Compost and Crazy-Making February-ness

It’s February, which means that serious gardeners all throughout the northern hemisphere are beginning to freak out.

Okay, there are, like, five of you who are calm, cool, and collected.. but the rest of us are going crazy trying to find our seed packets (which freezer did I put them in...??), scrape together enough starting medium to get our brassicas going (I swear I had one more bag in the old tub in the greenhouse..??), and kicking ourselves for not starting our alliums last month (AGAIN??). Seeding trays are coming out of storage, heat mats are being tested after long months of loneliness in the back of some closet, and some man-person somewhere is being informed that he has to invent and then build a way for his wife plant all of her seeds in perfect rows in her raised beds. Oh yeah, and the raised beds need to be re-done! 

Compost suppliers are getting frantic phone calls over a product they don’t have in stock yet, and homesteader videos on YouTube are starting to see an uptick in views on 5-year-old videos the content creators have re-done 3 times already. 

There’s always something. Something you forgot or something you couldn’t afford back when it was on sale at the end of the season, that you desperately need NOW! 

Okay, maybe it’s just me. 

Or maybe it’s not... 

Every year I tell myself I’m going to this better next year, or, I’ll get this, this and this done over the winter. And every year I fall I either fall sort or just plain forget what it was I was going to do until its time to utilize it. 

Like compost. I have a lot of “pets” that I keep over-winter. You know the kind. Farm animals that normal people process before the snow hits the ground so they don’t have to truck in extra food for them. I, myself, have a pig, a goat, seven chickens, a turkey tom, five ducks, 3 beehives, and barn owl named Cougar. Okay, the barn owl is actually a wild animal, but I leave straw and water out for him in the attic of the workshop, which he seems to appreciate. 

Having so many.. pets... I find myself with lots of manure to work with. I always compost it, but it almost always ends up being a cold compost pile in the winter. In past years that was fine, but this year we’re expanding the annuals garden by 300%. So, I had intended to suck it up and do the work to hot compost it this winter... and totally failed. I have only one 1-cubic-meter pile going in a hot pile and another half a ton sitting in a pile in the back-40 collecting snow. 

In my defense, the backhoe broke down, so I didn’t have the mechanical help to make it easy. But I have 2 strong helpers and a collection of shovels and forks, so really there was no excuse. 

Except that I’m lazy. And it was cold. I spent the winter transplanting trees and digging up old busted water lines. The last thing I wanted to do on my days off was turn ten piles of compost by hand. 

So, now I get to go in search of the bulk compost that doesn’t exist in stores yet. My custom dirt providers won’t have it in until mid-March. so I have to get the allium and early spring beds amended with bagged stuff from the stores. Oh, and I have to suck it up and get shoveling. 

Just as soon as I figure out which freezer I put the garlic chives in.. 

~Candes

5 Foods With More Calcium Than Milk

We all know we need calcium for the development and maintenance of strong bones, teeth, nerves, and muscle, but we don't always get enough in our diets. Whether you are allergic to dairy, lactose intolerant, or just plain don't like milk you're probably concerned about whether or not you are getting enough calcium in your diet.
Here are 5 whole foods that are surprisingly high in calcium. We'll compare them to a 1 cup (8 fluid ounces) serving of whole milk, which has 276mg of calcium, to see where they stand.

Almonds

According the the USDA one cup of whole almonds contains approximately 378mg of calcium. Compared that to the 276mg of calcium in the same measure of whole milk, and we see a startling difference.

Of course, eating an entire cup of whole almonds is another story. But, for those who like to snack on nuts, making almonds an essential part of your mix will help to greatly increase your calcium intake. Other ways to get large amounts of almonds into your diet is almond butter, sliced almonds in salads, roasts, and casseroles, or in cookies.

Collard Greens

Cooked or raw, collard greens are excellent source of calcium. What makes the biggest difference in their calcium content is whether or not they were frozen for packaging. Collard that was frozen hours after picking has 357mg of calcium per cup, compared to 266mg per cup when bought raw in the produce section of your store. If you want to add the greens to a soup or stew it's recommended that you buy them frozen. Either way, collard greens give milk a run for it's money when it comes to calcium content.

Rhubarb

Who would have imagined that rhubarb pie would be so good for you? Frozen rhubarb, drained and cooked in sugar, has 348mg of calcium per cup. I'm sure you can try preparing it with an alternative sweetener if you don't want to deal with all that sugar. Either way, this adds a sweet treat to the list of calcium rich foods.

Spinach

Like collard greens buying it frozen or picking it fresh from your own garden makes a big difference. But, unlike collard, so does cooking it. Raw spinach doesn't offer as much elemental calcium as cooked spinach does. The reason for this is oxalate, which binds to calcium and prevents it from being absorbed by the body. Cooking it breaks these binds and allows the extremely high amount of calcium in spinach to be properly digested. One cup of frozen, then cooked spinach contains 291mg of calcium per cup. Raw it only contains 30mg.

Leavening Agents

That's right, baking powder is an amazing source of calcium. If you ever look on the package of 'self-rising' flour, corn meal, or other similar products you'll notice that they are very high in calcium. This is because they have baking powder, double acting agents, or straight phosphates in them, which are very high in calcium. 339mg per teaspoon, to be exact, which comes out to 16,272mg per cup! Take that milk!

Of course, drinking milk is much easier than eating an entire cup of baking soda. But if you consider the average recipe for baking soda biscuits, which normally call for 4 teaspoons of baking soda, then divide the dough by 15 (normal amount of biscuits made from one batch), that comes out to just over 90mg of calcium per biscuit. Not bad when you're looking for ways to get more calcium in your diet without giving up the foods you love.

Sesame Seeds

In my house whole sesame seeds are the beauty queen of non-dairy foods that are high in calcium. At 1404mg of calcium per cup they make it easy to get extra calcium into my children's diets. Toasted and sprinkled on salads, added to soups, and even in cookies, it is a very versatile food.

Other Foods High In Calcium

There are a lot of other foods that are high in calcium, though maybe not as much as milk. They include broccoli, kale (seaweeds), brussel sprouts, beans (white, baked, blackeyed, etc), tofu, bok choy, peas, and okra. Likewise, sardines and salmon, canned with the bone, are extremely high in calcium.

If you're on a dairy-free diet, or just have a hard time getting your kids to drink milk or eat cheese, these are all great foods to help you overcome any potential dietary calcium deficiency.

Here are two recipes to help get you started:

Collard Greens Soup with Chicken
Serves 5

4 lbs chicken (your choice)
1 large yellow or red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch strips
3 cloves garlic, minced or mashed
1 cup diced white or yellow onion
1 cup salted sliced almonds
3 extra large mushrooms, cut into eighths (1/8)
8 brussel sprouts, halved
1/2 pound broccoli crowns, with stems removed
1 firmly packed cup thinly sliced ribbons of collard greens
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
salt to taste (optional)

Pre-heat pressure cooker on medium heat. Add in olive oil, followed quickly by belle pepper, garlic, onions, and almonds. Cook until onions are clear, stirring frequently. Add remaining ingredients. Stir or press down with spoon to ensure all ingredients are mixed and wetted.

Place and lock lid on pressure cooker. Turn heat up to high until cooker achieves a proper pressure lock according to manufacturer's instructions. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for for 20 minutes.

Quick Sesame-Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup whole toasted sesame seeds
1 cup sugar
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in large bowl, until crumbly dough is formed. Using dinner spoon, form dough into 1-inch balls and place on parchment covered cookie sheet. Press down with fork, making a criss-cross hatch.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, let cool on cookie sheet before removing to plate or cookie jar. Makes 24 cookies.

Autumn's Promise

Autumn sweeps in to take Summer's place.

And here she comes in all of her royal adornments! Autumn dresses herself in crimson and gold. She wears just enough green to show tasteful contrast. The jewels she wears are the diamonds God hung in heavens above her with splashes of rubies scattered at her feet.

Mere blues transform into azure in her presence even as still waters transform into ice.

The majesty of Autumn is different from that of her sisters. Where Spring brings new life, Autumn makes way for it. Where Summer brings the vibrancy of fast growth, Autumn brings relief and slower paces. Where Winter brings sleep and deep rest, Autumn brings a gathering of hearts before that sleep.

The promise of of Autumn is hot cocoa and warm pies, friends lingering over a steaming cup of coffee or spiced cider. It is the promise of a cuddle, a hug, or snuggly wrap. It's a warm fire set in the hearth.

Autumn's promise is an end to Summer's blistering heat and cool evenings that herald the carving of pumpkins and the baking of sweets. It's the return of pancake breakfasts and hot biscuits straight from the oven. It's cloves and cinnamon, apples and caramel.

Autumn's promise is the sweet smell of evergreens carried on the wind as it mingles with the aroma of a roast in the oven drifting from an open window.

Autumn's promise is ever-changing, ever-growing, yet evergreen. She comes every year and lets her sisters follow. She is the perfect sister, the perfect companion.

She is the perfect mother as she tucks the world in for it's long winter's nap.

Lower Savanna Project

So, we’ve been talking about this thing called The Lower Savanna Project wherever we go, all over town and on the Internet, for the last 6 months or so. But, we haven’t explained exactly what it is. Here it is folks...

Wolf Gardens has partnered with two local charities to help feed people. We’ll grow the crops, and they’ll distribute the abundance.

See, it works like this: I have these permaculture, homesteading, and general gardening students who need projects to work on. I also have a few acres of land that needs attention in order to serve as demonstrations for future students. The charities need suppliers to help feed people. Basically, I have a farm that grows food, but I don’t want to get into distribution right now. They have food distribution programs, but their current suppliers are drying up for various reasons. So, I’ll grow it and they’ll sell it or give it away.

Now, it’s actually a little more complicated than that, but before you can understand the details you need to know  a little about these charities. They are both programs that we, as both a family and a business, feel very passionate about.

Valley NAZ $10 Food Box Program

The Valley Community Church of the Nazarene here in Chino Valley has been running an affordable foods program for a few years now. The flagship of this program is simple: pay $10 and get a box containing $30 or more worth of fresh foods. No canned goods, few processed foods, mostly fresh vegetables and a little bit of meat.

YCA Food For Veterans and Children

The Yavapai County Angels are a group of volunteers who work secure the needs of vets and families with children who are in desperate need. In these parts they are best known for their Adopt-A-Vet programs over major holidays, like Christmas and Easter. But the group, which I am a member of, does a lot more than just the adoption programs. We run drives for the specific needs of various individuals and families for things like firewood, clothing, and yes, food. Our other charity partner, Valley NAZ, has even partnered with us to get food boxes and such to some of our recipients in the most need.

So, these two highly deserving charities have already been working together to what they can for people in the area.

The problem, now that we come to it, is that the main supplier for the $10 Food Box program is drying up. It is a central food bank distribution center down south that has been relying on... wait for it... WalMart for the food it distributes to various food banks and programs all over Arizona.

You see the problem with this? It’s right there in that one word: WalMart.

Over the last year problems have been creeping into the supplier. First it was certain months there would be no food, or not enough. Then the quality of the food they got started going down hill. This last fall and winter has been horrendous. They’ve had no food for their food banks at all.

I started talking to Valley NAZ last year, in order to try and cover those “certain months” they expected not to have enough food to fill their boxes. The deal was for two months. I would help supply crops for the two months they expected not to have any food. The idea was that between Wolf Gardens and a few other farmers and gardeners in the area we could get the boxes filled and get everyone fed.

Then the quality of the food coming up from the distribution center started dropping, and we hit on the idea of growing for them on a more permanent basis. Just enough to compensate for the stuff that might have to be rejected. They knew the center was doing it’s best, and that it was not their fault.

But, then the bottom fell out and the food stopped coming up here altogether.

So, now we’re in overdrive. The church is most likely going to have to suspend their affordable food program until it can be revamped to run in a more independent way. This also affects the YCA program that several vets and low-income children have come to depend on, since Valley NAZ was supplying YCA with a little food every month free of charge.

Now we can get into the details of the Lower Savanna Project!

The southern end of the Lower Savanna on oddly foggy morning in 2014. We had already begun stacking slash there to break down for the anticipated food forest. 

Here at Wolf Gardens we have this 1-acre front yard that is the bottom of a bowl, where every nutrient on the front half of the hill has a tendency to eventually find it’s way to. We call it the Lower Savanna. There is very little planted in this area right now, just some grapes, lilacs, and a few trees of various types. Nothing terribly productive at the moment. But, that is about to change.

We plant to plant a food forest here. We plan to turn the Lower Savanna into the Lower Jungle over the next 5 years. The problem, as it sits now, is that this area was over-cultivated (to no good end) before I took over the farm. There are lots of nutrients in the Lower Savanna, but very little carbon, and soil biota is all wrong.

This, however, can be fixed by taking advantage of this El Nino year (and the subsequent following wet year) by planting in a carefully managed maincrop, aka: an annual food garden.

A maincrop, planted in polyculture, rotated properly, done in a chop-n-drop no dig style, can fix all of the problems with the Lower Savanna that is currently keeping productive trees from taking and growing.

Epic pile of herbivore poo, the first of many, donated by a local micro-ranch for the Lower Savanna Project.

So, we are dedicating the entire project to the benefit and use of our charity partners. My students and I will grow the food, and they will distribute it. Moreover, we’re setting up a scholarship program for recipients of the YCA program, and bringing in the volunteers from the Valley NAZ program in order to train them up, all bright and shiny, so they can grow their own food, and maybe help supply the network.

There are also a few other food ministries and gardeners in the area that have signed on to help supply said network, thus broadening and stabilizing our ability to both feed people and educate people on how to feed themselves.

So, there you have it folks, The Lower Savanna Project. To find out  more or keep up to date on what's going on follow us on Facebook.

~Candes

5 Gardening/Farming Terms I Get Asked About.. A LOT!

Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about basic gardening and farming terminology that were, once a upon a time, considered common knowledge. But, like most things that were considered common knowledge “once upon a time” they weren’t written down commonly, and so the meaning is lost to the average modern person. Now, most people ask the question (what does this mean -or- what does that mean) and stop themselves, assuming that this is the kind of information I charge for. In fact, it’s the opposite.

Information like basic terminology is something I think should be given away for free. I actually believe that this is the very kind of thing that should be taught in public primary schools so that all children grow up with a basic understanding of how to grow their own food. Or, at least, what goes into growing it.

Now, I’m not going to go into too much detail in my explanations of each term. That would make this post entirely too long and mind-numbing. Besides, each term deserves it’s own day in the sun, and can be expounded upon in future posts that focus on just them.

Anyway, here is a list of the 5 most common terms I get questioned about:

1. Kitchen Garden: Sometimes called a Truck Garden; a kitchen garden is a garden that serves the kitchen(s) of the site it’s grown on.  Think of it as the farmer’s personal garden where he/she grows their own veggies for their own use. This is also usually very close to the house, where the cook can just step out and pick a tomato or a sprig of herbs as they’re cooking. If your mother or grandmother had some tomato plants and a couple of salad greens growing just outside their kitchen door, that was a kitchen garden.

But, kitchen gardens can also be very large. My own kitchen garden is 1/8 acre, and that’s just for the veggies and annuals. I grow most of my herbs and perennials in another garden, that’s also close to the house. I have friend who runs a local food ministry farm who grew up with a 5-acre kitchen garden.

2. Main Crop (Maincrop): A maincrop is where you grow the produce you intend to sell or trade. Again, a maincrop can be anywhere between a small garden to many acres. In modern society we’re used to thinking of this in terms of fields. Acres upon acres of monocropped corn, wheat, tomatoes, or what have you. But, this is a relatively new way of doing things, just since the invention of the industrial tractor. For thousands of years before that maincrop fields were smaller, easier to work by hand, and more diverse. The practice of polycrops was not uncommon.

3. Polycrop: Poly, meaning many, crop, meaning.. well, crops. Manycrop. A polycrop is several different kinds of plants, or guilds, being grown together. Your average kitchen garden is grown in this manner. The more common term for it is “companion planting.” Plants are grown together with other types of plants that make for good companions. Space isn’t wasted in a polycrop, and the guilds (collection of plants that grow well together) are made up of plants that each offer some benefit or another to each of the other plants in it’s guild. For instance, tomatoes and basil are commonly grown together because they are chemically compatible and offer benefits to each other. A more famous guild is the “3 Sisters” guild: corn, pole beans, and winter squash.

4. Crop Rotation: Crop rotation means just that. We rotate our crops every year. If one guild is planted in one bed one year, then another guild will be planted in that bed the following year. The planning for crop rotation is more complex than that, but that’s basic gist.

5. Sacrificial Plants/Crops: Sometimes called by other names like Trap Plants, Windwalls, Barrier/Anchor Plants, and Cover Crops.

• Trap Plants are plants that are planted in order to lure bugs away from other plants that you want to protect. It’s not uncommon to plant a few isolated soft-bodied summer squash on the edge of a pumpkin patch in order to draw bugs away from the pumpkins. Squash bugs love pumpkins, but can’t resist a nice tender yellowneck squash if it’s available. So, the sacrificial yellowneck is planted as a trap plant to protect the pumpkins.
• 
  
• Windwalls are tall plants, such as corn, pole beans on a trellis, grapes, etc which can be grown to form a living wall that protects other plants from wind damage. Windwalls are to wind what a gabion is to water. They slow and calm the wind coming through the area. Not to be confused with a Wind Break, which is usually tall trees or bushes planted very close together in an effort to stop wind almost entirely. Windwalls are typically temporary living structures designed to live for no more than 10 years, while a Wind Break is designed to be far more permanent, living 50+ years, sometimes hundreds. 
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• Barrier/Anchor Plants are plants that either form a barrier between two zones in order to divide them, or create an anchor point that brings two zones together. These are usually multi-purpose plants that not only provide a physical or visual barrier or anchor between two different areas, but may also offer the area biochemical advantages to the soil, structural advantages, or offer specific properties for attracting beneficial bugs (like bees), or repelling unwanted bugs (like cucumber beetles). Barrier/Anchor Plants can also be used as a kind of cover crop to suppress weeds. 
• 
  
• Cover crops have many advantages for everyone from the small-at-home-gardener to the large industrial farm. The most common cover crop is the legume (beans, peas, etc), which infuses the area with beneficial bacteria that converts the nitrogen in the atmosphere into usable nitrogen in the soil. This process is called “nitrogen fixing”. But, cover crops do more than just fix the soil’s chemical structure, they also aerate the ground with their roots, hold the topsoil together during rains and winds, and protect the topsoil from too much sun exposure. In dryland areas, such as mine, they also act as living mulch to help the ground retain moisture and stay cool.  

 
So, there you have it. The brief definitions of the most common gardening/farming terms I’m questioned about. I hope that helps some of you out there in cyberland. Please feel free to leave questions in the comments section.

What Permie Farmers Do In Winter

The number one question I get asked in the winter is "What do you do in the winter? How do you keep yourself busy.. when you're not planning gardens, that is?" This is usually followed by a quip or comment that I must have a lot of time on my hands.

Here's the deal, Folks. Running a farm, especially a permaculture farm, is not a "summers only" job. It is a 24/7/365 job.

Winter is when the large heavy work gets done. Engineering, building, earthworks, etc. There are a lot of things that have to get accomplished when there aren't any plants in the ground or torrential rains flooding down from the sky. No, it's not fun trying dig in frozen ground, but it's really bad idea to dig during the summer monsoons. Your work washes away even as you're doing it.

Winters are spent with CADD programs active, because, for me, planning a garden is not as simple as doodling out a map of where I want this or that to go. I plant in guilds, on slopes, among trees and established perennials. My plans don't cover the next season's plantings; they cover the next 3-5 seasons plantings with active notations for 5, 10, or even 15 years down the road. The scope of some projects can cover up to 100 years, and I have to know what I'm doing each step of the way, and make sure everyone ELSE knows what I'm doing. After all, I don't expect to actually be here in 100 years to explain to my grandkids why I did this or that and why it matters to them now. There has to be an in-depth record.

Many things change on the farm in winter. Fences change locations. Live-stakes are propagated. Plants are divided. Ground is cleared. New swales are dug, and old swales refreshed. Runnels, ditches, and driveways are sculpted or resculpted. The carpentry shop is busy building things to be used in summer. The machine shop is busy fixing and/or servicing machinery. Tools are refurbished. Buildings are built. (Newbies to the neighborhood are often surprised to see barns and sheds going up in December and January, but cold weather is a much better time to build a barn than monsoon weather. Trust me.)

And, believe it or not, the winter crops have to be tended. Yes, I grow year-round. No, not with only the help of my greenhouse. I grow "snow plants", as in things that grow in frozen, snow-covered ground. LIke arugula, parsnips, garlic, winter breed onions, etc. And yes, there is still the greenhouse to take care of.

This year we are starting a new long-term project called the Lower Savanna. But, that's whole different blog post. In short, we're taking a mostly unused portion of land, a little over an acre, and beginning a large time-stacking project on it. For 3 years we will grow food crops for our church's affordable foods program. Then we'll be putting in pioneering trees and pants. Then begin staging in a food forest. The Lower Savanna will  act as a prototype demonstration plot that others in our area can learn from and on, then duplicate.

To sum it up, there is a lot to do in the winter. On top of this, there are those full-time jobs my husband an I have, as well as the holidays, and just trying to stay warm. 

It is, after all, winter. 

~Candes

How to Counter Top Compost

I've been making counter top compost for years. Since I cook almost everything from scratch I tend to use more of my food stuffs than other people, but I always have things that can be used to make compost. Coffee grounds, banana peels, the occasional pile of potato skins. These are all food waste that flowers, trees, and vegetable plants love.

Materials

There are counter top compost bins you can buy in high end kitchen and garden stores, but I've found the following tools work much better.

Large Steel Bowl
Old Food Processor, or Juicer (that's lost it's basket)
Sturdy bowl scraper
Bag of peat moss

Concept

The idea of counter top compost isn't to make super rich soil or basic fertilizer, like with regular compost. It's to make plant food that you can give to your plants and trees on a daily or weekly basis.

The point is to make a mild plant food that uses up at least the majority of the raw food waste that your kitchen produces in a day. There are certain things you don't want to add to counter top compost, like seeds. Things with seeds can be added to regular compost because it takes time to mature the compost, constantly turning it every day, so that the seed ends up wasting it's sprout before it takes root. The aborted sprouts then become nutrients for the soil.

With counter top compost, however, there is no daily turning to keep the seeds from successfully sprouting, so we don't add them.

Process

Keep the steel bowl in a well ventilated area that is easy to access. I keep mine on a small end table in the corner of my kitchen, and store it's food processor underneath.

As you go through your day toss in usable food waste, like used coffee grounds and tea leafs, potato skins, banana peels, wilted salad greens and other vegetables, used herb sprigs, etc. Every time you add something use the bowl scraper to mix it up.

At the end of the day, or if the bowl fills up, run the contents through the food processor, making a course mix. Toss in a handful or two of peat moss, and mix. The peat moss helps the counter top compost become adsorbent so that it doesn't dry into moisture-resistant clumps around your plants when the first hot, dry day comes up. In arid regions like here in Phoenix that is an extra special concern. Coffee grounds and tea leaves are fantastic for plants, but they can dry into lumps that shunt water away from the roots of you plants. The simple fix is to add a small amount of peat moss.

There will be things that work better when added after the grinding in the processor is done as well. Egg shells should be smashed up and added to the counter top compost post-processor. This allows the egg shells to act as organics that help funnel water through the plant food, keeping it moist as it feeds your plants. Hair should be added afterward, simply because it will clog up your processor if it's added before. Snip the hair into short lengths so that it mixes easy.

10 Great Things to Make Counter Top Compost Out Of

1. Coffee Grounds - nicely acidic, with a perfect base texture for solid plant food.

2. Tea Leafs - usually acidic, packed with antioxidants that will keep your plants healthy.

3. Banana Peels - Full of minerals and other elements that help flowers and fruits grow well.

4. Wilted Salad Greens - rich in heavy minerals that plants need lots of, but in a completely consumable form.

5. Potato Peels - one of the best, and well rounded food waste items for any form of compost.

6. Clean, Untreated Hair - human and pet hair is full of nitrogen that releases at the right speed to help plants grow strong roots.

7. Egg Shells - number one calcium supplement for plants that also acts as a great texturizer to help with water flow.

8. Used Herb Sprigs - even after they've been cooked herbs like rosemary, parsley, and sage are packed with vitamins that help plants grow strong stems.

9. Vegetable Trimmings - carrot tops, celery leafs, and other vegetable trimmings give plant food a well rounded nutrition content.

10. Flat Beer - Yes, beer that's gone flat and warm can be added to plant food for an extra punch of vitamins. The darker the beer, the better it is for plants.