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No Spray Hawaii

Concepts Not Specifics

Easy to understand. Easy to learn. Easy to apply! Easy to Teach!

L. Rieber

No Spray Staff Writer

Concepts Not Specifics

As you begin your journey down the path of growing food there is an abundance of information, methods, styles and specific products that can be used. How do you know what to do? How do you know what to use? How do you know where to start?

Relax!

You have come to the right place!

We can help you understand growing natural, chemical free, wholesome, nutritious food!

Concepts are the over all thought and view to think about when starting to grow food. It makes growing food easy! Concepts have principles and components that lie within. Understanding Nature’s concepts, components and principles can save you a lot of time, energy, money and resources. Ever look out into the jungle or an old growth forest and think – no one ever fertilizes or sprays pesticides in there and yet the plants are healthy, thriving and supplying ample food for all the life forms that live within its natural realms. Every location in our planet is different from the next. Just look at one persons yard compared to another. See the differences, see the similarities? It is the same for your garden.

Growing food naturally depends upon a few factors:

Overall desired dream / vision / goal of area that you want to work with.
Available Labor
Available Time
Available Resources (natural and funding)

These factors will all be different, therefore the specific methods to be utilized for growing the food in that location will be different.

Think of it this way. You want to bake a cake. A cake by definition is an item of soft, sweet food made from a mixture of flour, shortening, eggs, sugar and other ingredients. A cake has certain components within that allow for that “cake” to be considered a cake. If you have all the components (flour, eggs, sugar, etx.) you will be able to make a cake. There are a lot of different methods, ingredients and ways to make a cake- but bottom line, we still need the same components to make a cake. We still need flour, liquid, sugar, backing powder, eggs and heat source.

DSCF0653 When you have all the components then we think about combining them -this would be the principles of growing the cake. We have to have all the ingredients mixed together before we can place it in the oven. We have to have the oven at a specific temperature to bake the components properly.

Now the question is:

Goal of Cake: What do you actually desire of the cake?
- Do you want to create a strawberry ice cream cake? This will have completely different method of creation than a chocolate cake.
- A cake intended for a child’s birthday will have different ingredients than one being utilized for someone who requires a gluten free diet.
Available Labor: How much work do you want to spend creating the cake?
- A four tiered wedding cake takes a lot more labor than a simple eight inch round cake left in the pan.
- Decorating 60 cupcakes would require more work than decorating just one 24 inch flat cake.
Available Time: How fast do you need the cake made?
- 15 minutes? Should you grab a premade cake from the store?
- Do you have the time to to create it from scratch or should you purchase a pre-made mix?
- Do you have the time to make the ice-cream cake?
Available Resources: Not all components are created the same.
- Although the end result will be a cake the ingredients can be completely different in terms of what they are comprised of and how much they cost.
- Do you have chickens in the backyard to utilize fresh eggs or do you have to go to the store and buy some?
- Is it worth buying organic eggs? Are organic eggs even available?
- Are you going to use wheat flour? White Flour? Coconut flour?

See where I’m going with this? Bottom line – You want to make a cake but the specifics of the cake are up to you to decide depending upon your desired goal, available labor, available time, available resources.

Concept: We want to bake a cake and need certain components.

Components: the ingredients needed to make the cake.

Principles: we need to mix dry ingredients together, add the moist ingredients and bake at a warm temperature.

We automatically think of these factors with the majority of decisions that we make daily- growing food or having a garden is no different.

If you want to copy someone’s specifics, you must understand that these are geared for that person in their specific location.

Now think about what you want from your own food growing experience:

What is your overall goal or vision?
- Do you want a simple garden?
- what do you want to grow in your garden?
- Do you want an orchard?
- Small farm?
- Did you want to grow enough to supply just yourself or others too?
- Did you want to make money from this venture?
What is your available Labor
- How much work do you want to give to your garden?
- Do you want the garden to replace the need to go to the gym?
- Do you have children who are willing to help with upkeep?
- Are you physically able to work large areas?
What is your available time
- How much of your day do you want to give to your food growing venture
- Will this be your job and you have the 40-60 hours a week to give?
- Is this a garden hobby?
- How much time in the week do you want to spend working in your garden?
what is your available resources in terms of natural and financial?
- Where do you live? Desert? Tropics? Valley?
- How much money do you have for the project?
- How many trees currently reside on the property?
- Do you only have an apartment balcony to work with?

Each of the answers to the above questions will help you to determine how to grow food in the best possible manner in your specific location. The more honest you are with yourself in answering these questions will help save you lots of time, money, energy and problems in the long run.

Now that we understand the difference between Concepts and Specifics – let’s learn about Nature’s concepts, principles and components.

Keep Learning:

Click on the link below to learn more!

Nature’s Concepts

About the Author:

Laura Rieber holds a BS in Agriculture with a focus on sustainability from the University of Hawaii, several certificates in agriculture business development and is a master gardener. The moment she realized the corporate lies that feed the world was the moment she was inspired to write about the truth about natural agriculture. She co-created No Spray Hawaii with her partner, Jesse Fujimoto to help others gain awareness. Together they have gave the confidence of understanding of growing food organically to 30 different people from around the world. Laura completed a Natural Agriculture Training Course for a non-profit assisting returning disabled veterans into growing organic food. She currently teaches natural agriculture principles on the Big Island of Hawaii. CONTACT