Around here we often talk about forming an idyllic community. We have it well established in our minds that the current economic system is all about pumping money uphill. It also tends to entrap people to keep on feeding that pump by making them totally dependent on the big system for food, fuel and housing.
The emerging answers center on shortening the economic loops; such as: we and our neighbors might raise much of our own food and fuel, and live in houses that heat themselves. Then we aren’t dependent on everything in the big system working perfectly. It is economically more efficient, healthier, and more stable. Then we deal with the big economy more for our wants, not our needs.
While chatting with Raya about how we would make a better economy and lifestyle, she asked "Can it work to live like a Hobbit and still be connected to the world?"
I answered “Yes, but we want to meet the larger economy hand in hand, not with its hand on our throat.”
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Where I live near Flagstaff is an ideal place to maintain a house with passive solar. The city has a demostration building that has no heating system -- straw bale and pasive solar.
We haven't accumulated a quarter inch of rain in the last three months but it's possible to harvest enough during the monsoons to provide an annual supply.
Food is the main question that I have yet to answer. What provides good nutrition, stores well, takes minimal water, is suited for the environment, etc. I think a beginning point to answer this question is to research Native American sources since they have survived here for centuries.
I wonder,
I have been exploring sprouts lately.
Most seeds and grains store very well.
When eaten as grain, they tend to have a lot of oil and starch. When they sprout they convert those raw calories into vegetables with a zillion more enzymes and vitamins.
The Chinese have understood this for a long time.
Check out www.sproutpeople.com for tons of info.
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