feralkevin's permaculture and edible wild foods

feralkevin.com

2007-09-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

feralkevin.com

2007-09-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

feralkevin.com

feralkevin's permaculture and edible wild foods moves to feralkevin.com

2007-08-03T16:46:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody, I've moved this blog to feralkevin.com See ya there!

local caffeine part 3: the California Bay nut

2007-07-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

In this video, feralkevin gives a slideshow on a few attributes of the amazing edible California Bay tree (Umbellularia californica).

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local caffeine part two: yerba mate'.

2007-06-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to posting part two of this local caffeine series. Hope you enjoy the video.

some notes about the video:

--the glass bombilla doesn't burn your mouth
-- I have never heard any of the Latin names used in this video actually pronounced.
-- I regretably don't speak Spanish or have much knowledge about the very diverse mate' drinking cultures (mostly in South America).
-- I have never seen a mate' (Ilex paraguensis) plant. -- I have only seen a few Yaupon Hollies in pots. Never in the wild, where they can grow to good-sized shrubs.
-- The genus Ilex (Hollies) are in the Aquifoliaceae family.

There exists a much longer version of this video with more information.

local caffeine part one -- tea

2007-05-21T21:22:00.001-07:00

So as you see in the video I'm growing green tea on my balcony. Camellia sinensis to be exact, the tea plant, of the Theaceae family. I've gotten about 8 cups of tea from this small plant (a scrawny 2-3 feet) so far this spring. I'm not really sure about the best way to prune it for shape (and when) or how many times to harvest the leaves for optimal production, and I'm definitely not a great tea master. I am very excited however, at the potential of growing my own caffeine, and enjoying the amazing fresh earthy taste of the Camellia that graces my porch. A common ornamental relative, Camellia japonica is frequently found in my neighborhood. In fact, one grows a mere 12 feet away from my tea plant. They have bigger leaves and much bigger and showier flowers, and in my experience in this area, are the Camellias referred to when . . . well . . . when one is referring to Camellias. The Plants For a Future site reports that the C. japonica variety can also be made into a tea. Despite their amazing abundance in this area (as ornamental plantings), I have for some unknown reason failed to try them.

Check back soon for local caffeine part two: yerba mate'.

my edible balcony

2007-05-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

As part of the Eat Local Challenge that I participated in last week, I made a short video of the most local food I eat -- the plants on my balcony. In this video I discuss the edible plants nasturtium, Campanula, Calendula, and tea (Camellia sinensis). For more information on the tea plant, keep checking my blog for the video in-the-works on local caffeine.

surprising struggle to eat local

2007-04-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Despite all the advantages I perceived that I had when beginning the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge, the whole thing has proven to be very difficult. Much more so than I had imagined, and I’ve learned quite a deal about the reality of our food system. (Which I knew about already but thought I had somewhat escaped). I guess by my standards I was NOT successful in eating local. I wound up eating those Farmer’s Market avocados that came from over 100 miles away. The other things that I failed on where organic corn chips and black beans (which could be grown within the 100 miles radius but most likely were not.) I did keep in budget with the food, although it was a struggle. I went over budget on beer, (the local Lagunitas IPA) because like I said, in my house beer is a food. I mostly ate grilled cheese sandwiches as mentioned in my previous entry. I had this for dinner nearly every night, with Strauss butter, Spring Hill cheese, and Alvarado Street bread. -- all local products. I did however, find out that the “organic” Alvarado Street bread contains non-organic soy lecithin, which I can only assume is GMO (genetically modified.) Of all things to try to avoid in your diet and in our food system, I argue that GMO’s are it. And I was unknowingly eating it. I also just came across an article at the Weston A Price foundation about soy lecithin: http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/lecithin.html.

During my challenge, besides really yummy grilled cheese sandwiches, I also ate a lot of Strauss yogurt, stinging nettle (I would even put the nettle on my grilled cheese sandwiches), and local organic eggs. I did use a few non-local condiments such as mayonnaise for egg salad. I also broke down during the week and resumed my morning habit of drinking yerba mate’. (Decidely not local.) I began the week drinking homegrown green tea, but that quickly ran out. I recently purchased a Yaupon holly, a close relative of yerba mate’ that can contains caffeine and similar healthful properties. My plant however is a small seedling, and it will probably be quite some time before I can get any harvest from this. Check back into this blog for a video about local caffeine.

I could have eaten completely local if I had to, although I would not have gotten the calories and nutrition I regularly require. I could have eaten lots of greens and milk and yogurt and gone hungry, or benefited from the fasting/cleansing of the whole process. But that wasn’t what I wanted to get from this challenge. I wanted to see how I am in my life now, using the challenge to measure my progress (as I already aim to eat local only.) Overall, I guess I did okay. The thing that I am pleased about the most is that everything in my diet could be locally grown. I didn’t live on tropical foods or out of season fruits or things that really don’t grow here. In fact, pretty much everything I ate could have been grown in a homesteading situation (for the most part.)

I’ll try to briefly break it down. For the week I ate locally grown:
Organic Strauss butter
Organic Strauss yogurt
Redwood Hill goat yogurt
Organic Spring Hill Cheese
Locally wildcrafted stinging nettle (in sandwiches, egg salad, and lacto-fermented beverages.)
Locally wildcrafted rose hips (in lacto-fermented beverage.)
Locally baked organic bread (although the grains probably grown elsewhere. Wheat can be dry farmed, that is with “no irrigation” here in this part of California.)
Local organic eggs
Semi-local avocados (just over 100 miles away.)
Semi-local organic Lundberg rice (150 miles away)
Salad and asparagus from my garden
Greens from my balcony
Organic Strauss ice cream
Niman Ranch bacon
Local poultry
Lots of beer -- local Lagunitas IPA.

Things that were not local:
Organic corn tortilla chips (although made by a local company)
Organic black beans (who knows where they are from.)
Condiments (mayonnaise, curry powder, sea salt)
Yerba mate’
Agave syrup for lacto fermented beverages (although this could have been made with local honey, I just couldn’t find any this week.)

Of course, there are so many ways to go about this challenge. What if I looked at the packaging that the food comes in? Where was it made? What resources were exploited in order to produce it? Even the beer bottles -- where were the materials gathered that were used to make the glass? Where were they made? Where do the farm inputs come from that allows the food to grow? The water that I cooked with comes from over 100 miles away. Looking at it economically, where is the money generated that makes these food transactions possible?
All in all, the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge was a good experience, forcing me to really look at my food and the economy that is completely out of balance with a locavore’s goals. Imagine if legislation such as the Farm Bill were to give encouragement for local food production rather than wasteful export driven exploitation?
What would be the repercussions of this?
Check out Michael Pollan’s article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22wwlnlede.t.html?ex=1178251200&en=e287785d15206f07&ei=5070&emc=eta1

I found myself during the past several weeks pretty much wanting to eat eggs, dairy, and stinging nettle non-stop. I keep dreaming of getting my own chickens and milking my own goats. When thinking about this, I realized that all these things are in season right now; it’s the time of year when the chickens are starting to lay and the green grass is ripe for the grazing by milking animals. Stinging nettle can be harvested right now. I felt relief when I thought about this; my body’s cravings are in rhythm with the place around me. I can’t imagine craving grapes or tomatoes right now, which apparently people eat this time of year without hesitation (of course imported from far away.) They sound unappealing to me. So coming from an alienated, out of balance suburban way of life, I guess I am making some progress. If I could only remember to plant seeds by the moon cycle.

Eat Local dinner

2007-04-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight for dinner, as part of the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge, I ate two grilled cheese sandwiches and some beer. The cheese was organic cheddar from Spring Hill in Petaluma and the beer was a Lagunitas IPA -- also from Petaluma. The bread I used was from Alvarado Street Bakery which is very close by. They use organic grains, although I do not know where the grains come from. I'm really surprised so far how difficult it has been to eat within a 100 mile radius of where I live. Our economy and our lives are so divorced from place that even here in the progressive land of plenty (Bay Area, CA) I'm finding it a bit problematic. If I denied myself the nourishment I require (or at least desire) it would be easy to not break any rules of this challenge. But again, for me the challenge is to see how I can eat like I want within the parameters. Not be on a depravation diet or any special diet that in any way resembles fasting. Eating local should not mean doing without! I also used some local Strauss butter with the meal. Since the beer is on a special budget ($8.00 per week extra) , I won't include it's price.
The rest of the meal I estimate cost at $3.00. I can't believe my delicious meal was that cheap. I am still a bit hungry, though, and probably will eat some dessert soon -- Strauss ice cream! The majority of the ingredients in the ice cream come from local sources, but the sugar, etc of course does not. The amount of ice cream I'll eat tonight adds up to be about $1. So that puts me at $4.00 for the evening. It's interesting to me that ice cream (especially real ice cream) gets such a bad health reputation. If you look at the label, it's loaded with calcium and vitamin A, and the type of fat to help you asborb it. I eat it not as a decadent pleasure, but as part of my important daily nutrition.

gone shopping for Eat Local Challenge

2007-04-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

So for the start of my Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge, I decided to go shopping. First I went to my local farmer’s market in Oakland, CA -- a fairly large market with fairly sophisticated consumers. For this challenge I am not on a weird diet, I’m trying to eat like I normally do -- otherwise it’s like I’m on vacation or trying a novelty. I want to eat local as a way of life, and it needs to integrate into my existing life. So at the market and at Farmer’s Joe’s -- a local grocery store with lots of natural foods -- I tried to buy what I normally buy being conscious of not only how close to home the food is grown (with the goal of only eating food grown within a 100 mile radius), but also its price, nutrition and whether it was grown organically or not.
My first venture to the local farmer’s market was a mixed bag. Only after having already purchased avocados and almonds from two different vendors did I find that they were from over 100 miles away. They were in the state of California, but farther than the distance dictated by the Eat Local Challenge. As almonds store well and my avocados are still hard, I’m going to try to not count these -- meaning I won’t eat them this week. I did buy beets from Dirty Girl Produce (Watsonville) and some fresh eggs from County Line Farm (Petaluma). I boiled the eggs and baked the beets in Strauss butter (a local product.) This is what I’ll have for my lunch tomorrow (with a little sea salt -- which probably didn’t come from within a 100 mile radius but easily could have if our economy wasn’t as such. It seems strange that the first item I eat for the Challenge that is not local is salt, when I can climb the nearest hill and see saltwater.) The estimated cost of this lunch -- $3.75.

I'm also going to include a beverage with my meal: A homemade lactofermented (or lacto-fermented) nettle drink. Like one of the original sodas it is a living microbial culture with the carbonation coming from the excretions of these lactobacillus bacteria. I harvested the stinging nettles (possibly the most nutritious and sustainable vegetable for temperate climates) from the Regenerative Design Institute in Bolinas, CA. You can see this film on one of my previous blog entries. Since the nettle was wild and free, the only ingredient that I need to calculate into the budget is the Agave syrup I used as the sugar source. Agave is an amazingly beautiful succulent that is from Central America and is the plant where the sugar for tequila comes from. Although this plant can be grown in the part of California where I live, the Agave that I bought was definitely not grown here, most likely being grown South of the border. So I am going to exempt sugar sources from my 100 mile radius list, as the only locally grown source of sugar is honey (which is expensive and typically slower to ferment). Does anyone know of another sugar source grown in temperate climates? I hear rumors of Chicory syrup, but cannot find any definitive information. I estimate the cost of the Agave syrup to be around $1.25 -- making the total for my lunch $5.00.

Check back in tomorrow to hear about my dinner.

Happy local eating!

Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge

2007-04-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently told me about this April’s Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge. The goal is for one week to only eat food that comes from within a 100 mile radius of where I live. This is something that I try to do on a daily basis as a lifestyle choice, so it seems easy enough. It also helps that I live in the Bay Area, California, where there is a lot of quality organic local food available. It is also in my favor that I have access to wild foods (and have some stored already) as well as a large garden. The challenge for me however, is in the “Penny-Wise” part. The U.S. Department of Labor recently put out some intensive research on how much the average American family spends on food per week. So it’s not that I typically spend that much more than $68 per week on food, but I really struggle to budget it in a clear way. I value what I eat so much, that I typically choose the better product (for the Earth, for my health, and for social justice) over the cheaper product. Also, bulk items like flour, nuts, and olive oil are hard to calculate in a weekly budget, but I look forward the attempt. Of course if I eat out at all during that week, suddenly $68 seems like a drop in the hat. One other encouraging thing is that this amount doesn’t include beer, which according the parameters of the challenge, I get to spend an additional $8 dollars on. I think I can manage that, although I must say in my house beer is a food. And there are so many great local beers to choose from! So I’m going to do it, and report my experiences here on the blog.

But why local foods? I realize as I’m typing this that I’m not really writing for a general audience that needs that question answered. If, as I believe I’m doing right now, which is preaching to the choir, I’ll dish out a little green evangelizing. In short, I think switching back to a local food system solves a great number of our world’s problems.
The average American meal travels 1500 miles from field to plate. This is a tremendous waste of resources, is exploitive of the Earth and of workers and farmers, and contributes to global warming. It also further disconnects people from their food, and thus, from the natural world. Eating from your place helps reconnect us to natural world, to the place we live in, and to each other. It eliminates much waste and pollution. Food that is not local is typically not fresh, which significantly reduces its nutritional value, and things that are out season I argue are not good for the body anyway. It seems strange to completely alienated people that they should not have grapes in April (imported from the Southern Hemisphere), but my body doesn’t want grapes in April. The grapes in my garden are just beginning to flower right now. Fresh ripe grapes are the embodiment of the summer sun and heat. To eat them in spring is to be out time and rhythm with the place around you. Our bodies don’t need fresh grapes now. But if you must have grapes in April, eat raisins or drink some wine -- that’s how we get grapes in April!

Considering the overwhelming dangers and challenges we face right now on this planet, I do not think any programs per se will help solve our problems. If you can sum up the solution in a specific idea, task, or action, then I think you’ve missed the boat. We are so out balance, and the end of the world extinction event which as already happened is getting so worse so fast, that we need to do more than change our strategies or programs. We need to completely change ourselves, and I think one of the many good ways to do that, to reconnect to the natural world and natural time, is to eat with the seasons. And it’s not like it’s some depravation punishment strict discipline. It’s perfectly natural, in flow, and delicious! Fresh local food just tastes tons better and is much better for you. Our ancestors ate nothing but organic local food for 99 point many 9’s of human history. I think we can figure it out.

I don’t want to suggest however that local is the only thing that is important. Our food needs to be sustainably, safely, and ecologically grown (right now our consumer option is “organic” but as those standards are increasingly weakened, we’ll have to do better). This means first and foremost NO GMO (genetically modified organisms) which is so horrible that if I don’t dissociate from it a little, I can’t get out of the bed in the morning, because what’s the point, right? Genetic engineering is a whole other topic that is really beyond the scope of this discussion, but if you are looking to bring about the end of the world, keep supporting biotech, because they are delivering the apocalypse as fast as their stocks are rising. Another thing is the food needs to be grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or any other icides. (These substances are designed to kill, just like their word cousins “suicide” and “homicide.”)

So anyway, after hopefully a few yawns, and perhaps some “hallelujahs”, I’ll wrap this up. Please check back in for updates on the Eat Local Challenge, which for me will be the Eat Local Organic (or sustainably wildcrafted) Challenge. Let it be a celebration of abundance and of the Earth!

The (copyrighted) photographs were taken by Dawn Panda in October when grapes are ripe. These were from an enormous wild (feral) patch in the Oakland hills. The grapes were climbing 60 to 80 feet up live oaks, willows, and redwood trees! Amazing and delicious!

edible wild stinging nettle permaculture

2007-03-31T17:02:00.000-07:00

In this video, Matt Berry of the Regenerative Design Institue (RDI) discusses the finer points of stinging nettle harvesting. Harvesting nettles can really adhere to the principles of permaculture by using the surplus nature has to offer. In many places, nettle is in extreme abundance and requires little or no input to grow. In this video, Matt shows us a particular type of sustainable wildcrafting technique. If you top the nettle at the right time when it is young and good to eat, more nettle will grow back. This can help the plant and increase the harvest. Nettle is by far the most nutritious plant in my garden, being a superfood with loads of vitamins and minerals, including chlorophyll and calcium. The poison in the stinging spines on nettles are rendered harmless by drying or cooking. You can also check out some cool nettle beer recipes in Buhner's Sacred Herbal and Healing Beers as well as figure out how to make lacto fermented nettle beer in Jessica Prentice's Full Moon Feast: The Hunger for Connection.

edible wild cattail permaculture

2007-03-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

Here's some footage that I took of Matt Berry of the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) and I on a cattail harvesting expedition in the late winter. The raw young cattail shoots were very tasty indeed, a nice blandness that would be good to dip in some yummy sauce, but nutty enough to enjoyed by themselves. I was, however, scared to eat them on site. I took them home and peeled and washed them thoroughly with tap water. The reason I was hesitant to eat them onsite was because of the fear of Giardia, an intestinal bacteria that can make you really sick. According to most sources, Giardia is considered to pretty much be in all our water now -- even our most pristine waters (like the pond in the video.) I've read that you shouldn't even wash your dishes in the stream while camping or eat after being in the water. This seems extreme to me, but nearly all of us these days come from an extreme germ-a-phobic upbringing. I'm still trying to get over it in many ways, from lactofermentation to people sneezing near me, to giardia in the water. Although I see that it comes from our extreme cultural alienation and fear of the natural world, giardia is in the water, it does make people sick, and I can't find any intellectual fodder that puts my mind as ease. Anyone have any info to offer? I guess Matt didn't get sick from eating the cattail (which grow in the water) but he actually has had it before. How much does that matter?

Anyway, before I need to change the title of this posting to "Jumping Giardia", I want to say that the cattail is an amazing plant, useful for so many things, including friction fire making as spindle and fluff for the tinder bundle, but also for making cordage or primitve string, and most importantly its many many edible uses. Matt covers nearly all of these in the video.

Also, I did pickle a whole jar of them in vinegar and they didn't come out all that great. The vinegar taste is really strong, and they are very chewy, to the point where I had to spit out the fibrous plug that accumulated in my mouth.

Also, besides being sure of identification, NEVER eat cattails that grow in polluted water. Cattails are used for bioremediation to clean water and can be great for greywater systems. But this same attribute allows them to bioaccumulate some pretty scary toxins, including heavy metals.

Gold and Silver Streaks

2007-03-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

I want to briefly share my enthusiasm for an amazing group of plants that are in the genus Elaeagnus. They are called Russian Olive, Autumn Olive, and Goumi, sometimes Silverberry, but I call them all Elaeagnus. (pronounced el ee AG nus.) They are all tough shrubs/small trees, some are evergreen, others deciduous, and they fix nitrogen in the soil with an actinorhizal symbiosis with a Frankia bacteria. This feature not only allows them to grow in poor soils, but also adds to their use as a permaculture plant. They make great companions to many fruit and nut trees. They are also sold in the ornamental nursery trade because of their beautiful gold and silver dotted foliage (and their toughness). Despite all these wonderful traits, the best use of Elaeagnus in my opinion is eating! They make wonderful red berries (technically fruit) that are extremely nutritious, containing not only vitamin C and beta carotene, but the rare and vital fatty acid, Omega 3! Beyond that, the fruits contain ridiculously high amounts a lycopene, a proven cancer fighting agent. The seed is also edible, and contains a high amount of protein.
I could talk about these plants for hours, and I have had many very significant dream encounters with these plants. But for now, I just really want to share what's happening in my garden, where I have planted nearly 20 Elaeagnus plants -- Elaeagnus angustifolia (Russian olive), Elaeagnus umbellata (Autumn Olive), Elaeagnus multiflora (Goumi), as well as Elaeagnus pungens (the evergreen type). Currently, the deciduous Elaeagnus have just begun to produce flowers (which smell very sweet like a children's candy.) The evergreen type started flowering in the fall, and despite record frosts in our area, produced fruit over the winter. Now, a few days after the spring Equinox, the evergreen Elaeagnus in my garden have ripe fruit. And these are 5 times or more the size of the small berries produced by the decidious Elaeagnus. The one you are looking at in the top picture is the first evergreen Elaeagnus fruit I have ever eaten. It was delicious. The seed, like my man Ken Fern at pfaf.org claims, did taste like a peanut! So cool! -- flowers of one type at the same time ripe fruit of the other. But all of course are streaked with gold and silver.

photos copyrighted by Kevin Feinstein 2007.

edible plantain

2007-03-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

I went to the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) a few weeks ago to hang out with my friend Matt Berry. Here's a video clip I shot of us discussing the nuances of fine wild edible cuisine. In this particular clip, Matt teaches us about the virtues and characteristics of plantain (Plantago species).

I was familiar with this plant (specifically the broadleaf plantain) very early in my naturalist career. I was using plantain that grew in my mother's yard to help relieve the pain from cuts that my cousins received while playing. This was before I had even heard of permaculture and was just beginning to think about what weeds in the yard I could eat. An introduced European species, broadleaf plantain was called "white man's footprint" by Native peoples in America (Turtle Island) as it was a weed that followed white men wherever they went. Of course, the Native Americans that encountered plantain instantly recognized its virtues and used it readily.
When talking about this plant with the general public, it often leads to a declaration of nerdiness as most people think plantain is of course a banana that you must cook. When explaining that you mean a common edible weed instead, you pretty much instantly label yourself as a "nerd" (as anyone who explains or adds nuance must be).

Plum wild

2007-03-06T22:44:00.000-08:00

I shot and edited this video today. It was a crazy day with little sleep, little food, lots of sweat and bat guano, and social drama and miscommunication. But warm and beautiful.

Stalking the wild salsify

2007-03-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

Nearly one year after my last post, I decided to revisit my blogspot. And not really so coincidentally, last March I was talking about salsify, which of course I'm eating right now. As the seasons change, so does my consciousness and often perspective, so it's good to revisit a record of what I was doing and thinking one year previous. It allows me to see that my path is more consistent than I tend think it is.

About salsify: Botanically known as Tragopogon porrifolius, it is a member of the Asteraceae (Compositae) or Sunflower family. It is often called goatsbeard, because of the big puff created when it goes to seed -- just like a giant dandelion (also in the Sunflower family.) Its purple flowers are quite beautiful and its leaves look so much like grass that I often weedwhack it by mistake. When searching for salsify where it likes to grow -- often amongst grass, I will virtually assume a stalking posture, as it is so difficult to distinguish from grass. One clue is that when the leaves are broken it exudes a milky sap. Of course, this first requires a pattern recognition that cannot be put into words, or else you'll be breaking off every piece of grass before finding one that bleeds a while milky substance. These grasslike leaves are edible and in my opinion choice, usually being crisp and somewhat sweet. I have only eaten them raw on the spot, although I'm sure there are many creative recipe possibilities.

The root however, is where it’s at for edibility. Dig it up, wash it, slice it, and bake it at 350-400 degrees in some olive oil. It’s one of the tastiest wild foods I’ve tried, and has been a hit with children and adults alike. It has a somewhat oyster taste to some, giving salsify the nickname “oyster plant.” I think it taste more like a cross between a potato, taro root, and a Jerusalem artichoke. The latter plant, also in the Sunflower family, gives me the worst gas. Salsify roots, even though I’ve chowed down on them for dinner, do not seem to produce the same affect.

Salsify is a plant that grows wild throughout much of the United States, and its deep taproot is very useful in my garden at breaking up my heavy, heavy clay soil. It is a cool season plant, usually going fairly dormant in the summer heat. The root should also be harvested only after a fairly heavy frost in order to maximize taste. Although we had frosts in the fall and into January and February, the plant doesn’t seem to grow big enough until March. Its cycle is still mysterious to me. The seeds according my sources do not store well at all, so saving them for planting isn’t really practical. So late last spring, I deliberately let many go to seed, often grabbing the seeds and throwing them down on garden beds. I didn’t notice any growth really until late February of the following year, and the plants are much too tiny to eat. The ones I’m digging up now, however, I believe are in their second year. Being biennial, if I don’t dig them up now and eat them they will go to seed in a few months, and then die. The plant’s cycle in my garden is indeed mysterious, as they seem to disappear in the summer and fall and elude my watchful naturalist gaze. They also grow in the adjacent open space grassland with nothing but natural rainfall, but they really thrive in a more disturbed and irrigated garden soil.

I welcome any comments and experiences with salsify, particularly its life cycle.

(the top photograph was taken by Dawn Panda)

It did rain

2006-03-29T01:15:00.000-08:00

I didn't work today in the garden. I spent most of the day making phone calls and keeping up with all the spin of the noosphere. Went to work, played chess and stood in the cold soaking wet spring air, feeling winter holding tight, even though we've passed the Equinox. The light is returning, though, and plants are starting to thrive. I noticed flowers on the Walnut tree today. I also learned that there have been several quantitative studies where Elaeagnus benefitted the growth of walnut trees. Elaeagnus was also mentioned in Hemenway (2001) as a possible juglone buffer between Walnuts and their toxins and other trees, such as apples. So I am planting them heavily.

I also learned last night that the mystery plant is salsify. I have never seen anything quite like it, but as its leaves look grasslike, I have mistaken it for a weed on many occassions (it's growing in the paths where the tenacious weeds do, not in the bed!). I have unconsciously been mutaliting salsify thinking it was a a weed or grass! It has made its testament as being very tough. Once, a few of the kids and I dug one up and found the root to be, well a Salsify root, like a full grown, grocery store sized carrot, only yellow and where broken exuding a milky white substance. Very powerful plants, doing a miracle of breaking up our heavy clay soil. After my discovery, I will weed around them and help them grow to seed, save and replant the seeds. Clearly, this is a plant that grows well with the natural rhythms of the land, which includes not only heavy clay soil and soaking wet winters and desert dry hot summers but also children stomping over it and the gardener unsuccessfully trying to weed it. The root is edible and substantial, as are the leaves, but the best way to prepare them I am still not clear on.

I was also thinking tonight about the planting of the nursery plants that I ordered from Burnt Ridge Nursery in Washington.
So far I'm looking to play Yellowhorn under the fruit trees and Aronia under the Pines, at the edge of the garden and the slope. The Magnolia vines, I want to plant along the deer fence, but not in the newly sheet mulched area. I'm not sure about the other yet, although I was thinking about putting the Loquats just south of the Pines in newly dug holes and the olives interplanted with the struggling row of grapes. I guess the Elaeagnus will go there as well, and I'll also put some near the walnut trees.

On another note, the artichokes were looking really big and ready to eat today. Maybe tomorrow?

In Season

2006-03-27T23:04:00.000-08:00

GREENS:

Fava greens (very abundant -- nice nutty taste -- eaten raw)

Garlic mustard (is good if steamed or stir fried, makes a very
nutritious pesto)

Mallow (bland taste -- extremely high in Vitamin A)

Kale (it’s mostly done for the year, letting it go to seed, which
we'’ll save)

Chard (best steamed or in scrambles)

Parsley (there’s just a bit, enough for a taste)

Picris (a notorious weed, it is edible when young, nutritious
with a slight cucumber/borage taste. Some are spikier
than others. It is an acquired taste.)

Collards (definitely going to plant more of this. I call it --
cabbage without the wait and slugs! Right now there are only a few plants, and its leaves are great for steaming)

Yellow dock (extremely nutritious, this common weed has
sour tasting edible leaves)

FLOWERS:

Calendula flowers (some like to add these to salads, other simply graze. They preserve very well when dried.

Mustard Flowers (excellent for grazing and salad as well as bouquets)

VEGGIES:

Purple Cauliflower -- Beautiful and nutritious

Fava Beans (still green) -- only go for the biggest pods, let the others grow.

Artichokes (there’s 3 and they are almost ready)

Asparagus is done for the year. We’re going to let leaf out now in order to let the root mass grow strong for next year’s
crop.

It's Spring! (and still raining)

2006-03-27T22:32:00.000-08:00

Spring is here and things are coming out and starting to grow in the garden. The fava beans seem to have grown overnight. The afterschool cold frame features some nice birdhouse gourd plants that were seeded near the end of February. Still in cotyledon phase, but looking vibrant. Unfortunately, the tomatoes and cucumbers have not germinated. I did see two cucumber seedlings appear and then disappear. I'm not sure if the problem was slugs or not. I think I'm going to remedy this by planting a bulk of the new plants on my deck at my home in Lafayette.

Saturday I went to Ploughshare's Nursery in Alameda, and picked up some plants that I call permaculture plants -- things that are very useful, regenerative, largely care free, and do well in the area. I planted ground Cherry (also called Cape gooseberry -- Physalis pervuian), Native pink flowering currant, Native angelica, Native cow parsnip, two early girl tomatoes (in the asparagus patch), Native yarrow, and comfey.

I planted more potatoes today as well. Many of the previously planted potatoes are starting to show some green. We have several different potato experiments going on. We had previously tried planting potatoes in the ground some mulched, other unmulched. The results were unfortunately poor in both cases, proucing very small yield and tiny potatoes. Currently, we are repeating this experiment as well as trying some new ones:

growing them in a wire bin of straw and compost

putting them in simple sheet mulches (thin layer of newspaper covered with compost then lightly mulched with straw)

Planting them in a 6 week old mini compost pile layed out over a former garden bed

Planting them in a sheetmulch made with an upper topsoil layer

Planting them under straw in the same bed as the perennialized kale and chard

I look forward to getting the plants from Burnt Ridge in the mail. Planting trees and other perennials is a powerful experience. The goal is to increase biological diversity, regenerate the soil, grow healthy nutritious food sustainably, with as little input as possible. But of course, that takes thinking into the future. Initially there will be more work, but in the long run, you will have a healthy land with food falling from the trees.

The ground in the garden is still very wet, and teeming with earthworms. It's easy to dig into, and I feel that it is a good opportunity to plant now, without tilling the soil, and take advantage of nature's bounty. Otherwise, we will disrupt the water saving fungal network of the soil, and then have to heavily water the ground, struggling to keep it moist when the hotter temperatures start arriving. However, some warm season vegetables will be planted in tilled beds.

So much to do, and I believe it's going to rain tomorrow