Theory and Practice: a map after the fact

I actually intended to do something like this when I first started, but I think its more relevant now that I have changed from the original plan.

Here is how things started, by the book, and I am intentionally leaving the exact square footages of the crops out. If you want those numbers, buy the book.

(click for a larger view)

Then phase two came along and This is essentially how things stand now.


So thats where I am at now, and you can kind of see with the late summer crops where things will be this winter. If all goes according to plan, the remaining warm weather crops in the lower bed will get swapped out with cold weather veggies to overwinter, before the cycle starts again with minor changes (most notably a change of bed locations).

My new goal is to come up with a reliable rotational system that keeps each plot continually productive. It is going to be an evolutionary process to achieve a real sense of flow with the seasons. And of course ideally I'd like to add another bed or two into the rotation.

An oldie but a goodie

Still trying to use potatoes and running out of ideas, I cant believe it took me this long to use the caribes for what in my opinion, a vocation they were born for. Creamy mashed goodness. Add in some milk, sour cream and a few chives from the backyard. Perfect.



I also made some blueberry ice cream, but that disappeared before I could photograph it. Didn't see any at the farmer's market, but in wegmans I was just about to grab a carton when the stockgirl walked by and said: "locals are on the other side, they're better, trust me."

I didn't sample the others but lets put it this way, 6 full tummies agree the local berries were good.

In other news, brown bat number 8 decided to take up residence just outside the men's room at my work.


Bruce was evicted moments after.

Growing Flax for Fiber: part1

Fiber crops for self sufficiency

For the homestead enthusiast in warmer climates cotton is out, for anyone in the USA hemp is out for some reason, and while it is possible to use nettles, the crop which caught my attention was flax. Flax was cultivated for millennia in Europe and the Middle east, most famously in Ireland up until the 18^th century. The bast fiber, once separated from the harvested plant can be spun into fine linens, damask, or strong cordage often used in bowstrings. The purpose of this experiment is not particularly grand, simply to grow a small stand of flax harvest the fiber, and using simple means spin the fiber into a length of twine.

The first step of course is planting, something I got to later than I should have. Once I decided to grow flax it was well into May, and I really should have sown in early April. But I got the seed from Bountiful Gardens and it arrived promptly. Like most plants the recommendation is for loamy rich dark perfect well drained soil. I have none of that so I worked a little compost into the clay and planted. When growing for fiber the recommendation is to plant closely to prevent branching, mine was about 1.5-2” centers and it seemed to work. Yesterday Aug 18^th I pulled (not cut) the flax. The imperative is to pull it out because maximum fiber length is key. Most sources I could find say to harvest just after flowering, when the base of the stalks starts to yellow. Just after flowering the stalks were still green on mine, so I used that as an indicator, not flower timing, and it would appear that the seed was starting to set by the time the base was yellowing, as you can see in the picture below.

The inclusion of the toe was entirely intentional, to show the amount of flax produced from 1 full packet of seed. I totally meant to do that.

next time I'll talk about ripping, retting, scutching, and what the heck they mean.

close to home

cnn reports that on the tug hill plateau here in NY not everyone appreciates the wind farm.

This is eerily similar to a conversation I had with my father not long ago. He lives farther out in the country (albeit 5 minutes from the city I grew up in) but it definitely has a more rural feel. Anyway, aside from always lamenting the arrival of new neighbors and the slow evolution to a more suburban setting he has been an opponent of the windfarm that went up on the ridge some 5 miles away, on the grounds that it spoils the view. I always counter with the notion of acid rain or fallout from nine mile point as being the alternatives. No dice. Anyway, when his neighbor put in a home scale turbine he was furious, the noise being of primary concern. Personally, I live in a more urban/suburban setting, noise unfortunately is a part of my life, and I could just as easily adapt to that, but he has been "in the country" for almost 17 years now, so this is a big change. Like the man in the article he has also grown up with a sense of respect for the land and tried to pass that value on. The part I found ironic was that the son was protesting the windfarm on the grounds that it spoils the natural beauty. Most of my readers are probably thinking "that windfarm might be the only thing that saves it." But we have to understand that no solution is perfect, has absolutely zero impact, and is universally acceptable to everyone, because not everyone places value on the same things. Ask this man if he cares about the health of the land and I'm sure he will say "of course I do" but there may be other factors he values more.

noise is energy, energy that could be put to better use, so as turbines become more efficient, and quieter I imagine this will be less of an issue, but there is still the visual impact, and well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While some see independence and a bright future, others see the spoiling of natural scenery. Progress does not come without cost, the difference now is that the cost is no longer being hidden to society. If we want to dance, we will need to pay the piper, we can't keep letting our children or our mother pay the tab. I suppose it is the same with home gardens. Neighborhood covenants and traditionally minded neighbors concerned with maintaining property value (one of the last remaining legal forms of segregation) will always oppose widescale and visible gardens, chicken coops, etc on the grounds that they are an eyesore. Personally I feel that endless undifferentiated monocultural lawns are an obscenity, and likely no covenant board would ever tolerate my kicking and screaming for change. Is there a compromise? Is there a way to appeal to more traditionally minded folks that what is being introduced in the form of a windfarm over the hill, or a garden in the yard is not the destruction of something dear but an evolution into something more valuable? Will we one day see a time when the annual yield of a home orchard or garden is included in the for sale listing? When smart home shoppers will prefer homes where the soil is well cared for and trees are productive?

The entire "green" movement is not intrinsically a shift in purchasing habits (despite its marketing of such). It is a shift of values, and an accounting of the full cost of our choices. When we make that clear, we will no longer find ourselves swimming against the current.

evening

I managed to have a decent digital camera in hand friday evening while I was out in the garden,
My actual reason for being out there was to apply about 3 wheelbarrow loads of compost to the area the potatoes were occupying. This is now holding the fall crops and about 15 sq feet of green beans. The "provider" variety is fast enough I think I can get a crop out of them and still have time to get lettuce and spinach sprouted before I have to put up plastic to keep the cold out. You can see the dark is of course compost, and the brownish is the "wonderful" clay soil that we are blessed with here in Syracuse.


Katydids can either be a nuisance or a boon depending on the variety, but I've seen two of these this year, and so far, neither really cared about the foliage, so I think they may be of the predatory variety, in which case...please make yourself at home.



Cicadas on the other hand are completely benign, as long as you don't mind the constant chirping hiss on a summer evening. 120 db at close range, these suckers really hum. This is not actually the bug itself, just the shell of the last nymph phase, they are everywhere this time of year.


these baby's are soooo sweet, its hard keeping enough ripe one on the vine, which I moved over next to the brandywines, in the hopes that some of their ethylene will start ripening the other tomatoes.


This is a bottle gourd flower, you don't see many unless you're out at dusk. They're a night bloomer, an uncommon but not unheard of practice in the plant kingdom. and the flowers, much like the rest of the plant are covered in a soft fine hair. Much nicer than your average squash leaf. This one is a male by the way.


This is an immature female:




In Other News:
A sad day as natural farming legend Masanobu Fukuoka died at 95. Domo arigato gozaimashita Fukuoka sensei.


Looks like my frontyard orchard will be at the forefront of the next emergence in home food production.

And just in case you thought it was going to be all high quality pictures from here on out...

The swiss chard plants that had gone to seed well, finally produced mature seed. A lot of it.

Want some?

And speaking of seed, the fennel flowers that are mostly pods now have started to dry into seed. When I cut the stem I could smell the liquorice, and having sampled a few, these do not disappoint. I'm going to be setting aside more for a special winter project.



And remember the sweetpea flowers of which there were two, well apparently there were three, I'm wondering if maybe this was a sign to not give up on them yet. I might just plant these next year to see if my luck improves.


I got another 2 cukes totaling 1lb 1 oz bringing my total to 38 lbs. More yellow squash (prolific indeed) is about two days away. Still no sign of the brandywines grrrrr.

And someone want to tell me what the hell this is doing in my yard in the middle of august!?

sychnronicity?

Ok this one has been gnawing on my cerebrum for a while. The friend from CT who unloaded the yellow squash on us last weekend, he and his wife started the garden this year and without any kind of communication on the matter between us, they picked the almost all of the same things to grow as we did...almost exactly. The varieties may be different but even the oddball stuff like bottle gourds we both planted!?

weird moment. Anyway it rained again last night, and most of the seeds still have not sprouted for the fall crops, big shocker. Someone on the freedomgardeners forum in Canada is having the same problem, says the jet stream shifted further to the south. Instantly my brain went to "Day After Tomorrow" funny out overreactors do that sort of thing.

uuuugh.

nothing new to report really, brought in another yellow squash at 12 oz. some of the greenbeans left from the providers at just a touch over 4 oz. Brings the total up a pound to 37. Those will be coming out as they are spent at this point. I've got enough time in the year to pop some more right back in the same spot. The corn isnt big enough to block them out, which worries me, Its been so dark and rainy the corn seems to be in a holding pattern. This does not feel like august, more like september. No signs of ripening from the brandywines, I am going to set the cherry tomato basked in their midst to see if that can jump start the process.

The green beans I started more than two weeks ago have yet to show more than a few seedlings. This cold and wet weather is doing more than wrecking my mood. Its august for crying out loud.

I've finally got a cantaloupe growing and a bottle gourd female flower, but at this rate there will be frost before they are ready!