a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Will It Grow?

    WillItGrow1

    Will it grow? It’s a question I ask everytime I push a seed into the ground. Nine days ago, I planted a pound of shirohana beans. Yesterday, I got my answer. Rising out of the ground were new leaves. I looked and found more and more beans unfolding their first leaves from inside beans which were splitting open. It’s amazing to think that these beans, in fact all of life on earth, can trace its roots back four billion years. We are all so different now, and yet we all have the same ancestors. Even these new beans sprouting out of the soil and you reading this article share a distant mother.

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  • With the Help of Wet Weather

    YellowIris

    It’s not raining, it’s not pouring, it’s just misting, as if we’re up in the clouds. It’s fitting weather for iris and pansies to bloom, and for potatoes to grow. The row of purple potatoes I planted in March are high enough to mound. They are growing vigorously. The potatoes I planted in earl April are coming along nicely, and the ones I planted at the end of April are starting to sprout.

    The misty weather is also good for catching slugs. Usually they come out after I’ve gone to bed. It’s like they are waiting for the bedroom lights to go out before they venture out of their daytime hiding places. But when it is misty like today, they come out in droves in midday. I feel bad hunting them down with a pair of scissors. Snip, snip, I go, cutting them in two and sending them off to an early death. The potatoes and radishes and cabbage and lettuce and kale cheer me on. Snip, snip, snip.

    PotatoSprout
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  • Is It Really Different?

    ThighsForTesting

    I’m participating in nutrient test of my chicken and eggs. This month I’m sending in some chicken meat, two thighs, for testing. Is there really any difference between the my chicken and commercial chicken? I’ll soon know. These are the two rooster thighs I’m sending off tomorrow. Commercial chicken thighs are never this red. Something is different.

    Next month, I’ll send a dozen eggs to be tested. The program is being organized by Mother Earth News. Back in 2007, they conducted a test of eggs laid by pastured hens from a number of farms and discovered the eggs from hens raised on pasture are far more nutritious than eggs from confined hens in factory farms. It’s been eight years, and they are doing another series of tests.

  • Out of the Garden Today – May 12, 2015

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    The garlic are starting to send their spikes up towards the sky. I discovered these on some elephant garlic while checking on the garlic beds this afternoon. From now through June and possibly into early July, I’ll have a steady supply of these tasty spikes. Garlic spikes and asparagus, lightly sautéed in olive oil make a wonderful dish, especially if they’ve just been picked out of the garden.

    In the garden, the first rows of lettuce are spreading their baby leaves, and the shallots have all their fingers out of the ground. Boredom doesn’t exist in a vegetable garden. Every day, there is something new to see.

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  • No Brain Required

    Earthworms

    Here are a few of the huge army of workers I have toiling away in the rows of growing produce. The produce beds are fenced in so the earthworms are safe from the chickens. One of the many helpful things the earthworms do is fertilize the growing vegetables. I find the most earthworms right next to the roots of plants. There, they eat the bacteria, protozoa, rotifers, nematodes and fungi that the plants are cultivating with the cakes and cookies (in the form of sugars, fats, and proteins) the plants are exuding into the soil through their roots. As the earthworms feast around the roots, they leave behind nutritious wastes the plants need. It’s a complicated system of “I feed you – you feed me”, involving millions and billions of organisms. And it falls apart when we humans interfere by adding our chemical fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides.

    Plants are not helpless organisms. By controlling which sugars and proteins they exude out their roots, and there are millions of varieties of sugars and proteins, they cultivate the mix of bacteria and fungi which will serve them the best. Amazing work by organisms without a brain. Which shows you don’t need a brain to be successful and smart.