Farming Concepts/Techniques, Part 1
Here at Keller Crafted Meats, we are proud to sell humanely raised, non GMO meat online. When it comes to farming, we know we are standing on the shoulders of giants; our ancestors have been perfecting farming techniques for millennia. To celebrate all of the farmers who came before us, here are some farming concepts and techniques from ancient times.
Chinampa
The Chinampa field farming system is a type of raised field agriculture that can be used in wetlands and on the edges of lakes. It was used by Native Americans as early as the 10th century AD, and is still in use by small farmers sporadically in some areas. In this system, nutrient rich canal muck is packed on top of layers of dead vegetation to create chinampas, which yield extremely high amounts of crops per land unit. The water fed into the canals from the wetland/lake then acts as a source of natural irrigation.
Mixed Cropping
If you drive on any random farm today, you'll likely find a monocultural system, where only one type of crop is grown on a plot of land. Mixed cropping, or polyculture, is the practice of planting two or more types of crops or plants on a unit of land. Mixed cropping and rotation cropping were the primary agriculture methods of the past, only giving away to monocultural systems with the rise of the industrial agriculture complex. Mixed cropping is not only argued to be more efficient by its proponents, but it ensures soil stays nutrient rich, and comes with a host of environmental benefits.
Slash and Burn
Slash and burn agriculture is a polarizing issue in modern farming circles, with proponents saying it can help preserve natural forests, and detractors saying that it destroys them. However, it has been a common form of agriculture in many civilizations. In slash and burn farming methods, multiple fields are rotated based on a planting cycle. A farmer will plant on one field for one or two years, then move on to a new field and let the last one lay fallow for a few seasons. Before they shift to a new field, the farmer will cut or burn down the fallow growth in it. Hence the phrase "slash and burn agriculture".
Shieling
In ancient Scandinavia, the climate was too hard to raise livestock via conventional methods. So they came up with the shieling system. In this system, livestock was taken to shielings, simple animal stables, in summer pastures from May to September, when the warm weather allowed it. However, for the rest of the year animals would be taken to individual homesteads, where they would subsist until summer brought better grazing.
Hopefully this article proved informative. We think it is truly amazing how far farming techniques have come, and we are proud to be on the cutting edge when it comes to nutrient rich, non GMO meat. If you are looking to order these delectable meats online, they are available at your earliest convenience, and will be shipped right to your door! Please feel free to give us a call if you have any questions about our product or delivery. One of our friendly and knowledgeable representatives will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
