The Way We Were? Saved by a Worm.

First an apology.  Somehow a draft I was working on got published before its time.  This is what I was working towards and if you have time to read it great. I hope you will find it interesting.

Now the blog post
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Giving back to the land, going back to the land...all things that fascinate me. 

A friend sent me a couple of articles today about the use of Red Wiggler Worms in Central America.

It got me thinking about just how we got to the place where third world countries  whose fields had been naturally productive and health giving for centuries had to now be taught about the use of worms for compost.

Once my former neighbours, born and raised in the countryside in Ecuador,  were helping us weed the alfalfa crop.  The wife came across a gigantic, glistening worm.  Had to be about a foot long . She pulled it out of the ground and casually tossed it onto the chain link fence where it wriggled helplessly, drying and dying in the Ecuatorial sun.

"And all they eat is earth,"  she said by way of instructing me.

I immediately went over, gently disentangled it from the hot metal fence,  laid it tenderly into some soft cool earth out of harm's way. 

She stared blankly as I said, "They eat dead leaves and other vegetable matter that has dropped to the ground. They turn that into a rich earth that helps you grow your crops. They are your best friends in the fields."

She and her husband stared at the crazy gringa,  in total disbelief.  I am sure it gave them lots to talk and laugh about with their ten children when they got home; stories to tell in town as they bought chemicals to put on their corn field.

Talk about taking something for granted.  Worms are something to be casually cut with your shovel, crushed under your shoe, or if they are lucky, just ignored.  They have no value unless it might be for fishing bait, right?  Wrong.  I have written about this before under my post entitled Better Worms and Gardens - Part I - Vermicomposting -  published in October 2009.

I got to thinking about how we had come to this, to a point where we had so terribly depleted the life giving earth. Where we had so little understanding of our part in the cycle of life.  What had gone wrong?

Today I saw it all so clearly. Until recent history,  fields  everywhere were tilled by hand or assisted by oxen, after harvest crops were ploughed under, chickens and other animals roamed freely and acted as a natural insecticide as they picked off bugs to supplement their diet, people used the fields as a bathroom, kitchen waste was thrown on the fields as well.

When Progress and her Sister Hygiene arrived things changed dramatically. In stead of oxen, tractors tilled the fields, producing pollution instead of rich poop.   People made their daily deposits to an outhouse instead of a field. Chickens and other domesticated animals were confined instead of roaming freely and their waste was collected into putrefying piles buried far from where it would do any good.

In the past,  when small quantities of human and animal waste were deposited randomly over the fields it was not a problem as it was quickly taken care of by.... bugs and bacteria and most of all worms.  

The household waste that was thrown on the fields was no longer totally biodegradable spoiled vegetables, fruits and grains.  People had progressed, become sophisticated. They were using non biodegradable disposable diapers, processed foods in plastic and cans.  But they still threw them on the fields.

The land, starved for food now, could no longer produce bountiful, vitamin rich crops. The yield was smaller, and weaker, susceptible to diseases and pests. Something had to be done.

Enter the chemical companies with their products that were going to increase the yields with one simple fix.  And they had just the thing to kill those pesky bugs as well.

Poor people scraped up enough to buy chemical fertilizers and insecticides  and were rewarded with bumper crops.  It was a miracle!  This continued for a few years until the land became exhausted and used up. 

he chemicals did not FEED the land, only made it easier for the plants to take up more minerals, depleting it even further. More and more chemicals were needed to try to replicate the results obtained initially.

Now at last there is a movement back to, not the way we were, but to something that combines the modern way of living with a cheap and effective solution; one that will clean up land fills and put vitality back into the land.

That lowly, unloved creature, the earthworm!  She is finally getting the respect she deserves.  And Pachamama is so proud of her child.


http://www.ticotimes.net/More-news/News-Briefs/Fighting-poverty-with-90-million-California-red-worms_Sunday-January-05-2014

A comment I made on the Frugally Sustainable Blog August 2013

Even though I check before I post there are always errors. Bugs me. So I am reposting this on my own blog and correcting the errors.  Hopefully I get them all this time.

The article on Homesteading I was responding to can be found here:

http://frugallysustainable.com/2013/08/modern-homesteading-and-sustainable-living-romance-vs-reality/#comment-23210

This is my slightly revised comment 

I am a long time follower of your Facebook page and use many of the recipes from your blog.
I seldom make comments but my hat is off to you for your honesty. Homesteading is hard. Being different is hard. I suppose that is why most people refuse to understand how vitally important it is to protect Mother earth.

In 1990 I was transported from big city life in Canada to a small farm in Ecuador. For ten years I knew great bliss in communing with neighbouring farmers, learning their methods of planting (for example the Three Sister method of planting corn, squash and beans), shearing sheep and castrating animals that were all done in accordance with the moon cycles. Most ploughing was done with a team of oxen although tractors were appearing now and then.

For ten years I derived a lot of pleasure learning about medicinal herbs from a relative (by marriage) who is a curandera, providing our own fresh milk and cream, fresh vegetables and herbs for the table. For protein we raised beef, goat, sheep, chickens and guinea pig (a delicacy in Ecuador).

Now I am home again with a small property in a village setting where I strive to grow a lot of my own food, edible and medicinal herbs and am exploring the possibility of solar power. Fortunately I live in a rural community where I can fill in the gaps by buying at the farm gate from people I know.

There are some who think I am nuts when I extol the virtues of red wiggler worms for composting my kitchen waste, make my own peanut and almond butters, laundry soap, shampoo, lotions and balms, cleaners and simple remedies.

I wish I could explain to them the a pleasure and satisfaction you get from understanding the web of life and knowing that every insect, bird, snake and weed in your garden has a purpose and should not be killed.  That varying your planting methods will encourage beneficial insects who will take care of the ones you may not favour as much.

I wish they could know the satisfaction of scratching a hole in a hill of potatoes and finding those tiny new potatoes, or the feel of when a tomato is ripe enough to drop into your hand with a gentle nudge.

You rock. I know you will reach your goals…and look like a million dollars with all the healthy fresh air and exercise.

And I hope you are reaching people who would not otherwise think about these things. I share a lot of your posts with friends in that hope.

   Andrea replied

What an amazing story Jane! You are an inspiration and I couldn’t agree with you more. All of what you mentioned represents to me the human desire of interconnectedness that is growing as our culture begins to relearn and accept ancient ways of growing, cooking, and healing. I am encouraged by the slight shift away from consumption and control as we move closer toward a relationship of coexistence with the Earth and animals of all kinds!

It is my hope as well that people like us continue to encourage one another on our journey toward sustainability — all the while leading by example!

The key to fuelling the fire of this trend…our continued willingness to see nature as nature is.

Thank you again Jane and blessings on you.

I can only weep

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/rock-center/51768274#51768274

Click to go to the 10 minute movie about my beautiful rain forest and its peoples in Ecuador's Amazon.

I am sick at heart at the thought of this great loss that I. merely by driving a car and heating a home am a part of.

And it cannot be stopped.

I can only weep at my inability to make a difference.

Dayuma

Teleamazonas Noticias, Deportes y Entretenimiento - Dayuma: 'via Blog this'

This is Dayuma the first Huaorani to be contacted.

Healing in the garden

I wrote this article when I thought I could make some money writing articles for Helium. It did get rated 6 out  of 66  articles on the same subject but it was just too darned difficult to make any money on that site so I have decided to use my articles myself. There will be no money in that either but at least they are in my own collection. 

Memoirs: Healing in the garden, how my garden helped me

POSTED June 03, 2008   Last Updated: June 09, 2008

When I was younger I didn't pay much attention to the "weeds" around me. I had been taught that they were just annoying entities that interfered with more valuable things like flowers and vegetables. They had to be dealt with severely.

Scenes of me helping my dad(both of us without masks)mix up the noxious chemicals that were required to keep his lawn and garden insect and weed-free, are like trailers from a horror movie.

My dad was a renowned gardener almost till the day he died. But I wonder how he would be perceived now. Would he refuse to recognize the dangers and far-reaching negative effects of the chemicals he used to control his unwelcome garden visitors? Or would he embrace the new/old knowledge of letting nature help him.

After leaving home and broadening my horizons it was with a sense of delight and wonder I became gradually aware that there were other ways to deal with so-called pests and weeds. Even more amazing was the fact that many of them might be embraced; like doctors for their healing powers or friends for their helpful ways.

I read voraciously and extolled the beauty and virtue of lady bugs, earthworms, dandelions, chick weed and companion planting. Still, friends and family looked on me as a love-able but benighted eccentric who was to be tolerated but never taken seriously.

When I became more militant about avoiding pesticides and cultivating helpful insects and birds by making the habitat welcoming, people changed the subject. They desperately hoped to steer me away from yet another diatribe on the decline of songbirds and native plants.

Anyone who would listen got my speech on grackles and starlings. They may not be the prettiest or most melodious bird on the planet, but they make up for it by eating their weight in bugs and caterpillars every day. I explained that they were far better garden allies than the beloved robin redbreast who busied himself with eradicating the life-giving, soil-enhancing earthworms from their garden patch.

Several years ago I moved to Ecuador where I spent many happy hours conversing with the farm ladies who still knew the ways of herbs and natural healing. It is common to see the ladies of the house returning from open air markets with their baskets filled to the brim with fresh local produce. Tucked into a corner is always a colorful bunch of "montes". This is a selection of "weeds" known for their curative and health-giving powers. Families would use one or more of these fresh herbs for whatever ailed them or simply make a refreshing tea out of a few of them. With sugar and lemon added it was a drink that excelled any store bought cola in flavor and certainly in healthful properties.

As I learned more about these beautiful and useful plants I started my own herb garden so I would always have them at hand. Now I am back in North America I still can grow many of the common ones prized by the ladies of Ecuador. Most, like Borage, Lemon balm, Valerian and Chamomile are perennials in my zone 5 garden, while beautiful deep purple Prince's Feather can be grown from seed each year. Lemon grass and Lemon Verbena are an experiment this year and will have to come into my warm dry living room for the winter.

While we have many varieties of Mallow like Hollyhock and Hibiscus I have not seen the tree sized one that saved me from blood poisoning in Ecuador.

After a minor surgery to have a toenail removed I came down with a virulent infection. As the infection spread so did my panic and I forgot helpful plants all around me in my haste to get to a pharmacy.

Many dollars, ointments and antibiotics later the infection was spreading up my toe and into my foot. The swelling and pain were excruciating and frightening. Then a neighbor pointed at a large tree growing by the side of my patio and said, "What about this mallow here? Have you tried it?"

I had known that mallow was good for coughs and bronchitis but she explained that it also had antibacterial properties. We brewed up a few flowers in a cup of water and used it as a wash for my long-suffering toe. Next morning, like magic there was no more swelling, no more redness and no more pain!

During my stay in Ecuador I had the privilege of living for a week with the Huaorani Indians on the River Shiripuno. My thirst for knowledge of healing plants was only whetted by trips through the teeming jungle while my friend pointed out one or another tree, bush or vine that his tribe used in all walks of their lives. I learned of the incredible properties of the Sangre de Drago (Dragon's Blood) tree. This tree, when nicked with a machete, bleeds a red sap that looks like blood. The sap can be used internally and externally and is one of the major health aids available to the Amazon tribes. The sap can be rubbed in the hand or fingers to produce a whitish paste that is then applied to wounds and bites or skin infections.

A garden is not just full of healing and healthful plants. It IS a healer in and of itself; a balm for the wounded soul. Here, with your hands deep in the earth you can forget your troubles for awhile. And as you smell the fragrance of the flowers and watch the fruits of your labor burst forth there is a great sense of satisfaction and peace.

Sadly as our modern life encroaches on the farm and the jungle and asphalt encroaches on our very garden spaces, the lore and the plants themselves are being lost. What a cornucopia of cures we have right at our feet if we only know how to use these wonderful healing plants. It is a credit to the plants themselves that in spite of generations of us trying to eradicate them they still persist. Perhaps they will endure even this assault.

So please, before you pull that "weed" or squash that insect, grab a book and see if you are about to kill a doctor or a friend.

Peacefully, at their home in Ontario.

It is with some sadness that I write today to tell you of the demise of my friends, the red wiggler worms.

In previous posts I have extolled their virtues, their fecundity, their extensive knowledge gleaned through reading discarded newspapers, their graduation to University, their managing of my financial affairs as they slurped up my bills and obliterated sensitive information before it could fall into the wrong hands. All that AND provided me with a never ending supply of rich organic, non burning fertilizer.  Well, never ending till now.

For awhile I was overwhelmed with worms.  I held worm seminars in the hope of passing on knowledge and surplus worms.This was not successful.  I sold thousands, I traded more thousands for useful items like rain barrels.

Still I could not stem the red tide of worms. I was growing more unhappy with the job of lifting the bins to feed and clean them.

It could have been my negative vibes that killed them but more likely it was because I did not clean them as often or put clean bedding in each time I fed them.  This probably set up the unpleasant living conditions that led to their demise?

Some months ago I noticed their numbers dwindling and eventually I eliminated two of the three bins that once were overflowing with pink wriggling life.  At first I admit I was relieved not to have to lift that heavy third bin that perched on top of two others.

I did not give up hope for another few months. I figured there were eggs that would hatch. There were tiny young worms that would grow to adult hood and the colony would thrive once again as it had for about 5 years.

So I kept up feeding and the waste disappeared but still no worms were evident.  How could this be?

Then I remembered reading that  worms do not actually "eat" the garbage. They do not have teeth and cannot scrape or gnaw their way through it.

Neither do they require lime in the form of eggshells for their craw (???) and to help them with digestion as some sites will tell you. This in fact is only to help de acidify the bin....however even that has been called into question as eggshells dissolve so slowly.

The job of breaking down the vegetable matter is done by beneficial bacteria and microbes that prepare a delicious soup that the worms then slurp up. To my knowledge microbes and bacteria don't possess teeth either.  I do not know the mechanics of what they do but assume it involves some chemical reaction causing putrefaction. I confess I am too lazy to look it up.

So....I think I will continue with this experiment and just keep adding the refuse to the bin and see what happens.  I have become hooked on that wonderful fertilizer. I much prefer just burying kitchen refuse in a handy bin than schlepping out through snowbanks to the compost pile or putting it in a garbage bag that has to be taken to land fill....we have no garbage pick up here.

Have you ever noticed when you are buying a car you are told it maintains its value and that is why the price is so high?  It will have  great resale value. But when you try to sell the same car you are told that that particular car is no longer in demand.

Well the same goes for worms and probably lots of other things.

Worms don't come cheap when you are trying to buy them. They do however go cheap when you are trying to sell them. No one else was as foolish as me to pay $50.00 for a pound of them. I had to let them go as low as $35.00 a pound just to put a dent in their unchecked population explosion.


But my question is ....Have we been scammed by these worm purveyors? Do they know that the worms are just decoration... not a necessary part of the equation?

I know that in the outside world worms do more than assist in breaking down vegetable matte they also aerate the holes as they create their burrows and drag vegetable matter deeper into the soil. Or so we are told.

The longer I live the less I believe any more.


I will let you know in a future post how my wormless composting experiment proceeds.

My Favorite Naturalist

I subscribe to a weekly newsletter written by Jim Conrad.  His very interesting bio can be found at
http://www.backyardnature.net/j/jim.htm

In addition to his in depth information and profiles of birds, insects, animals and plants  I look forward to Jim's often searingly poignant personal essays.

This week's piece touched me on several levels, the sensual beauty in simple things, the process of aging and the sense of loss that we have all experienced.  Hoping you can relate to and enjoy it too I quote it here:
**************

LETTUCE FEELINGS
One daily job I look forward to is that of supplying a 
big bouquet of freshly picked leaf lettuce for the 
kitchen, such as that seen at 
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/11/110227lt.jpg

Picking the lettuce is a sensuous experience. Chilly, 
early-morning dew on the leaves wets my hands. A 
lettucy fragrance blossoms around me as I break off 
the leaves, feeling in my fingertips the faint but 
fatal snaps of petioles yielding to my force. As I 
return to the hut to wash the leaves I can't take my 
eyes off the visually pleasing essay before me, one 
commenting on the theme of simple but crinkly-edged 
glowings of yellow greenness contrasting with interior 
black shadowiness.

Sometimes it's hard to hand over the bouquet to the 
kitchen staff. By the time I get to the kitchen door 
I'm sort of bonded with that bunch of lettuce, even to 
the point of identifying with it.

For, when I'm picking the lettuce I'm doing that slow-
simmering kind of reflecting on life everyone does 
when engaged in non-thinking jobs. And the lettuce's 
radiant yellow-greenness emerging from silky, deep-
rooted blackness, and even its odor of bruised 
herbage, somehow strike me as exactly matching how 
I've been feeling lately -- not to mention how each 
leaf petiole gives that little snap when I pick it, 
like the thousand little losses one feels every day 
while aging, leaving behind hair, hearing, sight, 
strength, memory and more, and sometimes just plain 
giving up on this or that.

Looking at the lettuce in my hands is in many ways 
like taking a good look at my own feelings.

And, the destiny of that lettuce... I'll bet that most 
leaves get thrown away -- a bug-eaten hole on this 
one, that leaf a little too pale, this one with a 
small tear, that one with a brown spot, one after 
another just not good enough for a fancy restaurant. 
Well, if we're developing a metaphor here, at this 
point it would be easy to overdo it.

But, sometimes I do wish I knew what happens to what I 
bring to the kitchen door. I wonder what the use is of 
such fragile, translucing, yellow-green, crushed-
herbage, baroque-fringed gifts... if the one you're 
giving them to mostly just throws them away.

*****

Enjoy your day

Spring Is In My Hair…

...of course I mean in the air !  And spring is in my step.  It is not the view from my window of slushy brown roads nor the messages left months ago by dogs on my lawn that has elicited this feeling. 

Nay. 'Twas a newsletter from Garden Guru Doug Green. Reading his Perennial Garden Design section caused a fine perspiration to break out on my troubled brow. If only I had had this helpful advice when I was a young gardener. 

My garden is shaded by several venerable pines and some not so large maples.  These gnarled trees have withstood near hurricane winds, been bowed under the weight of snow and lashed by rain.  Far be it from me to cut them down in their prime. So, this old tree hugger will just work around them. 

Besides if there were no trees where would the fairies play?  That is Miss Grimm on the right.  She loves to read in the shade...usually tales by the Brothers Grimm.

But in my enthusiastic new property owner phase I dug up a large strip along the driveway and under the trees with an eye to planting shade loving plants, ferns, hosta and their ilk.

My first hint that things might not go well was discovering the red roots of ancient peonies struggling there... but I did not let that deter me!   Oh, no I moved the peony roots to the front bed where they would get more sun and blithely planted shade lovers under the trees.  The peonies took off and never looked back to the hardships of their former life.

The new plants may have loved shade but they also loved to drink. Who doesn't? I needed several myself by the time I got through with this travail.

Year one: Dig holes, fill with organic material, plant shade loving plants. Easy Peasy. Haul many, many 10 gallon buckets (@ 50 pounds each) of rain water from 100 feet away - daily. 

Result? Lost ten pounds, had very long arms and shade loving plants that appeared happy that first year.

Year two: Dig up languishing shade lovers, remove many fine tree roots that have galloped over to the clumps of rich organic material. On the theory that if there is plenty to go around the trees won't hog it all, dig in lots more organic material, re-install plants, mulch heavily.  Continue hauling rain water. 

Result?  Exuberant trees that are now taller and more shade casting than before. Perky but puny plants, knuckles that scrape the ground when gardener is standing upright.

Year three: Buy longer hoses to connect to the outside faucet. Wrestle the permanently kinked hoses across lawn and driveway. Attach them to old soaker hoses wound amongst the plants. Alternate between rain water and well water. Spend hours pouring water down the throats of those ungrateful little bleeders, the shade loving plants. 

Result?  Well developed biceps. Knuckles healing nicely.

Year four:  Single handedly install an elaborate watering system sold by a major Ottawa based tool and garden company.  

Result?  Large Credit Card bills, miles of black hose and thousands of gallons of well water later the plants were looking great. As were the trees.  My arms had returned to their normal length, knuckles healed, biceps no longer aching. The water pump for the well?  Toast!

Year five: Ask Doug how best to care for shade loving plants under trees. His advice?  DON’T even try.  Hang head in defeat and begin the daunting task of moving about a hundred plants out from under the trees and over to the other side of the driveway. 

Result? Less shade and less root competition but plants still puny from the stress they suffered in years one, two, three and four. Some never did recover.

Bottom line is my advice to those of you who are only as smart as I am: Do your homework before you spend money and time to design an un-maintainable garden.

You can catch a lot of great advice from Doug Green by clicking on this link

perennial garden design

It's all over but the eating

The following was written in August, filed and forgotten till now........
Summer's officially ended but no one told the weather man. This weekend is shaping up to be a warm one.  I am hoping that the spirit will move me to do some last minute garden clean ups, spread some mulch and just generally get ready to hunker down.


But the purpose of this blog is to brag about my bounty. I know ...bragging is not nice ...but there is no other word for what I am about to do.


Although I wouldn't say that I had a bumper crop of anything considering the amount of plants I put in I am very pleased with the quality of the produce.


Potatoes

I planted shallowly  in a trench filled with pine needles and old leaves and covered them with straw. Although a lot of the straw seeds sprouted the clean up wasn't too hard. 

I was able to just lift the straw and take a few potatoes all season long. I even had enough to share with neighbours which is great. The potatoes come out nice and clean this way.  

I didn't like the woody quality they had when they got much bigger than the ones shown at the left so I harvested them earlier.

I had roughly 50 potato plants and probably got about 50 to 60 pounds of potatoes from them. I think the low yield was due to the close planting. But I would definitely buy Red Chieftain seed potatoes again.


The conditions were great, lots of rain fall and I didn't see a single potato bug or other diseases. The slugs were just moving in as I took the last batch out. Better luck next time slugs - NOT!


While they were drying in the breeze I noticed a few bites taken out of them. I moved them to a chair but still found some were being stolen.  The culprit was identified as the resident chipmunk.  With back legs kicking furiously and front legs shoving mightily he was trying to get a good-sized potato into his burrow in the Half Moon garden. So I took them all inside with the exception of a pile of the really tiny ones which I left on the porch. They were quickly snatched up. I am hoping this will deter him from taking my tulips.


Tomatoes
I planted a mixture of 32 tomato plants; Opalka, Box Car Willy, Sweet Million, Roma, Belgian Giant and some that I can't remember the names of.


Early on, in spite of changing the location of the plants from last year, they still contracted early blight.  At least you still get tomatoes even though the plant has lots of dead brown leaves around the bottom. Due to watering problem or too much rain some showed a bit of blossom end rot and cat face.


Too late it occurred to me that the disease was probably carried on the tomato cages and even my shovel.  This year I will disinfect those before I put anything away.


I had approximately 100 pounds of tomatoes from those plants.  Not a bumper crop but enough for myself and friends.  No insects except the slugs and centipedes at the end of the season.


Throughout the season I would pick about 10 pounds of tomatoes every couple of days. These would be quartered and seeded and thrown into my crock pot where they simmered overnight with the top off. By morning I had three pounds of nice thick sauce.  I spooned this into 4 cup plastic bags which I lay on a cookie sheet in the freezer. These nice flat envelopes store well in the freezer.


Of course I have breakfasted on tomato sandwiches every day since July. My cat Reg always demands his toast and tomato so we both will miss these sandwiches when all the tomatoes ripening in my oven are gone.


Pictured at the left and right is Belgian Giant which has become a real favorite. It was a very large sprawling plant, didn't produce many tomatoes but they were huge,  juicy, low acid, low seed with a gorgeous rosy pink flesh. Here is one weighing in at almost a pound and a half or two thick sandwiches worth. 

I keep the green and not so ripe tomatoes in a flat cardboard fruit box on one or two shelves in the oven. Easy to remove if I get moved to bake something.  They ripen slowly and beautifully in the dark of the oven.  Here is the last of them picked early because of a threatened frost which did not arrive.



The Opalka were wonderful this year but the Roma were the pits; very small and dropped off the vine in the slightest breeze. I am not sure why some of them are yellow or green at the stem end. Could be some disease.




None of the seeds I had saved from previous years came up but I tried saving again this year.


Cucumber

I only planted four  and one died.  The vines stayed very short and small while my friend had beautiful vines crawling up a trellis very early in the season.   Perhaps it was just the variety as suddenly mine took off and did themselves proud. I had a dozen or more lovely healthy large cucumbers in all. There is still one left in my crisper.














Butternut Squash
Thank you No Frills.   Sometime last fall I bought a tasty, deep orange-fleshed butternut squash. I saved the seeds and planted them in my winter sow project.  After the wind took my greenhouse down and scattered the sprouted seeds all over my sidewalk I managed to save about four plants. Those four plants produced loads of blossoms and immature squash but by the time the weather started to turn I was able to harvest only five.  On the right is the first and largest one.  I ate one of the smaller ones last night (November 18th and it was yummy. That was my whole supper. )


Sweet Potatoes
My favorite nursery, Burt's greenhouses in Odessa, had some Georgia Jet Sweet potato slips for sale this year. It appealed to my spirit of adventure so I bought three.  I was pleased to harvest a couple of nice sized ones.


The one to the left is about a half pound. There was another that was about a quarter pound and then some really strangely shaped ones that I will probably plant up and see if I can keep over winter.  Talk about sweet. Really yummy with or without butter.


When I dug them up I took some of the rooted vines and brought them indoors.  They have sprouted again so I have high hopes.


In spite of all my efforts I do have failures. I won't give up my day job for the onion and garlic crop. I am not sure what I do wrong but these two just won't grow for me.


Asparagus 
Nothing but embarrassing pictures of these. Asparagus proved less than successful again this year too.  I bought ten more plants and dug up what I thought were the dead roots of the the ones I bought last year,  A few were still alive so I replanted and crossed my fingers. At least this year they mostly all showed their ferny little faces. I don't hold high hopes for a future in asparagus farming.  They won't be ready to harvest till next year at least anyway. Perhaps I should have made more effort to find a new spot for them.


Peas

The peas did fairly well in spite of the repeated assaults by my friends, rabbit and chipmunk I still had a great feed of them and froze a couple of small packages. Definitely need more of these next year.


And so summer is over, the harvest is done, the potatoes are snugly put away.






I have dug up all the rhizomes that need to come in and put in more tulip bulbs. Now its time to rest and plan for next year.


Happy winter all you gardening friends. Hope your harvest was bountiful and you have a safe and happy winter.

Interesting Huaorani news

A friend sent me this link.

 Flying Car

  http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=635469588001

Imagine my surprise when half way through the man doing the speaking and demonstrating says he was raised by the Huaorani tribe after they killed his father! It was Steve Saint.

Take a gander. Pretty interesting stuff even without the Huaorani element.