Ground Cherries

          All of my small berry type fruit did very well in this year with the rainy cool spring.  The surprise for me this year as been how much the ground cherries produced.  I put had one plant in the ground and and it spread and flatten out as if it was a pancake.  I found all this tiny paper covered fruit laying under the plant and realized they were all ripe and sweet waiting for me to harvest them.

           Next year I will probably plant ground cherries in a raised bed and may even lay a burlap sack around the base of the plant to make things easier later in the season, keeping the fruit from the soil and the slugs.  I will also try either a tomatoes cage or a rope system to keep the branches off the ground.  Last night I throw a few into our lettuce catch all salad and they were lovely surprises to bite into.  So far, I have preferred to eat my small fresh with out the work of baking or the addition of sugar.

Gardening Books

       Personally, I am happy for the fall rains and the change of seasons.  It takes me indoors and I start reading more, have time to paint and cook with research of new recipes.

        The Resilient Gardener is written with a west coast gardener in mind but it would provide wisdom for every gardener regardless of what zone of the world they live in.  Carol Deppe, the author,  explanation about global warming, climate change, weather pattern shifting are the best words on the subject I have ever read.   Because she is well educated and has a deep sense of history she does write with clarity that is not often seen.  Few authors have such a depth of  gardening experience and her strong personal opinion, I find that the most charming part about this book. 

         I have skipped around a lot with the book so far but what I find is the theme that if we have a few springs that are too wet, too dry or winters of this sort, one should be prepared and have the knowledge to survive the unusual.  Deppe explores what is best to plant for food value, how to store and preserve the harvest best and why seed saving is very important.  This book is way beyond the magazine pretty picture garden or two pots of tomatoes on the patio.  This book is about taking charge of food needs as most of our ancestors did.  Even if one is not at the stage thinking or have the time to focus on growing that much food, it is still a read that worthy of your time.  She is uniquely aware person that only occasionally we have a chance to meet, even if it is on the printed page.

Notes on spring

Mama rabbit was six feet from her babies on the lawn this morning eating grass at seven a.m.  I watched her for awhile and then after checking on my coffee, I lost sight of her.  I have looked in on the nest a couple times but see no change on the surface.  One of these days those little ones will be moving around.

I potted some seedlings from six packs to gallon pots and the work took the better part of a day.  Funny things is in this area, everyone I know starts all their own tomatoes and a variety of seeds, never knew anyone that did that in WI.  I do have one friend that had her gardener do it for her but she, herself didn't do it.  I think times have changed and people that garden know more about selections and GMO seeds so it is a matter of education and choice.  I am starting two types of basil this year, the new one is Holy Basil.  It has many lovely properties and am interested in seeing it grow this summer.  Got some comfort plant from a friend, I realize, I really need it for my chickens and my fruit trees.

Another friend told me a few years ago about molasses as a fertilizer, I recently remembered the story and googled it and it explained the whole thing. With the deluded molasses water and the crushed egg shells for calcium, my tiny plants are standing tall, off to a good start.  Tomatoes go out a little after Mother's Day and the basil will go on Father's Day.  Well, that is the general plan.

About the black molasses story, the woman's son grows marijuana, of course, it was medicinal reason only.  The story goes that is the only fertilizer he uses because it is so good.  It is something that all of have in our house and it will boost the grow of any houseplant. 

The spring time is always the same.  One wonderful day of warmth, sunlight and exhausting work toward cleaning the yard and planing for planting.  Then comes three days of wind, misty and cloudy weather to stop everything.  The list of things grows over the three days as I become more aware of spring jobs to be done.  Hopefully, in a week the sun will be more in control. 

Well, this is the spring I will remember of five bunnies in the raised bed. 

Radishes, Tumeric and Weeds

Growing up, my father was the one that loved radishes.  It became a family food story about how much Dad loved his radishes.  Many of the years that he had his little backyard gardens, radishes were one of the six or seven vegetables he planted.  The rest of the family was neutral about the vegetable, early in the season, fine but later when they got hot and woody, we all dropped it immediately.  There is a well known chef that served for his first course, a platter of radishes, sea salt and buttered bread.  Now that would have impressed my Father.  I am going to see later this spring if I can manage that appetizer.

I have over the years tried growing radishes but really find it one of the hardest crops to grow.  They are very attractive for some root maggots and I seems to harvest this variety!  My interest has lessen over the years.

Recently a woman that tests vegetables for a national magazine for this area of the country lectured at our local fruit society.  She talked about the love of her Chinese heritage for radishes.  The giant long Daikon radish, Black Spanish, the Green Meat and finally the Watermelon, red meat radish. These large ones can be considered winter radishes.  Asian treat radish as a vegetable that can be used in soup, much like our tradition of using an onion.

There are the spring varieties that go in the ground now and probably the favorite is French breakfast.  All of them love cool soil and the spring rains.  This year, I plan focusing on planting and eating more radishes.  I know that the watermelon one sliced is delightful to see on a plate and easy to enjoy.

I had to look up the nutritional and it surprised me, http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/26. Imagine a cup a radish as good as a banana for potassium.  This list of vitamins was long, new respect for the humble vegetable.

Turmeric in its root form looks alot  like ginger.  After being peeled it looks like a small carrots, the fresh tastes very mild unlike the powered form.  It is uncommon  but our local co-op carries it and aa Indian cusine as become more and more available this root will become a common sight.   I plan to put one of these little roots in a pot and see if I can grow my own for at less part of the year.  The magic of turmeric is well known for brain cells health, know anyone that doesn't need a boost in that direction?

Lastly, it is now thought that a few weeds in the garden feed insects so it is best not to pull all of your weeds.  It is nice to feel more relaxed about my weeds.

Cycles of history, periods of life

I probably belong to the last generation of Americans that will experienced middle class in this country.  Things are changing so rapidly now that the daily news is becoming an exercise in controlled exposure to depression.  How much do I want to learn the facts?

The graft in today's NYT shows the pension obligations of the U.S. and Europe,  the debt balance is 500% of  this nations output for the next forty years.  Hawaii announced today that it needs the tax refunds to operate the state so money will be paid out until August.  Virginia is so broke they are giving out speeding tickets of $2,500 for going 15 miles over the speed limit.  Kansas City, Mo. is closing almost half of its school in one sweep.  I can't even think about the greedy bankers and insurance companies, those sociopaths need a special reincarnation.

For a little less that ten years,  I have been wailing against government policy and the politics of war and waste.  The good news of this awareness is that I had decided to do something about it for myself.  I have a lovely garden with raised beds to grow herbs and vegetables, fruit trees and bushes that are maturing to the point of offering some variety to my diet and physical exercise to maintain it all with out leaving my yard.  The adventure of providing some of our own organic food has giving an opportunity to make friends with like minded people and expanded my interesting in eating wider plant base diet.  With the recent addition of five laying hens, my body gets better nutrition, my mind and spirit get entertainment.

When I was a child and a young adult, the age of 67 seemed to me the point that one would wait around until the death blow to hit.  The importance of experiencing this age is to understand that it is the most interesting age offering a contentment that rarely is felt at an earlier age.  The sameness of routine is just fine, for by this time, I have try out lots of ways, methods and approachs to living and settled on one that is comfortable.   I have been though the stages of life that taught who to trust, who to be impressed by and what values are my own.  I have throw off institutional values, such of religious organizations, found them self serving.  The adoption of a world view of the golden rule serves all of humanity, simply and equally. I have read enough history to know that what we are going though is another cycle turn of history, simple as that.  The final days of another empire.  Sadly, the thing that is different this time, is the human race has done much damage to our nest on this cycle.

Seeds

When is it time to throw out a package of seeds? I am going though my box of seeds this morning and trying to decide.

It is easy to buy seeds. This year I have received about eleven catalogs and each is better and more selection than what the mail brought last week. It is common wisdom today that organic seeds are likely to have less pest problems than GMO seeds. The goal of finding the most unusual, little know variety is part of the hunt but blending that with the successful seeds of last year is always a challenge. My habit of package seed saving is a problem . I hear those seeds inside as I shake the package and feel an obligation to keep the little envelope of potential life. Isn't it true that seeds from the tombs of Egypt germinated?

Living in the Pacific Northwest we have a long growing season but less heat that the middle of the country. We have companies that specialize for our climate but that can be boring. I found Kitazawa Seed Co., it is focused on Asian vegetable seeds now after starting out only with Japanese seeds. With some of the weather changing patterns, it is interesting to expand out view of the plant world. I sent them an order last year. It did not work out so well, I plant some squash seeds in the front yard but rabbits loved the tender plants and I forgot to water them enough, I think. I have enough seed left over, I think I will try again in a different local.

My favorite read is Fedco Seed Co. It is a 140 pages of comments by growers that caution, encourage, compare, and share secrets. The order I put in to them each year is simply to make sure I get the reading for the next winter. It is an old fashion type company that have very set rules about ordering and frankly tells the customer among their many rulers, they don't rush orders. It is a co-op and they are from Maine. It is probably more famous for the prose than the seeds.

I no longer have much interest in flower seeds. I have roses, lilies and lavender growing in the yard to keep the bees around during the summer, strong fragrant flowers are favorites at this point. In a previous period of my life I was very interested in flowers for bouquets but that was when I entertained a lot. Now I work outside so much during the day I enjoy my flowers and they give me pause.

Gardening is never mastered as a form, one is always a student. Thomas Jefferson quote is so wonderful, “Though an old man, I am but a young gardener” .

rambling thoughts

When I am not worried about the crisis of the economy or the absolute black hole of the future of this world, I enjoy the simple pleasures of things.

The wonderful truth that my grandchildren are capable of telling. The other day they were relating the surprise trip, planned by their father, to a bakery before school. Ahman's blueberry roll, "was awesome" and Mira matter of fact told me that her mother doesn't enjoy the bakery or hamburgers but the three of them do.

The peace of sitting in the late afternoon warm sunlight with John. We watch the chickens have an half hour of total freedom in the yard, my spirit is as free of theirs at these moments. Daisy sits at our feet, we have our glass of wine and discuss the little jobs that we did that day and plans for the next day.

The miracle of growing seeds never fails to amaze me. Partly, because I am good at it and partly because it is the essence of life. The planting of my orchard six years ago has proven to be rewarding in a bounty this year. It is said that young people plant a garden and older people plant trees. Of course, it makes sense, older people own property and have decided where home is. Only after age forty-five did I plant a fruit tree.

One of the joys of living in today's world is the computer and the knowledge that is at my fingertips. I wonder if I had this available as a child how different my life would have turned out. The whole world is there is learn about, questions answered and no matter what parents, school or local custom say, an individual can compare thoughts. The distance between love ones is not an issue as in past generations by way of this machine. I value my computer more than any electric item I have.

The sense of taste is more valuable to me as I age. The sweetness the sun gives to fruit, the taste of roasted spices and fresh herbs from the garden in the simplest dish and the favor of butter or fat are taken with gratitude at my age.

When I was in my mid life, I thought, people of my age now as old and probably have less intensity about thinking, doing or living life. I think aging has taught me that the outside physical body changes but the inside is ageless. In fact, as I age I am finding the core of my being and possibly my grace. I finally have the time to reflect and understand many things.

being ageless

I drove a little over 400 miles yesterday to meet her.

Maxine has a young sounding voice, white soft curling hair, clear eyes and a somewhat stooped body. The conversation floats quickly, the questions answered with gentleness and patience, always as if it was the first time she heard it asked of her.

She offered to send me the 16 plants but I wanted to see her and how she grows them. I wanted to experience how a woman lives agelessly.

Maxine's country property has been home for over forty years and it has become probably, the location of her last great passion of plant propagation. After a life of traveling the world for plants, teaching at the university level and raising a family she is devoting her curiosity to finding the best variety of the Haskap berry to grow in the United States.

The Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, a northern island of Japan has always valued the berry for medicinal use. Dr. Maxine Thompson accidentally tasted one on a trip and that was the beginning of the long journey to carrying back seeds and the beginning of a new life project.

After walking her property and seeing how her test plots are laid out we sat at the kitchen table drinking haskap juice. She told me how researchers analysis plants and what records they keep. How long it would take to decide which plants get pulled out and which plants would make her proud. She smiled and told me a number that she thinks is a good one. She gave me one of those.

My 16 plants are numbers. After reading, THE PERFECT FRUIT, I know the history of Burbank and other plant propagators. I know that plants are only numbers until they produce something amazing. I know, that some how, these people have the ability to shake off disappointment quickly and let curiosity overcome them, anew.

Maybe it is that curiosity that makes Maxine ageless.

strawberries

I had three strawberries in secret this week. There were as sweet as the sun can make them. My yard is fulled with strawberry patches because of my changing design of where these plants belong.

Five years ago the home for my three varieties were in the round circles at the base of each fruit tree in the orchard. There was also a bed along the back fence under the espalier fruit trees. This bed of 50 feet in length and about three feet wide created a summer feast for berry pickers like my grandchildren and John and me. I was told from the beginning to get the early June bloomer and the other two types I long forgotten the names but the produced slowly all season.

After a couple years the beds needed some major weeding and I pulled up the bigger plants and divided, pulled off the daughters and found I have more extras than I knew where to put but I managed to stick them into between around the yard for safe keeping. These like patches of course never got moved and now I have patches of strawberries everywhere.

Two years ago, I heard about a special french strawberry and I researched it. Only one place in California offers it for sale and it is really for high end commercial growers. I ordered it for our fruit club and got 20 plants for myself. Mara des Bois is a berry that is available though White Flower Farm but they charge nine dollar a plant! These berries are bloom until the October light is so low and the sun offers no heat anymore, they are the largest and the sweetest of any of my berries. Friends exchange the daughters for valued plant material, they are so prized. I finally decided on the wandering of my strawberries that this one should have a place of honor and be put in a raised bed in the vegetable garden. They were moved to the new home last fall.

In the meantime, the bed along the back fence has totally been moved to the west fence a year ago. The orchard strawberries are now residing along with the roses near the clothe line. I did all these changes because fruit club members told me that my berries were taking the water and nutrients from the fruit trees. My design was not that healthy. The wandering daughters of my strawberries are all over the backyard. At the moment, I must have a thousand blooms or berries forming in this yard.

Last week, I heard in a workshop chickens like the color red best. Five chickens in five minutes could eat a week supply of red berries, I imagine.

I have become a guard now along with the water person, the weeder and the eater.

MINERALS FOR THE GENETIC CODE by Charles Walters continues to teach me the importance of trace minerals in our diet and in our soil. It takes so little to throw off the balance of one of our functions. Surprisingly, the book discusses the overlay of mineral involved in degenerative diseases and spell out the what is needed to right the situation.

The current use of aspartame and Splenda as a sweeter in soda and gum is very dangerous. It is related to a 30 to 50% loss of the thymus function which means immunity if being canceled out quickly.

Other quick facts I found. White spots on fingernails denote a zinc deficiency.

People and animals consuming selenium either diminish or eliminate cancer.

Nuts and seeds offer a constant healthy source to trace minerals.

Deficiency in copper maybe white hair along with a long list of conditions including arthritis.

We get some minerals and vitamin from the air and sunlight as in vitamin D, which has three parts to it. The sun gives us energy from its light and some of vitamin D can not be consumed though supplements. Maybe that explains winter colds and flu and poorer health that season of the year.

Probiotics are the good bacteria, all 400 different ones in our stomach, that fight off bad bacteria. If the AMA and the Food and Drug promoted probiotics more than antibiotics, we would probably live in a different world today. Probiotics are as simple as yogurt and fermented foods and we all have to remember our stomach is our second brain. Enough on minerals today

I have my own pray flags! They are flying on the support fences that I put up for my tomatoes. This year I started my own varieties of tomatoes and yesterday I transplanted them. I want to closely follow what varieties I will continue to plant so I wrote their names on a bright pink plastic tape and tied it to the top of their support. The eight inch tapes blowing in the wind reminded me of the pray flags in all of Asia.

My chickens roam the yard much more than I would have thought. The most comical aspect of the it is that John some times sits in a chair and watches that they do not hop onto my raised beds. He has a long stick and tells them to move along. It is a scene out of China where the elders have a full time job watching the ducks in the courtyards.

The simplify of my garden is one the keys to my sanity in world where the daily news is so depressing.

The square dance of minerals

The square dance of minerals in one's body, our soil and the bigger world is so interconnected it is a science that holds the story of health and illness. The music may play but unless there are enough dancers/minerals in one's body to interact the party doesn't happen. One hand is off to the front while the body circling in formation and going under the arm of the third, it is all part of the beauty movement of rebuilding cells.

Currently, our food lacks so many of the common minerals that were presence in top soil when people farmed in a permaculture manner, one has to be conscious of what is needed.

The food growers in the Yakima valley in Washington are now discussing planting flowers that bloom all summer on the tractor trails in the orchard so the bees stay. On the edge of the field they are encouraging wide stands of grasses so the beetles and spiders winter over and take care of the aphids during the summer. Bluebird houses are being placed all around the fields of fruit. These people have found that the spraying of chemicals is killing their family members and destroying the soil.

Boron is a mineral for the brain and arrives though the blood. Yttrium arrives though intestinal tract, an ocean mineral, rarely talked about and is one of the links to increase in lifespan. They work as twins. Lou Gehrig's disease, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's are related to their deficiency. Boron is easily consumed by the spice of turmeric. This spice used in India and northern Africa is part of their daily diet. Alzheimer is uncommon in India as a result of the use of turmeric. A long list of fruits have boron in them including plums, peaches, strawberries, apples and quince. Also on the list is dandelion leaves. Signs of deficiency include ADD, osteoporosis, arthritis, fatigue and decrease of brain functions.

Needless, to say, I have started to take serious the health of my brain want to feel the sharp energy of clear thinking therefore, I am taking turmeric in pill form but will find ways to incorporate it in recipes. For a month I am also taking boron in pill form to experience any difference. I am not sure if the music is fast, slow, loud and faint.

Iodine is so key the brain can't develop without it. Iodine is the thermostat for the human body. Iodine is essential for the metabolism of fats. Iodine is the salt in our blood, our tears and our perspiration. If one don't live near the sea one probably need to figure out in what form one are getting your needed share of Iodine. The bleached out of minerals, white table salt that is popular is a poor second to the mineral rich sea salts are that are multicolored and tasty. The dance continues because Iodine doesn't work unless our bodies have selenium.

Ingenious peoples ate over a hundred and fifty foods in a year gathering bulbs from the earth, berries from bushes, leafs from plants. The average American eats less than 50 foods in a year. Americans are not coming to the square dance, they don't know the steps, in many cases they don't realize the music is playing. Minerals are the story of health.

I am going to start a journal of foods that I eat. I want to see where I stand on this scale with my ancestors.