Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

Personally, I have an interest in biology and nature - everything is so complex and interconnected!

I would say that many people here have an interest in learning "how things work" that isn't limited to just computers.

In San Francisco there is an absolutely amazing vegan japanese restaurant. https://www.yelp.com/biz/cha-ya-san-francisco-san-francisco-...

I googled for "french vegan food" and found this: https://veggievagabonds.com/best-traditional-french-vegan-re...

For chinese food I would imagine there is a lot of traditional vegan food. Tofu for example originated in China. For lots of chinese dishes with meat, something like Tempeh or Seitan make great traditional foods that can substitute meat.

I googled "chinese vegan food" and found this: https://thewoksoflife.com/traditional-chinese-vegan-dishes/

The thing to keep in mind is that veganism is very common in parts of the world where the right crops grow well. So indian food is full of vegan and vegetarian options like dal (lentils).

One of the things you can do is just get to know the traditional plant proteins like lentils, tempeh, seitan, and tofu. Go find some tempeh at the store, unmarinated. Slice it in to long thin fries, and pan fry them in some olive oil. Brown them on all sides, then add salt. Some super tasty fries that will make you want more. Now next time you cook tempeh do the same thing but cut it in to small cubes. You can add that on top of anything in place of meat and it will be very satisfying.

Then learn to cook tofu and seitan. Eventually you will become familiar enough with them to plan dishes with them.

And for me I found that adding peanut sauce is an easy way to make things tastier. So experiment with that!

A lot of people in tech have diversified jobs and the community has a lot of valuable insights on a wide range of subjects.

An couple of examples:

- SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16319505 )

- Is that ship still stuck? ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26585282 )

And many more...

In this case, I'd say that soil depletion is a known problem here and the article discussed that.

The soil on our croft is in a good way, having been left undisturbed for decades (aside from being cut for hay). However, we still need to build fertility and are doing so through compost, ramial woodchip and biodynamic preparations. This combined with a no-till (or minimum till) approach is helping to develop build soil and enhance soil structure. One issue we need to address with this is water management, as it can get very wet here (although we are a few weeks without rain now).

For keeping track of fertility in your soil a simple test that many people do is measure organic matter. This isn't something I've done yet. You can also do worm counts. And more detailed soil tests.

There are apps out there such as SoilMentor by Vidacycle that guide you in tracking this. Here's a good overview of their tests, which can be done by farmers on site with minimal equipment https://soils.vidacycle.com/soil-tests/

You can get a sense of the baseline when starting a project by doing this. But a good indicator would be looking at what plants are growing there already (if any) - weeds etc are indicators of soil characteristics. For example, compaction and drainage.

Personally I haven't taken any soil tests yet, I'm just keeping an eye on our crops and getting the sense of things that way. I'll take some tests at some point soon. Simple approaches to this can be pretty handy, for example I've been scything our 2 acre field and it allows me to step over each part of the field noticing how the vegetation changes species-wise and in vigor.

Supporting this, I'm also developing an app for market gardens to use for crop planning and record keeping. It's great to be your own customer, plus I'm tapping into a good network of established markets gardens here who are helping to shape the product.

I recommend anyone starting a project should read Mark Shepard's new book Water For Any Farm. His master line system, built upon PA Yeoman's keyline and scale of permanence is valuable, especially at an early stage. Equally valuable in dry climates as it is in wet ones.