From Seed, To Field, To Harvest, To Plate

I'll be getting back to the farming way of life in reporting here as so many are seeking new ways to live in a sustainable manner.
The Big Fish and I have created 13 new raised beds, made out of local hemlock.  Last year's cold, wet growing season affected the yields negatively, so we decided if we can't control the weather perhaps we can at least try to somewhat control the growing environment.

My back, neck and shoulders cry out in pain from yesterday's shoveling of manure, and don't it feel good!  My no till method does not appeal to my Big Fish, so these raised beds helped us reach a compromise there...less weeding, no need to till and hopefully greater bounties of garden produce will soon offset the price of lumber used to create the beds.

I am planting all my garlic in raised beds as a local homesteader wowed me with his crop and abundance of the biggest, healthiest cloves I have ever laid eyes on.  Incidentally, he has provided me with 30 plus year old strain from Maine garlic bulbs.  I hope I do him and the garlic proud.  He is a younger grower with his partner, I had stumbled upon their place on one of my many meandering drives.  One day I decided to invade his privacy by stopping by and picking his brain- mainly due to the interesting welded sculpture out front of his raised bed gardens.  A farmer who creates art out of cast aways?  I had to acknowledge my own history of rusty tree hanging Pterodactyls I had made out of auction finds, unable to believe there wasn't still some useful life in old farm tools!  The BF and I pulled right in and were instantly welcomed.

Farmers, gardeners are like that; friendly, open and all about helping another learn something or two about their operations that might lend a hand to your own.  I discovered this kindly cooperation a few years back when attending classes through U of I Farm Beginnings classes.  Through an internship I found many experienced  farmers who were more than happy to share their knowledge and experience if one would help out occasionally with onion planting and other muddy jobs that require physical labor.  I learned along time ago from my Dad,

"if you want to gain something, you must give something in return." 

 Pretty simple logic, tried and true- and a way of life for many years in rural communities.  I'm happy to see that many are returning to sustainability, golden rules and just plain common sense;  you may not be able to see much of that in newspapers, financial institutions, Wall Street, television or what Hollywood puts out- but one can find it in Countryside, a magazine/journal written mostly by people living off the land life.  I subscribe to this magazine as it hits close to home- living, working and sharing experience of one's own way.  Also- talk to your food growers at the farmer's market you attend.  You'll be amazed at the knowledge found there and much of it free for the asking- recipes, growing techniques, seed purity and story.  If you can't ask your grower why, when, where and how, then you've missed an opportunity in learning something truly worth pondering.  From seed, to field, to harvest, to plate- the food we eat has it's origins and your food provider can and should supply that knowledge.  That's as about as honest and common sense as it gets, most difficult these days to find such opinions unless one looks to the earth and to those who coax life from it- giving back more than they take.
Take care-

Dear Citizen,

(Prior post, worth pondering again...)
It is entirely up to you how you interpret this photo. The nature lover in me notes it as a message from Mother...

Dear Citizen,

   You seem to have become preoccupied since my last message...are you paying attention?! You of all people, camera in hand, eyes like a near sighted hawk- I've left little notes for you everywhere. Remember the Garter Snake you stepped on just last week? A surprise to you I'm sure, but a note from me none the less.  Take heed! The beauty all around is a gift from me to you and yours, but have you done enough to promote it's significance? 

   The fields are aplenty, but the soil/soul of nature has been neglected and abused. The tiniest of hosts have been starved...the plants, the roots that I have created are in dire need of compassion. The forests, if allowed- will heal themselves, the air and waters too. I have created an ecological model that sustains itself, will right itself in time. However- the good stewards of the land are most appreciated and are indeed needed for their necessary work in feeding their fellow man's heart,spirit and very existence. (The protests though at times seem a bit off the mark. Solutions are needed here...not more fighting.)

   With a higher sense of purpose and above all praise- show the politician, the people, the masses through prose, poetry and pictures like the old masters did; a beauty they may not comprehend.

   It is the heart of the poet that must convey the absolute essential worth of nature. The words must move one from an insincere security to a beautiful truth.

   All one has to do when confronted with beauty is acknowledge with gratitude how restorative to one's soul a mighty oak, a sunset, a Monarch, a tiny frog, a Preying Mantis, a deep lake, a rushing river, a Grizzly Bear, a welcoming wind...truly is.

   Enjoy this day. It is yours as it always has been, to freely do and make of it what you will. I do request with an earnest plea-

Deeply consider the beauty and begin again and again and again...to preserve it.

Thank you,

Mother




(T.L Starks 09/01/2008)

The Little Starts

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. --James Levin

~Garden Stakes~

The Big Fish and I have been busy...

We have recently collaborated in our slow-dance-two-step-honky-tonk-bluesy-sway way, and built a seed shack.
  I am the frugal farmer and  he- the techno toy boy;  you don't have to spend money if you take the time to innovate and expand an idea with materials at hand versus install fans, run electricity and make sure it's all on the level.
So- we take the best of both worlds, lay it out and intertwine a design that is efficient, cheap, and maybe a little bit crazy though mostly- sustainable.

Hoop house, seed shack, new kitchen in the works...I don't ask for these things.  He simply listens.  I talk too much at times...(dreaming out loud) and he listens equally as much- somehow, we have become quite in tune with one another,  I am spoiled now too.  Not like a bad egg but like a good pile of compost- broke down in such a way that deep in the center there seems to be something remarkable and useful in keeping our union quite fertile.  He finds me amazing at times, the feeling is mutual...is there any other joy that matches the art of a relationship that is both reciprocal and amazing?!

I come from a place way back when, where dreams were kept stifled and still.  Now I dance.  In the seed shack.  The Big quiet Fish smiles shyly and eventually gets up from his listening post- and we waltz, forgetful of the crooked, potholed roads we both have traveled, of world hunger and sadness- amnesia sets in and there we twirl in the center of the universe.

~Sweet Guy~

The seeds we plant may not make up for quakes, for seas sweeping in and taking more than is humanly bearable, but the little starts- the first true leaves of a new tiny creation here, seems a solid investment for a hopeful future.

 I cannot control the climate in the universe- but I can somewhat right here, right now- control the garden given me to tend.

Pocket Knife Seeding Method

Seeds of life and seeds of dreams- at least, it is something more than a chance or twist or a quake- it is a choice made daily to grow flowers and fruit; to hold up my end and if need be, take up the slack where so many who suffer through no fault of their own- have lost their grip.


Take care-

To September

Sunflowers bow-

bending at their brown

dried knees

no longer following

the sun

humbled now, they fade

Spiders busier-

by night they spin

sunrise casts first light

on their dew drop craft-

intricate lines

of deception

Birds and more birds

gather on lines and poles

like little feathered men

assembled in rows

something startles one

-off they all fly madly

Sun rise bothers not

to wake me these days

I am the one who shakes

to rise and shine-

a bucket of cracked corn

rattled like an alarm

As for the moon-

too early he rises

in a golden way

hypnotizing me,

early yawns follow-

triumphantly he glows

When sun and moon together

compress the day

between horizons

of awe and wonder-

daylight beaten,

I surrender...

To September.

by T.L. Starks 2008