Friday, September 18, 2009
Forest Garden Map
I started working on a design for the RJP Hance Rd farm, in the shape of a map overlay hosted at google maps. It may go back and forth from being accessible to the public, as revisions are made and drafts developed. Not like anyone's looking. It's an experiment to draw it in this way so it might have some awkward teen years.
Fuel Alcohol
It has distracted me recently. My curiosity is piqued, big-time. I want to see this guy's notes on different feedstock crops for fuel fermentation and distillery. How do you ferment some of the harder, more lignified stuff he talks about? What would be the cost in land and money to be able to grow and process 1000 gallons of fuel ethanol a year. He talks about a perennial 800 gallons per acre from mesquite tree pods and their groundcover combined. He's also a permaculturist, which for better or worse I treat as a shorthand for a set of values that make sense to me.
This is David Blume's alcohol talk. An hour and a half, but extremely interesting. I like the part about prohibition, its funding from Rockefeller and Standard Oil.
David Blume's book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas!, is at the library. Coming soon.
This is David Blume's alcohol talk. An hour and a half, but extremely interesting. I like the part about prohibition, its funding from Rockefeller and Standard Oil.
David Blume's book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas!, is at the library. Coming soon.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Forest Garden
This is a big subject because it is really the question of the overall design of the farm. Integration is the name of the game and we can't expect for it to be anything other than a work in progress.
To that end we may as well follow the conversation. Ive been getting into this part in my reading, as I wend my way through Edible Forest Gardens. I have an impulse to try and read everything through, which may or may not be helping me here. But Matt blew up the conversation by sending me this and got me started going through the index of the second EFG volume for the various economic uses of trees, few of which I knew about. I don't know trees well anyway, but it's coming. I learned that green ash is a great species for coppice forestry, where the main stem is cut and many stems spring from the stump. This can be great for firewood and ash is the tradtional wood for long-handled tools (hickory for shorthandled).
Also listed on uBid is the Osage orange, which was conspicuously absent from the EFG indices. Though its native range is east Texas, it is one of the most planted trees in the US and has favorable associated trees for our area: walnut, hickory,ash, mulberry, and oak. Also called hedgeapple it was used widely as a thorny impassible living hedge. Its wood packs the most BTUs of any wood at 32 million and change per cord and burns bright colors. It is also held to be the best wood for making bows. Its aromatic qualities (in the chemical sense) make it useful in a number of applications.
Paw Paw is the tree I have been thinking most about recently, and believe it could be one of our most important trees. I am not aware of any economic uses aside from its fruit, though it is the (semi?)exclusive forage of the zebra swallowtail butterfly.
But it is the fruit that is the most exciting. I have never had a Paw Paw but it sustained indigenous people and was George Washington's favorite dessert. You eat it with a spoon and the fruit is held to be like vanilla custard with pineapple and mango. It sounds like a tropical fruit in every way but its native range is the east coast of the US and into Kentucky and Ohio. Our very own tropical fruit!
But it's soft and hard to transport and hasn't gotten the PR attention. But once I identified this tree I was seeing it everywhere. Fruit all around me and I never knew!
In the woods at the farm, within about 100 feet of the treeline, where openings in the canopy cast a patch of light on the forest floor, foot-tall Paw Paw saplings grow like a ground cover. I've seen a hundred individual plants, I'm sure. That is, unless these seedlings are suckered from the root system of an older tree... We should be able to determine this when we dig some out, though one report said they have deep taproots and fragile root systems. Hopefully we'll be able to identify seed-borne saplings.
I envision the Paw Paw as one of the principal fruit trees, a centerpiece yield, in our forest garden/orchard project, for many reasons. Chief among them is the fact that this is a native tree. This means that it is already adapted to the conditions it will face on the farm. It knows the soil and the weather and the insects and microbes, and is in balance with them, meaning, like, bugs won't whack your trees. More broadly, this is the rightful home of this tree and incorporating it into our diets and landscapes helps us live in more right balance with the land. Other reasons:
1. The aforementioned zebra swallowtail butterfly. If we have Paw Paws all over the farm, we also have these scenic critters.
2. Interest in native foods is growing all over the country and the Paw Paw in particular has seen press and attention from extension folks. This could mean an interesting and potentially lucrative market for fresh local Paw Paws. There is a lot of information at the KYSU site linked above.
3. The fruit is apparently extremely nutritious as well as being billed as luscious, complex, and tropical in flavor.
4. The Paw Paw is a floodplain understory tree and is tolerant of shade, making it especially useful for our forest gardening. The more sun it gets, the more fruit it bears, but it's nice to have some flexibility.
5. There is tremendous potential for the development of new varieties. The site maintained by Kentucky State University lists 46 named varieties as well as sources for nursery stock. That isn't terribly many for orchard fruit.
Each tree sprouted from seed that we replant in the sun will be a chance at a new variety. This is maybe even more exciting to me than if the hundreds of trees I imagine were all of the tastiest variety. The amount of grafting that may follow is daunting but that first big fruiting year where we get to taste and compare all the wild paw paws is really something to look forward to.
To that end we may as well follow the conversation. Ive been getting into this part in my reading, as I wend my way through Edible Forest Gardens. I have an impulse to try and read everything through, which may or may not be helping me here. But Matt blew up the conversation by sending me this and got me started going through the index of the second EFG volume for the various economic uses of trees, few of which I knew about. I don't know trees well anyway, but it's coming. I learned that green ash is a great species for coppice forestry, where the main stem is cut and many stems spring from the stump. This can be great for firewood and ash is the tradtional wood for long-handled tools (hickory for shorthandled).
Also listed on uBid is the Osage orange, which was conspicuously absent from the EFG indices. Though its native range is east Texas, it is one of the most planted trees in the US and has favorable associated trees for our area: walnut, hickory,ash, mulberry, and oak. Also called hedgeapple it was used widely as a thorny impassible living hedge. Its wood packs the most BTUs of any wood at 32 million and change per cord and burns bright colors. It is also held to be the best wood for making bows. Its aromatic qualities (in the chemical sense) make it useful in a number of applications.
Paw Paw is the tree I have been thinking most about recently, and believe it could be one of our most important trees. I am not aware of any economic uses aside from its fruit, though it is the (semi?)exclusive forage of the zebra swallowtail butterfly.
But it is the fruit that is the most exciting. I have never had a Paw Paw but it sustained indigenous people and was George Washington's favorite dessert. You eat it with a spoon and the fruit is held to be like vanilla custard with pineapple and mango. It sounds like a tropical fruit in every way but its native range is the east coast of the US and into Kentucky and Ohio. Our very own tropical fruit!But it's soft and hard to transport and hasn't gotten the PR attention. But once I identified this tree I was seeing it everywhere. Fruit all around me and I never knew!
In the woods at the farm, within about 100 feet of the treeline, where openings in the canopy cast a patch of light on the forest floor, foot-tall Paw Paw saplings grow like a ground cover. I've seen a hundred individual plants, I'm sure. That is, unless these seedlings are suckered from the root system of an older tree... We should be able to determine this when we dig some out, though one report said they have deep taproots and fragile root systems. Hopefully we'll be able to identify seed-borne saplings.
I envision the Paw Paw as one of the principal fruit trees, a centerpiece yield, in our forest garden/orchard project, for many reasons. Chief among them is the fact that this is a native tree. This means that it is already adapted to the conditions it will face on the farm. It knows the soil and the weather and the insects and microbes, and is in balance with them, meaning, like, bugs won't whack your trees. More broadly, this is the rightful home of this tree and incorporating it into our diets and landscapes helps us live in more right balance with the land. Other reasons:
1. The aforementioned zebra swallowtail butterfly. If we have Paw Paws all over the farm, we also have these scenic critters.
2. Interest in native foods is growing all over the country and the Paw Paw in particular has seen press and attention from extension folks. This could mean an interesting and potentially lucrative market for fresh local Paw Paws. There is a lot of information at the KYSU site linked above.
3. The fruit is apparently extremely nutritious as well as being billed as luscious, complex, and tropical in flavor.
4. The Paw Paw is a floodplain understory tree and is tolerant of shade, making it especially useful for our forest gardening. The more sun it gets, the more fruit it bears, but it's nice to have some flexibility.
5. There is tremendous potential for the development of new varieties. The site maintained by Kentucky State University lists 46 named varieties as well as sources for nursery stock. That isn't terribly many for orchard fruit.
Each tree sprouted from seed that we replant in the sun will be a chance at a new variety. This is maybe even more exciting to me than if the hundreds of trees I imagine were all of the tastiest variety. The amount of grafting that may follow is daunting but that first big fruiting year where we get to taste and compare all the wild paw paws is really something to look forward to.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Greywater and other water systems
In the last post I started to talk about plans for a greywater system, and it is really worthwhile when considering a greywater system to think holistically about the larger role that water will play on the landscape, and what we can do to make the most of the rain that falls and water that flows, used, from the house.
First, I'll do some definitions. Clearwater is not necessarily strictly potable but is clean enough to wash with and for certain other uses. Greywater has gone down the drain from a clothes washer, bathroom sink, or shower. Blackwater comes from the toilet, and many consider kitchen sink and dishwasher sources of blackwater. I must stress that ALL WATER is BLACKWATER if non-biodegradable/biocompatible products are sent down the drain. Dawn, Crest, Pert, and Tide are no-go for greywater. If you pay for water and you water plants, you'll make back the cost of biodegradable products in savings on your water bill. OMRI certification is a decent indicator of biocompatibility
The reason for grouping kitchen sink and dishwasher with the much nastier toilet effluent is because these first two often contain large chunks or large amounts of fat or meat, sometimes raw, which demand more than your basic topsoil can handle safely. People divert greywater from the sewer or septic system to water plants, usually fruit trees. In places like California, where I currently live, there is no rain for half the year or more, so reusing water is of critical importance (though there is little awareness, though just this month California deregulated greywater systems). I believe that it is so easy to filter out these chunks and fat that there is no reason to consider anything but toilet water as blackwater. It merely presents an opportunity to make a constructed wetland
which filters your water and creates a new and unusual habitat, right next to your house. This can be done in, for instance, an old bathtub or something smaller, or a lined trough on the ground.
From the house, we could feed an array of ponds dug on the north side of the house, roughly along the treeline or set in slightly further. I would want to place these all along the south side of the strip of trees north of the house. This strip slopes at about 20% to the field below, and retaining water on high ground will promote deep percolation, high water table and greater flexibility in applying water where needed, not to mention the possibility of stocking fish and other water crops near the house. This plan to install ponds (and level, non-draining swales) would include the north side of Horse Field, where I noticed a troubling runoff channel running through the woods. Semipermeable linings (such as tamped clay) would let this water slowly percolate into the groundwater, where deep-rooted plants would be able to reach it, both in the garden and in the strip of timber. I will write much more on this topic, particularly in forest garden and vegetable garden sections.
First, I'll do some definitions. Clearwater is not necessarily strictly potable but is clean enough to wash with and for certain other uses. Greywater has gone down the drain from a clothes washer, bathroom sink, or shower. Blackwater comes from the toilet, and many consider kitchen sink and dishwasher sources of blackwater. I must stress that ALL WATER is BLACKWATER if non-biodegradable/biocompatible products are sent down the drain. Dawn, Crest, Pert, and Tide are no-go for greywater. If you pay for water and you water plants, you'll make back the cost of biodegradable products in savings on your water bill. OMRI certification is a decent indicator of biocompatibility
The reason for grouping kitchen sink and dishwasher with the much nastier toilet effluent is because these first two often contain large chunks or large amounts of fat or meat, sometimes raw, which demand more than your basic topsoil can handle safely. People divert greywater from the sewer or septic system to water plants, usually fruit trees. In places like California, where I currently live, there is no rain for half the year or more, so reusing water is of critical importance (though there is little awareness, though just this month California deregulated greywater systems). I believe that it is so easy to filter out these chunks and fat that there is no reason to consider anything but toilet water as blackwater. It merely presents an opportunity to make a constructed wetland
which filters your water and creates a new and unusual habitat, right next to your house. This can be done in, for instance, an old bathtub or something smaller, or a lined trough on the ground. From the house, we could feed an array of ponds dug on the north side of the house, roughly along the treeline or set in slightly further. I would want to place these all along the south side of the strip of trees north of the house. This strip slopes at about 20% to the field below, and retaining water on high ground will promote deep percolation, high water table and greater flexibility in applying water where needed, not to mention the possibility of stocking fish and other water crops near the house. This plan to install ponds (and level, non-draining swales) would include the north side of Horse Field, where I noticed a troubling runoff channel running through the woods. Semipermeable linings (such as tamped clay) would let this water slowly percolate into the groundwater, where deep-rooted plants would be able to reach it, both in the garden and in the strip of timber. I will write much more on this topic, particularly in forest garden and vegetable garden sections.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Poultry plan
I have to start here. I am too excited about these plans, for a number of reasons. I love birds, and their eggs and meat. Poultry are much less expensive than larger livestock and represent more decentralized value. One way of putting this is that failure with a flock of chickens would seem less dramatic than with cows or goats. Poultry are capable of doing large amounts of farm work which would be tedious or difficult otherwise, namely weeding, picking bugs, composting, fertilizing and more. It is also far easier to have many kinds of poultry than many kinds of sheep. Finally, their products are generally delivered in a saleable form: eggs only need to be collected before they can be sold, and dressing a chicken is relatively quick and straighforward. So let's start with them:
Chickens
I foresee chickens being the centerpiece enterprise on the farm for the immediate future, certainly the first year. It may be hard to gauge the volume of produce from the garden, fruit won't bear for a few years, and herbivore meat and milk is difficult to produce, harder to produce well and far harder to market, as it is fraught with regulations. I want to follow Joel Salatin's model, put forward in his book Pastured Poultry Profit$. Yes, that dollar sign really is in the title of the book. Very briefly, this model puts a number of chickens, more than you think, in a 10'x12' covered, bottomless pen where we provide them with water and feed, not to mention shelter and protection from predators. It looks something like this:
This picture is from Amazing Graze Farm. Once they are more than chicks they are kept outside in these pens 24/7. The pens are moved one pen-length per day, to give the birds access to fresh pasture (they need grass and bugs, not just vegetarian feed!) and gives the land a chance to rest after the animal impact, and incorporate the turds into the soil and plants. This is suited well to broiler chicken production, where males are dressed at 8 weeks old. Attached laying boxes may suffice for layers, but as these birds will be older and their breed more suited to foraging I want to figure out a way to let them range a bit more. A dozen or a few hens would fertilize and improve the soil on which they graze while producing enough eggs to have a reliable surplus. I see this as the first thing the farm can plan on selling, as opposed to unplanned vegetable surplus. Eggs also have the marketing advantage of being more standardized and less perishable than produce; worms will not get into them, nor will their skins be scarred or split. Finally the quality of these eggs will be among the most dramatic demonstrations of the superiority of pasture diet and husbandry.
Turkeys
Can be raised in the same pens as the chickens (maybe not at the same time) but take about twice as long to mature. The appeal here is obvious and a dozen or two turkeys would make some sensational gifts for family holiday dinners and a nice holiday bonus income at $2.50 - $6 per pound. They pitch in on pest control as well, leaping "five feet straight in the air to pluck a [tobacco horn]worm off the top of a tobacco plant" They are excellent foragers and can get a far larger percentage of their diet from forage than chickens can.
Geese
Geese are vegetarians and so fit into the equation differently than the rest of these fowl. They are renowned mowers; that may be a good start. It would be fun to be able to not fire up the lawnmower. We'll see. Cotton Patch Geese got their name from their job on the farm: weeding the cotton field. They would studiously avoid the cotton plant and do the same for tobacco. I wonder if they, and the turkeys above, would do the same for tomatoes and other solanaceous or general garden plants. It turns out that these strong, loud, territorial birds are great guard animals for a mixed flock. They are also apparently effective for snake control. An account I read in How to Raise Poultry told of a fellow who had a copperhead problem on his land, but following introduction of geese he didn't see them and his dogs stopped getting bitten. One goose was bitten on the head and it swelled up, but the bird didn't die. The prospect of goose down is also appealing to me. Finally, I think it is high time that the tradition of the Christmas goose enjoy a revival, at least in my house.
Ducks
Khaki Campbell Ducks
Ducks are exciting for a host of other reasons. I anticipate that they will be the real pest control livestock, even if other fowl get plugged into this role. They are often small and agile (not prone to knocking plants over) love bugs and especially snails, and do not scratch the ground as chickens do. When I think of adding ducks to the system, all sorts of neat "accessories" become all but necessary. I want to build a duck house between the house and the Horse Field (Field 1 on the map) which has the vegetable garden now and will continue in this capacity. Next to the duck house site is a sinkhole which is apparently the drainage area for runoff from the house. I see this as the farm's first pond. Lined with tamped clay or an EPMD membrane, with some mosquito fish, duckweed, and water hyacinth (in Oakland. I don't know about in MD), it can become a thriving, clean pond right there for the ducks to clean their nostrils. When we go to work in the garden, we can open up the garden-facing door of the duck house and it will take no time for the ducks to know that this means they get slugs and bugs now. I foresee a relatively pest-free garden. Of course we will still need predatory insects and the rest. Ducks can't do it all.
Hold on now because this is where it gets exciting. Despite frequent rains the sinkhole drains pretty well and would do well to have supplemental runoff. The obvious candidate here is a greywater system. All the plumbing above the foundation is relatively new, and all of it period is on the north-facing wall. only the kitchen sink is on the first floor, meaning that two bathroom sinks, the shower, and clothes washer all come from the second floor. "Squander no fall" is a mantra with greywater systems, and here we have fall to spare, with vertical drainpipes clustered together in an emimently manageable way. Not to mention the fact that there is a site perfect for an outdoor sink (for dirty and big jobs, and extra prep space) as well as an outdoor shower. It's a big house for the one pretty small shower. All of these sources could be directed to this pond and other ponds that we could dig. Some sources would require the filtration of a constructed wetland, which would flow along the grade to the pond basin. Hell, if it was wide enough we could grow rice there.
Chickens
I foresee chickens being the centerpiece enterprise on the farm for the immediate future, certainly the first year. It may be hard to gauge the volume of produce from the garden, fruit won't bear for a few years, and herbivore meat and milk is difficult to produce, harder to produce well and far harder to market, as it is fraught with regulations. I want to follow Joel Salatin's model, put forward in his book Pastured Poultry Profit$. Yes, that dollar sign really is in the title of the book. Very briefly, this model puts a number of chickens, more than you think, in a 10'x12' covered, bottomless pen where we provide them with water and feed, not to mention shelter and protection from predators. It looks something like this:
This picture is from Amazing Graze Farm. Once they are more than chicks they are kept outside in these pens 24/7. The pens are moved one pen-length per day, to give the birds access to fresh pasture (they need grass and bugs, not just vegetarian feed!) and gives the land a chance to rest after the animal impact, and incorporate the turds into the soil and plants. This is suited well to broiler chicken production, where males are dressed at 8 weeks old. Attached laying boxes may suffice for layers, but as these birds will be older and their breed more suited to foraging I want to figure out a way to let them range a bit more. A dozen or a few hens would fertilize and improve the soil on which they graze while producing enough eggs to have a reliable surplus. I see this as the first thing the farm can plan on selling, as opposed to unplanned vegetable surplus. Eggs also have the marketing advantage of being more standardized and less perishable than produce; worms will not get into them, nor will their skins be scarred or split. Finally the quality of these eggs will be among the most dramatic demonstrations of the superiority of pasture diet and husbandry.Turkeys
Can be raised in the same pens as the chickens (maybe not at the same time) but take about twice as long to mature. The appeal here is obvious and a dozen or two turkeys would make some sensational gifts for family holiday dinners and a nice holiday bonus income at $2.50 - $6 per pound. They pitch in on pest control as well, leaping "five feet straight in the air to pluck a [tobacco horn]worm off the top of a tobacco plant" They are excellent foragers and can get a far larger percentage of their diet from forage than chickens can.
Geese
Geese are vegetarians and so fit into the equation differently than the rest of these fowl. They are renowned mowers; that may be a good start. It would be fun to be able to not fire up the lawnmower. We'll see. Cotton Patch Geese got their name from their job on the farm: weeding the cotton field. They would studiously avoid the cotton plant and do the same for tobacco. I wonder if they, and the turkeys above, would do the same for tomatoes and other solanaceous or general garden plants. It turns out that these strong, loud, territorial birds are great guard animals for a mixed flock. They are also apparently effective for snake control. An account I read in How to Raise Poultry told of a fellow who had a copperhead problem on his land, but following introduction of geese he didn't see them and his dogs stopped getting bitten. One goose was bitten on the head and it swelled up, but the bird didn't die. The prospect of goose down is also appealing to me. Finally, I think it is high time that the tradition of the Christmas goose enjoy a revival, at least in my house.
Ducks
Khaki Campbell Ducks
Ducks are exciting for a host of other reasons. I anticipate that they will be the real pest control livestock, even if other fowl get plugged into this role. They are often small and agile (not prone to knocking plants over) love bugs and especially snails, and do not scratch the ground as chickens do. When I think of adding ducks to the system, all sorts of neat "accessories" become all but necessary. I want to build a duck house between the house and the Horse Field (Field 1 on the map) which has the vegetable garden now and will continue in this capacity. Next to the duck house site is a sinkhole which is apparently the drainage area for runoff from the house. I see this as the farm's first pond. Lined with tamped clay or an EPMD membrane, with some mosquito fish, duckweed, and water hyacinth (in Oakland. I don't know about in MD), it can become a thriving, clean pond right there for the ducks to clean their nostrils. When we go to work in the garden, we can open up the garden-facing door of the duck house and it will take no time for the ducks to know that this means they get slugs and bugs now. I foresee a relatively pest-free garden. Of course we will still need predatory insects and the rest. Ducks can't do it all.
Hold on now because this is where it gets exciting. Despite frequent rains the sinkhole drains pretty well and would do well to have supplemental runoff. The obvious candidate here is a greywater system. All the plumbing above the foundation is relatively new, and all of it period is on the north-facing wall. only the kitchen sink is on the first floor, meaning that two bathroom sinks, the shower, and clothes washer all come from the second floor. "Squander no fall" is a mantra with greywater systems, and here we have fall to spare, with vertical drainpipes clustered together in an emimently manageable way. Not to mention the fact that there is a site perfect for an outdoor sink (for dirty and big jobs, and extra prep space) as well as an outdoor shower. It's a big house for the one pretty small shower. All of these sources could be directed to this pond and other ponds that we could dig. Some sources would require the filtration of a constructed wetland, which would flow along the grade to the pond basin. Hell, if it was wide enough we could grow rice there.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Bamboo!
I am interrupting my planned presentation of the detailed farm program with some news today. Actually this would definitely be part of it but I wouldn't normally put it first. Today I met and spent the day at the land belonging to the president of the American Bamboo Society, Darren DeBoer, in El Sobrante (CA). He has a natural building company (and the visit was a lab day with my natural building class) but I had the chance to ask him about something that was bothering me.
First, some background: The bamboos, which consist of many genera, are divided into clumping and running species. The meaning of this should be clear enough, especially if you've tried to eradicate a rapidly expanding bamboo grove. My extraordinary and lovely new book Edible Forest Gardens suggests that the only bamboos that can be grown in the temperate climates of the middle east coast are the running varieties, notably many of the genus Phyllostachys. I asked him about this today, and he said to look at the species of genera Fargesia and Borinda. Bingo! A glance on the species list of the American Bamboo Society shows the variety of cold-hardy clumping bamboo species, though it does suggest that they are intolerant of very high summer temperatures. We can freely experiment with these, though, for there is little danger of expansion even without a rhizome barrier. I'll check this out and report back.
First, some background: The bamboos, which consist of many genera, are divided into clumping and running species. The meaning of this should be clear enough, especially if you've tried to eradicate a rapidly expanding bamboo grove. My extraordinary and lovely new book Edible Forest Gardens suggests that the only bamboos that can be grown in the temperate climates of the middle east coast are the running varieties, notably many of the genus Phyllostachys. I asked him about this today, and he said to look at the species of genera Fargesia and Borinda. Bingo! A glance on the species list of the American Bamboo Society shows the variety of cold-hardy clumping bamboo species, though it does suggest that they are intolerant of very high summer temperatures. We can freely experiment with these, though, for there is little danger of expansion even without a rhizome barrier. I'll check this out and report back.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
A bit more than skeleton plan
I've been debating how best to articulate the plan, or design, for the farm, and I think I should go over it all twice, with two different organizing principles.
One will be according to design elements. This is the "I want this stuff" part of the design: poultry, greywater, field crops, forest garden, herbivores, etc. The other principle will be according to the permaculture concept of zones, which focuses more on the spatial organization of elements to make them more usable and mutually supporting. This is the what goes where part. It will probably serve as a check to make sure that the design is usable. The higher the zone number, the less traffic the area receives. Zone zero is the house, and zone five is untouched, usually forest, kept intact as a classroom for nature, a source of balance and established biology. This can be tricky because a forest is a great resource, but if overmanaged the lessons it could teach us may be clouded or confused by our intentions.
So I'll put up a series of posts about all the stuff I want to do, then imagine routes of work through the day to tie it all together.
One will be according to design elements. This is the "I want this stuff" part of the design: poultry, greywater, field crops, forest garden, herbivores, etc. The other principle will be according to the permaculture concept of zones, which focuses more on the spatial organization of elements to make them more usable and mutually supporting. This is the what goes where part. It will probably serve as a check to make sure that the design is usable. The higher the zone number, the less traffic the area receives. Zone zero is the house, and zone five is untouched, usually forest, kept intact as a classroom for nature, a source of balance and established biology. This can be tricky because a forest is a great resource, but if overmanaged the lessons it could teach us may be clouded or confused by our intentions.
So I'll put up a series of posts about all the stuff I want to do, then imagine routes of work through the day to tie it all together.
Oz Farm - October and November
We'll be working at the Oz Farm in Point Arena, Mendocino County CA after moving out of SF. They have an espaliered apple orchard, retreat and event center, and sundry mixed organic farm.
Certainly the biggest gap in my experience is extended time on a working farm. There are a few ways I could be spending this time but I think this is the best, because I think I need to get real, because Ive been feeling lofty and a dose of practicality will be tempering, I think. It may be that the realities and challenges there are close to my expectations, which would be nice. There are also lots of cultural things that I think I understand but seeing old hands doing it will save me a lot of wasted time. They also manage a coastal forest and keep chickens.
Certainly the biggest gap in my experience is extended time on a working farm. There are a few ways I could be spending this time but I think this is the best, because I think I need to get real, because Ive been feeling lofty and a dose of practicality will be tempering, I think. It may be that the realities and challenges there are close to my expectations, which would be nice. There are also lots of cultural things that I think I understand but seeing old hands doing it will save me a lot of wasted time. They also manage a coastal forest and keep chickens.
The month of September
Will be spent packing and getting ready to leave San Francisco. There are lots of loose ends etc., and next weekend Liza and I are taking a trip, to visit the place we just found out we'll be the next couple months
Part time job first
It isn't strictly official yet but all signs point to yes. It looks like I will be able to work this small vineyard on Kent Island. it's coastal!
I would plan to put farm chores in the hands of another resident a couple days a week, and drive up to the vineyard to work a couple whole days, probably staying in Annapolis or camping on Kent Island if I can. This way I can have some income and work both sites without ballooning my transportation costs. I'm hoping that this can bring in a couple hundred dollars each week or so.
Observations:
-20 rows of trellis (detensioned), each 85 paces long.
-Trellised area approximately half planted
-Really delicious grapes
-Not many bunches, ripening time appeared to vary widely, sometimes on same inflorescence among same color grapes.
-On most inflorescences, a crop of green grapes would begin to grow and ripen as the deep purple grapes were ripe to shriveled and dry.
-Leaf shape varies, rounded leaves and deeply lobed leaves (vinifera - winemaking?) both present. Difficult to tell if non-vinifera vines are suckered from rootstock.
-About 80 plants seem to be bearing reasonably well. 80 more fall somewhere between technically alive and ready to be nursed to health.
-A vine with five-leaflet buckeye shaped leaves is swallowing the grapes in some places.
80 plants x 10 lbs/plant x 0.075 gal/lb = 60 gallons from vines currently bearing. Formula from Wagner, Wine Grower's Guide This is the median per-vine yield
My friend Ben who's worked there for a couple years says that after the pruning they did last year he estimates there is 80% more fruit. There is still lots more pruning and training to be done. Hopefully this indicates the possibility for further improvement. Right now they're probably nowhere near the median expected yield.
Very exciting. This is still really big for a hobby farm/homestead. We could probably produce a lot of good vinegar. White wine vinegar for pickling! I want it.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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