A Difficult Conversation

I had every intention of posting that promised "D" post today, but something more pressing has caught my attention that I wanted to share with you. (I will be posting "D", just not today)
In March of this year, a woman named Carolyn Baker wrote wisely about current trauma to the middle class, and the future of that group of people, and emotional resilience. The more I read, the more I agreed with her, especially when she said this,
"Americans and billions of other individuals throughout the world, are not only terrified about radiation but about their economic future—an economic future which will be inexorably more ruinous as a result of the Japan tragedy and its economic ripples globally. By that I do not mean that they feel mild anxiety about embellishing their stock portfolios, but rather, are feeling frightened about how they are going to feed their families, where they will live after losing their house in foreclosure, where they might find employment in a world where having a full-time job is becoming increasingly rare, how they will access healthcare without insurance or the money to pay out of pocket, or how they will make ends meet in forced or voluntary retirement."

John Michael Greer has this to add, "The decline of industrial society is a reality we are already facing; as real incomes shrink, quality-of-life indexes stumble downhill, and high-end technological projects such as the space program wind down. As resources keep on depleting and wastes build up, in turn, the decline is accelerating, and it’s a safe bet at this point that much of what counts as an ordinary life in today’s industrial nations will go away forever in the decades ahead of us. The time to prevent that was thirty years ago, and we didn’t. It really is as simple as that."

Another voice in this conversation that so many are having is Dmitry Orlov, who adds, "There is an ever-increasing amount of mainstream media attention being paid to the looming energy crisis. At this point, very few people still argue that there is not a problem with the energy supply, immediately for natural gas, eventually for oil. There is also a viewpoint, which is ever more closely and persuasively argued, that what we have to look forward to is a permanent energy shortfall, which will cause economic and societal dislocations that will be monumental in scope, and will transform the patterns of everyday life. The current, consumer-friendly economy would be no more, replaced with a subsistence economy characterized by a good deal of privation and austerity."

So many are seeing the writing on the wall, and with the media finally being exposed little by little as untrustworthy, corrupt and manipulative, one cannot ignore the changing state of our world. When we cannot trust the media to report what is really going on...then what?
Then it is up to us to listen more carefully, read between the lines and pay closer attention to what we see, what we hear, what we witness and what we learn is not being talked about.
It's time to join in the conversation.
What do you think?

Brief Update

Just wanted to let you all know that I've not fallen off the face of the planet. With only 37 days to go until the big move, we're busy packing in between all the other aspects of our lives. I will posting  "D" in the next couple of days, hopefully tonight!
Hope all of you are well.

What I "C" From the Urban Trench

My apologies for the length of time between posts. Life has a nasty habit of getting in the way when you make other plans.
So the letter of the day is "C". It's taken me a couple of days to list some things that applied to our little world here, and then narrow that list down, but the most important for us is country. As in, we're moving out to it. We're finally getting out of the city, and none too soon. Now, I know that's not news to you regular readers, but it's a huge change for the boys and the dog. Moving from the city to the country will allow us  more freedom, more options, more self-sustainability, and definitely more security. The recent rash of "bath-salts" drug using has me more convinced than ever that we need to get the hell out of Dodge, so to speak. Yes, I know you can find pot growing in the bush because someone figured it was safe there, but at least someone high on pot isn't going to try and eat my face off!

Also a change for us will be the raising of chickens. We'll be raising layers in the hopes that we can keep our mini-horde of egg lovers satisfied, and  any extras (ha!) will be sold to generate money for feed. This is just one way to provide a bit more food security, and eat healthier too!

Compost is a big part of eating healthier in a way. Feed the soil, and you feed the plants, and in turn, eat healthier yourself. So I've been devoting a lot of time to learning how to make compost quicker and better.

Cover crops also help feed and protect the soil. They feed the soil by replacing nutrients and carbon mass, thereby building more productive soil, and increasing crop yield each year.

Speaking of crops, there's dozens that start with our chosen letter of the day. I look forward to harvesting all kinds of carrots, celery and cucumbers. I've never grown collards before, but since someone in the family wants them, we'll give them a go. I've been told they are similar to a cross between turnip greens and spinach. Well, I guess I'll just have to see.

Conservation of water and food has been a big thing for us lately, and will continue to be. I've taken to figuring out how much water we'd need for a week and setting it aside in sanitized 2L pop bottles here. Up at the new homestead, we're already getting rain barrels and eavestrophes in place so that we can save water there. Part of food conservation is canning, which I also look forward to. I've not been able make jam or salsa here, and honestly there's nothing like bright and lively homemade fruit salsa or crunchy pickles.

There's a lot to be said for home cooking too. Eating out has become fraught with super sized portions even I can't finish, preservatives I can't pronounce and a general feeling of dissatisfaction. Making our meals at home allows us a little more control over portion size, favor, spices, sodium and best of all, taste.  Not mention that the amount of food one can buy for $30 eating out is nowhere near the amount of food one can cook for $30. I feel sorry for all those folks at McD's, but my family has to eat better than questionable mystery meat, fries white with salt and drinks I can't finish.

Candles are important to those who like to prepare for emergencies. During thunderstorms, we gather candles in one place and make sure we adults know where the lighter is. Much better than groping in the dark. yes, cell phones give off some light, but I'm not sure I'd want to find my candles by cellphone light! Even if there is an app for that.

Well, this wraps up today's installment. Be sure and let me know about any "C" items I may have missed, in the comments. I love hearing from my readers!

"C" you all next time!

The Many Faces of "B"

When I first sat down to write this post, I had a hard time thinking of words relative to farming and agriculture and prepping that started with B. Clearly I just need more coffee, because once I put my mind to it, there were all kinds of ideas.
The obvious first choices are broccoli, beets and beans. Because my family enjoy both raw and cooked broccoli, I'll be planting some and we'll likely freeze it and eat it raw. Beets are enjoyed as well, though I imagine there will be fewer of these since it has fewer fans in our family. These will be easy to put up pickled. Beans are important to both homesteaders and preppers alike. Many people put up bags and bags of them in case they need to one day rely on their own food supplies instead of the grocery stores. Heirloom beans have as an interesting and varied a story as the history of North America. There are dozens of types, colors, shapes and flavors. I'll be growing green beans and yellow wax, and I'd like to grow butter beans and a new-to-me type called "Orca"
(That's them below)
I'm fascinated by the whole process of taking a seed that looks so interesting, planting it and watching it grow, and then discovering what the pod might look like!

Of course, along the way, there will also be bugs, both good and bad. I'll have to learn how to spot the good guys like Brown Lacewings, Ground Beetles and the bad such as the Mexican Bean Beetle, as well as learn how to take out the bad guys in a way that won't do harm to the ecosystem.
Let's not forget bees too. We'll be planting flowers and herbs throughout the yards (front and back) to encourage bees and butterflies to not only visit, but pollinate as well. It frightens me a little to think about the "dead hive syndrome" that so many bee-keepers are hit with. Whole hives suddenly dying off mysteriously, but there is a theory that chemicals insecticides are the killer. Just one more reason why Monsanto's greatest legacy is wrong for the environment and people.

One of our goals for next year is to plant a few more berry bushes. The fruit will help us produce reams of gleaming jars full of jams and jellies. Raspberries, strawberries, locally foraged blueberries, and high-bush cranberries. I always thought of grapes as berries when I was growing up, and those will be planted in a bright sunny spot as well.

One of my goals this fall is to prepare different vegetable beds throughout the yard. I've put a lot of thought into what size beds I'd like to plant. They'll be anywhere from twelve to fifteen feet long and four feet across. These dimensions should allow me to build enclosures to keep out excessive sun (for those cool weather crops like lettuce and peas), cold, and even the chickens on their free-range days. A bed that is only four feet across allows for much easier weeding from either side. In case you're wondering why I don't just plant traditionally, in rows, I plan on instituting a three year crop rotation plan. This will help cut down on soil diseases and pests, as well as allow for green manure plantings.

I suppose there are dozens of other "B" words that relate to life in the Urban Trench, but the goal here is to get you thinking.
What other "B" words can you think of that might relate?

The A B C's of An Urban Trench

The obvious place to start is "A", of course, and with agriculture.

Wikipedia says that agriculture can be defined as "the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life". The New Oxford American Dictionary  says agriculture is the science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.

That's still pretty broad. There are dozens of  branches to get lost on in the study of agriculture. If one were to go to school to study agricultural sciences, we would be studying irrigation, agricultural productivity, plant breeding, agricultural diversification, pesticides, soil, agricultural techniques, and the list goes on. So, if we use the two definitions above as our starting off point, we can study how we use animals, plants and fungi in our day to day lives, how they're raised or grown and how we modify them for our own use. Our track record, generally, isn't good.

We have a bad habit of squeezing animals in massive numbers into cages or pens too small for them, denying them basic comforts, force feeding them so that rapid growth benefits us, and even feeding them in a cannibalistic manner because slaughter house floor scrapings are cheaper, never mind the health risk. All one has to do is sit through half of Food Inc. to really see how we treat the animals destined to become our food. Now, I'm not a vegetarian, and I have no plans to become one. My standpoint here is that we, as a higher life form, really should know better than to continue down this slippery slope. We already dance with danger every day. E. Coli and Mad Cow runs rampant, and usually it's because some member of the human race has done something they know is wrong. E. Coli in melons killed 13 people, because two brothers thought they could save a few bucks. 9 people died because of salmonella in peanuts back in 2008. The list is exhaustive, and not the main thrust of this post. You get the point I'm sure.

One way to live healthier is to eat healthy food. I've written here before about diminishing nutrient values in our fruits and vegetables, and while I'm still appalled by it all, let me say that the declining nutrient levels have caused many to start their own gardens. Indeed, it is the main thrust behind my passion for organic growing methods. Growing healthier food starts with healthy soil. Soil that is teeming with life in the form of worms, microbes, fungi and bacteria. Before you get grossed out, these tiny critters are the keystone to good food. If your spadeful of shovel has no worms, chances are it is bereft of the smaller soil-dwellers too. That's not good for the plants. To feed the plants, you must first feed the soil. No soil ... no food.

Massive industrial agriculture is not a viable option for the future as the model stands today. There needs to be a change in our habits, and while there is a revolution that marches on, it is still small. We need to get politics out of our fields so that monsters like Monsanto wither and waste away. We need to get politicians to stop paying farmers to let their fields sit empty, and instead pay them to think more organically. We need to educate more people so that they better understand soil and what should live in it. We need to spread the word about compost so that everyone knows what it does, what it should be and what it can do for us. We need to understand water and how to live with less, as well as how to conserve it both in a small scale and a large one. We need city councils to allow us to raise chickens in our backyards, and sell eggs and grow tomatoes in our front yard if we want; not take homeowners to court when they rip up water-guzzling lawns.

This conversation is a massive, ongoing dialogue, one I hope we can all wade in on and share our opinions. It is only through the exchange of ideas and truly listening to one another that we can learn. So tell me what you think of agriculture today, perhaps you'll teach me something or get me pondering some aspect of it that I had overlooked!

The A B C's of an Urban Trench

One of my fondest memories as a child was watching Sesame Street. I used to love  discovering what the letter of the day was, and learning the word that went along with it. Yeah, I had a sappy childhood, deal with it.
Anyway, I woke up from a nap a few days ago with that memory in mind and found myself pondering an alphabet that related to the things I'm passionate about; farming, agriculture, organic vegetables, human chicken-rearing, food security, being prepared, food politics and all of the other things I've written about here on the blog. So, starting tonight, I'll be starting a new series here in the Urban Trench. I'm also expecting a guest post in the coming two weeks, with an eye to possibly making my guest poster a monthly feature.
So stay tuned, there's a lot of great stuff coming down the Trench!

Why Worry About Sustainability?

Sustainable agriculture is food production through practices that can be continued indefinitely. In conventional, industrial agriculture, natural resources, such as water and soil, are used faster than they can be replaced. The results may include famine, pollution, and habitat destruction.

Benefits of Sustainable Agriculture
Food security: More than a billion people worldwide don’t get enough to eat each day. Sustainable agriculture uses fewer resources and has a lower risk of famine resulting from droughts.
Less environmental impact: Sustainable agriculture does not include the use of harmful pesticides that can pollute the water and soil. It does include reducing soil erosion. Also, fewer nutrients are depleted from the soil, so there is less need to expand farmland. This means that farmers don’t need to continually cut down rainforests and invade other natural habitats because of over-farmed land.
Urban improvements: In inner cities, sustainable agriculture means community and balcony garden projects. These endeavors increase access to fresh, affordable foods, and can make communities more tight-knit.
Health: Sustainable agriculture usually means shifting to a greater emphasis on a plant-based diet. You can lower your risk for heart disease when you eat less fatty red meat and more healthful proteins such as beans.
Cost: Unsustainable agricultural practices will inevitably lead to the depletion of resources like nutrient-rich soil and water. Developing extensive schemes—including irrigation systems—to mitigate these losses is expensive.


Although air and sunlight are available everywhere on Earth, crops also depend on soil nutrients and the availability of water. When farmers grow and harvest crops, they remove some of these nutrients from the soil. Without replenishment, land suffers from nutrient depletion and becomes either unusable or suffers from reduced yields. Sustainable agriculture depends on replenishing the soil while minimizing the use of non-renewable resources, such as natural gas (used in converting atmospheric nitrogen into synthetic fertilizer), or mineral ores (e.g., phosphate). Possible sources of nitrogen that would, in principle, be available indefinitely, include:

• recycling crop waste and livestock or treated human manure
• growing legume crops and forages such as peanuts or alfalfa that form symbioses with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia

More realistic, and often overlooked, options include long-term crop rotations, returning to natural cycles that annually flood cultivated lands (returning lost nutrients indefinitely) such as the Flooding of the Nile, the long-term use of biochar, and use of crop and livestock landraces that are adapted to less than ideal conditions such as pests, drought, or lack of nutrients.

Sustainable agriculture depends on  inputs being as local to each farm's location as possible. In our case, the manure that will help nourish the soil will come from our own chickens and manure from animals within our community. The other elements that manure cannot provide will come from green manure crops such as nettle, clover and ryegrass. We will be developing a water preservation and storage plan, as well as a crop rotation and companion planting plan also. The more one's gardening can rely on self-produced inputs, or at the very least local ones, the more sustainable each property, farm or homestead will be, and in turn this will ripple outward to the community at large.

We can change our planet one farm, one property, one community at a time. Therein lies our future as a race. That's the only reason we need to apply ourselves to sustainable agriculture.

Sources:

Wikipedia Sustainable Agriculture

Eat, Drink Better

On The Humble, Sweet Tomato

The following information was found in a Lee Valley gardening newsletter from June 2008, written by Ron Rossini, Master Gardener. I'm sharing it here in the hopes that we all enjoy it, as I have.


"Textbook definitions of heirloom plants suggest that any variety cultivated before 1940, the first year of hybrid introductions, can be declared an heirloom. However, purists contend that the only true heirloom plants are those that have been passed down through generations, not just those that date prior to 1940.

The tomato is biologically categorized as a fruit and is similar to other seed-producing garden favorites such as peppers and melons. Gardeners have historically referred to it as a vegetable, and little effort has been made to change that distinction.

Hybrids Versus Heirlooms
 A hybrid plant is the result of crossbreeding two genetically different varieties to create a new one. Heirloom plants are open-pollinated. Their seeds are true to type, meaning they produce plants with exactly the same traits as the parents.
Many hybrids have built-in disease resistance; most heirlooms do not.
Hybrids have a generally higher yield than heirlooms.
Hybrid plants and seeds are easy to find and purchase in garden centers; heirlooms are not.



 Sourcing Heirlooms
 Heirloom plants and seeds are often hard to find at garden centers simply due to low demand. Organizations such as Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org) and Seeds of Diversity (www.seeds.ca) are dedicated to saving heirlooms and are a great resource for gardeners looking to do the same. These groups provide information on companies that sell heirloom seeds and plants and many host seed exchange events.


Recommended Heirloom Varieties
 
Purple
'Black Krim' is a mahogany-colored variety with a true tomato taste. A very heavy producer that's prone to cracking. Second choice is 'Black Prince'.

Orange
'Mennonite Orange' is a large, bountiful tomato and truly one of the best-tasting orange varieties. Close second is 'Kellogg's Breakfast'.

Red
'Sioux' is a productive heirloom with smaller rich deep-red colored fruits that have a full-bodied taste. Others include 'Rose de Berne' and 'Costoluto Genovese'.

Green
'Green Zebra' is a smaller-sized milder-tasting variety, but it's a heavy producer that shows pink and yellow on its shoulders when ripe. Others include 'Aunt Ruby's German Green' and 'Green Grape'.

Pink
A tie between the 'Caspian Pink', with its mild sweet flavor and flat fruit, and the 'Pink German Tree Tomato', which has a mild but sweet low-acid taste and treelike stems.


Yellow
'Jaune Negib', a moderate yielding, early-season, small tomato with clusters of golf-ball-sized fruit. Second choices are 'Dr. Wyche's Yellow' and 'Limmony'.

Bicolor
'Northern Lights', with its inner rays of yellow, red and pink, is one of the most beautiful tomato varieties to cultivate and is a highly productive heirloom with a rich taste. 'Big Rainbow' and 'Marvel Striped' are other notable choices.

Beefsteak
'Giant Belgium' has a sweet-tasting fruit that can weigh up to 5 lb. The taste is so sweet that some use it to make wine. Other choices include 'Aussie' and 'Mexico'.


There are thousands of heirloom varieties available and a gardener's only limitation is the size of the garden. Cultivating a tomato that has a rich past adds historical significance to the vegetable garden and rewards the gardener with colorful, tasty culinary presentations. Once you have cultivated an array of heirloom tomatoes, you may never grow an ordinary hybrid variety again."

An East-Coast Fence Up North

One of the things I like to mull over during my more bored moments at work is the future dilemma of fencing. I know the yard up north has visitors of the wild persuasion (the occasional bear, deer and the like), and I'd like to find a way to  protect the garden without resorting to a jarring barrier that screams "A CITY SLICKER LIVES HERE!"
I think I've found a compromise!

The picture to the left there is a fence most often seen in Newfoundland, Canada. It's called a variety of names, Riggle, Wriggle, Riddle ... and it's bloody hard to find any info on the web! The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador has this to say,
"The riggle rod (wriggle, riddle, lear, roddle) fence is the most unique fence type in Newfoundland and it is very rare today. It is a combination of a longer fence and a picket fence and has obvious roots in the wattle fences of Medieval England. The riggle rod fence was the most effective in creating a barrier to keep things in or out of an enclosure. This fence type was constructed using three horizontal longers with long slender branches woven alternately between the longers creating an over-and-under effect. The tops of the branches were usually left untrimmed at the top. The branches were pushed close together and once they dried, the fence formed a very strong barrier. This type of fence was economically practical because it did not require the use of nails
on the woven uprights."

While this seems to be an east-coast tool to keep out wind and wildlife, I think it will suit our yard and gardens perfectly. It not only allows me to build it as I can, but also allows me to build it cheaply with saplings from the surrounding forest. Natural, useful and inexpensive ... what more could a gardener want?

A Cup For Your Compost?

I hope I'm not the only one who finds composting fascinating. After all, any process that can take organic waste and break it down into nutrients is an awe-inspiring thing! Tonight I found out that even my morning coffee is nutritious twice!

From The Rodale Book of Composting;
"The nutrient content of coffee residues varies according to the type of residue. Grounds have up to 2% nitrogen, 0.33 % phosphoric acid and varying amounts of potassium. Drip coffee grounds contain more nutrients than boiled grounds, though the potassium content is still below 1%. Other substances found include sugars, carbohydrates, some vitamins, trace elements and caffeine.
Coffee processing plants sell coffee chaff, a dark material containing over 2% nitrogen and potassium. Chaff is useful either as a mulch or as a compost. Apply your coffee grounds immediately, or mix them with other organic matter. They hold moisture extremely well. Left standing, they will quickly sour, inviting acetobacters (vinegar-producing microbes) and fruit flies."

How cool is that! My coffee not only gets me going, but is healthy and helpful for my compost and plants too!

The World As Our Skin

Change is inevitable.
We all change, every day, every minute, every second.
We change our minds, our skin changes, our hormones....we're never exactly the same from minute to minute.
Plants change too. They get taller, or they wilt, or they go yellow, or a deeper shade of green, or they develop a seed pod...or not.
Our animals change. Chickens, dogs, cats, goats, snakes change their skins regularly...
Change happens.
It should be a t-shirt.

I used to hate change. I railed against it, I threw myself into fighting it, only to have to give in to the very thing I objected to. My attitude changed, see, there's change at work again, when I realized that in many things I don't have a choice, so I might as well see the benefit in change. There is a large change planned for our neighborhood. Developers are going to build 70-150 homes in two neighboring cornfields as well as build a water treatment plant down the hill.
It will be a huge change for those who live here. No longer will they be able to walk their dogs down the quiet dead-end street lined with stately cherry, oak and maple trees. There will be a wall keeping people out of the green space beside the river. It will be even more crowded, noisy and very few people will know the person walking down the sidewalk toward them.

Our world will no longer be here, but our world will be changing too.
Our world will soon be ruled, to a great extent, by little balls of peeping fluff, by germination and planting times, by yellow school buses and tides of the river. It will be surrounded by cleaner air and bluer skies, and food we can taste the proper essence of. We will be surrounded by old friends and family once more, and in time, it will be a positive change.

This change will bring with it growth, confidence, a firmer moral compass and clarity. In time, we will grow not only healthy vegetables, but better people.

I can handle a change like that.

The Shrinking Occupation: Farming

I was reading something today that I'd like to share with you, these points were written by Peter Holter, and in my opinion, more people need to see this.


"The average American farmer is 58 years old. The average cattleman is 61 years old.
According to Beef USA, 90% of all U.S. cow herds have less than 100 cows. So there is a declining population of people, with small herds, with growing challenges – and despite the current bubble — a disincentive to carry the ranch forward another generation, in the face of hunger and a growing demand for food.

The good news is there is a new generation coming on that wants to farm and ranch and they are exploring new paradigms – problem is they often can’t afford the land, and there are programs with land trusts, USDA and others to assist — and they desperately want training — not only in production but management to run a smaller, efficient, profitable healthy enterprise. And interestingly many are doing it. Many of them are women – 30% of the 3 million farms are operated by women – today, women are twice as likely to take over an existing enterprise or starting a new one than men."

“The Women and Food Agriculture Network has information indicating that – since 2002 – the agriculture industry has seen a 30 percent increase nationally in the number of women running farms and ranches.  If you look at demographic, social, and economic factors, they indicate that the number will continue to rise in the coming years.”

I have a banner on my Facebook page that says "No farms=no food".
It is true now more than ever with shrinking availability of land, fewer and fewer programs to help new farmers and a retiring group of farmers. The U.S is ahead of Canada in their efforts to try and help the next generation of farmers, and this needs to be rectified. Every country needs to help their farmers, and in the end, help stem the food crisis we all experience.

Micro Mesclun To The Rescue!

Today I got the urge to plant something, and I wasn't at all influenced by the fact that I was hungry.
Right.
I turned the soil in the pot that I had allowed the peas to die, (yes, I did that for a reason). After turning the soil and breaking the peas green matter up, I watered gently with rain water from my bucket outside. I scattered a generous sprinkling of mesclun seed over all this and gently covered with a scattered handful of Miracle Grow soil. (I'm waiting for another handful of compost to be ready, but in the meantime, a mini-farmer's gotta do what she's gotta do) Apparently I should see green sprouts in as early as a week. They can be, and will be, trimmed when they are anywhere between 1 and 6 inches high. My plan for these is simple. Add to salads, wraps, sandwiches...anywhere lettuce is used, these can be used as well. All the knowledgeable sources  say Mesclun is a "gourmet greens mixture", but I just like the way it adds variety to my diet. I like Romaine and Iceberg as much as the next person, but it gets boring after awhile. Mesclun doesn't need as much sun as Buttercrunch lettuce, so maybe, just maybe we'll have a shot at this growing our greens thing, even here.
Oh, and my plan in letting the peas die back? Between my compost bucket outside, the rainwater bucket and micro scale green manure plantings, I am trying to see if my plan for the bigger land can be reproduced  in a north facing apartment. Because if I can do it without a windowsill, so can others.

No matter what gardening books and websites will tell you, not everyone can grow their own salads. I'm here trying to find an alternative for even basement dwellers.

What are you growing this week?

Putting Our Money Where My Mouth Is

Yesterday was a small adventure day for us. Every now and then, we like to take the bus up to Waterloo and hit one of my favorite seed stores, Ontario Seed Company. One of our favorite restaurants, Cora's, is right across the road and we always stop there for breakfast or lunch. (If you ever have the opportunity to eat at a Cora's, you really should! Their dishes are like no other breakfast or lunch you've ever had for these prices!) We went with a small four page list of seeds to get for both us and my Mother, and I would say we got at least three of those pages. We also found a mortar and pestle that my darling partner had been wanting.  Actually it was a set of three mortar and pestles, so I would say she's set for a while now. We got flower seeds (corn poppy, california poppy, morning glory, shasta daisy, salvia, and two different kinds of impatiens). We got vegetables and a fruit (iceberg lettuce to add to our growing collection of lettuces, cabbage, collards, onions, more peppers, zucchini, broccoli, pumpkin and cantaloupe) We also started our herb collection off with lavender, lemon balm, rosemary,  arugula, and purple coneflower, which is also known as echinacea. As if all that wasn't enough, we also wandered a few blocks in search of a store that sold a certain type of bag that Betty wanted. I knew she wanted one that had a woven, ethnic, "Himalayan-look", but with a zipper for security and a long strap so she could wear it across her body. I commented to her that if Ten Thousand Villages didn't have one, no one would. You're probably giving me the same questioning look she did. To explain,
"Ten Thousand Villages is an organization which sells handicrafts from “developing” countries through its network of stores in Canada and the USA, as well as hundreds of annual Festival sales. Ten Thousand Villages is a program of Mennonite Central Committee, a relief and development organization working in more than 50 countries around the world. Ten Thousand Villages has its roots in the work begun by Edna Ruth Byler in 1946." Even better is the fact that the artisans all belong to collectives, which gives them bargaining power, and the fact that the craftspeople are paid half when the order is placed and half before the finished order ever leaves their country. It's good to know my money isn't lining some crooked politicians pocket!

I like the fact that they put the producer before the product. This isn't Wal-Mart. You won't find items made by 12 year olds forced to provide for their families in horrible conditions for pennies a day. Now I'm not implying that Wal-Mart supports sweat shops, but think about it, how else do you think they can offer the products they do at those prices all the time? Not accusing, just sayin' ... think about it. So anyway, in we went and I immediately saw a bunch of things that appealed to me, not the least of which was the wooden cabinets and tables made from abandoned and reclaimed wood. These pieces had class, style, character and they were made from more solid wood than your average $25 entertainment unit. I loved them! While Betty shopped for a bag that was exactly what she wanted, I came across the perfect coffee mug. It was hefty in my hand, it felt solid and it held a serious amount of coffee! I am VERY particular when it comes to my favorite mugs. They must have style, heft and look damn good too. I found one. (No Betty, this does NOT mean you can throw out my brown one with the broken handle)

Even better than how this feels is that I know who made it! "Drink your morning coffee from this stunning ceramic mug and contribute to the well-being of talented artisans from India. Moulded from clay by the skilled hands of local artisans, this mug is characterized by its deep blue hue, stylized motif and perfect glaze. A mug of style and substance."
Indeed!


So we got a good supply of seeds for the next few growing seasons, had an awesome lunch and even got to support craftspeople in developing countries. We ate well, provided for our future sustainability and shopped politically.
I'd say that's putting our money where our mouthes are!

Yes, We Have Bananas!

Those of you who read here on a regular basis know I have always been against GMO's,  but I was shocked to learn that for one fruit, at least, genetic modification might be beneficial! The humble banana is so prone to disease that it's simple existence is threatened, according to  Organic Gardening, Oct/Nov 2010
Did you know bananas are seedless? Because of this, the plants must be reproduced vegetatively through offsets. While this makes for a higher success rate and more consistent fruit, it also means that for the banana, the lab is a necessity. According to experts, there is a fungus hot on the trail of all banana-life everywhere, and it's apparently incurable. The dreaded killer is a new strain of fusarium wilt known as "Panama Disease" or "Race 4", by attacking roots. So  far it is resistant to fungicides. An Australian biologist, James Dale, has devoted his attention to developing a lab-bred variety of the fruit that is immune to the fungus. He's still working on the process, and running into a great deal of resistance to field-testing genetically modified bananas. There are over 300 different varieties of banana, but the most popular is "Cavendish". In the 1960's another variety, the "Gros Michel" was the most popular, but another strain of fusarium wilt wiped it out.

A Belgian scientist, Rony Swennen has spent years working in Africa  to develop disease-resistant fruit utilizing conventional hybridizing methods. So far, he's been unsuccessful, but his first genetically modified  bananas were promising. But he's been blocked by going further in field trials. Uganda is the world's most dependent country, and while officials there have expressed an interest, the field trials have yet to happen in fungus-prone areas.

Now we can see where in this case, genetic modification might save one of our most popular fruits. At least a few varieties. But with over 300 to choose from, the celebrated banana will be around for a long time, so don't fret about that hand of bananas on your counter.
What's a hand, you ask? A bunch of bananas is a hand while a single fruit is called a finger.

Now you know.

Soon To Be Taken

“The Road Not Taken

 Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
 And be one traveler, long I stood
 And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
 Then took the other, as just as fair,
 And having perhaps the better claim,
 Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
 Though as for that the passing there
 Had worn them really about the same,
 And both that morning equally lay
 In leaves no step had trodden black.
 Oh, I kept the first for another day!
 Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
 I doubted if I should ever come back.
 I shall be telling this with a sigh
 Somewhere ages and ages hence:
 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
 I took the one less traveled by,
 And that has made all the difference.” ― Robert Frost

A Pea Here, A Potato There

So now I approach the whole book of my plans differently ... "Wait, what book?" you ask. I have a very large binder that houses all my notes on everything I thought I might find useful in off-grid, green manure, power production, water storage, food production, pest control, specific plant type notes, seed saving...you get the idea.
So now I need to approach the big book of knowledge as not just a repository of knowledge, but as a tool within the plan. The plan is to feed us with as much homegrown, natural food as possible. Realistically, there will still be things we'll need to acquire from town, but it's my hope that the list of those things shrink as the land and I grow together.
Soil is the first priority, I think. Without good soil, nothing will grow to it's full potential.

“Be it deep or shallow, red or black, sand or clay, the soil is the link between the rock core of the earth and the living things on its surface. It is the foothold for the plants we grow. Therein lies the main reason for our interest in soils.” --- Roy W. Simonson, USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1957

I will need to decide where the raised beds are going, replace edge boards to the old raised beds that are sagging, and compost to those as well. I'll also need to decide where new raised beds are going, lay the boards for those, dig a little to improve drainage and plant clover as a green manure. These will be the pea patches. It's my hope that with rotational green manure crops, I can improve the soil enough that I can get a reasonably good crop next spring.

Despite our limited number of days we will have remaining to us once we move, we'll still be growing a variety of things, most of which will be started and planted by then. Many are, indeed, started even as I type. No, not by me. By the Mom-Gardener. We'll already have under way pumpkins, squash, lettuce, tomatoes, beets, carrots and dill. Not much at a cursory glance, that's true. But we'll be growing what we can between the end of July and that dreaded first frost. But no matter how much it turns out to be, it will be more than she could have last year, and more than I have been able to grow in 12 years. We will be thankful for each and every morsel.

I have to give a shout out to an unlikely gardeners-left-hand, my Dad. I was unexpectedly thrilled to learn he got approximately five gallons of compost the other day. Way to go, Dad! (insert high five here) I was so encouraged by the news, I grinned like a dork for an hour.

There will need to be the right place found for a patch of oats that I'd like to grow next year. We're a big oatmeal family, all of us, and I'd like to be able to augment our store bought oats as much as I can. The only way I see the quality of our food improving is by eating more of our own, and realistically it's going to be a slow conversion. (For the picky eater in the family, that might be a good thing) The same goes for potatoes and corn. The "feeding" requirements for each will be a little different, but I'm already planning a three year crop rotation.

Next time, I'll talk more about crop rotation and why monoculture farming may have contributed to the big dust bowl of history.

BIG NEWS!!!

I can now make the announcement I've been waiting months to shout from the rooftops...

WE'RE MOVING !!!

Yes, we're finally moving out to the country. Well, bush, actually. In three short months, our new home will be in the wilds of Northern Ontario where we'll be raising chickens, growing as much food as we can, and helping my folks with anything that needs doing. We expect it will be a lot of work, but we're up for it.
I can't express to you how much I'm looking forward to sharing our adventures with you. I can finally experiment with growing pumpkins and watermelon, I can finally start to think seriously about stream development and water collection, building a chicken tractor and enjoying "home-grown" eggs once again.

I'm excited, but the job of getting four people and a dog packed in 102 days is a bit overwhelming!

So the posts here may get a bit shorter, they may not, but they'll never be boring, I'm sure!

Betcha Didn't Know...

Did you know we now have a poll here in the Urban Trench? That's right, down a little bit on the right hand side of this page.
I'd be grateful if you'd go and vote, wether you've commented here or just lurk. Your input means a lot, and I look forward to seeing comments. Barring that, I'd be very interested in seeing the results of the poll.
I'll be back tomorrow with a better, longer, update.
Have a great day!

A Technology Suggestion

It's a busy day around here, but I came across a blog entry on Prepping To Survive called "Depending On Technology" that I thought was a great post. I wholeheartedly suggest you read it. I know I learned something, and I hope you do too.
I hope to have more for you tonight. Until then, be productive, be safe!