Snow Load

Germans don’t use rows…

This is one of the greatest mysteries to me.

If they do use rows they are either like this.

Mad narrow. Or like this.

A huge row that looks way too huge to reach across. I just can’t figure out how they do this. The only thing I can think is that they walk on their “beds” as they plant and then again when they harvest. I don’t see another way.

I feel like this lady from Cornell.

Confused with lanes (doesn’t she look a little bewildered?), stuck reiterating something Eliot Coleman probably got from Europe 20 years ago.  In case some of you are wondering why I’m mentioning this.  It’s because I like to grow the most food per area (short of turning into an agro-business monster).  The Ashram has usable land crammed between trees.  Chop Chop….  NO! Not the trees!  It also seems to be the best defence against weeds.

Ananda Harvest Summit Video

Click on the link below. It is a video of our first weekend at the ashram. We escaped the concrete jungle and enjoyed the pleasures of nature, water and the silence at the ashram, but most importantly we shared and learned more about permaculture.

Ananda Harvest Summit from Seema Shah on Vimeo.

Please note that I did not capture the educational sessions that were taking place during the weekend. I can share with you the relaxing and beautiful moments from the weekend with my first time video editing skillz off of iMovie.

Quick Hoops at the White House?

Reposted from Johnny’s Seeds (not sure how I missed this?):

USDA TO LAUNCH HIGH TUNNEL PILOT STUDY TO INCREASE AVAILABILITY OF LOCALLY GROWN FOODS

3-Year Project To Verify Effectiveness Of High Tunnels In Natural Resource Conservation

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2009 – Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan today announced a new pilot project under the ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative for farmers to establish high tunnels – also known as hoop houses – to increase the availability of locally grown produce in a conservation-friendly way. Merrigan and other Obama administration officials highlighted opportunities available for producers in a video posted on USDA’s YouTube channel, which shows high tunnels recently installed in the White House garden.

Perhaps this might add validity for some of you to the notion of setting up quick hoops. Me, I’m starting to reconsidor. I wonder if Michelle Obama had to fight as hard to bury the EMT hoops in the ground. This shit is driving me bananas. I’m starting to think cold frames was a better idea. Anyone know where we can get old sliding glass doors from? That would be an ideal size pane to use for a coldframe. How bout 3/4″ to 1″ diameter footing pins 3 ‘ or more? The wider diameter footing pins might make it easier to bury the 3/4″ EMT. Currently I’m using 1/2″ to 3/4″ pins, pounded in to the ground, and then yanked out to create the hole.

Rogowski Farm

These guys seem like the are doing it swell over in Pine Island, NY. Only about 20 minutes drive from Ananda Ashram. It would be another local farm to check out I think. Sounds like they have some type intimate dining experience as well…

US vs. Japan: transplanting

Apparently the folks over at Stone Circle Farm sell these machines.

I discovered the transplanter while living in Japan a few years ago. I was
so excited about it that I not only decided to buy one and bring it back but
also made arrangements with the company to import them because they are so
well-suited to small farms.

Trouble In Paradise: Windfall Farms

From The Feedbag, here’s a great piece about the problems that small farms face today, featuring Windfall Farms in Montgomery, New York. Thanks to Matt for the find!

Winter Solstice 2009

My good friend Ray (he’s kind a melancholic type of guy) just sent me this link about the winter solstice.

http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/winter-solstice.htm

It’s kind of cheesy but I found myself liking it a lot. I think I might
have the SAD disorder right now. 40 mins till the solstice!

And the video is funny, with the Enya music..

How To Repair The World

Hard to believe how easy it really is to solve our climate and pollution problems. Put the planet back to a more natural state and it fixes itself!! It is funny how as humans we tend to complicate a beautifully simple process. Watch this short video.

Perennial Perpetual Food!!

Eric Toensmeier Tours His Backyard Perennial Food Garden and teaches us that with a little know how, we can change the way we look at “yard work”. He is producing delicious, healthy food nearly year round in a relatively small space.

More videos in this series are available at Permaculture & Regenerative Design News

Papaya Salad: great food, or greatest food?

One of my favorite things ever is Thai papaya salad. I don’t remember the first time I had it, but my life has never been the same. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it is great, and I do love it, and it’s simple. So I think you should make it. One thing you should note, I don’t really believe in recipes. I’ll explain what each ingredient is for, give you a suggestion, but you should season to taste.

Ingredients:

• Fish sauce
• Green Papaya (unripe papaya, can be found in asian markets)
• Brown Sugar
• Thai chilis (little spicy chilis)
• Lime
• Tomato
• Clove Garlic

Optional:

• Crushed Roasted Peanuts ( I always use these)
• Green Beans (Thinly sliced lengthwise)
• bean sprouts (I never use these)
• grated carrots (never use this either)

Directions:

1. Peel the papaya, cut in half, and remove the immature seeds. Grate about two cups of it into a bowl using the large holes on a cheese grater, or a salad shooter.
2. Chop Thai chilis. These are obviously used to spice the dish, and use as many or as few as you want. Start with a quarter of one, taste, and add more if it’s not spicy enough for you.
3. Chop garlic and add to bowl.
4. Squeeze half a lime over the papaya salad, this adds acidity and tartness to the dish.
5. Sprinkle brown sugar over papaya to sweeten. ~ 1.5 Tbsp
6. Add about a tablespoon of fish sauce. Fish sauce is used in place of salt in this dish. It also adds a complexity. Don’t let the fish part scare you, I don’t like fish, but this is a good use, I promise.
7. Stir the salad, taste. Reseason if necessary.
8. Add tomatoes and optional ingredients. Stir again.
9. Enjoy!

Lambs Quarter

This member of the spinach family grows prolifically in most places and is delicious as well as highly nutritious. I find myself grabbing a handful when I am outside working and can’t take the time to run to the kitchen to eat. It is great tossed with other greens for a salad, or cooked and eaten with a little vinegar. When people see it growing in my garden and sneer about my “weeds”, I quickly grab some tender leaves,  offer up an sample taste and amaze them with  the mellow flavor.

Earth Architecture

Currently it is estimated that one half of the world’s population—approximately three billion people on six continents—lives or works in buildings constructed of earth. And while the vast legacy of traditional and vernacular earthen construction has been widely discussed, little attention has been paid to the contemporary tradition of earth architecture. Author Ronald Rael, founder of Eartharchitecture.org provides a history of building with earth in the modern era, focusing particularly on projects constructed in the last few decades that use rammed earth, mud brick, compressed earth, cob, and several other interesting techniques. EARTH ARCHITECTURE presents a selection of more than 40 projects that exemplify new, creative uses of the oldest building material on the planet.

The Fence, Hoop Houses, Kale, Garlic, Pruning, etc…

So the main parts of the fence have finally been completed. Many of you might not have realized that there was still some things that hadn’t been done on the fence. We finally finished weaving the two segments of fencing together, building the angle post extenders, hanging the mono-filament, putting the additional pair of gates up, and barricading the entrances so the dear might find it more difficult to get in.

This leaves us with a couple odds and ends for the fence. Putting taller corner braces in so that the corner posts are not under so much stress, bending so heavily. This will also help tighten up the fence. Getting or designing a slightly more user friendly lock on the gates that will keep the deer from nudging the door open and not require us lifting up two 10 foot long boards, and untying rope to get in. Finding all the gaps between the skirt and the fence and closing them up. Installing the 1″ by 4″ on the gate posts so that the gates sit flush when they are closed. Clean up the edges of the fencing, without cutting back the fencing too far so as to make re-tightening the fence difficult, so that jagged, contorted pieces of fencing aren’t hanging out of the fence,.

Although these things should get done, what I’d really like see done first is finish transplanting the rest of the kale and set small hoop houses (row covers) over the beds, using the design that my father already came up with, (see the two beds closest to the north corner of the garden), then cover them with a water permeable row cover material. George has some insights into this one, perhaps some type of Agribon. Which reminds me, I think George could use some help pruning those apple trees. It’s a great opportunity to learn some things too. He’s a real knowledgeable fellow. Could teach anyone a bit about pruning and a bunch of other stuff as well. It’s a good opportunity to glean some good gardening knowledge as well.

I’ve also been thinking about building a larger scale hoop house. A sturdy structure that could handle some snow. I’ve been reading Eliot Coleman’s The Winter Harvest Handbook and would like to copy some of his designs in there. I think they are extremely elegant–movable hoop houses set up on skis.

There’s a pretty nice series of videos by Daniel Botkin about hoop houses over here at ehow

This weekend, we would like to get another set of beds tilled, soil prepared, and boxes built for in the garden. We’d also like to prepare the soil behind the Panini house. I’ve already started tilling the soil and plan on planting the 900 or so cloves of garlic that my father and I picked up from Ed Fraser’s garlic farm between there and the available spaces in the front garden. We’d also like to transplant and row cover some kale behind the Panini House, and mulch some of the weedy areas over there with leaves, as well as start clearing some of the area on the edge of the rear Panini property boundary and the neighbouring vacant lot.

Information is beautiful

I’ve been busy moving out of my house, so I haven’t had much time to find anything interesting for you guys, let alone post it on the internet to be read. But I stumbled upon this site today that I think is great. I’ve seen a couple of the graphics from it over the last couple months, but I didn’t realize they were all made by the same guy.

David McCandless has created a website full of interesting, and artistic, visualizations of data. Things currently on the main page of the blog include “Left vs. Right” – which analyzes the US political dichotomy, “Chicks Rule!” which shows how women dominate visits to social networking sites, and “How Safe is the HPV vaccine?” Each post explores the data using unique methods of visualization, so that it is easy to understand, and pleasing to look at.

He’s even got a new book out called The Visual Miscellaneum which you can preorder from Harper Collins.

Give it a look: Information is Beautiful