Be Fruitful and Multiply

The weather here in the south is crazy! Last week the temperature dropped to 16º. 3 days later it was 70º and has been for the last several days. Next week who knows. Spring will probably come in a rush now. The nanking cherry will probably be blooming by the end of this week. The brassicas we planted last fall are now bolting to seed.
Now we are in a rush to do any transplanting, pruning and dividing before it is too late. Today we divided the thyme, marjoram and oregano to finish out their respective beds. We have a couple of giant fig trees in front of the barn. I guess they must have been planted by the original owners back in the 70's. They have been neglected over the years so the low branches came in contact with the ground and took root. I need to get the big old things back in shape so i used my dingo to dig out some of the large rooted branches that are too close to the drive. I can now have access to the main trees to prune and pick the fruit. I got 2 smaller transplants that went into the front garden to complete the row i started along the street last year. The biggest one i moved with the dingo into a bed of daylilies. The fig clump has a wild grape vine growing in the middle of it so in one fell swoop we turned a bed with single type of edible plant into a 3-dimensional polyculture.
Permaculture in action!

Organic Gardening Workshop

One of our main goals here at the Funny Farm is to teach others how to do what we do. We started our first workshop series yesterday. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day; a perfect beginning! We have 10 people eager to learn how to grow some of their own food the natural way. Most have made some attempt to grow some vegetables but are unfamiliar with organic techniques. We are taking them through the whole process over the 6 week session. We began with the soil. We described the soil food web; what it is; what the organisms are that are essential to making it work; how you manage, support and nurture them. We looked at slides of them and everyone got a turn looking in the microscope to see first hand the abundance of life working diligently under our feet to support the plants that nurture us.
It is tremendously satisfying to me to be able to share the knowledge and experiences i have accumulated over my 30+ years growing organically.
I feel blessed!

Local = Seasonal

I was at a gathering of the Lady Rogue Business Network recently and I was spouting off as usual about growing food, local food systems, etc. During a break, one of the other members told me that she is considering joining a CSA and that she was interested in eating more seasonal food but she had know idea what foods were available in any particular season. I was a bit taken aback by this at first but, as i thought about it, i realized that since most people have no experience with farms or even gardens there is really no way for them to know unless they do some research. My first thought was that to help her i could make her a list of local fruits and vegetables in each season but i quickly saw the flaw in this. 

Here it is. Suppose she looked at my list and saw that apples are in season now. She decides to get some apples and bake an apple pie. She goes to the grocery store and buys some apples, some agave nectar, some cinnamon and a pie crust and goes home and makes a delicious pie. She invites some friends over, serves the pie and proudly tells them that they are eating a pie made with seasonal fruit. Well what she didn't know was that the apples she used were much more likely to have been grown in Washington, or New York or New Zealand than Georgia. Some stores are now labeling their produce with the location in which it was grown but you still have to make the connection between local and seasonal.

I think that most people use "seasonal" as a synonym for "local" but as we saw in the example above that may not be the case. I think that the term "seasonal" has become part of the lexicon mainly through "foodie culture" (i hate that word by the way). It sounds cooler to say "seasonal" and is used as a marketing tool by chefs and restaurants. Any vegetable or fruit that is available is in season wherever it was grown. The issue is the amount of energy required to transport the food over long distances. On average food travels 1500 miles from the place it is grown to the place where it is consumed. So, i have concluded that the term seasonal is irrelevant and muddies the water for those who are not immersed in food culture. We need to be sure our words clearly convey the meaning we intend them to. 

Local = seasonal but seasonal does not always equal local.

12º in the Morning

I asked some horticulture friends of mine yesterday if they could remember the last time the temperature dropped to 12º in Atlanta. None of us could but we figured it had to be at least 15 years ago. We are not used to this any more. We are used to being able to have fresh greens growing in the ground all winter long with minimal or no protection. Earlier in December we had some lows in the low 20's. I covered most of the greens with frost cloth. Some were left with out any cover. Both the covered and uncovered plants came through just fine. Just before Christmas the temperature plummeted to 18º. I got lazy and didn't cover anything. I paid the price. The greens took a beating, the broccoli was ruined and the lettuce wiped out.
In the morning it will be around 12-15º. It is not expected to get much above freezing for a couple of days. I learned my lesson. I covered the recovering greens with frost cloth yesterday while the air, and the soil was still relatively warm. Today it will not get over about 35º. My theory is that by covering yesterday i am trapping as much soil warmth as possible to help protect the plants over the next few days. Do i think my efforts will save the greens? I'm doubtful but Monday we will see.
Will we have to start buying greens and other vegetables from the coop or grocery store? Nope. We have carrots growing. They are covered and will be fine. In our cold frame we have been growing mixed asian greens, lettuce, pea shoots and perennial onions in pots.(these i moved into the basement yesterday afternoon where they will remain until this spate of cold passes on). We have vegetables frozen and canned just for such a occasion.
Tomorrow i'll be working in the basement planting seeds for our early spring crops.
BBrrrr!

Garlic and Cover crops

I soak my garlic in rain water (or compost tea if i have it) for 24 hours before planting. Doing so hydrates the cloves and signals them to wake up and start growing. I did it this past Monday in anticipation of planting on Tuesday but the temperature dropped into the low 20's (extreme for November here in Georgia) so I had to postpone the planting until today. I didn't want them to rot so Tuesday I drained off the water and covered the container to retain the humidity and keep the cloves hydrated. When i got them out to separate the cloves this morning many had started to grow roots and shoots! They were eager to get on with their jobs of turning, air, water, light and minerals into health-giving food.
I planted them about 4 " apart in soil that i tilled lightly. I just hold the cloves in my fingers and push them into the soil a couple of inches deep. Last fall i bought enough bulbs to plant an acre when i only had a couple of hundred square feet of beds dedicated to garlic. I ended up planting some in beds that had been recently seeded with clover and rye for a cover crop. Much to my surprise this spring, the garlic was growing well among the cover crop and ended up producing very nice bulbs. So this time i over-seeded the beds with new zealand white clover that i inoculated with nitrogen producing bacteria.

Since this was the first year growing a garden here at the Funny Farm much of the soil is not yet in the best condition. Some of the beds have produced 2-3 crops this year. In parts of the garden the soil is still lacking in organic matter so i am concentrating on improving the soil this fall and winter before planting crops next spring. In the worst beds i tilled in 4" of fresh horse manure (we get it free from the Atlanta Mounted Police Patrol stables) and sowed clover and rye which I will till in next spring. I sowed the clover and rye in the rest of the beds which i will also till in next spring. I never leave a bed without something growing in it because the soil microorganisms need growing roots to keep them active and doing their jobs converting minerals and organic matter into compounds that plants can use for food or feeding on those pesky disease organisms. It is much easier to keep the soil healthy than it is to constantly fight pests and diseases.
That is the basis of growing organically. Work with mother nature not against her.
Happy Holiday Ya'll.

An Answer to a Question about Mushrooms

Country Girl asked the following question about mushrooms-

We have millions of mushrooms on our land but I have yet to try (or dare) and identify them. I am curious if it is easier to learn to identify or be safe and plant your own.

Here is my take on that.First thing is you don't have to be able to identify all the mushrooms you see, only the ones that are good to eat. In any particular region of the country there are only a few and they usually have very distinct features making them pretty easy to identify. I suggest getting involved with a local mushroom club, befriending the mycologist professor at your local land grant university or finding someone nearby who knows what good edibles are native to your area.
I am fascinated by fungi and like to try to identify the ones i find. Believe me, it is not easy to do. I have 5 mushroom I.D. books but there are so many different mushrooms out there that i rarely find the ones i've collected in my books. Also there is much variability in the appearance of an individual within a species so the picture in the book may or may not resemble the specimen i happened to collect.
Some of the best edible mushrooms we are not able to cultivate, particularly the mycorrhizal species such as chanterelles (top photo). Mycorrhizal mushrooms live in symbiosis with the roots of specific tree species. The good thing about them is they grow in association with living trees so they can be found year after year in the same place. A decay mushroom such as the oyster mushroom (bottom photo) disappears once it has consumed all the carbon from the dead tree it colonizes so you have to keep hunting for new locations as the old ones disappear.
So if your goal is cultivate a crop that provides you with high quality protein and huge health benefits by all means grow your own. I highly recommend Paul Stamets book Mycelium Running as a resource for learning how to grow your own.

Investment in Mushroom Futures is Paying Off

Last fall and winter we purchased some mushroom dowel spawn from Fungi Perfecti and inoculated some sweetgum logs. Sweetgum trees are the first hardwood species to colonize abandoned fields or nowadays, abandoned building lots. They are plentiful, considered to be weed trees, not useful for firewood because the grain is very twisted making the logs hard to split. They also happen to be very appetizing to fungi, especially shitake (Lentinula edodes) and lions mane (Hericium erinaceus) mushroom fungi.
About a week ago we got about 2 " of rain, the first rain in a month. It was perfectly timed for mushroom stimulation along with cooler fall temperatures.
It took about 10 days for the mushrooms to appear. It was tremendously exciting to go out to the stack of logs and see those beautiful things sprouting out. Some of them were huge compared to any other shitakes i've seen. We harvested 1.5 pounds of shitakes and just 2 lions manes.
This was the first time we had eaten lions manes. What a treat that was. We sauteed them in butter with some garlic. They had the texture and flavor of lobster. Deeelllissshhhusss!
Here's a tip about shitakes we learned from Paul Stamets. Placing them in the sun, gill sides up for about 6 hours will greatly increase their vitamin D content making them even more nutritious.
Invest in mushrooms- safer than banks.