a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Celebrating Greens

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    Picking fresh greens so others can enjoy them is something I look forward to. Today’s picking starts with Ruby Streaks. The dark, red mustard leaves liven any salad. Mustards, like Ruby Streaks, provide benefits besides making exciting salads. Eventually, I’ll till the Ruby Streaks into the ground, and they will become a natural biofumigant, help control weeds, and pests (Mustard as a Cover Crop).

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    After adding a variety of lettuces, I top the pickings with big, leafy arugula. After a good washing and spinning, all these fresh salad greens are off to Tweets Cafe where they’ll become lovely salads, enjoyed by many this weekend.

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    While delivering the greens, I spotted this splash of sunshine, blooming in Edison, in front of Slough Food. The world is bursting with beauty and wonderful things happening all the time. Listen to the news for just a few minutes, and you get the impression that we are all doomed and on the verge of an apocalypse. But nature can’t stop bestowing our lives with splendor. All you have to do is stop and enjoy it. Rush around too much, and you’ll miss it.

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  • Rain is for Chard

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    The Swiss Chard thrives in the cool, fall drizzle. It’s one of those productive vegetables, which keeps sending up luscious leaves, no matter how many times you cut it. A ten foot row of Swiss Chard will feed a family all season.

    A few days ago, I read a Washington Post article titled Why quirky Portland is winning the battle for young college grads. The article starts with these paragraphs:

    Of all the Very Portland things that exist in Portland, there is a plot of land next to City Hall, right outside the building’s front portico, where the city is growing its own Swiss chard.
    “And on a place that used to be a parking lot!” exclaims Mayor Charlie Hales, adding a detail that actually makes this story even more Portland.

    Sounds very sane to me. It’s actually sad that it’s considered quirky for a city to grow chard next to city hall. Chard is such a beautiful vegetable, and so easy to grow, so productive, that it would be insane for cities not to grow it on city land. Someday, reporters will visit a city, whose city hall isn’t surrounded by vegetable gardens, and wonder what is wrong with that city.

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  • Stormy Night Ahead

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    An approaching storm is a good reason to make an apple pie. Chickens come in handy when making an apple pie. I have a bowl of apple peels and cores, and bits of pie crust left over after weaving a top crust. A flock of chickens is like having robotic garbage disposals running around, cleaning up all your scraps. And they turn those scraps into lovely eggs to boot.

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    Lucky comes running, bringing her chicks. A careful mother hen, she peers up to make sure I mean no harm to her chicks.

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    Lucky’s chicks check on me too. I wonder what they see and think when they look at me. They’ve been such good garbage cleaners, I should have baked them a pie too, for them to enjoy this stormy night.

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  • Love Is Not Human

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    Love is not human, love is universal. I spend many hours a day with other animals, and their lives are as dependent on love as ours. Baby chicks are bathed in love from the moment they are hatched until their mother decides they are old enough to be on their own. Without such constant love, they would have gone extinct eons ago.

    Our cats, Woody and Rusty, are best friends, and often spend cozy afternoons snuggling together. Loving and being loved is as important to them as it is to us.

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  • MiAsa 美朝 Gets Some eggs

    MapleOnFire

    It’s another fiery autumn day. A perfect day to put some eggs under MiAsa 美朝, a feisty hen who has been sitting on some wooden eggs for a few days. I’ve written 9s on the eggs as they should hatch November 9 if all goes well. And in case any other hens lay eggs on her nest while MiAsa is incubating, I will be able to tell which ones they are, so I can remove them.

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    Here she is. When she fluffs her neck feathers, she looks like a lion. In the clip below, watch how she pecks at my hand when I place eggs underneath her, and see how she shifts the eggs into position underneath her.
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    On the way out of the chicken yard, I laugh at a clever hen who has discovered that the biggest pile of feed is inside the feeder.

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