Originally published August 30 2005
Land use lessons from the 17th century
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A BBC documentary offers lessons to be learned from 17th-century farming practices.
The BBC series Tales from the Green Valley follows historians and archaeologists as they recreate farm life from the age of the Stuarts.
They wear the clothes, eat the food and use the tools, skills and technology of the 1620s.
It was a time when daily life was a hard grind, intimately connected with the physical environment where routines were dictated by the weather and the seasons.
That was simply not possible in the past - not only did the neighbours provide social contact, people shared labour, specialist skills and produce.
It was nigh on impossible to run a 1620s farm single-handedly, and the family - either blood relatives, or a farmer, his wife and hired help - had to be multi-skilled.
Washing clothes in stream, Tales from the Green Valley photo The secret to clean clothes?
"They scattered herbs on the floor which released scent when trodden on - this drove out flies and other insects," says Ms Goodman.
This was because a sheep's wool quality plunges after eight years - thus animals of that age were killed after their final fleece was removed.
"Corsets support your back as well as your chest, and don't leave red welts on your skin like bra elastic does.
While the developed world no longer counts the cost of crop failure in starvation and mass migration - the result of Ireland's Great Potato Famine in 1845 - the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis decimated farms up and down the country as animals, the farmers' livelihoods, were put to death.
The 1620s farm had grains, fruit and vegetables, and a range of animals - if one failed, alternatives were available.
10. No pesticides means a richer variety of birds, butterflies and other insects, many of which feast on pests - a result as desirable for the gardener as the farmer.
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