Last Minute Plantings July 14, 2008

So that little jungle of seedlings I wrote about earlier are nagging to get into the ground before I leave and they are a top priority, along with some cuttings I started a few weeks ago. My irrigation methods are quite primitive which I like because I get to hang out with my plants and monitor their progress, HOWEVER when you leave it is all in jeopardy. My husband is good with the watering, but he will need help and the boys are not very helpful when it comes to that.

They turn the nozzle to jet which is traumatic for the plants, but fun for them. I let them start a little 3 sisters plot (Corn, Beans, and Squash), and we spent so much time getting it ready, from sifting out compost, double digging, beautifully spacing and organizing the seeds….The first time I watered it in and turned over the hose, for them to keep up. Well, when the beans, corn, and squash popped up all in the same spot I was a bit baffled.

Being the detective that I am I noticed an irregular amount of mud splats on the wall behind the plot. I said nothing but waited and spied the next time they watered. The jet stream had dislodged the germinating seeds and  because of the huge puddle it formed they all floated into the same spot and replanted. I let it go…hey, it’s their plot, they can do what they want. I was tempted to fix it but they need to understand that life requires patience, you rush it and it just won’t turn out the way you want it.

I guess I do need to get other types of irrigation to be fair, water wise, and more effective. Leaky pipes will probably do the trick but I enjoy hand watering, I can see whats going on.

So  anyway the little seedlings had been moved out recently to harden off and adapt to the great outdoors, and much to my delight the tray is swarming  with bees. I was really happy about that. There is plenty of lavender, sage, salvia, and such already established but there is like a bee for every flower. There must be a hive nearby. Hopefully at a friendly home or at mine.

There is a passage in a book that I like but don’t remember, when the author describes honey oozing out of someone’s walls and the room smelling sickening sweet and practically vibrating from the buzzzzzz. To me it is a comforting image.

just buzzy looking for distractions…

dan de lioness

P.S. Any book suggestions for a flight that lasts 23 hours??? (fiction)

African Implosion July 9, 2008

The day of my departure is getting closer. I am so excited that I can’t allow myself to imagine what it will be like in Africa anymore, for fear that I might implode. I just fill my day with tasks, books, and gardening, alot of busy work. The reality of returning to the land where my ancestors were sold or stolen into slavery is monumental for me. Although my intentional effort is for the benefit of others, it is a very personal and emotional journey for me. I have always dreamed of the first time my eyes see Africa, wondering if I will blink for fear of missing something, and first time I fill my lungs with African air, and the first time my feet touch African soil, and it brings tears to my eyes. I feel honored to be the one from my family to return, it’s like I’ve been given a mission to restore what was lost in my family.

In a very real way this place has called me back home, and I am running back into its arms and embracing the good and trying to help improve the bad. Realizing that that I have for all these years personified the continent is wild. I never realized it before. In the African American community we call it things like ‘Motherland’ or ‘Mama Africa’, but the reality is that it is an actual place and not the Black version of Camelot. I hope more of us make an effort to touch down and experience it.

indescribable,

dandelioness

Pre-Ethiopia Book List Top 12 July 6, 2008

These are some of my latest book acquisitions. All have some sort of relevance to my mission, but I am sharing this list because no matter where you are or what you are doing this information is critical. I am including only the books that I find to be excellent:

• How To Grow More Vegetables, John Jeavons
  • The best growing practices combined in a clear easy to follow plan. Follows the life cycle of the garden. You could literally start from page one and work as you read and come out with a beautifully functional garden. Emphasis is placed on growing soil, compost plans to improve soil quality, closer plant spacing to create a micro climate, which leads to healthier plants on less land using less resources. BUY THIS BOOK

• California Master Gardener Handbook, UC ANR, Dennis Pittenger
  • A University of California research based book that is so complete and comprehensive on whatever you could want to know about the workings of the garden. Includes a vegetable profile for everything you could possibly want to eat. It is an academic read, however if you are serious, you want this. For some it might be too much information, that’s okay. But for us garden nerds out there is there ever enough information? I would not recommend to a first timer there are simpler books that can get the job done. The imposed audience is scholarly.

• Solar Living Source Book, Real Goods, John Schaeffer
  • THE go to book for all things necessary to become truly self sufficient. I liken it to the old Sears catalogue’s but for the environmentally obsessed. It will educate you and save you time and research . There are things in this book that make you wanna set out on the new frontier or just make the old frontier much better.

• The Plant Propagator’s Bible, Miranda Smith
  • My favorite topic and quickly becoming my specialized obsession. There is not one thing that isn’t covered. If you are financially challenged (broke) and need to garden on the cheap this is the book for you. Shows you how to start from seed of course but walks you through propagation methods that are mind boggling. A really fun book for garden geeks.

• Planting the Future, Rosemary Gladstar
  • A very comprehensive guide on planting medicinal herbs. If you have ever tried to start from seed you are surely aware that medicinal herb seeds can be small, stubborn, and like to be spoiled. I have had a dickens of a time getting mine going. This book demystifies the art and gives a wonderful account of their benefits and use.

• Root Cellaring, Mike and Nancy Bubel
  • Okay so you have harvested all 30 of your beets, now either you had better get grubbin or find some way to store them. A person can only eat so much borscht… This comprehensive guide gives tips on the best way to store all one hundred of your zucchini. Now you won’t feel so pressured to eat it all at once. And the good news is they take into account that not everyone is in the Midwest and offer ideas for those of us who are city and/or desert dwellers.

• Food Storage 101: Where Do I Begin?, Peggy Laton
  • This lady takes food storage to new heights. A short and sweet manual to help you get prepared for being responsible for your food. Grocery store? As we all know because of the recent string of natural disasters the local Albertson’s or Piggly Wiggly is not always there for you to just run and pick up something. Food security is more than just pretending your banana is a gun, It’s something every individual needs to take responsibility for. Our reliance on convenience needs to be tempered with a bit of reality. Laton asserts that “food in the storage is more valuable than money in the bank”. In a crisis I think we would all agree, let’s just not wait that long.

• Keeping the Harvest, Nancy Chioffi and Gretchen Mead
  • How to keep the stuff that doesn’t keep. Comprehensive book on canning, jams and jellies, freezing, drying, curing, and cold storage. The other books tell you how too store (macro), this one teaches you how to prepare the food to store (micro). Includes plans on building a dehydrator…cool!

• Build it With Bales, MacDonald and Myhrman
  • Another topic I love is alternative building methods. I have had this book for 10 years now and the reason it is on the list is because in all of those years I have not found another book that is as instructional as this one. I have others and they have pretty pictures and neat stories but when the rubber hits the road and you want to build, instructions will be more helpful than pretty pictures. I do like pretty pictures though…

• How To Build Your Own Greenhouse, Marshall
  • Right now my greenhouse is an upside down aquarium. I don’t have room for a real one but the aquarium does the trick at the moment. So when it is time to get serious about it, you will want to buy this book. The directions are easy to read and the plans (yes, there are plans, booyah) are thorough and include foundations. I was really impressed, the cover didn’t sell the contents, and since I ordered it on-line I didn’t have much to go on. A pleasant surprise.

• Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply Catalogue, www.groworganic.com
  • This catalogue is to gardening what Solar Living is to, well, living. Everything you could need for the mini-farm is in here. And the best part is I think you can get the catalogue for free. Almost all of the seeds are open pollinated, if not they tell you, and there are a lot of heirlooms and biodynamic seeds available.

• Bountiful Gardens Catalog, bountifulgardens.org
  • You can get How To Grow More Vegetables here and all the tools you need to do just that. The seeds are all open pollinated. The tools are simple . The product choices are top quality and limited to what you actually do need. A great catalog for googly-eyed shoppers that need to be roped in to the basics. (that would be me)

For a complete and formal review of the listed books check out Amazon.com with the exception of the last 2 seed catalogues.

WARNING: I am a visual learner and most of these books are geared toward the visual learner. If you are not a visual learner these books may not do it for you.

If you have any books you think I should look into I would love to hear your recommendations.

tune in,

dandelioness

Backyard Farming in the City July 3, 2008

A growing number of city dwellers are growing their own food. In  ground, raised beds, and containers heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, and such have found their way to the city. Is this only a simple solution to our “economic slowdown” aaahhhcooresession! or is it because we are becoming more environmentally conscious? Whatever the  reason, lets keep it up…we are all a part of (cliche alert) the circle of life.

Be lessening our use of disposables (incomes included) we have the  opportunity to learn about our lives again. The values of our great-grandparents may again be in vogue. They were  conservationists, if something broke they fixed it, if  the socks got holes they were mended, if the dress was ripped it became a quilt, the food they ate they grew it, the abundance was shared with a neighbor. The good old days. We have only in recent times become wasteful. It’s not too late, we are still hardwired as conservationists. Maybe a recession is what we need to reawaken that spirit.

Its really easy to grow food, its like having a pet that eventually will feed you. You provide a nice environment and it will flourish, you don’t and they will be sickly. Water, soil, and seed is really all you need. There is very little skill involved. Many are intimidated by the idea but everyone started somewhere. The worst that can happen is that your plant will die, but you will learn from that and it maybe the next one won’t. I have been an avid gardener now for 8 years and I still kill stuff.

I think the most satisfying first crop is tomatoes, those little grape ones are just phenominal, they grow quick, fruit quick, and abundantly. Tomatoes will tolerate a little abuse, and can easily be grown in a container if you don’t have yard space. Yesterday I was in whole foods and heirloom tomatoes were a whopping $5.99 a pound……that is crazy. And they will never be as good as the ones you grow. Give it a shot, grow a tomato. Let me know  how you fair. Ask if you need advice.

Plant Peace

Dandelioness

An introduction, me in a nutshell July 1, 2008

The blog is not about me, but I thought it would be appropriate to introduce myself. I am a wife and mom and gardener and artist and yogi trying to carve my way through this life. I have read the entire Bible cover to cover. I continue to read it one chapter a day. I don’t like to preach or be preached to. I have a B.S. in Business and I would like to get my Masters in International Development. I am mostly self a employed screenprinter, but work as a substitute teacher and love it. I like all colors but my favorite palette is earth tones which in my mind are all colors you find in the earth. I am a voracious herbivore with occasional carnivorous tendencies. I don’t have any tattoos. My ears are pierced once. I am an only child. I have too much yarn. I rarely finish my knitting projects. I am a serial hobbyist. I am obsessive. Mice scare me and dead things, even dead mice. I can’t stand to see blood. I am going to learn first aid, just in case. I love the library, but I always return my books late. I collect how-to books. There is a name for that, but I can’t remember it. I always have to know everything about everything. i.e. I like cheese, it’s not enough to know what type of cheese it is, I need to know how it was made, and try to make it at least once. This gets on my husbands nerves. It gets on my nerves a bit to. I have 4 kids, 1 girl 3 boys. They are all really great. I promise to never be so controlling that they can’t be themselves, but they still need guidance. I am really picky about music and humor. I have no musical talent and can’t tell a joke to save my life. I am not very good at swimming. Chlorine makes me itchy and so does polluted beach water, maybe its all in my head, maybe not. I love to watch cooking shows, but I am not a very good cook. A girl can dream can’t she. I was a girl scout. I like to make things. I love to grow plants, it’s mystical. You put an insignificant looking little thing in the dirt and in a week you have something beautiful shoot up. I am in awe of it every single time and I always squeal with delight and gawk and celebrate when it happens. I hope I never grow out of that. I am forever humbled by the perfection of God’s creations.

dandelioness

The Bees and the Balance June 23, 2008

This weekend during a heat wave that rendered me completely useless, I stumbled upon an episode of Nature Silence of the Bees (KCET) about Colony Collapse Disorder and it’s suspected causes. Recently a few of the kids in my neighborhood threw rocks at a hive and I was pretty mad, trying to explain and educate these kids made me look like ‘that mom’ and probably once again embarrassed my kids….so of course I made them watch the program too… along with one other captive. A few parts were pretty heavy but they got the message loud and clear. My kids understand to a certain extent, I have several plants whose flowers did not get pollinated and they have no fruit, but nothing beats perspective.

There was a segment in which they showed a village in China whose overuse of unregulated pesticides killed all of their bee population…the bees have not come back. They still grow pears but they pollinate by hand using chicken feathers and dried pollen that they hand collect. Complete terrifying insanity!!! You can’t send a man to do a bee’s job. They are the link to food variety and flowering plant life which is the majority of the things we should eat, fruits and nuts. Grains are wind pollinated for the most part but talk about a drab carb diet.

Its not just the bees. They are not the first warning that we need to change our food system. One of the theory’s mentioned as a possible cause was mono-cropping. The idea was that the bees were being malnourished by only feeding on one type of flower. Imagine if we only ate potatoes, everyday, all day, for a month. We would be pretty weak and sick, it doesn’t take long to become malnourished. So just another possible theory. There are many more. Check out the program if you get a chance the full episode is available at :

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/by-title/introduction-2/38/

“Life hangs delicately in the balance” ~ 70’s era nature show narrator cliché

I like it because it is so true and can be applied to every aspect of our existence on this earth. Balance in the garden is natural and right.

seek balance :: find happiness

dandelioness

Arabian Coffee Plants Growing in Albertsons? June 19, 2008

The other day I was in the grocery store and I of course always check out the plants and cut flowers:( when I stumbled upon an Arabian coffee plant. I was like neato! but it came packaged in a coffee mug, how chic!?! I wasn’t about to pay 8 bucks for a coffee mug and one plant. I could buy the seeds for less. But because of my journey I am a bit reluctant to plant more than what we need for sustenance and ornamentation. (mind you my kitchen looks like a miniature jungle with all of seedlings I’ve sown the past few weeks) The point is that I am trying to keep it manageable for my husband and offspring.

I don’t drink coffee regularly, but I do want experience growing native Ethiopian plants. This is pretty darn close. I think any program has to take into account its usefulness to the people it serves. Of course it is important to introduce diversity but not at the exclusion of tradition. My goal is to introduce our best mini farming methods and fuse them with the experience, traditions, and best practices of Ethiopia’s farmers. My mission is not an attempt to go and say your wrong do it this way. But as partners lets work towards increasing the success and productivity of the small farms with agricultural practices that rebuild the soil, conserve resources, and feed the people.

• 95% of Ethiopia’s population have and maintain a small to mid-sized farm
• The primary method of irrigation is rainfall
• Rural water development methods need to be explored

I hope to determine on this visit what the direct needs of the farmers are and seek out solutions based on rediscovered and sustainable technologies. Main criteria is that it needs to be easily self managed.

There is no one right way. I know I will learn much more than I will ever be able to teach. Long live life long learning!

…back to Albertsons, so I didn’t buy it. Then I had to go in and pick up something from a different one and low and behold someone else dropped a mug and broke it… the coffee plant was now without a coffee mug and I bought it for $2.50. yippie! Ya just don’t find plants like that lurking around, ya know. Oh and the leaves look like they have been heavily waxed, they are gleaming, blinding, and just way too much… but I am sure after a few years of loving neglect they will dull down to a healthy glow. When will they learn….lol

now get off the computer and grow something,

smiles…dandelioness

Yellow Fever, menengitis, and typhoid, oh my! or Shot Damn! June 18, 2008

I have spent the better part of this week combing the CDC website (thanks Joseph) to see what vaccinations to get and it is really pretty scary… I don’t like needles, and I don’t like to be sick, and this time I just really can’t afford to be sick. So I will clench my teeth , practice my Lamaze breathing, and try to be a big girl.

I have been reassured by some of the other ‘lifers’ that I know living there that unless I am just totally reckless in food choice, drinking water sources, and behavior, I probably wont get sick even without the vaccs’. The Girl Scout in me insists that I’d better be prepared. So, shots it is.

Another thing that I need to do for the sake of disease avoidance is sew up my sleep sheet. Basically two twin flat sheets that are sewn to resemble a thin sleeping bag. A nifty little contraption that I used at hostels in Europe. No matter where you sleep, 5 star or 0 star, it is nice to have a barrier between you and borrowed linen.

I might even treat the fabric with the mosquito spray stuff used for netting, another thing I might take. I seem to send dinner invitations to mosquitoes, and they always RSVP. There aren’t any in Addis so there I’m cool, but anywhere else if there is a mosquito, she will probably bite me, and I hate getting shots.

denah hun!

dandelioness

Food Security June 11, 2008

Today on every news program the lead story was food security, and or safety. Paranoia, hype or truth? I guess the thing is, what is the source, and is it credible. On some programs it was limited to America’s salmonella infested tomatoes, and can we trust our food supply. I think the question needs a broader perspective to be answered. Our current undoing is due to our lemming inspired willingness to lose a connection with our earth, when was the last time you picked up a handful of soil? there is more to life than the b.s. we are so easily overly consumed with. myself included…

I don’t want this to turn into doomsday dairies, but the worldwide food situation is on the brink of crisis, and in many places beyond the brink. If it is not Korea and their abject repulsion of America’s beef, then its ‘pick a country, any developing country’ and you are certain to feel the tension building. While staple grains become scarce (thanks ethanol!) and climatic contractions (thanks insatiable energy abuse) are intensified, our Ameri-centric news coverage of food security was dominated by what fast food restaurant has stopped selling tomatoes. Mind you, I do love tomatoes…

We need a different approach to food, and there is a huge grass roots movement in this direction, I am just asking that while we have the opportunity to scrutinize the tomatoes, lets analyze the big picture.

Just a few thoughts to toss about:

• mono cropping
• corn based diet (corn country is facing severe flooding that is putting an even greater strain on supply)(Pray for our farmers)(Google Independent Lens King Corn)
• potash market prices (an ingredient in many store bought fertilizers)(now priced higher than gold)

Developing countries are facing famine, we are a global economy now, when someone coughs we can all catch a cold.

Be Active.

God Bless,

DanDeLioness

What am I doing here June 8, 2008

I think I’m here to reach out and touch someone, I am working my way through a journey that has no  prefabricated destination. One of those life-altering things that could end with unknown knows and some known unknowns and you get the picture. But I have this vision and a calling and I just can’t turn my  back on…

This all started 8 years ago when I decided to grow food on a plot of land that was about  2×4 feet. I planted corn, squash, beans, carrots, watermelon, and apples tree (from seed)… did I mention the space was 2×4 feet?

Well I have come a long way since then and have become completely O.C.D. about gardening.  Food Security in particular. Let me make this clear, I have had many other interests that have consumed me before. You know that person that has to try to do it from scratch just because they need to understand HOW… well I could very well be the poster child for this insanity. But I am okay with it… its like an itch, just needs to be scratched, ya know

Anyway back to the pressing issue at hand, I need to set up an bio-intensive farming training program in Ethiopia, with an emphasis on ecological sustainability. My husband has worked as a solar energy installer for 5 rocky years is working on rural water development. I just finished a Master Gardening training program which has given me a rock solid foundation on growing food, I have drank the kool-aid and become a supporter of the logic and mission of ECOLOGY ACTION. Add to that my unconditional love for Africa and all it inhabitants and maybe you can see what I see. I need to go soon and see what I can do, I need to do something.

I think I can make a difference. I have some wonderful examples in the works of GROW BIO INTENSIVE and their international partners, specifically Manor House in Ethiopia’s neighboring Kenya.

We will see. I will be going to ET in July on a fact finding and networking trip. Not before reading and studying until my eyes burn.

I’ll keep in touch…

tres besos,

DanDeLioness