Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] Notes From the Farm (September-October 2005)

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: Homestead mailing list digest <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Notes From the Farm (September-October 2005)
  • Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 15:15:31 -0700

Welcome to the season of roadkill and detritus. My shoes are full of sand and leaves at the end
of every day, and once a week there's even a thorn in my foot.

There's lots of good news. The best thing to happen is that they started work on the new shed.
It's actually a little bigger than the previous one. It consists of a solarium, a storage room, and
a small area for cattle. It's fun to walk around inside the frame and envision the tool storage area,
the hay bales, the seed storage, the sink, etc.

We had the place mowed. I planted tall fescue and white clover, mostly, on the areas left bare by the mowing. All the berry vines are gone, and the cattle are hungry, but things are getting better now that it rained. For a while there the rains failed us, after that first big storm on October 1, and since I planted as early as I possibly could, I decided to put out the rain bird. I used up a couple of rotten bales of straw as mulch, and deployed some bags of lime that I had. I think things will be all right now, since it just rained over an inch, and more is on the way Tuesday night. It was raining at the moment the new rain year began on October 1, and the year's total was a mere 53.59".

Big men with guns came for the lambs, and I really must remember those earplugs in the future. There was a total of 140 pounds of lamb. The weaned lambs were pretty spendy, and so was the processing, but it's much more tender than any beef at the same price. Speaking of beef, today a steer got out, but how tired could that old story become? There were no problems, as I retrieved "it" from across the street. That neighbor keeps cattle, and I promptly brought just the right food dish, so there was no funny show this time.

I'm on a new quest. I was researching native clovers for forage, and I have to report that none seem very promising. But the native 'springbank' clover (Trifolium wormskioldii) has thick rhizomes that were eaten by the indians in the winter, and it was even cultivated for this purpose. Today I tried to find some at the tiny China Creek wetland near Bradley Lake. All I found was the lookalike showy pink 'white-tipped' clover (T. variegatum), and plenty of invasive big trefoil (Lotus uliginosus). I'm sure the non-native "rat" has something to do with it. But I have found a source online, if it pans out, called Native Revival Nursery in Aptos, near Santa Cruz (that seems appropriate). Anyway, it turns out that two other plants were once cultivated in British Columbia, the Pacific silverweed (Potentilla anserina var. pacifica) and the Northern rice root (Fritillaria camschatcensis). I managed to find sources for these as well. But the reason I'm most excited about springbank clover is the project we're doing with twig chips. It requires leaving a bed in legumes for two years. I guess one could rotate winter fava beans and summer bush beans for two years; normally the yields of green favas and bush beans are not that great (compared to pole beans or peas), so we don't bother with them, but this would justify growing them. Unfortunately this is about the only choice among common crops, since even spring peas would leave no time for another legume to follow. Most perennial clovers commonly available leave a lot to be desired. Ideally it would rhizomatous, so you could get going quickly from transplants. But ordinary white clover is extremely invasive, and I don't like the idea of making it the first thing I ever plant in a bed (maybe one, just to see whether Fukuoka's no-till grain rotation can be adapted for this area, with rye and buckwheat instead of barley and rice). Alsike and strawberry clover are the only possibilities among commonly available clovers, depending on how much water is used. I think that if the goal is to establish a fungal mat, then it would be better to plant a water-loving clover like alsike or springbank, as an indicator of when to water. But best of all, after the first overwintered crop of favas, a bed could keep generating food without constant replanting, if it were planted in springbank clover.

I was amazed at the pictures available online. The best ones are from the CalFlora project at UC Berkeley. Some, but not among these, were even pictures of the impostor T. variegata. The Peterson Guide has the key distinguishing characteristic. The leaflets on T. variegata are minutely toothed. I couldn't see them on the plant I found today, but I could feel them catching on my fingerprints, as I brushed my index finder along the edge. The research pays off when you don't spend years watering the wrong plant (like say, Acacia mearnsii).

So here's my attempt at integrating Kwakwaka'wakw permaculture with the ramial chipped wood technology of LaVal U. in my new two newest beds:

Year 1:

Fall: Amend the top layers with sharp sand, lime, phosphate rock, and other rock powders. Dig 1-1/4" of shredded, dormant hardwood twigs into the top 2" of soil, and incorporate a handful of hardwood forest litter for inoculation. Plant large favas.

Spring: Harvest green fava beans. Compost or feed the tops. Plant pole beans at the back of the bed (the shady, usually north, side). Transplant springbank clover (T. wormskioldii) and start watering.


Year 2:

Fall: Harvest springbank clover rhizomes.

Spring: Plant pole peas while still winter at the back of the bed. Plant silverweed (Potentilla anserina) in the center and start watering.


Year 3:

Fall: Harvest springbank clover rhizomes and silverweed stolons. Plant corms of Northern rice root or chocolate lily (Fritillaria ssp).

Spring: Start watering and cover with shade cloth.


Year 4:

Fall: Harvest clover rhizomes, silverweed stolons, and fritillary corms. Apply first yearly maintenance application of twig chips (1/8").

Spring: Now the bed can either be maintained, or starts can be transplanted out to new beds undergoing the same treatment.


It's not your grandma's organic gardening. The bed may not yield as much as potatoes or parsnips, but it also won't require the compost expenditure that potatoes do. We had already come to specialize in cool weather crops, but mainly the crops of the Andes, so having three species native to the northwest coast fits right in. Until now there was only camas, but it's indifferent to hot weather because it's dormant in summer. The remaining native root vegetables, like jerusalem artichoke and Maxmillian sunflower, come from the Great Plains.

On a remotely related note, I read that the indians used ordinary tarweed (Madia ssp.) to season camas bulbs.

I have a great idea for how to design an automatic door, just like the ones on Star Trek. My plan has all the elements of unconventional design that I love: block-and-tackles, variable weights on pulleys, energy storage in springs, etc. Our old sliding glass door is just trashed, so let's experiment with it. I can do the whole project for under $100, thanks to those $20 bilge pumps and some little relays.

Today it's gloomy and I can't resist the temptation to clear the fence line down in the forest. I'm tempted to take the cattle with me. If only I could get that area opened up ASAP, I could just imprison them down there until the new grass grows some. There's plenty in the way of vine maple and such for them. Later... it was fun to see them enjoying themselves. Sometimes I wonder whether it's so obvious that cleared land planted with grass is the way to go, when I see them overjoyed with berry vines. I see that they do eat chittem, our worst weed tree, but I don't know if that's good for them. I made great progress today. I only had to clip huckleberries against the fence, so with only hand clippers I went about 300 feet. I did move some large trees off the fence, in various ways, but most of them had started to rot.

It rained and showers are in the forecast so today I'm canning Italian-style squash in tomato sauce. Altogether I managed to make 24 quarts of pickles, and only 4 were B&B pickles, with loads of onions (best to do when they're in their bitter phase, because of the brine soak). I also gave away enough to do 12 quarts more. And yet I can tell you exactly what was so wrong with that little bed, that it didn't yield 100 quarts! A quarter of the plants were Marketmore, and didn't contribute to the pickles. They were too crowded and underwatered. The trellis wasn't bad but it could have been augmented. They were really started too late. The soil delivered nutrients adequately, but was still undesirable in some ways. Can you imagine 100 quarts of pickles from one little round bed? I think it's definitely within reach.

I really made time clearing the fence line. I was encouraged by the fact that I was able to go over 100' the first day, so I continued onward and finished after about 10 hours work, distributed over four days. I used only hand tools, and there really were only three trees too big for me to saw that had fallen across the barbed wire. I'm covered in poison oak, but none of it too bad, and I have burning scratches all over my hands.

I had a terrible time the other night when the cattle got out and didn't moo at me to let me know where to find them. I had to go to sleep not knowing where my babies were. But they were in the front yard in the morning, and I was never so thankful. Yesterday my worker and I finally finished clearing big fallen trees on the fence line and propping up the old barbed wire. The new rolls of wire are moved into position, and there's just a little more clearing to be done. Until then cattle are not going for any browsing down there unless I'm actually down there working, and even then only in the morning, when there's plenty of daylight left. I really resent some evenings how the daylight is cut off earlier and earlier.

So what with scratched up hands, numb fingers from carpal tunnel syndrome, poison oak glow all over (like a thousand points of light), and leg cramps from the 3-mile fruitless cattle drive through the forest, sleep has been difficult lately. The other night, every time I got comfortable a major leg cramp started. My right knee is basically broken, and I've learned to subconsciously tense up on it at all times, because if I lift it and relax, it will become dislocated. So that's why the largest muscle in my body is tending to cramp up.

But despite that and the bone spur acting up on my left ankle, nevertheless I just have to pour a new cement round today: #24. After this the weather will certainly turn bad, and even clear periods are prone to freezes that might crack curing concrete. It's a good thing they're here to put the roof on the new shed today.

Then I really have to harvest 'Hall's Hardy' almond tomorrow, and plant garlic ASAP. After that the race is on to get all the guinea pigs (except the males in their outside shelter, the old cold frame) into the new shed, and the manure layered with berry vines and garden waste in the compost bins. Then I'll be turning my attention to shredding twigs for the newest bed treatment.

They're pouring concrete for the new shed next Friday!

After I harvest huckleberries (a Hallowe'en tradition), that will be about it. In old Ireland, fresh fruits of summer were considered "puka" (taboo) after October. I guess they didn't have Cotoneaster berries.

Set ablaze the Samhain fire,
And begin the season of dreams.
Have yourself a treat to eat,
And a happy Hallowe'en!

Bill







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page