ECHO Global Farm Goat House

It's taken me a while to post more of our pics from the ECHO test farm tour. Their test farm is amazing and approximates several different types of climates in order to develop multi-purpose crops using low-tech sustainable methods to be used in developing countries. Many of the planting techniques and actual under-utilized plants Jack and I've been interested knowing more about are featured there...it was exciting seeing so many all in one place!

This was their goat house. There was so much to fit into the tour, and we didn't get unlimited time to poke around and measure and fiddle to our hearts' content, but here's what we were able to gather at the time...

The structure was made as a solution to many third world farmers' dilemma...how to raise goats on small land parcels without sustaining damage to crops. Goats are an important animal in many cultures, useful for milk, meat, skins, bartering, and sometimes fiber.

ECHO's goat house was their working solution: an elevated structure made of found materials or available wood. It is large enough to comfortably accomodate several small to medium-sized goats, and the wooden slats are substantial enough to be strong, and are spaced to allow for air circulation on all sides...but to keep predators out. There was a feeding trough along one side, and the slats were spaced to allow goats to extend their heads to the trough for eating forage, but not enough to allow the goats to escape.

Beneath the troughs, trimmed limbs and forage leaves/plants were piled. As the goats finished what was in the troughs, the trimmings could be easily rotated upward to refill the troughs.

It's hard to tell in these pictures, but the building was positioned raised above a dirt slope. Animal droppings fall through the floor slats to the ground below, and are raked down the underneath slope into the open to be collected and used for fertilizer. Any uneaten twigs and branches from the fodder are put into the compost pile.

We've never had goats, but know enough about them from others to know they're talented escape artists. We weren't able to study the structure to see how they're prevented from getting out, but it's obvious this structure works well and has been used successfully for some time. The goats did not seem crowded, seemed to enjoy being higher up off the ground and in the shade rather than direct sunlight. And there was no way they'd ever be standing on wet ground.

Several forages are used for them...one is moringa, a multi-use tree good for animals and humans. Here is a stand of moringa, harvested 7 times a year (if memory serves) by what seems to be a coppicing method (or is it a pollarding one?) since the tree trunks are cut at regular intervals after harvesting their quick-growing branches. These can be fed to animals such as the goats, for fodder, harvested for human consumption (leaves), or for low-tech water purification (leaves again). Here is a stand of coppiced moringa trees. The trunks are 2 to 3 feet high and the branch growth was about waist high or so.

Here is a mature moringa, a different variety than the above. This one stores water in its trunk and can endure punishing drought.

That's all for now...we enjoyed seeing their solution to the goat dilemma. Goats can easily decimate a garden, yet this goat house situated in close proximity to surrounding gardens kept the cycle beneficial to not only humans, but supplied the goats with fodder that otherwise would have been a plant waste. In eating them, the goats gained nutrition, produced fertilizer and milk, and the garden benefitted again, continuing the circle.

More ECHO fun to come, as I have time to post!

Found Treasure: Musquee De Provence

I was at a different supermarket just before sundown on Friday late afternoon, rushing to get a few last-minute items before shabbat. Can I just say I WILL be going back there again?? Out-of-the-way grocery, where have you been all my life??

In the frozen section, bags of mixed tropical veggies, ALL of which I put into my hubby's favorite calabaza soup...and very affordable. Now I don't have to buy all six items and worry about spoilage if they don't get used up in time. The prices overall for everything were lower, the square footage smaller, the selection larger, quantities smaller, meat fresher, health food section broader, and the fresh produce didn't have that pre-packaged pall about it. Hmmm...maybe I was just broke and hungry?

They still had winter squashes, too...something my nearer store does not. I found a calabaza, but then...oh THEN look what I found...

It was unmarked. I thought I knew what it was, but the checkout clerk did not. I'd have to wait till I got home to confirm my suspicions. hope hope hope hope

I've never seen one up close and personal... (the white patches are where the label came off and left some paper behind.)

and if you love mottled, mixed-media-colored, combination opaque-and-frosted-looking, deeply ribbed garden art in the form of winter squashes...this is it. I had to get it and to see if it matched my guess from only seed catalog dream list photos...

(yes, this is still my hanukkah tablecloth. so I'm the sort who hasn't changed out the holiday stuff yet... you should have seen how long my christmas tree stayed up in the days before I became Jewish, ha! I think February was a record...but I digress)

Here's a closeup of the squash art...are these color gorgeous or what?

I pulled out the seed catalog to see if my hunch was right...and...

sure enough...Musquee De Provence!! SCORE!!

I'll post an update when we actually eat it...we'll do the taste-test deliciousness scale once I can bear to stop gazing at it and muster enough courage to cut into it. And those seeds SHALL be saved, ohyestheywilllllllll....

I'm such a heirloom veg junkie.

More later...just had to share the sickness :)

More About Yerba Buena

This herb made its new home at our house last April (here's the first post from then). It's Yerba Buena, or Jhibbaweena, depending on your accent ;-)

To read more about it, you can head over to my post today at Women Not Dabbling in Normal. Yerba Buena, a wild indigenous mint, is a very versatile addition to nearly any garden, thrives in many zones, and is a worthwhile standby in the herbal medicine cabinet, soothing bathtimes, or beverages such as the mojito ...check it out!

In Case You Wondered...

...where the fat jolly guy goes after all the deliveries. Don't be fooled by that frozen plastic smile...he's catching some rays near the sunny coast. He's for sure got everyone else beat for the most snowbird mileage.

And of course right next door is his preferred milk-and-cookie alternative. (I can vouch for the apple fritters...) I'm thinking he carbs up here with Elvis now and then.

First Starts, Garden 2009

Meet our 2009 kitchen salad bar!

We hope to actually get a few things into the ground on the lot next door this year. But of course we'll continue using our containers to grow things, too. If you've read this blog at all in the past, you're likely aware we use 5 gallon buckets for a lot of the plants. Recently, I found these...

Buckets, meet bins.

There was a sale at Home Depot.

There are now fewer bins there to meet the public demand. They were too good to pass up, being that they were CHEAP, durable, deep, and much wider than, say...a five gallon bucket. Yes, I'm guilty as charged...

Jack is the green thumb around here, and due to his persistence and attention, we've still got a lot of buckets going in Bucketville. In fact, if anything bites the dust, in the time it takes for a brief moment of silence to give tribute to the casualties of our learning curves, he's usually stuck another start, seed, or volunteer plant back into the bucket as a replacement. He's enjoying the discovery of how satisfying it is to nudge little green things into a good start in life, and I enjoy seeing all his successes!

I'm getting my shot at planting a little bit right now...usually Jack is the master gardener. Who doesn't love playing in the dirt, I ask you??



Today, the bins got planted with:
leaf lettuces,
mustard,
komatsuma greens,
two kinds of table radishes,
arugula,
red kale,
and red chard...yum :)

Oh yeah, and a big thick horseradish root!

(and elsewhere, some empress nasturtiums and mammoth sunflowers... stop me, I'm outta control...)

As far as the salad plants in the bins, I planted them a little thickly so the initial ones can be thinned for baby salad greens and then the others can mature into some cut-and-come-agains for salad. Now for the waiting to see the little babies emerge :)

I started this blog journal in 2006 (hard for me to believe!) and that summer I tried growing a few tomato plants in pots, a couple of eggplants and peppers, and some lettuces in flats.

Here is a pic of those first tomatoes...(2007 brought a new camera...these are with the old one)




I experimented with different repurposed containers -- everything from milk crates lined with paper grocery bags, old boxes, box tops for flats, basically anything that would hold soil...with mixed success.



Even though a job change commenced and the lettuces and tomatoes limped along, even this small amount provided us with a fresh salad everyday and the tomatoes...not any fancy varieties, but mixed multicolored ones...outdid anything we would have normally turned to in the supermarket. The difference in tomatoes alone was amazing...it made us WANT salad :)

In 2007...well, it was an overwhelming year in some respects. When we decided not to grow a seasonal garden, I turned more to kitchen and household experiments, and Jack kept bringing home throwaway 5 gallon buckets, cleaning them, mixing up soil stuff, and putting his hand to different other outdoor leanings. The birth of Bucketville...


We made a concious decision last year not to put in a seasonal garden, but to experiment growing longer-growing things such as baby trees, tree seeds, some individual this-and-thats to see how well they'd do in our zone, and some multi-use plants we need to experiment with on a small basis to see if they're something we want more of. We also started with some herbs.

We moved on to plants indigenous to this zone worldwide...many that were native here, in fact, but have lost popularity due to convenience produce markets. We're exploring ethnic markets when we can, trying to learn different uses for the different parts of plants we'd assumed there was only one use for...experimenting with our own tastes and health needs. This has been fun!

It goes to show, we're only as limited as our imaginations most times. Things WILL grow in buckets (even ugly old paint buckets, ha!)

This year, we're back to wanting to grow some seasonal things and expanding a bit further.

Lessons learned with the container planting so far?

1. don't try to grow two tomato plants per pot (definately!),
2. boxes disintegrate quickly (which can be bad or good depending on how we're using them,
3. it pays to have good soil, and for containers to have a soil mix that drains well
4. we need a good source of compost and natural fertilizer,
5. many plants need some sheltering from our hottest sun exposure,
6. water EVERY day (here),
7. there are going to be invasions of plant-eating bugs so we need to know how to work with that, 8. it helps to have a supportive spouse,
9. if you place heavy containers right on the soil, you'll have to plan on moving them frequently to mow under them unless you've put down a barrier,
10. always place a barrier under the pot between the soil and holes in the pot or termites might decide they've found their Hilton
11. native plants are a good fit usually
12. keep roughly to our recommended planting zone
13. repeat #9 until you finally get reallllyyyyy tired of moving heavy pots back and forth
14. clay pots are expensive. we realize if we can garden on the scale we want there will be nothing on our lot but house and garden...a longer term plan must be decided upon
15. some things just aren't going to do well. Others will. We try to optimize and go with the ones that seem to grow well despite the abuses of weather and climate

Back to January 2009...

We've debated about putting in raised beds, etc, but since we're situationally up in the air with some circumstances and don't know if we'll have the house on the market in the near future, we're having to keep the lawn area more conventional rather than digging it all up (which is what we'd do if we were going to be here longer.) Blah blah blah, anyway we want reusable containers for now (that we could take with us if ever the need be), and containers can be expensive. That's why free used 5 gallon buckets filled the bill so well last year. But at over 100 of them now, my girly self is craving something more aesthetic and more surface space.

As I drool over seed catalogs, renting a tiller and planting a green manure crop for some tilth and mulch to plant into calls with its siren song. How DOES one trim a wish list from three pages to one?? ;-)

We're SO new to this...WHEN to plant, WHAT to plant, what not to do. Hopefully this year we'll work out some of the kinks.

Any advice for the new kids? I know so many of my blog-0-sphere buds out here have years and years over us in experience. What's your advice for the likes of us newbies?

Jayedee's Giveaway

If you're interested in a chance at a $25.00 gift certificate to a great heirloom seed company, you'll want to head over to Jayedee's place.

I'm dreaming of heirloom tomatoes, squashes, okra, cowpeas and beans! (happy sigh...)

That's all for tonight, folks...it's about sundown..

Shabbat shalom!! :)

Sorghum 'n Biscuits

I've been craving sorghum lately, that thick sweet slow-pouring lava flow of dark mineral richness.

I ate it when I was growing up, the syrup stirred with a pat of butter and slathered over biscuits. A little goes a long way -- it's dark, smoky, fortifying.

I couldn't find sorghum at the market so had to substitute molasses this morning. Close...but I'll still keep looking.

Sorghum is a crop that does well in these parts, and I'm slowly looking into it more. The grain type is said to make a nutritious flour. I'd like to find some or make some and experiment with it to see how to best incorporate it. Sorghum syrup hails from the deepest of my Deep South roots...my Grandpa's working mules were named Sog'rum and M'lasses.

Nothing deep to report here....just cleaning up from the momentary drop biscuit-fest and the jolt of liquid iron I think I needed (there are mixed reviews on the healthfulness of molasses and sorghum, but with such a long tradition in the South, I'll stick to my forbears' ways as regards this subject...and polish off the test subject with enthusiasm!) A little goes a long way...only a few bites, and I'm full. And now for a moment or two on the back porch, just me and my hot mug of Constant Comment...ah :)

A perfect start to a day off...and a new year...

hope you're enjoying your day!

Happy New Year to all :)