Monday, August
6, 2007 11:11 AM
Garden pics - 2 sets - the first was in the middle of June and the
second set at the beginning of August.
Here I
was in late June finally seeing the corn taking off. The corn
is open pollinated Golden Bantam. |
 |
| All the
bare area is covered by grass straw for mulch. |
Better
shot of the garden in July with the radishes on strong. |
Then above, now (August 6th) below!
Yesterday
- I have about 1/2 of the mature radishes pulled out - I'm
saving the seed as they are open pollinated. Below you can
see the seed pods.
Right: This is one of the 5 little milpa hills. A milpa is
a hump of soil with corn in the middle, climbing beans around
them, and squash around those three. The beans provide nitrogen
to the corn, the corn something for the beans to climb on
and the squash leaves deter small four legged pests because
they don't feel good. |
 |
Above,
one of the bean pods. I probably could have waited longer
for them to dry out, but I wanted the row to put in more
food, so I pulled them up whole. That way the roots and
the plant will mature the seeds as it dries out. I'll compare
these seeds for look and germination with the seed I saved
in the original packet.
On the
right you see the back I've stuck the seed pods into to
be hung in the dark (which I forgot to do and will do when
I get back to TJs house). |
 |
Here TJ and I removed all the radishes and I replanted the
row with spinach that I had soaked for 1/2 hour in water.
I planted at two depths to help with what I think will be
difficult germination in this heat. |
Left, I planted spinach which is a cool weather crop. This
area is shaded and the tomatos and carrots will provide more
shade. I'm trying a trick I learned from Jan's permiculture
tour, that is, to plant the seeds, water heavily and then
cover the rows with cardboard to keep the moisture in contact
with the new seeds. When the seeds begin to sprout I will
remove the white cardboard. (thanks to Linda for the cardboard). |
I've also been putting in food, trying to have a year's worth
of dehydrated and dry food. I also carry 5 years worth of a complete
garden vacuum packed in nitrogen. I could only use a few of the
choices this year from one of the cans as I was late getting started.
However the carrots, beans, corn and winter squash plants you
see above came from those one of those cans. I could have planted
5 times the area without a problem.
I bought 50
lbs or Montana hard wheat last week, and Rick found a grain grinder
at a garage sale, so I put the two together this weekend to make
my tortillas for Saturday night and Monday breakfast. I had to
build a good solid mount for the grinder. The grinder is a Corona
corn grinder from the 1970's that had a US conversion to stones.
It is not a high quality unit, but it did a good job on a cup
of wheat.
 |
I've gotten a little better at rolling out
the tortillas each time. I think any real tortilla maker would
be rolling on the floor. However they taste great! |
Monday, June 25, 2007 7:15 PM
It was raining Sunday (yesterday) when I took the garden pictures.
It is difficult in Oregon to shoot green against green and
green and dark. This is the little strip garden. The milpa
mounds are against the fence. Closest to the camera, the beginnings
of carrots, radishes, tomato and pepper, lots of mulch, corn,
beans and squash just planted. |
Despite my efforts to kill off the 3 little pepper plants,
this one is bravely making flowers. |
You're looking over one of the tomato supports down the
radish row.
All
varieties can have their seed saved, they are heirloom varieties,
not hybrids.
|
 This
is the second milpa before I accidentally burnt up two of
the little guys in a fire. No, I won't explain at this time.
You can see corn and one bean. I've replanted the beans and
squash went in about 3 days ago. |
The raspberry
row is surviving and several of the canes are thriving. Behind
them I've planted cilantro and Romaine lettuce. The lettuce
is peaking up, but just a few of the cilantro. |
The blueberries are magnificently suited to
this pine needle soil - they love acid soils - and the are
filled with giant berries. All six plants are doing well,
and I'll be doing layering from them to create more plants.
|
Here you can see the fat blueberries just beginning to come
on. I'll use these horizontal shoots and touch them down
into pots, making cuts in their stems and painting them
with rooting hormone. That will give me new plants in pots
for next year, saving the 12.95/plant that I paid this year.
Right:
I'm planning to air layer the apple trees to create several
more trees to go into pots during the gowning season. I'm
searching for root stock that I can find for free as every
fruit, plum, pear and apple are not grown on their own roots.
|
This is
the pollinator apple tress and it is doing very well, The
Johnnygold seems stressed to me with more leaf curl. |
Monday, June
25, 2007 7:30 PM
Phil has been wondering if I fell off the earth, as he sent his
foraging article update some time ago. If you've read the blog
this week you'll find that I'm somewhat adrift on what to write
and why. However my own work has proceeded, or should I say my
own preparations proceed despite the lack of interest of most
others. As you can see above, I've begun to remember what I used
to know on the farm and I'm adding to that. I'm putting in on
TJ's place food stuffs that will grow and produce for many years.
The strip garden is to produce some nice vegetables for TJ, I
and his neighbor, but the main reason is to harvest further seeds
for drying and storing for planting. The berries and trees will
continue to be expanded as possible throughout the year and the
preparation for the larger garden will continue.
Personally I've been buying cheap CB radios and learning more
about how to set up a small local voice communication network
for the coming time when cell is down and out. Also, since I produce
all my electricity through solar and more than I need while the
sun shines, I've been looking at wind again, and while I think
anyone without solar should start there, wind is a choice for
Oregon in the winter should I find myself no longer a sundog,
and more of a Oregon muddog, after the collapse. Small scale wind
generation has shown some rapid improvement at slow wind speeds
and at the homebrew level thanks to a lot of great work by the
Australians and New Zealanders. Do it yourself is definitely not
dead down there.
Gary has a good article on his website about concrete domes which
you can find linked from the first page of my blog,
on the right - it is called The Daily Pill.
Below you'll find Phil Churchill's latest update on his foraging
and health.
| Wild
Foods 3
Had my annual physical on June 13. My cholesterol has dropped
from 238 to 155. Most of the change was in the LDL cholesterol,
it dropped by nearly 60% and my HDL cholesterol has risen
a few points. My triglycerides have dropped also, from 247
to 134. My blood pressure is now 116 over 65. I've lost
14 pounds since the 2nd of May. Its hard to say how much
of the change is due to foraging for most of my food since
my last cholesterol check was in October. My doctor wanted
to know what medication I was taking, since according to
him, diet alone would not create that much difference. I
had difficulty getting him to believe that I'm not on any
medications.
I
haven't added many new plants to the menu. I'm still eating
lots of dandelion, amaranth, chickweed, lambs quarters,
and mallow for greens along with clover and alfalfa leaves.
Most roots have gotten too tough and fibrous though I can
still find tender burdock roots. The cattail pollen heads
are available right now, so I've eaten quite a few of them.
I'm still finding a few burdock and bullthistle flowerstalks
that haven't flowered yet.
On
a recent fishing trip I found enough wild strawberries to
fill a quart bag and I also found several scurf peas or
prairie turnips. I don't find them very often and when I
do they're usually not very plentiful. Hard to believe that
100 years ago they were one of the most common plants around
but modern farming practices have greatly reduced them.
I dug a dozen of the tubers which are about the size of
a radish. Normally I would have left them but I counted
around 75 plants so a dozen wouldn't harm the population
too much. I boiled them for about 30 minutes and ate them
like potatoes.
I
go fishing once a week and have no problem catching enough
fish for 5 or 6 meals. I would probably be considered a
"trash" fisherman because I keep carp, buffalo
fish, gar, suckers, drum and other so-called "trash"
fish. I don't believe there are any fish that are trash,
just as I don't believe there are any plants that are weeds.
I have found that all fish are excellent eating if properly
prepared. People that think they are "sportsmen"
because they only fish for or eat certain species to me
are simply too lazy to learn how to cook. Well that's about
all for now.
Philip
Wild
Foods 4
June 22 2007 Foraging has become more difficult this past
week due to the start of county and state spraying programs.
Many of the areas I like to forage in have been sprayed with
either herbicides to control "weeds" or with pesticides
to control mosquitoes. Roadsides, fence rows and lakeshores
are now off limits for foraging due to the risk of being poisoned.
I'm also leery of wooded areas because the fog type pesticides
used for mosquitoes can drift for several hundred feet beyond
their release area.
So now
I'm restricted to areas that I know have not been sprayed.
Which at present time is the 20 acre area I'm camped at.
It will limit the number of usable plant species to 8 or
10. While there are more species available, it would be
easy to wipe many of them out over the summer foraging in
such a small area. Fortunately, I should be able to start
harvesting some vegetables out of the garden in late July
with more coming in August. I may have to buy a few things
this next month until the garden starts producing. Philip
|
Sunday, June 3, 2007 9:06 PM
Busy weekend of creating future food. For me the most fun I have
is doing something that actually counts.
Years from now, the apples and berries I have planted will feed
someone. They will be spading over a new raspberry patch in front
of this one, and the sweat will be dripping into their eyes, stinging.
The will want water but will decide instead to bite into a crunchy
Johnnygold apple. The sharp crack of the apple's flesh snapping
open and that first flood of sweet wet delight. Ahhh. I had something
to do with that future this year. Feels good.
I dug the holes for the tomatoes and pepper plants that TJ
and I would buy later in the day. Right, the radishes are
up! |
 |
Here TJ is following along behind my planting with much need
water for each of the small garden's vegetables. We planted
one hot pepper, two Bell Peppers, four Willamette tomatoes
(open pollinated 75 days). The squash will come later on the
mounds to the right after the corn has a few inches of height.
|
Preparing the raspberry row consisted of choosing a slight
shaded area to the west of a large pine and beginning the
arduous task of cutting out the sod. |
All the sod was beat in the wheelbarrow and the fiber of the
quack grass and debris put in the compost pile while the top
soil was returned to the spaded 20' row. |
I went to the neighbors, Jolene and Ron as she had offered
raspberries that have been part of her world for a very long
time - from her father to her. She had a whole corner of volunteers
and we dug them up together. |
The most fun of the hot afternoon was putting the raspberry plants
in buckets and loading them onto a real Red Flyer wagon and walking
them back to TJ's place. TJ and I gave Jolene a tour of the plantings
and then I got to folding into the row 1 bag of steer manure, rotted,
and 1.5 cu feet of outdoor planting compost from BiMart. TJ then
flooded the raspberries into their new home.
Rain has started tonight which should make all the seeds and vegetables
in the garden happy! I am having a little filmfest of a series called
Jericho that TJ put on DVD for me as a reward for my busy and physically
hard weekend. I'm such a wimp, everything is sore and if there was
someone to whine to I would make the time.
Thursday, May 31, 2007 7:11 AM
I've been working on the small garden that is on the edge of TJ's
property. In the past this has been planted, as recently as two
years ago, by his neighbor's wife. Since the big garden that we
are tarping will not be available until next year to plant, I wanted
to create a few open pollinated milpa mounds (corn, beans, squash)
for the food, for the seed (saving open pollinated seed is what
is so great), and to find out what I know that just ain't so.
The Milpa,
or the "Three Sisters", corn, beans, and squash
are a sustainable combination. The beans fix (take) nitrogen
from the air and make it available to the corn, and the squash
protects the soil by shading it, reducing the need for water.
As a food, corn lacks an essential amino acid which means
you as a human cannot build a complete protein from it. However
when you add beans in the same food dish it is complete. Some
Milpas in Mexico have been continually cultivated in the same
location for thousands of years. |
This
small garden is about 9' by 24'. I turned the garden by
hand with a shovel and left the soil to dry for a day. Then
I used TJ's small electric rototiller to break up the heavy
clay clods. Not seen in this picture I then formed hills
to the right along the fence and put 7-9 corn seeds (Golden
Bantam) in the center of each mound. I planted Kentucky
Wonder pole beans along the fence and around the sides of
the mounds. When the corn and the beans are up and stronger,
I'll plant Hubbard Squash in between the mounds and train
the vines through the fence and around the roots of the
corn and beans.
This
combination is thousands of years old and was found before
Columbus' arrival from central America to New England.
Milpas almost always have some plants besides the "three
sisters." In hotter climates, it is often chili peppers
and amaranth.
I also planted along the left edge of the garden Nantes
carrots and radishes. |
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