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061 – Up-Leveling Calorie Production Per Square Foot With Azolla
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Today’s episode came out of a Permies.com thread on Carnivore Homesteading. The seed questions for the thread was, for those of us enjoying the benefits of a carnivore lifestyle, how can we produce more high-quality animal-based calories for our own consumption from well designed and integrated systems at the homestead scale.
Basically, there are three main focal points that need attention here:
- First and foremost we need to maximize is the number of calories grown per unit area (per acre, per square foot, per roof, whatever space one has) if we are to be eating primarily animal products coming from our own properties. This means optimizing the landscape/whateverscape to the fullest extent possible to maximize our use of those freely available resources that go into growing and producing calories – namely water, light, and soil minerals.
- Second, we need to optimize the distribution of those calories throughout the year (this includes preserving seasonal oversupply/abundance for leaner times) such that high quality nutrition is available to whatever form of livestock we might be keeping or tending.
- Third – select and stack livestock species that are appropriately suited to the given unique context (i.e. ruminants where pasture forages are plentiful, fish/water fowl/invertebrates where water is plentiful etc). Generally, at least in my own limited experience, that when faced with a repetitive task or “problem” that has to be backfilled with my own labor/time/energy, I’m almost always missing an additional living system – i.e. the solution almost always seems to be to “add more life”.
With these focal areas in mind, we arrive at azolla – an incredibly productive free-floating aquatic fern that fixes its own atmospheric nitrogen, yields a high-protein vegetative crop that can be harvested DAILY, is incredibly simple to grow and propagate indefinitely for almost no cost after the initial system set up, and can be stored fed to practically all classes of livestock, fresh or dried!
Azolla truly is a super plant, and if you haven’t come across it – or even if you have – this one deserves your attention. It, along with other highly productive and nutritious aquatic vegetable crops, deserve a spot on the roster in your homestead production systems – especially if you’re trying to raise nutrient dense animal products for your own final consumption!
In this episode we will discuss…
- General plant characteristics – what makes Azolla so darn special
- Azolla’s history in agriculture as well as its significant role in creating the current earth climate.
- Livestock pallatibility – cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, fish, worms, insects – you name it, it’ll probably eat azolla!
- Digestibility
- Growing Requirements – light, temperature, humidity, ph, salinity, nutrition, pests – everything you need to know to set up a successful azolla growing environment
- Propagation Methods – different small-scale systems for growing azolla on the homestead
- Harvesting and processing
- Other Applications of azolla beyond animal feed
- and more!
Show Resources
- https://www.feedipedia.org/node/565
- https://www.agrifarming.in/azolla-farming-project-report
- https://theazollafoundation.org/
- https://permies.com/t/40/226880/Carnivore-Homesteading#2060792
- Takota Coen VIDEO – How he uses duckweed to feed pigs, chickens and cows on his family farm – the same process will work for azolla
- ~Epi-13 – DIY Charcoal and Biochar For Home Use
- ~Epi-59 – Sovereign Food Systems: Pantry Ponds For Perennial Food Production
Need some help getting the “birds eye view” of your property and its surrounds to help you design your sovereign homestead?
Check out our Hi-Definition Contour Base Map package. This package includes:
- Hi-definition LiDAR contour map layer (contour lines can spaced at whatever scale you desire – as tight as 1 foot or less if you desire).
- Aspect Map Layer – color-code your entire property by which direction it faces – very helpful in identifying ideal growing zones and microclimates for specific plantings.
- Hillshade Layer – for easily visualizing landform across your entire property.
- Slope Layer – color-code your entire property based on the % grade – very helpful for access planning, living systems establishment and site selection for buildings etc.
Deliverables include:
- Hi-definition .jpeg or .pdf of your entire property and/or its contributing watersheds, at whatever size you desire (if you wish to print a poster and have it laminated as an iterative design tool images can be generated at whatever size the poster shop will print).
- .KML file of the contour lines for importing and 3D viewing in Google Earth Pro (free to download) – this is a very helpful and accessible design tool.
We also offer consulting calls if you need some design help or a fresh perspective – see the Virtual Property Design Review for details.
Getting started designing your homestead?
START HERE: Enroll in the Minimum Holistic Goal Creation Mini-Course today for free. This is the ONE THING that will make everything else easier or unnecessary on your homesteading journey! 100% Free
Upon completing this course you will have a crystal clear idea of who and what resources you have to work with, your desired Quality of Life that your homestead has to provide for, and what you will need to produce and the conditions required to sustain that production to meet your Quality of Life needs.
