Homegrown: a movie review

Today I went down to the wescott community center for a screening of Homegrown, the documentary on the Dervaes family. Expecting just a movie I was pleasantly surprised.

First off, I think my shyness is really becoming a detriment. I can't really say I had no idea there were so many in the area interested in home food production and sustainability. I had a hunch, I just did not have the courage to go looking. Today they found me. More specifically a representative wearing one of the path to freedom "revolution solution" shirts found me, and now I'm on "the list." Ok enough about me, on with the movie.

If you have spent as much time on the path to freedom site as I have, there will not be much in here that will surprise you, no new secrets of farming. It was more than anything else a story about the people, not the farm itself. I give them a lot of credit, I wouldn't want cameras in my home for that long. It humanizes and shows a glimpse of the real challenges they have faced. Without being exploitative it expressed the trials and tribulations that come with the lifestyle they have chosen. It offers a warning for those who might leap without looking, but not to the detriment of its ability to inspire. And that it does in bushels.

If it hasn't come to a theater or community center near you, get together with some people and get a showing near you.

Random seeds and introversion

Yesterday I came home from work to find about 10 neatly piled sunflower seeds on our front steps. Since they were not chewed all to heck I figure they were not deposited by a squirrel but a fellow gardening neighbor who noticed that absence of sunflowers from our property this year.

I figure its probably one of four other gardeners in the neighborhood, but most likely one of two since I did not see sunflowers anywhere on the other two's yard. Yes, I secretly check out what my neighbors are growing. Not that I sneak in late at night, I just slow down and stare as I pass by. Now I know I could just walk up and talk to them, but if you are wondering why then you clearly don't understand the concept of extreme shyness. I need to get a feel for someone before I just go chitchat, and perhaps someone in a very obtuse or rather ingenious way is doing the same with me. Well, game on, I will plant them.

Well whoever you are...thank you.

This gives me an idea, why not leave a few seeds for some of my favorites in the suspects mailboxes.

I hereby declare today "Give a seed to a stranger day."

Whoo hoo!

The gardening class went great! My original draft was an 1.5 hours, I did another test run with my wife which went 1:15. I paired down a few more slides and got it at 50 minutes flat despite the occasional digression. There were 9 people (not including me) who all said that they learned a lot. One who had never done any gardening...so I'm counting her as convert #2 for the year. I sent them home with some charts about companion planting, a few home remedies (like milk spray for powdery mildew, and garlic spray for Japanese beetles) and some packets of seed for my favorite perennials. (Fennel, lemon balm, bee balm, chives, hyssop, borage and swiss chard) ok the last two aren't perennials but the result vs. effort margin is very high and I had a ton of seed for them.

I already have requests to do a follow up class later in the year.

I'm reminded that it is one thing to know how to do something, but entirely another to teach it.

t-15 days

I put together a test presentation to see where I was at with time, I am supposed to be around 45 minutes. I ran and hour and a half...so I will need to cull quite a bit of material or talk faster...which is not a good idea for me.

In other news, our daughter brought home 2 shrub willow cuttings. It seems someone from SUNY ESF paid a visit to her school to talk about some of the projects they are doing, and handed out cuttings from their biomass project. You can read more about it here. I was a little put off by the dependence on herbicide early in the life cycle, but the need seems to disappear in subsequent years. I guess a little upfront for a perennial crop is better than constant application each year. I think I have good spot, and I am curious to see how these grow. I intend to put them in as a visual break in front of the area our dogs roam. That might obscure vision to the street and cut down some of the barking. I'd like to encourage a lot of vegetative growth, and as luck would have it, the spot happens to be adjacent to the compost pile. No doubt these will be able to recapture some of the nutrient runoff. Funny how things work out sometimes.

19 days to prepare

and I get a curveball.

I had been asked/volunteered to teach a gardening class at work. Now that the official invite email went out I'm already getting questions. I'm excited and intimidated. On the first day it was advertised by emailed I got 5 responses, out of a total 75-100 people that ain't too shabby. Plus a couple people (including my boss) who verbally expressed interest.

My first assumption was that people who were going to attend were already interested, and had some experience. That this was going to be a lot of "here's a better way" and some Q&A. Now it seems I'm getting interest from people who have never put trowel to dirt. I need to retool my presentation now. Ugggg.

boooyah!

They're going to do it! Vegetable gardens are coming back to the whitehouse. And from the sounds of it, for all the right reasons.

Michelle Obama: We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet. You know, the tomato that's from your garden tastes very different from one that isn't. And peas - what is it like to eat peas in season? So we want the White House to be a place of education and awareness. And hopefully kids will be interested because there are kids living here

The unanswered question is, will it be organic? But given the first family's noted predilection for eating organic wherever possible, serving organic wine at official dinners...I think its pretty much a given.

Thinking in charts

I've confessed my love of the visual before, but this time around I decided to actually come up with something original. Its part of a much larger plan I'm brewing, but this seems to be the core of my thoughts. It seems like there are so many individual projects that get passed around and talked about, that unless you have spent some time in a permaculture book, or are fairly well versed in all things sustainable, that you might have difficulty putting things into perspective. Here is my version of the map in visual terms what books like "The self sufficient suburban gardener" put in words.



Obviously there are a lot of things left out, but I think its a decent place to start. I seem to be short on time lately, and I know I need to finish the section on prepared storage and animals, but you get the gist of it. Anything I have left out? Disagree with anything?

Me? A teacher?

I know I mentioned it in passing but I have been tapped to lead a class/discussion on gardening this spring at "the office." It not my first time teaching (actually I've been teaching as long as I have been gardening, but this is my first time teaching gardening) but I admit a good deal of trepidation. First, I wonder if I really have enough experience (only 5 years) to lead this kind of discussion, and second I am having difficulty putting together a curriculum. Actually its more like I have difficulty making the curriculum more concise. I handed a 3 page outline to my wife who said there was no way I could get through it in one hour and have the audience not feel like they just got off the tilt-a-whirl.

I want to focus on teaching the biointensive method, or a simplified iteration of it. The view from 5,000 feet will focus on intensive spacing, double dug beds (the first year at least), compost as the cure for what ails the soil, and the use of beneficials for pest management.

My problem (as the regular readers might guess) is that I am quite verbose. How do I condense the info? What dear friends do you think I should make the main points of discussion? I'll wait for a few answers to roll in before I post the gargantuan outline I have. I'd like to see what your first reaction to priorities is.