annuals versus perennials

"in the period between about 9000 and 2000 b.p. populations throughout the world, already using nearly the full range of palatable foods, were forced to adjust to further increases in population by artificially increasing, not those resources which they prefered to eat, but those which responded well to human attentiona nd could be made to produce the greates number of edible calories per unit of land...agriculture is not easier than hunting and gathering and does not provide a higher quality, more palitable, or more secure food base. agriculture has, in fact, only one advantage over hunting and gathering: that of provideing more calories per unit of land per unit of time and thuis supporting denser populations..."
the food crisis in prehistory: over population and the origins of agriculture. mark nathan cohen. 1977 p.15

more bang for the buck as it were...or feeding more people per acre...an artificial carrying capacity necessitated by a neolithic population boom...foragers certainly would have been well versed in the biology of their environments and in plant and animal behaviors...coming to some sort of decision on which would respond better to human intervention probably would not have posed too great a problem ( if it had we would not have the social structures we have, would we? it would be a differnt planet.)...part of the working hypothesis for the garden's first season ( it is an academic project , on campus anyway, my backyard is much less structured and i can do things there that don't really fit in the academic parameters) was that annuals became the overwhelming majority of staples because they produced more edibile calories per unit of land than perennials do...that idea is in serious need of adjustment...the jerusalem artichokes blew that out of the water...the top two photos are of jerusalem artichokes i have culled form the campus garden...sixty-six volunteers that i have had to remove so far just to keep the campus population at double the six i consciously palnted last fall...so there's obviously some other mechanism at work in the annuial/perennial staple dichotomy...storage was another issue i wrote about in the paper on the first season, thinking that storage issues might have some impact ( i had something of a premonition when i statred harvesting) but there seem to be at least as many problems with storing annuals as there are with perennials ( this is traditional , not industrial, storage technology we're talking...the neolithic revolution had some environments where freeze-drying was used, to remove glyco-alkaloids from the higher elvation, frost-resistant potato varieties domesticated in the andes for instance, but no industrial refrigeration or preservatives...we're thinking in terms of cache-pits and rudimentary storage buildings) and we have seen that my jerusalem artichoke storage technology is in dire need of tweaking if i plan to eat them all next winter ( and i do...this could become a major embarassment)...so if it's not more calories or easier storage what is it? i have a few ideas, but i'm not tipping my hand...just looking around for research materials and planning some summer reading, growing gardens, collecting data, and then writing...i think i have found a sort of vocation for my dotage...something to keep body and mind moving...nothing wrong with that.

the middle photo is of my stand of winter wheat....an annual, i know, but still part of the second season thinking...the fourth photo is of some really happy perennial asparagus ( i finally remebered the photographic scale)...the one-year-old crowns i planted in april of 2010 are into their third season so next spring we can start harvesting spears...the bottom is the pgp as it looked yesterday evening about five or so

mayday 2011 in the garden

a maintenance trip this morning and six more jerusalem artichokes culled...they continue to pop up, and most likely will do so for the foreseeable future...vigilance is a virtue here...persistence as well...i seem to be unable to remember to bring a photographic scale with me on these jaunts ("nice asparagus, where's the scale?" i can hear it now) so i put my cup of tea next to the asparagus to provide some scale...the cup is eight inches tall so that spear is already double that size...another year of letting the "ferns" feed the roots and they will be well setablished enough to harvest next season...the next two photos are of sprouts in the Zea diploperennis bed...they are grass, and i'm still hoping for teosinte on campus...that would be neat and a fulfillment of more than a year of trying to get some to grow...anywhere...the spinach and turnips are cruising along and there are a couple of beets up...both strains of wheat are fine and there's no stopping the sunchokes..we're on for another season...can't wait to see what happens.

is it or isn't it?

the top photo is one i pulled off the web of some mature teosinte which doesn't do me a lot of good really because i don't have mature teosinte...what i do have is four plants up in the row i planted in northern tepehuan and they are tillering and the one that has been up for a few weeks has actual branches that have broken through the ground ( second photo) which convinces me it's not a bunch grass and could actuially be teosinte...this is in my backyard...nothing is up ( as of yesterday) in the bed i planted in northern tepehuan on campus...there is grass up in the bed i planted Zea dipoloperennis in on campus...but that's still too young to even begin to make a call on...so i am optimistic that we may actually have some this year...even if it is only an annual variety...the bottom two photos are of the gamagrass that's up in the grass bed in the back here...if things pan aout the way i hope they will ( and if it ever dries up enough for my trusty field down county line road to be planted in dense yellow number two) we will have a photo essay on grass morphology this year...from seedling ( i have been taking pictures all along) to mature plant...why? well because it's all about maize ancestry and it will include all the plants embroiled in the debate...somethign to ponder with the limited knowledge i have in an effort to perjaps understand more...that and i have the space and time to indulge myself...there will be more on this as the season moves along, whatever happens.

well...i was warned...

....but i didn't let that stand in my way did i? planted jerusalem artichokes to see if a perennial tuber other than potatoes could be a staple...and as far as i can see they certainly have the ability to fill those shoes...but they are virtually impossible to control...a trade-off for sure...last fall i consciously planted six tubers in the campus garden ( which are all finally up)...so far this season i have removed an additional nineteen plants and my campus population is still a dozen...so twenty-five rouges have appeared...on top of that i dug up another thirty tubers that i missed in last fall's harvest...they hadn't broken the surface yet, but were on their way...there's more i am sure...no idea what ot do with them...they'd just colonize the compost pile and i've given away as many as i believe i can...i have seventeen in my back yard and will spend the rest of my days trying to keep them at bay...it's a good thing they're tasty...it's been really wet this spring and the gamagrass is a bit yellow...it is dry and sunny today and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer...the green will return...fourteen asparagus spears up from eight plants...another year of growth before we start to harvest...who wants to claim a share early? finally theres a photo of the garden at about ten this morning...eighteen turnips and twenty three spinach plants keeping the wheat and sunchokes company...there is grass up where i planted Zea diploperennis seeds, but it's too early for me to make a call...it just looks like grass...the whaet is grass too and the look alot alike...i'll wait for tillering and actual branches before i call it...we've shifted up a gear...the season is moving on and i am geeked to see the growth.

earth day resolutions?

i suppose there is some value in calling attention to environmental issues once a year...if only to remind an anesthetized broader public, wrapped up in 4G networks, i-pads, smart phones, nascar, baseball, and untold other consumerist activities, that we are actually part of and a product of an ecosystem that is definitely unhappy and about to get ugly over the issue of human intervention in natural cycles...then again, on another level it's alot like new year's resolutions that people stick to for a week or two and conveniently forget...dealing with the fact the we are about to be overwhelmed in unpleasant ways with changes or that we have industrialized food production by making it reliant on the mining of finite resources and eating oil and natural gas or that the economic base we rely in is unsustainable in its current form requires more than a once a year payment of lip service...new year's resolutions are pointless, and in that respect so is earth day...you have to live these changes, not think about them occasionally...decide what you're going to be and then be that...every day...it's work, and sometimes it's a royal pain...it's also the only way anything substantive will be accomplished, especially in the face of resistance from those who have a vested interest in keeping things they way they are...they will fail in that...but they won't believe it until it happens.

the gamagrass in the top photo is looking a bit yellow from all the rain...no worries...it will green up when it warms a bit...the spring wheat is doing fine and will be on schedule for a late summer finish...if the starlings leave any...the winter wheat in the middle photo is cooking along just fine too...another starling banquet in a couple of months...the fourth photo is of one of two rouge jerusalem artichokes i dug out of the university lawn ( that's three so far) and the two would have been numbers fifteen and sixteen on campus ( where i planted six) but i transplanted them to my back yard ( see the entry below)....the bottom photo is of a soggy garden on earth day 2011...a miniscule contribution to alternate thought about the way things are that is the result of quite a bit of thought, planning, and anthropological reading...i'll send you my reading list if you like.

campus rouges come home

the rouge jerusalem artichokes have found a home along my back fence in a bed prepared with forty pounds of manure...they will be happy there i hope...hardy souls that they are i don't doubt they'll prosper...the bottom photo is asparagus on campus (marram hall in the background) seven of eight plants have spears up now, including last years runt that i overshadowed with cowpeas ( not this year...there will be more organization to our green manure) and the one on the southwest corner that sustained considerable mole damage...one left to come up...i hope the mole damaged yam fares as well.

closer to the orchard

over the past week i have been moving apple trees upstairs into natural light and looking for signs of shock...none so far...i am still obsessing...a dozen of the sixteen i had did well under the light...now i need at least two to adjust to the real world...more would be good but i'm willing to settle....how many apple seeds actually get to be trees?