Tobacco Lath Display Racks

One thing that I've always been at a loss for at the farmers markets I've done is good display racks for handmade stuff and seeds. Recently I started building a few out of tobacco lath. I've had some luck selling some of these and thought I'd share with my blog readers as some of you might be interested.
These ladder racks are fantastic for displaying handmade washrags exct. Or if you screw some i-hooks into them are great for displaying earrings. 20.00 plus shipping.

Next up are these custom made soap racks, they fold flat with the addition of a bolt and wing nut. These are 15 x 15 inches. I can make them like this or vertical racking as well. 25.00 each plus shipping.

Next up are seed racks we did for Fresh Start Growers supply in louisville KY. We can make these of any size you might want or need and make custom signs for them if needed as well. We also currently have three Face Of The Earth 10 variety seed racks for sale at 225.00 (the seeds alone would normally be 300.00) with your choice of seeds from Face Of The Earth (Amanda Palmer is completely sold out however). We can make you a custom seed rack for your needs. Just shoot as an e-mail or phone call (812-967-2073) for particulars

Uncle Penn's Circle W Soap and Isla Tortuga woodworking cataloug.

Uncle Penn's Circle W Old Fashioned Lye Soap is the newest addition to Bishop's Homegrown. Soap as it should be...simple.

If you want authenticity and only natural homegrown ingredients in your soap then we have the soap for you! We are sourcing a large portion of our ingredients from our own farm gardens and fields including grains (corn meal and oats), vegetables, dried herbs, fruit, and even local honey.

We are more concerned with sourcing ingredients that have been traditionally used in soap for their skin care properties (as well as sustainability) than with creating over scented bars using expensive essential oils or synthetic fragrant oils. Different strokes for different folks. Many of our soaps are one offs which are made in extraordinarilly small batches when and as ingredients are available from the farm while others are timeless classics (castille, raw, "Home-Brew")

We do use lard in our recipies along with a number of other oils simply because it's a reliable base fat that has been used since the begining of soap making and imparts qualities we appreciate, as well it is sustainable and and practical to produce on a small homested farm (which we are currently persuing). We use no artificial or natural dyes, just simple natural colors, imparted by our ingredients, which we feel speak to the earthiness and utilitarianism of the finished product. Completely bio-degradable and "Eco-Logical" just like all the Bishop's Homegrown products.

Most of our soaps use either homebrewed beer or wine bases or spring/well/rain water and nearly all include Honey in the mixture (a natural humectant and anti-bacterial), as well our soaps are all 3-5% superfated to help further moisturize your skin. Similarly the scet of our soap is in no way overbearing, owing it's slight scent to the presence of the natural ingredients inherent in the soap. We feel that there is an underserved soap market who appreciate a more subtle and earthy soap and share our appreciation of light natural scents imparted simply by on farm ingredients.

The main job of soap is to help water clean and moisturize your skin afterall.It's our belief that what you put on your body should be just as important as what you put in your body and the use of on farm ingredients assures that the two are one in the same (not to mention soap is another good form of preservation of the yearly harvest).

Keep your eyes peeled for further product introductions in the coming months!

If your after simplicity and quality over production and perfume we exist to cater to you!

Ordering information and custom orders: It seems like there is a growing trend when it comes to ordering from small business and farms online, utilizing credit cards, and unsecure digital forms and middleman services which cut into profit margins and play into the hands of the same big business we all seem so adamant to stand up against. Here we shun such practices and encourage ordering in the old fashioned way.

Give us a call and stop by the farm at 5604 S. State Rd. 60 Pekin IN 47165 or visit us at Washington County Artisans and Farmers market (spring-summer Saturdays 8-12 @Pekin Park. Winter @ Various locations) or order by mail the old fashioned way by sending well concealed cash or money order to Alan Bishop at the address above.

Shipping for wood products isn't currently available but will be soon

We also love custom orders, if you have something you'd like to see made drop us a line a bishopshomegrown@gmail.com

Tobbacco Lath wall hanger. This one is just sanded down to reveal the natural stain from years of hanging tobacco in our family barn. 4 inches deep x 4 inches wide by 4 inches tall. Great for hanging on a wall for your candles or soap or other items ot interest. 5.00 locally. No shipping at this time, check back soon.

Tobacco Lath Planter. Sanded down to reveal the natural tobacco stain. Great for a natural hanging planter complete with drainage holes and a bit of old barbless wire for hanging. 6 inches deep/wide/long. $15.00 locally, no shipping at this time, check back soon.

Tobacco Lath Ladders. We make these in several different sizes including miniatures and up to 5 foot tall. Great to lean against a wall or table to display items. Stained or unstained. Contact us for prices and sizes. No shipping currently. Locally available






Hand split tobacco lath coat hanger. Rustic and cool coat hangar made from a hand split tobacco lath over 100 years old. Would look great hanging in your home this winter. Stained mahogany. 10.00 each. Available locally. No shipping at this time.







Tobacco Lath Stars. We make these in a variety of sizes, both stained and unstained. Great for hanging on walls, doors, barns exct and look great decorated with Christmas lights! Small stained star 5.00, Small unstained 3.00. Large unstained 5.00 and large stained 8.00. No shipping currently.

Also for your Christmas shopping pleasure were proud to present some of our woodworking ventures. All of these products are handcrafted here on the farm using tobacco sticks (lath) that have graced our family farm fields for years (the hand split ones are sometimes near to or older than 100 years old and originally from Greensburg KY) First up is this hand split lath shaddow box window frame. The lathe were sanded and stained mahogany, would look great setting over a picture on your wall. 5.00 locally. No shipping at the moment, check back soon. Also available unfinished.








Uncle Penns "Dumb Ass County Boy": This ones all about the cooked down elderberry wine and fresh spearamint w/coarsley ground oats. This ones all about being unrefined and crude. 3% superfat with sunflower oil, coconut oil, lard, oats, honey, fresh spearamint, wine and mead. 5 ounce bars 4.00 each locally, 5.00 shiped. Bulk deals available.

Uncle Penn's "Manda": Great grandma 'Manda Burns spent a lot of time rendering lard from homegrown hogs and screening potash for lye to make her families yearly supply of soap. This here is nearly as authentic and "real" as it gets. Straight up lye and lard by popular request. Pure as the driven snow and white enough to prove it. This one is 3% superfat but we can make it 0% by request. Old timers claimed it good for drying out poison ivy, washing stains from clothes, and dealing with other skin issues as well as washing out some "dirty" mouths when needed. 5 ounce bars. 4.00 each locally 8.00 shipped..

Uncle Penns "Grit Gitter": We love gritts here on the farm, to us there isn't a thing in this world better than real grits from home ground corn flavored with some homegrown honey! What better way to pay tribute than to make soap with the same aesthetic! Lye, lard, coconut oil, sunflower oil, bees wax, and elderberry wine hook up with grits from homegrown Amanda Palmer corn (ground fine in a coffee grinder) and flavored with homegrown honey. Great exfoliating body bar with moisturizing properties that smells like breakfast, lunch, and dinner! 5 ounce bars. 4.00 locally 8.00 shipped. Bulk discount available.

Uncle Penn's "Anne-Marie": Uncle Penns sweetheart (my grandmother) was "Anne-Marie", this ones for her. Lavendar Meets honey and wine w/sunflower, coconut oil, lard and beeswax. Great for those who want that light old timey sweetheart scent. Five ounce bars 4.00 each locally 8.00 shipped. Bulk deals available.

Uncle Penns "Aunt Molly". Aunt Molly is one of those somewhat shrude weomen who remembers exactly where she came from. Straight up, she tells it like it is. This ones made in her spirit. Farm fresh spearamint blended with coffee makes for a great work soap to scrub the dirt of a hard day away. The base is spring water from "down the hill" as liquor would serve only to infuriate the aunt who it's named in honor of. 3 ounce bar. 5% superfat. Castille (olive oil) based. Excellent moisturizure. 3.00 locally 7.00 shipped

Uncle Penn's "Workin' Man": That he was! And of course theres that song ("I get up, seven yeah, go to work at nine" so what if the lyrics were a bit of a late starter!). This ones a straight up coffee scrub with a bit of honey for some "smellum good". Lot's of coffee grounds (home roasted from Sweet Maria's fair trade) for that extra grit you need to scrub out those deep workin man stains and as always some honey to help moisturize. 3% superfated too with the light scent of honey. 4 ounce bars. 4.00 each locally 8.00 shipped. Bulk discount available.

Uncle Penns Possum Fruit: Yeah, we went there, down in the hills of Kentucky nobody eats perssimmons, claiming their only good for possum feed! Good for us Hoosiers we know what they are all about! Luckily so to did those in the orient who used persimmon soap to aid in complexion and to cover body odour. True American persimmon meets lye, lard, coconut oil, honey, and elderberry wine. 3% superfat and honey means this ones great for moisturizing. Light honey-persimmon scent is reminicent of that famous pudding your grandma made. 5 ounce bar for 4.00. 8.00 shipped. Bulk discount available.

Uncle Penns Homebrew Soap: A blend of homebrewed wine and beer meets up with old fashioned lard and lye (along with coconut and sunflower oil) and some Avena Nuda oats (farm grown) with a bit of honey and chamomille to give you that kick in the pants you've been looking for. 3% superfat and honey keeps you moisturized while the slight natural scent of honey and chamomille make you presentable for the speakeasy crowd. 4.00 each. 8.00 shipped. Bulk discount available.

Uncle Penns "Turtle Creek": An homage to a small tributary to blue river where some of the best produce and homebrew are grown and brewed respectively. Beer base meets farm fresh cucumber (full of vitamins and nutrients and slightly astringent so good for oily skin) and oatmeal. Great for that early morning "wake up" call. 3% superfat, light oat and cucumber smell. Great lather. 5 ounce bars for 4.00 locally 8.00 shipped

Uncle Penns "Mull Digger": For those who don't know what a "Mull Digger" is down in the hills of Kentucky it's a term used to refer to a lazy or otherwise useless dog (or lazy person/a cheat) who digs for moles but never catches them, instead leaving only distruction and subsequent work in it's path. Here we use it to refer to our pine tar soap which harkens back to the days of "patent medicines...". Pine tar has been used for centuries to ward off bugs, deal with skin conditions, and mask the smell of hunters from prey. 3% superfat, coconut oil, sunflower oil, lard, rain water, and bees wax makes this superior to others. 5 ounce bars. 4.00 each locally, 8.00 shipped. Bulk deals available.

Check out these gift baskets, they make great Christmas gifts. Included is your choice of one of two different types of handmade wooden totes made from antique tobacco sticks from our family farm which have been sanded down and stained mahogany with a gift bow and decorative poinsettas and your choice of any four Circle W soaps as well as a tube each of "Kisser Fixer" Chapstick (Latte and Butter Cream). 40.00 each local only.

Not Everybody is lucky enough to have an Uncle like Penn Wilson. A simple appalachian man who has an insatiable passion for life and liberty. Our soap, like him, is as it should be...simple. Straight up natural, farm grown "smelllum good" herbs, honey, homebrewed wine and beer, spring and rain water, lye and oils. Never any artificial colors or scents out of a bottle. Just good old fashioned mountain wisdom.

"Uncle Penn says to stay clean you gotta wash ass!"

Our article in Edible Louisville....

Check it out Here

Community, cooperation, and local goods. Pushing the boundaries of a local market!

Community, cooperation, and local goods. Pushing the boundaries of a local market

“Winter is no time for a local Artisans and Farmers market!”.....we blew that notion completely out of the water this past Saturday when 13 vendors and hundreds of customers poured into our first ever Washington County Artisans and Farmers event graciously hosted (along with a breakfast) by the Pierce Polk Vol Fire Dept.

A steady stream of community customers filed into the building to check out all the cool and local handcrafted and homegrown items on display (including a handful of local produce including tomatoes, lettuce, turnips, and greens the week before Thanksgiving). Local (and those from as far away as English) really seemed to dig the wide selection of items including jewelry, baked goods, assortments of soaps and body care items, local meat, hand sewn items, and folk art.

We (Bishop's Homegrown) were there in a corner set up between our friend Mary Beth Morgan and our friends Tye and Laura Gazarian taking in the awe that this project we've all worked (and are working) so hard to put together and promote seems to have begun to pay off in spades. We took the opportunity to use the event to show some of the other complex sides of what we do here on our small family farm by debuting our new Uncle Penns Old Fashioned lye soap (lip balms, body butter, and lotions too!) and Isla Tortuga trading company items (woodworking using 100 year old tobacco laths from the family farm). Of course our Face Of The Earth Seed Company also made a good impression despite the oncoming winter season (the persistence of hope in a gardener is hard to diminish even when the snow flies!)

We look forward to the next event on December 17'th, from 8-12 (once again in conjunction with Pierce Polk Vol. Fire Dept and their awesome home cooked breakfast and an appearance by the man of the season himself Santa Claus) and will use it as an opporotunity to expand on the groundwork the market as well as Bishop's Homegrown has done so far.

-Alan “The Working Man” Bishop

homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com
faceoftheearthseed.blogspot.com
812-967-2073
bishopshomegrown@gmail.com

The persuit of landrace genetics or the alchemical search for an Edenic garden.

Part of our butternut and acorn squash landrace.

Throuought the course of aghistory mankind has faced any number of famine and disease threats closely linked to the food supply and the sustainability thereof. Often I find myself attempting to explain my intentions when it comes to my plant and animal breeding work to customers or under informed friends and family and often it comes off as far too archaiac, analog, and abstract to give a very real or clear understanding of what I do, so here, and on our future .com I will attempt to explain things a bit more clearly.

I, by my nature, am not an overly scientific person; I don't keep good notes, I'm a terrible organizer, and I really only use my minds capacity to it's full potential when confronted with abstract concepts when it comes to putting pen to paper (being previously an improvisational musician likely has a lot to do with this. I'm sure being an only child also has had some effect). I tend to think of my farming/breeding phillosophy as being equally as spiritual as it is scientific. The norms to me do not apply and neither does the judgment of the world outside of myself. The following explanation is posted here to the blog as much for my own rememberence and understanding as it is for those who would read the words.

To understand what is meant when I apply the word "landrace" to a variety of seed one must first understand the traditional definition thereof:

Wikipedia reports the following: A landrace is a local variety of a domesticated animal or plant species which has developed largely by natural processes, by adaptation to the natural and cultural environment in which it lives. It differs from a formal breed which has been bred deliberately to conform to a particular standard type. Landraces are usually more genetically and physically diverse than formal breeds. Many formal breeds originated from landraces, and sometimes a particular type has both landrace and formal breed populations. Sometimes a formalised breed retains the "landrace" name, despite no longer being a true landrace.

While I agree with it mostly I find myself identifying a bit more with my friend Joseph Lofthouse and his definition: "Adaptavar" Landrace - An adaptivar landrace is a foodcrop lots of genetic diversity which tends to produce stable yields under marginal growing conditions. Landrace crops are adaptively selected for reliability in tough conditions. The arrival of new pests, new diseases, or changes in cultural practices or in the environment may harm some individuals in a landrace population, but with so much diversity many plants are likely to do well under the changing conditions.
In the case of mostly self-pollinating plants like peppers, tomatoes, beans, wheat, and peas a land-race may be thought of as many distinct varieties growing side by side.

In the case of out-crossing plants like cantaloupe, squash, or corn, a land-race can be thought of as an open pollinated population with tremendous genetic diversity. Most of the seeds in an out-crossing land-race end up being unique F1 hybrids.

For a few years I struggled to find a term which might in fact fit as a descriptor for the breeding work I was engaged in here on the farm, coining a few terms myself here on the blog, which I find available via google from time to time but Joseph got it a bit more right than others.

Amanda Palmer Corn in it's second year.

My definition of Adaptavar Landrace: A selection process whereby genetic chaos is controlled marginally by the hands of men attempting to wrangle in the genetic diversity of genepool processes in a way which is intelligent enough to adapt a seed population or animal group to your particular region, micro-climate, and cultural conditions while providing an abundant and reliable harvest with an eye to cullinary or medicinal (sometimes aesthetic) qualities which will still prove profitable. To foster the development of plant/animal varieties in a population which can provide all of these things in self sustainable systems which might include disadvantageous conditions for individual cultivars or breeds including pests and disese as well as parasites, low fertility, or in the case of animals a lack of abundant and cheaply aquired grains (selection for pasture and forage ability) or an ability to evade predators via coloration and or evasion skills. All of this paired with crops and varieties being diverse enough to face the challenges of changing paradigms, both natural and manmade while understanding that the evolutionary chain of events requires a goodly amount of variables which one may not even understand until they see the need for them. In essence, my landraces are a type of "crop insurance" by maintaining diversity I maintain my ability, even in the worst years to produce a crop for home or market use with out relying on the government and their regulations or on a insurance corporation to cover my ass.

Confused yet? I thought perhaps.

In the last 100 years we have progressed more technologically than we did in the previous 10,000 years due in part to both transportation and the green revolution. A paradigm shift was caused with the rise of industrial agriculture and the control of resources such as petrol based fuels and fertilizers into the hands of a small few with access to mass advertizing. In one foul swoop a concentration of power (by big corporations) had changed basic survival needs (food and medicine) and methods of trade and barter with heavily regulated and government subsidized commerce and poisons. The seed trade was turned into a wholesale business by the advent of F1 hybrids designed not for adaptation by bio-region but by perfomance based on averages paired with chemical treatments (created and marketed by the seed compaines and necessary only to the survival of week genetics) to do "average" everywhere as long as you bought the necessary suppliments (cutting out completely the cycle of self reliance on farm waste products and food to animal to manure to food production). To put it simply growing ones own food and medicine the truly "traditional" way became......revolutionary......particularly if you weren't growing it using the new industrial methods and using the new hybrid seeds that Extension agents were reccomending. For a deeper understanding of this "new world" one must also understand the federal reserve, the breakup of the american family, and any other number of divide and conquer, slave/master relationship paradigms.

This concentration of power and marketing has led to any number of health issues and food scares and a great deal of erosion of biological resources. Big corporations do not favor bio-diversity as it does not make for easy, quick, efficient, and bottom line oriented processing in their favor.......and since they pay the bills of the industrialized farm owners and even market gardeners the responce was to settle on the easily sold in bulk, highly inbred, and totally inefficient varieties that the seed companies marketed. Many examples of crop failures exist as examples of how this lack of bio-diversity have already effected our lives (Perhaps you remember the corn blight) or have seen the cascade of crop failures in 2011 alone (inflating even more the price of basic staples on top of the inflation caused by the totally engineered global economic downturn). This all without mentioning the constant money flow out of the farmers pocket and into the seed companies hands annually in exchange for genetics which once existed in a grow it and save it yourself system. The current system works not only against the best interest of the farmer and the consumer but also against the common sense with which the agricultural world once exhibited by completing the cycles of food and seed production on a yearly basis, once again isolating us as a race from what is our basic instinct and cultural heritage in favor of a manipulated power/greed driven slave/master relationship.

The goal is not to reinvent the wheel, but simply to improve it (if improvement is needed. I don't advocate unnecessary work when a simple existing variety fits the niche for example). Prior to the green revolution of now 60 plus years ago we had a number of advantageous locally adapted varieties and landraces which have in the meantime been lost due to aging gardeners and farmers or the downfall of local, bioregionally based seed companies. The heirloom seed movement (as well as the heritage animal movement) has done much to preserve a portion of this bio-diversity much more has been lost than has been saved in certain regions (The Ohio Valley in particular) so we must attempt to locate and integrate necessary bio-diversity on our farms.

What we ultimately are looking for is what we feel works best within our cultural practices and what will provide a hedge against our bets in the worst years of farming and could still be grown practically if resources such as fuel and other commodities were no longer available. These populations are often built out of either local or regional heirlooms, other landrace varieties aquired from breeders, old open pollinated commercial varieties, and the occassional introgression of genetics from exotic locations (particularly if we are looking for short season crops or drought tolerant crops). We tend to try to access our genetics from other small farmers (homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com as well as local farmers and farm markets) via trade and barter where possible and from commercial sources as little as possible as we are also attempting to expand a network of trade between like minded individuals which fosters good will and cooperation. Ocassionally we lean heavily on wild relatives (particularly this was the case when breeding our previously mentioned "Kiva" turkey variety). Sometimes the genetics are particularly diverse as is the case in Amanda Palmer and Astronomy Domine corn and other times we are simply trying to add an infusion of genetics while selecting for a narrower pallet of particular traits (an example of this is a population of watermelons we are persuing based around the positive traits of Charleston Gray with the additon of yellow and orange fleshed genes and disease tolerance).

This allows us to grow out a vast array of genetics in the first generation while making both controlled and unexpected crosses and to eliminate any unwanted genetics from the future breeding pool. As the years cycle through we see the rise of new genotypes and phenotypes and make informed selections about which of those performs best under our conditions. This provides us with both farm adapted seed and the opporotunity to help foster the development of an entirely new population of plants from which we deprive or means of health, wealth, and livelyhood which saves us money on seeds and guarantees a harvest even in years when crops of the same species might have failed in the region over, something that is not provided by inbred lines, hybrids, or even most open pollinated selections.


Stepping into this fold is not neccesarily as easy as one might presume, but by no means is it difficult, it simply takes some understanding of how basic biology in plants and animals works as well as persistence and determination. The obvious starting point is identifying the need for a new and unique variety and understanding the challenges of producing a crop in your bio-region by incorporating the knowledge you have gathered about pests, disease, site fertility, and weather and then applying those criteria to your selection process regarding foundation genetics (stock you will use to develop a population) as well as selections from those populations in the succeding generations. This is essentially the same sort of method that would give rise to a single Open Pollinated line but we desire to go beyond that and incorporate a diversity of phenotypic and genomic traits (both for utility and for beauty) in creating a landrace. While it is fun to persue genetics from far off exotic places your best bet is to start with varieties already well adapted to your region or adapted to regions similar to yours by ammasing open pollinated lines, other landrace strains, and even.....gasp F1 hybrids which match your wants and needs. (though in some crops cytoplasmic male sterility may be an issue as a new paper written by Joseph Lofthouse explains)

A few other things one may want to take into consideration when creating a landrace:

-Take advantage where possible to allow natural pollinators into your crops to ensure cross polination. Where there is no reason to persue the hard work of hand pollinations and controlled crosses one would be wise to allow nature to take it's course

-Always hold back some samples of seed of the past two or three years to mix back into your stock for the sake of maintaining diversity if you end up skewing your project away from it's intended destination

-Share your seed with other locals and encourage them to make their own selections, working in cooperation to develop new varieties.


The end game and desired solution is the creation of a vast stock of bio-regionally genetically diverse crop seeds. If your at all involved in agriculture you have seed the profusion of local gardeners and farmers, many organic based, speaking to the need for local "food sheds" but oft overlooking the need for a solid foundation for this food shed.......seeds. To be sustainable you have to have seed and if you aren't saving those seeds your not sustainable and you have missed the point entirely.





Kiva Turkey Landrace Poults.

Another White Blackberry?

Recently Julia Cadenhead contacted me about another white blackberry (this time a dewberry) that I had previously researched here on the blog. This time one from Florida. Apparently her grandmother had cultivated this curiosity and provided plants in Northern Florida some time ago and she herself is now on the search for this valuable cultivar. She was kind enough to send along to me with her e-mail an article written about her grandmother and this rare cultivar.

If anyone knows where one might obtain these plants it would be worth a trade of a collection of rootlets of both burbank and nettletons to me.

Other reasons for growing corn....

The other day I posted a little diatribe about growing corn for self sufficiency, using the example of the Russian wheat export ban and general shortage to make my point. I was in a hurry so I didn't have a lot of time to expound on the other virtues of corn over the "old world" grains.

Corn is an incredibly diverse species. There is something for almost everyone within the corn genome. Wax corn, Flour Corn, Flint Corn, Dent Corn, Parch Corn, Pop Corn, Sweet Corn, Early Season, Mid Season, Late Season, Drought Tolerance, Cold Tolerance, adaptations to lowlands, midlands, highlands, tropical locales and more.

With the exception of far northern areas of the globe corn can be grown just about anywhere. There are corns that will grow and mature a food/feed crop in only 55 days (Bear Island) and those which will grow in the low or high dessert with annual rainfall that would be the death of most other crops. Some of the South Western germplasm can even be planted up to ninteen inches deep taking advantage of the bedrock water drainage from summer melting of snowpack on mountainsides a great distance away.

Corn is the only true grain that is exceptionally easy to harvest and doesn't stand near as much of a chance of a complete loss (winds/shattring, birds) as so many of the psuedo grains and other easy to harvest grains like Quinoa, Amaranth, Sunflowers, Sorghum and Millet. Any one who can walk a corn field and pull a cob down can harvest as many acres as he/she is willing to work with and capable of finding fertile land for. Seed selection and nutrition criteria is encoded visually for us in the cob itself, given uniform fertility and growth conditions it is easy to look at plants and cobs and make determinations about what best represents what we may like in the crop. The very kernels show us their nutritional value in color (amino acids) texture, and sometimes even in oil content.

Draft animals and tractors are not needed to raise corn (but they do help) and specialized cleaning equipment is not necessary either. In terms of quantity of grain and often quality even the worst strains of corn tend to outyeild and outperform even the best of the old world grains. Corn is grain on a handle, no threshing required.

Many corns even give us the ability to store them for long periods of time in simple "cribs" or roped together by the husk or using commonly availabe cordage to hang them in out of the way places and far away from the mice. They provide an excellen source of protein which doesn't corrupt unless exposed to water and our ground and not used in a timely fashion.

Corn is also incredibly easy to cross and make selections from, giving rise to many new types with unique characteristics and adaptations, it is easy to personalize and has been the inroads to helping develop new plant breeders. The breeders develop the corn and the corn gives us the Gnosis to delve deeper into the breeding of other crops.

It's genome is shown to us in it's most fundamental raw state via the grain itself. Multi color corns always give me the impression of a genetic chart and in some ways it can be said that I have used such "implied" information to move my own projects forward in a way that couldn't be done with any other fruit or vegetable.

Of course this isn't to say there aren't negatives. Space is the big one, the next limiting factor is soil fertility as corn in general is a heavy feeder, however strides have been made in recent years in selecting corn that performs near optimally in poor soils, utilizing larger root systems and nitrogen efficiency and one can always fall back on that incredibly advanced yet wonderfully primitive "three sisters" concept. Of course there are animal and insect pests, but one would be sure to find those in near every crop worthy of human consumption.

Corn is a uniquely American grain, it represents our new world heritage in a way those old world grains can only immitate.

If ever there were a time to experiment with this crop the time is now.

Don't be afraid to breed something new either. Too often people forget, even if you are only saving garden seeds you are still subconciously (or conciously) making selections. Evolution never stands still and no crop is ever "maintained" for long in it's current condition. Even clonal crops undergo ocassional somatic mutation giving rise to many new kinds on a continual basis.

Amanda Palmer corn updates.

Finally finished cleaning corn seed for the year. The shear amount of Amanda Palmer ears we chose to clean for seed by hand shelling was daunting in and of itself, particulary when pilled onto the daily list of chores to do on the farm on top of preparing for fall and winter, planting and harvesting other seeds, researching new varieties and histories all while trying to find time to build a new shed for farm equipement and cut fire wood.

All in all we produced well over 100 lbs of seed for this season. We have also been hand grinding grits and meal from this corn as well as shelling it as the primary food stuff for our turkey genepool, rabbits, and goats. I can't even begin to explain the amount of respect I have for the Native Americans and later settlers who ground their own corn. Even with the convinience of a modern hand cranked sheller, grinding corn by hand is no easy prospect; four times through the mill for grits, five times for meal, and it's still a bit "gritty". But the taste is fantastic, rich, nutty, real corn flavor, the addition of Tuxpeno germplasm adds something that I just can't quite pinpoint at the momnent in terms of taste. Right now the freezer is stacked with over 50 lbs of meal and grits and we had a wonderful serving of Amanda Palmer grits with fried rabbit last night, some of the best grits I've ever had, certainly better than anything you'll ever find at the store.

I'm also exceptionally pleased with the agronomic performance of this new synthetic population, lots of strong, stiff stalks, many prolific (2 ears or more stalks), large ears, good cool and wet soil germination, and excellent drought tolerance. Granted this is the first year for the inter maraige of these varieties, but the potential for some truly amazing future varieties is here. This is the field corn sister of my Astronomy Domine sweet corn. I've noticed a definite preference by the turkeys for red kernels and tuxpeno influenced kernels, more to come on that soon.

Above you can also a pic from last week of the corn crib, it's a bit more full than that now, the storage room for the corn/feed alone makes all the trouble of taking it down and putting it back up well worth while, later this fall we will be buying about 20-40 bushels of OP corn from a friend. Next season we hopefully will not have to buy any supplimentary feed.

Our goal is to allow the Amanda Palmer genepool and the Kiva turkey genepool to co-evolve with one another. Feeding the turkeys and ourselves the corn, recycling the cobs into turkey bedding, composting the bedding and manure, using the compost for AP fertilizer, and saving the seeds from AP for replanting, eating the turkeys; this is true self sufficient farming.

In the top picture you can see an outstanding Edamame Soybean selection which showed outstanding production qualities, we have been saving seed from our huge Edamame grex over the past few days as well, selecting the most productive and disease tolerant plants we find, we have been in drought for the last month and a half so drought tolerance and stress is already there and these were planted on completely unamended red clay, so low soil fertility is also automatically selected for. I also snaped a quick picture of one of the Rio Grande wild turkeys checking things out while I pick the edamame pods.

Evaluating and storing corn seed.

Pictured above are from top to bottom: New blue clamp down barrels for long term, waterproof seed storage. Until we get a new root cellar/storm shelter built this fall/next spring two of these with large duplicate samples of our new varieties and some of the rarer Open Pollinated types will find their way into the ground for long term seed storage.

Second: drought stressed and low fertility stressed, but viable and incredibly diverse Astronomy Domine sweet corn

Third: Amanda Palmer (early variant) seed ears. Shelled these off for seed earlier today, got a huge blister on my thumb as a reward as well as about 20 lbs of seed. Two more later variant patches and a pure UK tuxpeno patch still are standing waiting to be evaluated for seed and harvested for turkey feed stored in the new corn crib.

Still wanting to trade corns, read posts below this one for the downlow.

"Astronomy Domine" Year 5 variations.

Here you can see some particularly interesting new variation in the Astronomy Domine landrace as it enters it's fifth year. As time allows I will compile a new pedigree for this composite as it has grown substantially since I last published one, we are now up amongst 170 varieties and counting with some new germplasm added this past season including old OP varieties from Native Seeds/SEARCH, Gatersleben, Dan and Val Mcmurray, ARS GRIN, and some modern SE and SE+ varieties.

The smaller squat ears are from an experimental plot planted sans any type of fertilizer on the worst piece of ground on the farm, nearly all heavy red clay, with no irrigation (the Cheese Pumpkin and Seminole X Cheese crosses were planted here and in the same way as well). The seed was planed April 1'st and survived flooding, frost, cold and wet soil, dry soil and several days of extrodinarily high temperatures for our region. The plants were stunted and all were less that 5 feet tall with many topping out at around three feet! Despite these obsitcles we were able to get many plants to produce one and sometimes two smallish ears which give us access to a suite of diverse genes which we feel will strengthen the overall genepool of the end product with some astounding tolerances.

Oh yeah, notice those green kernels? :) Getting there! Make no mistake about the diversity of those small ears though, I guarantee you there is more diversity here in this picture alone than in all of the holdings of sweet corn attributable to Seed Savers Exchange. Survival food at it's best.

The large yellow ears are from another low fertility plot and were contirbuted by the cross of Astronomy Domine to Incredible, NK199, Bodacious, and a couple of other modern yellow sweet types. The one cylandrical "perfect" ear will become a breeding plot of it's own next season, others will be bulked with seed from the previous two seasons, contributors sending seed back and the fresh harvest from the many other plots this season. Seed will be available through the Face Of The Earth Seed CSA.

Breeding for bio-regions and fighting multi-nationals!

I've been doing a bit of research as of late on many old corn lines and newly developed ones, of course along the way I might finds something incredibly awesome about squash, tomatoes, turnips, watermelons, strawberries, fruit trees, or any number of other things which might derail my chosen subject of "obsession" at the moment. Either way, it's all about how deep down the rabbit hole you choose to go and while scrounging through a particularly fruitful shelf within that rabbit hole I came accross an amazing web-site dealing with the Oscar H. Will seed company. I have discused this company in the past on the blog, particularly their connection to the Native Americans and the varieties of seed which were given to Oscar Will by the natives of North Dakota, but I knew very little of both the man and his son (the future heri to the company) and their personal struggles.

This article gave me some insight:
http://history.nd.gov/exhibits/gardening/ddvegetables1.html

It's nice to know that there were other kindred souls out there struggling not just with producing seed and breeding seed but also with the "human condition" in general, it gave me hope and inspiration for which I have put to good use with my work.

It's really amazing to me to think that Oscar H. Will, James J.H. Gregory and Luther Burbank all three walked this earth and worked specifically within their diverse bio-regions at the same time. Wow, is such geneious to be found now, I know it is, just got to motivate some of these guys to get their stuff out there in the open a little more "efficiently".

Anyhow, as with many plant breeders, it is obvious that I have borrowed many of the genetics in my "Astronomy Domine" line directly from Oscar H. Will (via the Mandan Indians) by way of Nuetta and Sunshine sweet corns, and probably others. As we speak I am looking for a definitive list of varieties which were introduced via his famous seed house.

I really enjoyed reading most of all about his descriptions of varieties as well as his overal description of the work presented in his catalog. The use of "key words" like hardiness, cold tolerance, resistance, almost metaphorical in their meaning in certain ways speaks to me and my work using metaphorical alchemy to describe what I wish to do.

People often ask us, Kim and Myself, why we have such and impetetus on breeding, I have addressed this many times in my writing and have written many unique articles about the why's and hows, but people don't always seem to "get it". They don't understand why we go through the trials and tribulations involved when they have come to the understanding that "so many good varieties already exist", and they are right, there are many amazing heirloom and OP varieties, but what they don't realize is that none of these varieties is "static". Evolution never stops, every time you save seed you are making a selection, even if only subconciously, but more importantly you are adapting that variety to your location.

The real reasons why we persue plant breeding have a lot to do with room for improvement, there are amazing old varieties out there, many tailored to our particular bio-region here in the mid-west/Ohio Valley region but often times they are under productive or fall to the various weather related diseases, sometimes they are incredibly bottlenecked via genetics (IE. Inbred) and most of all they may not fit my tastes, nor the tastes of my customers. Of course we are also dealing with a dynamic and changing environment (wether natural or manmade; global warming or cooling) and of course the conspiracy theorist in me is always preparing for things to get FUBAR, as we all should be. Most of all I love exploring, I love adapting things, being creative, selecting for unique adaptations.

I have in just 6 seasons created lines adapted to incredibly low fertility, high and low PH, cool soil germination, powdery mildew tolerance, drought, flood conditions and more, and all of it relied on both the old OP varieties and modern hybrids as sources of germplasm. Grex/Mix/Landrace/Genepool, they all mean the same thing, but what they ultimately give us is an amazing amount of diversity and an assurance of abundance in the hardes of times, in the worst of conditions, an extended cropping system, advanced disease and environmental tolerances, an assurance that we can, when we need to be, be self sufficient farmers, stewards of seed, earth, and human life. With these seeds we also make a powerful statement to the powers that be in this world, to the Monsantos, the Syngentas, to the elements of government and beyond that seek to control us and domesticate us like "Chattel". We will not ever "Die Born".

We recently made the move to dedicate our lives and our business; Bishop's Homegrown: Face Of The Earth Seed soley to the breeding and introduction of incredibly diverse and yet completely reliable landraces of vegetables, fruits, nursery stock, chickens, guineas, turkeys, and more. A decision I won't regret, if only for the fact that I have come to realize that devoting my life soley to selling produce (which I will continue on a smaller scale, focusing on a CSA and taking extras to market) will not accomplish what we seek in this world in the way of forging connections to the earth and to The Real by way of our varieties and Gnosis with other people. No, I think a traveling seedsman is a fine thing to be, a traveling sustainable extension office is even better, it also at least makes us a moving target for the powers that be. Ultimately we would love to inspire others in other bio-regions to become interested in becoming plant breeders and then seedsman and teachers. To some extent that is a success, some thanks to our doing and some thanks to their own god given instincts. Joseph Lofthouse is one of those fellows, John Grahm another. There are lots of them, if you want to become one I suggest checking out alanbishop.proboards60.com where you can find tons of information and like minds.


One thing I would like to say to the myriad of trust fund, do it yourself type hippies currently trying to enter the world of self sustainability, even if you don't breed, save your seeds. If you aren't saving seeds you are part of the problem, not part of the solution, as you ignorance of the stewardship of life is overlooking the very most important part of the equation. I get tired of having that conversation with certain people all the time, just remember for all of your anti-Monsanto rage, you keep buying seeds and they will become more interested in them and they will "own" them if only to control you and your "exploits". Your not part of the club, but your so close, make the leap.



I was also doing some research in regards to modern field corn breeding. No, not Mosterous breeding like that done by Monsanto and the He Who Walks Behind The Rows Monsanto blog, but true, time tested, safe, traditional plant breeding, both for animal feed as well as for human consumption and came accross an interesting article about a breeder I hadn't heard of before, possibly because his main aim is geared towards farming, but all of us should be breeders. You can find the article here:
http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/features/2005/0205/specht/index.shtml

It's always awesome to see someone bettering their vison of the world through truly self sustainable farming.

"We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of the dreams!"

"All I need is a tall ship and a star to sail her by!"

This year we made an amazing grex/mix/genepool of some terrific OP corns with a UK Tuxpeno base. Tuxpeno gives us the dent/flint characteristics we are looking for while also allowing us the diversity and compatibility to intergress characteristics from the older southern dents. We have also learned that our Turkey flock prefers Tuxpeno over traditional southern dents and the rate of gain is greatly increased. Come fall when we release the "Grand Bazzar" you will find five new "composite/synthetic" corn varieties of amazing diversity, including one which contains genes from Kculi (maize morado). This past weekend we made inroads into the amish communities via these very seed sources with orders for "plot bags" of seed in the pipeline as the Amish too are trying to escape the tenticles of "bio-tech".

In coming years (now that we have increased initial seed stock) we will allow room for expeimentation in crosses between some of the more "elite" lines of parch, flour, and mostly waxy endosperm corns.


Finally, tying all this together I came accross a terrifying Monanto video via God Like Productions, I don't have a link for an inbed so I am simply copying and pasting the link to the actual forum thread with imbedded video. I warn you, some of the posts on the thread and at god like productions in general are "out there", some are BS, some are people making jokes, some are actually informative if you know where to look.

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message567279/pg1

I will live to see the day that bio-tech fails, probably the same day the people wake up to the manipulation of our everyday world by the powers that be.

Signs of Progress! Face of the earth landraces.

C. Pepo Chromatica (ornamental edible mix). This one is the result of five years, genes from my own collections as well as from friends from Homegrown Goodness and the contributions of the Long Island Seed Project. Produces every year regardless of circumstance and has been consistently trialed in low soil fertility on heavy red clay with zero irrigation! Normally there are many more "mini-pumpkin"/"baby boo" types to be seen, and in the second harvest I will get a picture of those as well. Very diverse landrace type with excellent flavor and not overly stringy like most C. Pepo's.

The buff colored C. Moshata type to the right is an F4 generation cross between choctaw sweet potato and Long Island Cheese. Very productive, drought tolerant, and reliable with excellent texture, flavor, and moisture content.
A particularly nice variation from the genepool/landrace Chromatica group. "Lemon Marang" which has been self pollinated.
Early pre-drydown samples of "Amanda Palmer" dent corn, a new broad based synthetic/genepool/landrace with a foundation of UK Tuxpeno and contributions from Lancaster Sure Crop, Bloody Butcher, Boone County White, Johnson County White, Reids Yellow Dent, JF3, Tennesee Red Cob, Daemon Morgans Kentucky Butcher, Kculi, Oneida White Flour, and many others. Those pictured above are the earliest to approach maturity with the twon on the far left being self pollinated drought tolerant Tuxpeno and the 6 on the right showing various pollen influences.

More to come soon.....