in autumn, hay bales cast long shadows on close-cropped fields
Autumn Bales [Haiku]
Reply
Tag Archives: Farming
Harvest Mind [Common Meter]
The heavy heads of lolling grain were shifting in the breeze. A harvester did chomp it down, reaping before the freeze. Now we'll stare at the naked field, feeling something 's been lost, seeing nothing but stalk stubble - stiffened and white with frost. What's culled from the harvest mind when all the fields are cleared, and dancing plants of robust grain are newly disappeared?
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Ripe Rice [Haiku]
fields of ripe rice stretch to the horizon to meet smoky skies
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
The Flood [Senryū]
a farmer surveys his new stretch of sea, mulling careers
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Ripe Rice [Haiku]
fields of ripe rice
as far as the eye can see -
sickle harvested
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Patchwork Lands [Free Verse]
patchwork in shades of green, beige, and rust-red clay geometries formed of odd angles spreading ahead to the edge of sight & imagination so many fields in so many states - yet, all in one time & place there, I felt a tad bit infinite, being stretched from a stable center in all directions as time sprawled first to last in no particular order
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Harvest Cycle [Common Meter]
The field is neat; the stalks are baled; the grain sits in baskets to be carried back home to dry on thin sheets of plastic. The chaff will be cracked from the grain so that it can be ground into flour, and baked into bread that I'll eat sans a sound as I enjoy the view.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
POEM: Fallow Field Heroics [Ottava Rima]
I wander though the fallow field.
The weeds and unintended plants
are stealing food of increased yield,
but soil is churned by worms and ants
whose labors stay subtly concealed.
It looks like nothing at a glance,
but bold heroics are afoot
to till the soil for fine output.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Agriculture & Nature Haiku
grazing sheep,
loitering head down;
what awes them?
rice terraces,
disguising man’s order
in nature’s green
ripe wheat,
bobbing in a breeze —
sea-like moves
on a range
that stretches beyond sight
but not mind
tea plantation,
a snake slithers through
amid the pickers
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
BOOK REVIEW: Food: A Very Short Introduction by John Krebs
Food: A Very Short Introduction by John R. Krebs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This volume in the Oxford University Press AVSI series examines human eating habits. The first chapter puts the human diet in the context of evolution, reflecting upon how we got where we did in terms of food consumption. Here one gains insight into where the Paleo-diet fad is flawed, and one learns how cooking had a huge influence on human evolution.
The second chapter delves into the issue of likes and dislikes in food. We see that there are species-wide commonalities, but there are also differences both at an individual and cultural group level. e.g. Why is spice so common in the tropics and so rare in the great white north?
The third chapter looks at the ways food can do us in and what we’ve done – besides [and including] the aforementioned cooking – to reduce the threat of food gone awry. The penultimate chapter examines nutrition and how we get what we need from food.
The last chapter takes a bit of a turn, but investigates the fascinating topic of how (and whether) we will continue to feed our species. Readers will likely remember the name Malthus from either history or economics classes. He was an economist who suggested humanity was in dire straits, vis-à-vis food. Malthus noticed that population was growing geometrically while agricultural output grew arithmetically, and he reasonably noted that this was unsustainable. Of course, Malthus failed to foresee the huge technological advances from fertilizer to mechanization. However, that doesn’t make his concerns forever moot – perhaps just tardy. It remains far from clear whether the limited land space and resources can take billions more humans – especially without killing off all the other species. (Especially, if we aren’t willing to give up eating resource-intensive foods like cow in favor of less intensive one’s like grasshopper.)
The book has some graphics as well as both a “references” and a “further reading” section.
If you’re interested in food in a general sense, I’d recommend this as a great way to take in the outline of the topic.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 