we can use these small devices to tell us the Brix value or the sugar content in the juice we extract from plant material,” said Stewardculture Magazine Editor Dan Grubbs, who is also a certified permaculture design consultant. “Along with other indications of plant health, we can use Brix values to help us make management decisions about our soils and crops.”

Brix is a unit of measure (technically degrees Brix) indicating the sucrose content of an aqueous solution. The scale in many basic hand-held refractometers ranges from 0-32. This scale is seen when looking through the viewpiece. If it is properly calibrated, the instrument should be set to zero when pure distilled water is placed on

the prism of the refractometer.

Gathered plant material is put into a garlic press and squeezed to produce a drop or two of juice to place on the prism. Then, the user holds the refractometer up to a light source as if looking through a telescope and obtains a reading.

“This reading is useful if you know what a previous baseline reading was for that paddock or plant and you have a good idea what Brix reading those plants should be,” Grubbs said.

He indicated that it can be a great tool for people with dairy or nursing animals. “Ruminants produce more quality milk when the sugar content in their forage is high. Therefore, knowledge of the sugar content of that forage in any given paddock is important.”

There are some target Brix values for various forage plants. For example, a Brix reading of eight seems to be average for alfalfa for many traditionally managed pastures. But, those raising cattle should be working to grow alfalfa with a Brix reading of above 16. For grain crops, a Brix reading of 14 is good with 18 being excellent.

“But for a crop that has naturally higher levels of sugar, say sorghum, the base levels are higher,” Grubbs said. “In sorghum, I would think

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a farmer is seeking middle to high 20s Brix readings.”

to know what the optimal harvest time should be.

For example, most industrial-scale cantaloupe growYou don’t have to be a cattle rancher to make use of ers will pick their melons when Brix values reach nine a refractometer. “The savvy gardener knows that if degrees. However, an excellent cantaloupe has a Brix the leaf of a plant that measures 12 degrees Brix or higher it will usually not be molested by insect pests,” value of 15 or higher. “To me, this is the difference between that amazingly sweet cantaloupe you tasted Grubbs reported. from your grandparent’s garden Calibrating the refractometer using pure compared to that crappy melon distilled water which should then register on most restaurant salad bars,” a “0” on the Brix scale.

Grubbs joked.

Agriculture and food industry expert Dr. Allen Williams confirms this notion. “High Brix forages are more resistant to disease, pests and drought.” He also reports that good livestock performance correlates to high Brix levels. “We have seen higher animal performance when Brix levels in forages are higher,” he said referring to a 200-acre study in Independence, Kansas, USA. Glen Rabenberg, soil expert and president of Soil Works LLC, said “A a sugar content of 13 percent or more is very beneficial for your plant’s insect resistance. We also know that if sugar content is low, plants will never grow to the extent of their genetic potential. These plants will also be low in minerals, vitamins, amino acids and have poor general nutrition.

These same low sugar plants have also lost some of the ability to draw moisture from the air, which now increases the effects of a drought.”

Rabenberg teaches that increasing Brix levels help an operation become more productive. Harmful fungi thrive in an area where plants measure a Brix value below seven. When ensuring there is the proper balance of available minerals and nutrients, the Brix levels are often in the 10-11 range. At this value, Rabenberg reports seeing drought resistance in the crops and fewer weeds nearby. Finally, when plants are measured at Brix values of 13 or higher, Rabenberg reports resistance to harmful insects.

Conducting Brix valuations needs to be done with some care. The samples must be gathered at the same time of day and in the same general weather conditions. Grubbs said that plants are moving sugars and other nutrients up and down their systems at different times of the day and different time of the year.

“We can obtain false comparisons if we conduct Brix testing in the morning and then a few days later in the afternoon when it’s warmer. We should also take sam-

“Wineries use refractometers to track when they should pick their grapes for the precise sugar levels they are looking for to make a specific kind of wine,” Grubbs said. “Though most of us are not making wine, the sugar levels of our crops are important for us to know what’s going on in the soils as indicated by the Brix value of the plants.”

One practical application of the refractometer is using it to help know the general ripeness of a fruit or vegetable. Testing a sample can give some indication

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Using a common garlic press to place 1-2 drops on the prisim of a refractometer.

ples from the same kinds of locations on the plant.”

Plant samples must also be taken when there is similar sunlight. “I recommend testing after the same amount of sunlight has been available and around the same temperature,” Grubbs said. Because the refractometer is impacted by temperature, it’s a good idea to ensure the device and the sample are about the same temperature. “I like to let the sample juice rest on the prism glass for at least 30 seconds before taking a reading.

Grubbs also cautions growers to not see a refractometer as a magic wand. “A refractometer gives you only one primary measurement,” he said. “As useful as knowing what Brix values are in your plants, we can gain a lot more if we take this one data set and use it with other information to make decisions on our homesteads, farms and ranches.”

What does it all mean for you? Plant health and related sugar levels are often dependent on the quality of life in the soil and how the soil’s microbiology is working in harmony with the root system of the plant.

“Often, an unfavorable Brix reading can be an indica-

tion of low nutrient uptake in the plant due to poor microbial interaction in the soil,” Grubbs said. “A first remedy I’d tell people to do before expensive soil testing and inputs is to make sure they are feeding the soil microbes well. Adding finished compost or compost tea is an excellent way to feed the soil and thus ensure a healthy system below the surface.”

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Mankind needs to change its view of the place we live and allow its design to be revelatory.

Are we seeing the Earth thr In a recent podcast episode of Permaculture Tonight hosted by Matt Powers, Geoff Lawton, famous permaculture designer, advocate and teacher, was talking about the plasticity of the human brain and our ability to continue to learn and relearn even into old age. He reported that this idea led him to feel more responsibility for the people he teaches because of the reality that what he says has a dramatic impact on those who hear him.

As his thought progressed, he came to the conclusion that permaculture practitioners, as a result of their training and experience, can have a new perspective on the world around them. Lawton said, “We actually see the world with a design mind.”

Notable quote to be sure.

If this is the case, the value to the believer is significant because seeing creation with a design mind reveals more about God and His provision for us. When we carefully examine creation, we see there is a holistic and integrated design that is regenerative. Why would God create a universe, a solar system, a planet designed exactly as He did? That question has troubled minds for centuries. However, there is a simple answer.

If we accept that God is perfect, then His actions are perfect by definition. If God’s actions are perfect, His creative acts were perfect. Seven times in the creation account in Genesis, God considers His creation good.

There is no difficulty in the translation either, for the Hebrew word “tobe” used here is very basic and simply

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means good.

Lawton said that permaculture designers can see the world around them “through a new matrix.” Similar to the notion Lawton explained, is that Christians must see the world as God designed it, through His matrix, so to speak. And having knowledge of what we observe with that lens, should impact us in such a way that we behave differently. We should especially behave differently when it comes to God’s designed Earth.

In J. Timothy Unruh’s “The Greater Light to Rule the Day - Ladies and Gentlemen - The Sun!” he wrote that the Earth and the Sun are so unique from any of the other planets and stars we have information about, that it begs the question why these unique qualities are precisely needed for human existence.

There has been much talk among evolutionary philosophers about the Earth being “just another planet revolving around “just another average star.” Yet when the evidence to the contrary is considered, it is clear that neither the Earth nor the Sun are insignificant or typical, and that the Sun is not just another “star” after all, but actually quite unique in the universe and that it ought not be classified as a star. When the Sun is compared to the stars, it truly stands out in its unique suitability as the light- and heat-giver for the Earth as an abode of life. It is a known fact that most stars produce visible light in only small proportions and are most intense in their output of lethal radiations like X-rays and gamma rays.

by Dan Grubbs

rough the Designer’s eyes?

The Sun is unusual in the life-supporting spectrum of energy that it does provide. Another aspect of the Sun’s uniqueness is its singularity. Over two-thirds of the stars are members of star systems containing two or more stars. If the Sun were a member of such a system, continually perturbed by the gravitational interplay of the neighboring stars, life on Earth would be precarious at best, given the drastic variations of tides, light, and heat it would experience. The Sun is unique in yet another way. Compared to most stars, its light and heat is steadfast, constant, and abiding.

Many more of the stars are considerably variable in their output of light and heat. Most stars fluctuate greatly in the process of time, with output factors that range from 10 percent to 150,000 percent. Life on Earth could not endure such wild extremes of radiation. Furthermore, the vast majority of stars are smaller, cooler, dimmer, and less massive than the Sun. In addition to the Sun’s unique intrinsic suitability to be the Earth’s light- and heat-giver, the Earth itself is placed at the optimal distance from such an unusual “star” as our Sun. When seen in the broader context of the cosmos, the Sun can be clearly seen as a grand product of design, with a very special purpose, by an almighty and benevolent Creator who has revealed Himself and declared in His great foundational revelation.

in creation. For those of us who grow things, this is most germane when we consider the soil. Do we see soil from God’s perspective? Can we see it like God does? We are finite, so we can’t see it fully as He does. But, we can make observations of the design that are valuable to us.

An amazing example is the soil food web. If we carefully examine the soil food web, we see it as an integral part of how plants exist on this planet. If we’re growing plants, we better understand the soil food web and understand how to enhance and leverage this knowledge to gain a surplus harvest while also building healthy soil.

Many examples can be pointed out where sharing in the Designer’s mind will enhance what we do on our farms and homesteads. Flows of energy expressed in wind, water, and waste are just a few more examples where we need to make careful observations and seek to see the design and interplay of them all as God did when He designed them.

If we take on the Designer’s mind, we can see the intricate interplay of many of the Divinely designed systems

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Two Trees and the One: The Technological Tree an

by Jonathan Dodd

The greatest stories that stand the test of time are the ones that were true in the past and continue to be true of our own stories, lives and world today. This is true for the first several chapters of Genesis, especially the second story of the Bible found in Genesis 2-4. This garden placement and displacement creation story moves from harmony to dissonance giving us a suprahistorical perspective of the past, present and future. This story is true beyond the limits of ones own story.

In this column in Stewardculture Magazine, Vol. 2, we see that Genesis 1 is primarily about God creating a palace temple for Himself. Creation, the cosmos, is their temple. In Genesis 2 we see a different creation story where a garden is the temple1. Spanning across Ancient Near Eastern cultures are stone carvings showing a garden as a temple and inscriptions using the language of the temple when speaking about a garden2. The two are one. The same is true in this biblical story. It is a microcosm of the cosmos and an archetypal sanctuary, a place where God dwells. The temple is also, in itself, the cosmos. The temple was considered the cosmic domain3.

The second creation story began with Genesis 2 that I wrote about in Stewardculture Magazine, Vol. 3. Genesis 2 is about Garden Builder, Potter and Designer making, forming and placing everything in right relationship – Garden of Eden, the perfect temple. It was a place of life, abundance, connection, purpose, freedom, beauty, pleasure and knowing, in holistic relationship with Place and Other. At the center of the temple was the Tree of Life and the place from which all rivers flowed.

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The Lord God formed, animated and placed everything in the sanctuary and appointed the earthling with service, responsibility and right order – a full expression of love and interconnected relationship – to care for the place where the earthling and his feminine earthling partner were put. The earthlings

were given everything, experiencing full abundance with happiness and longevity. In this temple palace garden all things were for their enjoyment, except ONE thing.

And that is where we begin again, having full knowledge, earthling and partner buck-naked and unashamed.

The earthling and partner were not alone. Out of many the created things in the garden, there was also a serpent, craftier than all. In Hebrew, the words ‘naked’ and ‘crafty’ rhyme. The earthlings were arom (naïve), and the serpent was arum (cunning).

The serpent is one of the most common symbolic figures spanning many cultures through time. The serpent has been represented as a symbol of wisdom, fertility, regeneration, eternal, encircling all things, cyclical and recreating, protector, guarding the

nd the Big Lie The story of Genesis 3a gate to immortal life, healing, a channel of energy, knowing all, desire, embodiment of power, divine connection and has even been worshipped in statues and icons of all kinds. The serpent’s venom was seen like that of plants and fungi that have the potential to be a healing medicine, poison or expanded consciousness/divine intoxication/neurological reworking. One ancient Egyptian god represented as serpent was Apep, the embodiment of chaos who was against the cosmic and greatest enemy of the god of order and light, Ra. However, we see in Genesis 3 that the serpent was “made” by the Lord God who also made everything else. The serpent in this story is just another created thing. Genesis 3, commonly referred to as “the Fall,” begins with a serpent, who skews, lies and adds to the

truth – a truth skewed to create distrust in the goodness of the Great Potter, Garden Builder and Designer, the High Priest and King of the temple palace garden. The story continues from Genesis 2 with The Knowledge Tree, the technological tree of good and evil, and the big lie that moves relationship into fractal and ripple. (more on that later) The serpent begins by twisting the Lord God’s words, saying to the feminine partner of the earthling, “Did God really say that you’re not allowed to eat ANY fruit from the trees in the garden?” Notice, the serpent does not recognize God as Lord. In response, the earthling’s partner adds to the Lord God’s words.

Also dropping the name Lord she answers, “God said we can eat from the garden fruit trees except for one” and adds that “this forbidden tree is in the middle of the garden” and “not only can we not eat it, we can’t touch it either”. In the first part of the Genesis 2 story, it only says that the Tree of Life is in the middle of the garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is mentioned secondarily4. The earthling’s partner is beginning to skew the focus and forget who is in control. The unraveling of relationship begins with the misrepresentation and adding to the word of God. The emphasis of the Garden Builder was that the earthlings could eat from all the trees including the Tree of Life, except for one tree.

The end of right relationship begins when we forget who is Lord, forget all that we have been given and focus on what we have not been granted.

The serpent first tricks the woman into focusing on the one forbidden fruit out of the many given fruits of the forest garden, and then tells the woman that she will not surely die, which is also a lie cloaked in truth. She did not die, at least right away! The serpent makes God to be a liar, selfish, and afraid. The serpent goes on to say, “God doesn’t want you to eat from that tree, because you will become like a god yourself, knowing everything that you didn’t know before.”

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God is made out to be a liar and not good.

The root of broken relationships is focusing on what we think we lack and distrusting in the goodness of God. In a moment of rationalization - with the temptation of a tasty and mouth-watering fruit, aesthetically pleasing to the eyes - and out of a desire for more, she grasped onto what was not hers to take, and she ate.

But she was not alone in the act. The earthling, her partner, not only stood by and watched, un-defensive of her or the Maker against the serpent, he also apathetically watched it happen and then ate too, joining in the rebellion.

Broken relationship begins when we take our eyes off of all that we have been given, forgetting our place, and desiring what is not ours to take.

It was rebellion because although the garden was created for them and everything was prepared in advance for them, it was still not their garden. The garden was the Lord God’s. To take what is not one’s own is to cross a boundary, one that causes hurt, distrust and broken relationship.

The earthlings received what they desired, but it was not as they thought it would be. The knowledge they received opened their eyes to a new learned truth, that they were naked. In fear they hid and covered themselves.

And as the story continues the Maker comes walking in His palace temple garden to find the earthlings and the blame game begins.

The problem was not just that the tree was forbidden, but there was something bigger, something the earthlings could not understand. They did not understand the power of the tree. The tree and its fruits did give them the lacking knowledge they sought, but it also gave more than what they could comprehend. It gave them the good and the bad, and the knowledge to wield it. They traded one type of knowing for another type of knowing. The knowing of intimacy and deep connection was traded for a knowledge that led to eventual death and destruction.

The Genesis 2-4 story continues and is filled with unraveling pain and fractaled relationship. But this part will have to wait for another day. I want to pause and reflect on what the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil might mean for us today.

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There are facets interpreting this text and story, as it has been done for thousands of years5. I think there are many ways that we could apply this story to our

own lives, networks, communities, and the societies in which we live. However, I would like to draw our attention to a few aspects and make some analogies and applications for thought.

I would like to call this part of the story “The Technological Tree and the Big Lie. What do I mean by this?

The first technological advance is an autonomous production of garments with sewn leaves. As we continue through the Genesis narrative, it leads further into more advancement and human attempts to separate themselves as equal to or gods themselves.

This knowledge tree opens up the door to incredible advancement; however, it comes with many costs.

The Lord God offers us freedom in connection, simplicity, and trust, which in turn we trade it and grasp for power, control, greed, lust and affection.

If I am to call this tree the Technological Tree, I should define what I mean by technology. It is the information, communication, transportation, connection, adaptation, and emergent pattern systems found in the universe. It is the dendritic life pattern of nutrient and energy exchange found in every living and growing thing.

The by-product of technology as we experience it, through our grasping and advancement, is taking pieces and constructing physical representations of the whole. It is the product of goods from materials through innovation and knowledge. Technology has the potential to produce good and evil. Technology replaces and takes away our connection to place; it exchanges and changes our relationship to things and the world around us.

Before I describe what we have lost, let’s give credit to what has been a perceived gain. We have medicine to heal people, computers to type articles like this, connections only possible because of the internet, speedy travel, comfortable homes built from the earth we have raped and mastered. But just think, we have traded friends in hand for Facebook on handheld devices carried around in our pockets; we have traded deep personal connections for our devices, the majesty of the stars for illuminating lights on streets and in homes at night. We have traded the knowledge of our diverse, abundant, and generous environment for excessive disturbances caused by the advancement of human knowledge and the duality of our ways, our emergent capacity of both good and evil. We have traded clean air, water, living soil and all which grows upon it, for self-advancement and human ingenuity

to create and build, for wealth and health at the expense of others both now and in the future. We have traded our place found in the temple and replaced it with our own castle. We have traded ourselves for our things by destroying, mining, polluting, genetically modifying, corrupting everything we touch, consuming everything to meet our so-called needs, ignorant in our ways and progression. We have traded freedom and an aggregating bountiful life for convenience and consumption.

lost our basic connection to the land. We move faster, unable to see the world around us for what it really has to show us. We have traded our feet for bikes, for trains, for cars, for planes, rockets even. We are moving faster and faster and we are the ones left behind and burnt along the way.

This tree, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is the Technological Tree that we will never master. I don’t think the Lord God intended that the earthlings would never be able to eat from or enjoy the technological tree, but instead, He was protecting them from that for which they were not yet ready6.

What we need is to get back to the source and remember our place, as image bearers set to serve and guard the earth, take care of all its creatures and inhabitants, and steward rightly, in right ordered relationships, sharing and giving back more than we take.

The truth is, we can’t handle the truth. We can’t appropriately handle our advancements in knowledge and technology.

Of course technology does a lot of good, but it also produces a lot of evil. It is the tree of both and we cannot handle both good and evil in our human-ness.

We are misguided in the belief that we will be able to become better as we progress as a species. Things are always changing, yet they are always the same.

We choose to eat from the wrong tree every day. By our collective choices we have been banned from experiencing full relational abundance. It is not that we were never meant to have this knowledge; it is because we are not ready for its power. It is the Lord God’s temple-palace-garden, and He will finish the work and bring it to completion when the full knowledge is revealed in the Coming Day of the Lord.

The technological tree could be compared to accessing the patterned network inscribed upon the universe.

For example, the internet is a replication of a mycelial and dendritic pattern in its communication, information, and energy flow and exchange. The tree is also like the living soil where the fungi are the information communication, information, growth and nutrient exchange network, while bacterial are the ones that consume and exchange with the network system.

We are the bacteria. Be careful what you eat.

It is no coincidence that the Apple/Mac symbol has a bite taken from its fruit. Technology, the Internet, Facebook…all have promised less work and more leisure, more connected relationships. And to some degree it is true, like all ‘good’ lies. But it has also taken much away. Through technology we have also

I am not saying that we need to abandon these things and stop using technology. What I am saying is that we need to remember our place as we use it, hopefully for more good than evil.

The focus of the story in Genesis 2-4 is not the tree, but the beginning and unfolding of God’s great plan for His creation. It is a story that shows our weakness and our limitations. It is a story that is pointing us toward a hope that is to come, a limitless hope that demonstrates once again an abundance received through humility, reunion, resurrection, ascension, and deep connection. It is a story that is yet to be finished, a story where the Technological Tree is no longer a barrier to the fullness of relationship and the Tree of Life.

If we compare the first part of Genesis 3 to the temptation of Jesus in the desert, we see the same pattern, but with a different result. Jesus went into the desert and resisted the desire for security, control and affection. He did not grasp equality with God. Instead, He chose trust, intimacy and connection. He said no to the fruit. Instead, He died on a tree to restore and model full abundant relationship once more “when He Who took our sin into His body, upon a TREE, so that we might be healed.”7 It doesn’t stop there. It is a story that ultimately leads to another temple-palacegarden in a city, and to another tree, the Tree of Life.

1-Here is a good concise write up on the idea of the garden was the temple.

2-Walton, Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 29.

3-Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, 125-127.

4-This is easy to see in Hebrew, which reads differently than English.

5-For a good primer and short historical interpretative look at Genesis, see Ian Provan book here.

6-Ibid.

7-I Peter 2:24.

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“existing to restore people and place, alleviating poverty and pain�

Our mission is to participate in the restoration of people and place by using gardening, agriculture, horticulture, and regenerative design education as tools for development and as bridges to share the love of Jesus with a fractaled world. http://keipos.org