So. As of last week, I officially smell like a hippie. It takes a long time to cultivate the right musk. Any older hippie could smell that I am quite fresh. Nascent Neo-hippie Natalie. It really is unavoidable - I get dirty everyday...what can you expect?
This week I learned how to "double dig" carrot beds. This essentially means digging around in soil 2ft deep to remove any possible rocks. Here is the method: 1. Dig 1ft of soil off the top of a 2ft wide section. 2. Use a pitch fork to aerate the soil, lifting the soil up to loosen rocks. 3. Remove any rocks the size of a baseball. 4. You can put a wooden board across the bed to stand on...and to disperse the weight. 5. Pile the dirt from the next 2ft. section onto the previous section. As far as I know this is the most strenuous bed prep for any vegetable. The problem is that if there are any rocks impeding the growth of the carrot...they may be stunted or split in two. The bed will sit for 2 weeks so we can wait for any weeds that are present to germinate. This way, we can pull the weeds out before we plant the carrots, so that they don't intrude upon the personal bubble of those finicky carrots. Besides rocks and weeds, another problem facing carrots is the carrot rust fly. The carrots must constantly be covered with remay (a soft, porous fabric) because otherwise the rust fly will get in and burrow black holes.
Let's see...what else did I learn. How to prepare beds for chard (I'll go into this some other time...if you are interested just know that they like potassium which you can get by adding seaweed and they like alkaline soil...so not too acidic, which you can adjust by adding lime). And I also learned how to collect seeds to be saved for next year and to sell. I am actually going to be in charge of seed collection and organization. Different plants go to seed (meaning they flower) at different times and the trick is to capture the seeds before the plant disperses them by their own means. It pretty much just involves cutting off the dry flowers or seed pods and putting them in a paper bag or remay to dry for awhile. During the winter when there isn't much to do on the farm we will be spending a lot of time cleaning up the seeds - removing them from pods and flowers, and packaging them for sale. Veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers that have internal seeds we ferment somehow to save the seeds. I haven't yet learned about this seed saving method.
This week’s meal:
Veggie stir fry with peanut sauce served with rice
Sliced cucumber with a little salt, pepper, and balsamic vineger
Salad
Ginger snap cookies (well, without the snap)
Peanut Sauce Recipe
1/4 cup chicken broth (this isn't necessary, I used water)
This week I learned how to "double dig" carrot beds. This essentially means digging around in soil 2ft deep to remove any possible rocks. Here is the method: 1. Dig 1ft of soil off the top of a 2ft wide section. 2. Use a pitch fork to aerate the soil, lifting the soil up to loosen rocks. 3. Remove any rocks the size of a baseball. 4. You can put a wooden board across the bed to stand on...and to disperse the weight. 5. Pile the dirt from the next 2ft. section onto the previous section. As far as I know this is the most strenuous bed prep for any vegetable. The problem is that if there are any rocks impeding the growth of the carrot...they may be stunted or split in two. The bed will sit for 2 weeks so we can wait for any weeds that are present to germinate. This way, we can pull the weeds out before we plant the carrots, so that they don't intrude upon the personal bubble of those finicky carrots. Besides rocks and weeds, another problem facing carrots is the carrot rust fly. The carrots must constantly be covered with remay (a soft, porous fabric) because otherwise the rust fly will get in and burrow black holes.
Let's see...what else did I learn. How to prepare beds for chard (I'll go into this some other time...if you are interested just know that they like potassium which you can get by adding seaweed and they like alkaline soil...so not too acidic, which you can adjust by adding lime). And I also learned how to collect seeds to be saved for next year and to sell. I am actually going to be in charge of seed collection and organization. Different plants go to seed (meaning they flower) at different times and the trick is to capture the seeds before the plant disperses them by their own means. It pretty much just involves cutting off the dry flowers or seed pods and putting them in a paper bag or remay to dry for awhile. During the winter when there isn't much to do on the farm we will be spending a lot of time cleaning up the seeds - removing them from pods and flowers, and packaging them for sale. Veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers that have internal seeds we ferment somehow to save the seeds. I haven't yet learned about this seed saving method.
This week’s meal:
Veggie stir fry with peanut sauce served with rice
Sliced cucumber with a little salt, pepper, and balsamic vineger
Salad
Ginger snap cookies (well, without the snap)
Peanut Sauce Recipe
1/4 cup chicken broth (this isn't necessary, I used water)
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, chopped
2 mint leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon plus
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
I just mixed all these together while heating it a little. I also added basil leaves, just cause I felt like it. It was pretty cool to run all around the farm to collect my herbs.
Thursday night we had a Food Security meeting. This has been started by people in the Sooke community in reaction to a study that showed that if food entering Vancouver Island were to stop (say the ferry system shut down), people on the island could only eat for 4 days. The whole point of the food security initiative is to unite farmers and fishermen in Sooke, and encourage them to keep a good amount of their food local and in the community. Other parts of the plan include making the produce from local farms more accessible to the public. I think they also hope to encourage schools to use more locally grown foods and serve healthier meals to students in the Sooke school system. Another thing they need to consider is the amount of farms currently in Sooke and how land can be acquired for promoting more farms to serve the community. One problem is that land in Sooke is really expensive and therefore not really an option for new farmers...especially not new organic farmers.
The meeting started out with everyone going around and introducing themselves and explaining what food meant to them. It was interesting to hear different stories of people growing up with grandparents who had farms or gardens...and the pleasure of eating ones own food. People talked about how important food used to be for uniting communities and how that is somewhat lost now. Many had their gloomy stories of how frustrating it is too see the crap kids are eating in schools...to see kids in strollers holding coke bottles. The reason I gave for supporting local food was inspired by my time in Costa Rica. It was really frustrating to stay on the coffee farm in La Piedra with a wonderful family who were rich in land, but were still very poor. The problem being that they were using every inch of land to grow coffee, from which they were making around $500 to $1000 a year...and using none of the land to grow food to sustain themselves with! The father had to find a construction job in a city 2 hours away to make money to buy food. And my host brother had a constant pain in his chest and a chronic cough from the pesticides he was spraying on the plants. What a rude awakening it was to see how our unsustainable lifestyles in the states were creating an unsustainable lifestyle for this family miles and miles away. Now, I know, I know I can't grow coffee in British Columbia...so maybe I should shut up (drinking Fair-trade Organic coffee is the best thing to weaning (ooo I hate that word) myself off) but this situation goes for all the unseasonable vegetables we eat year round from the grocery store. So EAT LOCAL folks! Even if you don't believe the organic thing quite yet...at least think local and save the thousands of miles your food has to travel to get to your kitchen. Basta.
** Note: For you Atlanta folks....There is a local farmer's market every Saturday morning in the Alon's Bakery parking lot in Virginia Highlands. There is also another one in Piedmont Park on Saturday mornings...and every Wednesday afternoon there is a farmer's market in Decatur at the corner of Commerce and Church St.
I just mixed all these together while heating it a little. I also added basil leaves, just cause I felt like it. It was pretty cool to run all around the farm to collect my herbs.
Thursday night we had a Food Security meeting. This has been started by people in the Sooke community in reaction to a study that showed that if food entering Vancouver Island were to stop (say the ferry system shut down), people on the island could only eat for 4 days. The whole point of the food security initiative is to unite farmers and fishermen in Sooke, and encourage them to keep a good amount of their food local and in the community. Other parts of the plan include making the produce from local farms more accessible to the public. I think they also hope to encourage schools to use more locally grown foods and serve healthier meals to students in the Sooke school system. Another thing they need to consider is the amount of farms currently in Sooke and how land can be acquired for promoting more farms to serve the community. One problem is that land in Sooke is really expensive and therefore not really an option for new farmers...especially not new organic farmers.
The meeting started out with everyone going around and introducing themselves and explaining what food meant to them. It was interesting to hear different stories of people growing up with grandparents who had farms or gardens...and the pleasure of eating ones own food. People talked about how important food used to be for uniting communities and how that is somewhat lost now. Many had their gloomy stories of how frustrating it is too see the crap kids are eating in schools...to see kids in strollers holding coke bottles. The reason I gave for supporting local food was inspired by my time in Costa Rica. It was really frustrating to stay on the coffee farm in La Piedra with a wonderful family who were rich in land, but were still very poor. The problem being that they were using every inch of land to grow coffee, from which they were making around $500 to $1000 a year...and using none of the land to grow food to sustain themselves with! The father had to find a construction job in a city 2 hours away to make money to buy food. And my host brother had a constant pain in his chest and a chronic cough from the pesticides he was spraying on the plants. What a rude awakening it was to see how our unsustainable lifestyles in the states were creating an unsustainable lifestyle for this family miles and miles away. Now, I know, I know I can't grow coffee in British Columbia...so maybe I should shut up (drinking Fair-trade Organic coffee is the best thing to weaning (ooo I hate that word) myself off) but this situation goes for all the unseasonable vegetables we eat year round from the grocery store. So EAT LOCAL folks! Even if you don't believe the organic thing quite yet...at least think local and save the thousands of miles your food has to travel to get to your kitchen. Basta.
** Note: For you Atlanta folks....There is a local farmer's market every Saturday morning in the Alon's Bakery parking lot in Virginia Highlands. There is also another one in Piedmont Park on Saturday mornings...and every Wednesday afternoon there is a farmer's market in Decatur at the corner of Commerce and Church St.
1 comment:
This Farmers Market in Decatur gets bigger and bigger each week. They might have to move it soon out of this parking lot. Maybe they can put it on the Marta Station newly redone roof!!!
-T
Post a Comment