movement in the orchard

there's something going on in the baggies...finally...the seeds in these two batches i'm trying to germinate came from a bag of apples from michigan...the two original ones were from a really mealy apple from washington state...some of the apples from michigan were mealy as well...and some were sort of crisp...i collected them from apples i ate for breakfast with sunflower seeds at work and i have no idea which were from mealy apples and which were form crisp...odds are they were mealy though...as i recall the bag was not overly populated with anything resembling fresh fruit...anyway some are germinating...the top photo is a group of seeds that has been in a baggie since 31 december 2010 and the second is of a batch i put in on 7 january 2011...they are starting to grow and if things go well the remainig washington state apple tree will have some company under the grow light soon...the reamining tree has been in that peat pot for fifty-six days now and it seems fine...it hasn't grown bertically since the last update, but it now has eight leaves...the tree that keeled over shot up like kudzu so i am hoping this one's slower growth and increase in foliage indicate it is investing some energy in growing a good rootsystem that will support better vertical growth later...if experience can be relied on it will be a few weeks yet before the seeds will be ready to pot...more on this side project ( although trees are perennials and fall inside the parameters of the garden...might be a stretch...but it's my garden...and...as it stands this evening...it's my project too...my choice...tangent or not) as it comes to light...peace out.

apple tree update

the lone remaining apple tree seems to be doing alright...it is growing at a much slowe rate than its now departed sibling ( the seeds came from the same apple....what could they be but siblings?)...it ha sproduced six leafs ( leaves?) amd has topped one inch in height...a quarter inch in two weeks...so there is growth since i removed the grass from the tree's domain ( it was barnyardgrass if i haven't said so...noxious weed...it is no more...human intervention in the lives of plants...what domestication...and agriculture, for that matter...is all about)...i have been collecting seeds as i eat apples ( along with sunflower seeds for breakfast most days) and i have twenty-five of them in damp paper towels in baggies awaiting some sort of movememnt towards germination ( none yet) so i am still working on the nacent orchard as a project for the off season in the gardens...the campus garden will be growing annual root crops this next season to comapre with the productivity of the perennials from last season ( still struggling with the rationale behind the annualization of staple crops...accepted wisdom seems to be that annuals channel more energy into reproduction and so produce more food [ since, if you think about it, the reproductive systems are what gets eaten] the jerusalem artichokes put paid to that idea for me....there has to be a reason out there...what is it?) anyway, the home garden will be a riot of potatoes, jerusalem artichokes ( they will be in the campus garden too...how not? so will chinese yams) chinese yams , asparagus (also on campus), tomatoes, peppers, elephant garlic, beets, turnips, rutabegas, winter and spring wheat ( those are going on campus as well) and some apple trees if all goes well...it will be a busy year, but that's fine...we all need something to distract us from our issues and problems...i've found something non-chemical that provides a steady buzz to drown out the existential hum...all that miserable background noise that life throws up...i am fine, thanks for asking, how are you? hope your buzz does the trick.

sunchoke chips? jerusalem fries?

not the sink full of tubers i am used to ...but we've covered the reasons why...once again jerusalem artickoes show that they can do most anything potatoes can do...they fried up very nicely...browned and crisp outside and tender inside (... and in no longer than it takes to fry potatoes either)...a little garlic salt is all they needed for me...they are a bit sweet...but that just provided a counterpoint to the garlic salt...this, i believe, has been my favorite preperation of them so far...simple and a pretty uncluttered flavor...no cheese or sausage masking it...and cooking does bring out the sweetness...raw they do not taste the same...more as it turns up. and merry christmas to all the orthodox believers.

more jerusalem artichoke storage

the recent thaw and subsequent cold weather made harvesting tubers somewhat difficult today....the ground was frozen to almost a foot deep and since i didn't bury the tubers any deeper than that they were encased in frozen ground...so i had to dig down to loose soil and then dig back to create a hollow under the frozen ground and bludgeon it until it collapsed freeing the tubers...a time consuming task...you can see in the second photo a tuber stuck in the ground that i had uncovered and was about to liberate...for over an hours worth of work it was not an impressive haul of sunchokes...todays adventure confirmed what we already knew...dig when the weather is with you...i managed to retrieve some and cook them ( i will publish some photos of that in a mimute...as soon as i get them uploaded) but it isn't something i would want to do every day unless hunger was the motivation...i used steel implements to achieve what i did...i imagine anyone from a pre-industrial culture could deveolp technology for winter recovery ( perhaps a fire over the storage pit? or a mulch to make the soil a bit more tractable...which, if i had been thinking, wouldn't have been a bad idea for my trenches...a bit late now, but i still have a bunch of jerusalem artichokes planted on campus and here at home so there will be time to hone my storage skills) but only if it were a staple part of their diet...i may try again in a few weeks depending on what the weather does...or i may wait until the next thaw to try another recepie.

cover crops

the recent thaw uncovered my sample field off county line road so i went out to take some photos on new year's day...you can see it's pretty exposed and will continue to be so off and on until a crop is planted sometime in mid-spring (and then herbicides will keep a good portion of the field free of growth and exposed anyway)...i can't complain too much...i'm not doing that stellar a job of protecting against erosion on campus or at home either as the photos tell...so i need to think about a winter cover crop that will absorb the nitrogen left in the ground at the end of the season and will release it in the spring when it is turned under as well as develop roots systems that will hold the soil together...winter rye is one candidiate...but it decomposes slowly and needs to be turned under early or the spring planting won't feel the benefit (thanks 10cc)...winter wheat is another winter cover crop that can be turned under or left to grow until its harvest in june ( it's in the half barrel in the bottom photo and you can just catch on the top of the photo of the garden on campus)...it might make a good cover for a bed intended for late planting potatoes...harvest one crop and plant another....an idea i am planning on working with at home if not at iun...i have winter wheat growing at home and on campus as well...just not enough to act as a cover...and it wouldn't be a total cover anyway since i would have to leave the beds for the perennials ( chinese yams and jerusalem artichokes) uncovered since i wouldn't want to disturb them by turning a cover crop under and i don't want to provide them with competition ( although the yam roots are so deep i doubt winter wheat would deny them what they need...the jerusalem artichokes? well...nothing seems to inhibit them)...but it would be a step in the right direction...what i am aiming at eventually is a sort of permaculture ( that's what the perennial part is about) that will require a minimum of soil disturbance...mostly to harvest tubers...i am waiting for the land institute to make seeds for perennial strains of cereal grains commercially available so i can work them into the mix...until then i will start working with cover crops and continue to intercrop with "green manures" like cowpeas...i am learning as i go and may get to be more efficient at both gardening and thinking yet.

since the demise of one of my apple trees i have put more seeds in damp paper towels and baggies in an effort to germante more trees...nature is prolific because not everythint that starts survives...i'll use that idea in an effort to start an orchard in my yard.

expectations and disappointments

i haven't been to the garden in a few weeks...mostly because there isn't much to do ( and the campus is actually closed for the holidays...well...i was only there for about three minutes....put a quarter in the meter just to be legal anyway...i don't think anyone noticed me)...not alot going on...but i had the day off and i wanted to check on the mulching to make sure it was alright...the snow frustrated that intention...it also provides another layer of insulation so i will assume the asparagus and yams are fine ( i will never worry about the jerusalem artichokes...they are virtually indestructable and infinitly permanent...the gamagrass should be fine as well...both indigenous to the area...both adapted to the climate)...alas the larger apple tree is not...it is in its final days i fear...don't know quite what happend...i kept them watered and kept them in a rotation of grow light and dark so i wouldn't overdrive them like i did the teosinte last spring ( we will be taking a much harsher approach to toesinte in the spring...working with northern tephuan...an annual...and planting it directly in the beds on campus and at home just before the last frost....more on that as it develops)...perhaps daisy ( the cat) stepped on it...maybe growing apple trees in december was an act of futile optimism...then again...since i pulled the errant grass out of the pot with the smaller tree it seems to be doing well...not as tall as the domed one but still with six leaves (leafs?) and brilliantly green...even if that doesn't come across that well in the photo....i am looking for apple tree answers and will save the one if i can...i refuse to give up hope...i have expectations to live up to with this project.

water, ethanol, and corn

i've been reading again...."Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture" by wes jackson...the national corn grower's association action alerts and their propganda about ethanol production...u s weather service rainfall average reports and some information about groundwater use from the ogallala aquafier so lets see if i can make sense of some of the data...a corn crop generally needs 24 inches of mosture during its growing season....that's two acre feet per acre ( the ammount of water it would take to cover an acre to a depth of one foot is an acre foot ) those two acre feet represent 651,702 gallons of water for an acre of corn...a bunper harvest from that acre would be 220 bushels of corn and that corn would translate into 104.940 gallons of ethanol at a rate of 2.77 gallons of ethanol per bushel...that's about 6461 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol ( you have to wonder how much water goes in to hot pockets or mountain dew)...indiana's annual precipitation averages ( there are wetter and drier parts of all the states i'm listing) is 40 inches...illinois 38 inches...iowa 35 inches...nebraska 23.6 inches...kansas 27.84...obviously in bad years or even normal ones some states are going to have to irrigate...nebraska and kansas overlay the ogallala aquafier which this year has had 26.1 cubic kilometers of water removed from it...more than the discharge of the colorado river...a serious overdraft of a water source that will dry up with continued use at those level...kansas and nebraska may go out of the corn business over water...we could talk about g m crops...but then we'd be getting into energy use and petrochemical based inputs on the farm to protect crops that are more vulnerable than those created by old fashioned domestication and i'm not dealing with that right now...just the water use limits corn as a viable source of alternative energy...the corn hacks at the national corn growers will tell you different because they like the way ethanol drives corn prices up...but they are just as biased as i may be and i don't trust them...the figures i find tell me a different story...and as an afterthought, is this more water than is involved in the current production of petrolum based fuels? i know the bp/ammoco refinery in whiting dunps alot of benzine into lake michigan as part of the distilation process...how much water passes through that plant per gallon? more rsearch...stay tuned.