permaculture

[von-fi@elonmerkki.net]

... couldn't keep this more short.

  I've been preparing fermented nettle and comfrey tea also and they
are great, but this fresh green juice, I  thought to use fresh  and let
it ferment in the soil (under the mulch) as no container is needed and it
seems to work if diluted into water.  If not diluted the spreading is
difficult as it forms a layer on the soil surface instead of gently pouring
in and plants also could possibly get  overdose.

  In the beginning I used manual  wheatgrass juicer and then thought to
connect it into bicycle, as it took a bit effort, even though drinking the
juice helped a lot (keeping in mouth for a long time, slowly increasing the
dose as it's extremely detoxifying, and balancing by eating small amount of
nettle seeds). Now it seems to be good idea to look for engineer-schools to
manufacture a bigger one as a student work and I think it can be pedal
powered for one or two persons.  

  During the dry seasons rushes get really hard especially to cut, but also
for the juicer, so it's better to do it after a rain or watering and as we
know - during the rainy seasons they recover better. However, even when dry
it was possible to squeeze after soaking for a while in water and mixing
with creeping thistle etc. to get more liquid into the process. Fermenting
the liquid as a storage for dry seasons could be a wise solution, especially
if using other plants than grasses and rush, like thistles, valeriana,
clovers etc. 

 ... I've been also using this juice mixed in urine for detoxification and
boosting of  humanure composts ... and btw. since we have -30-40 celsius
frosts during the winter and no greens growing without electricity, unless
one has as a "winter grazingland" - several species of evergreen perennial
rush growing and dug from the snow (like mammooths) during the winter and
squeezed indoors after the frost has melt away and the plants soften... and
also sleeping leaves can be occasionally waken up during the sunny days
after the darkest winter, by inserting freshly cut branches on a heat of
campfire... fermenting can help in digestion, as can be understood by
following the awaken bear in the spring...   However, I've been fermenting
spring shoots of wild plants like nettle, dandelion, angelica, spiked
willowherb etc. with flowers full of pollen, peeled flowerstems for a basic
and delicious winter foodstorage. Also many wild mushrooms can be fermented
in the autumn simply by dropping them fresh and clean into the fermented
juice squeezed from these plants and to say, squeezing the juice from
fermented plants is tasty if mixed with the juice of root-vegetables,
sprouts, garlic etc.  So - as a solution from writing this - trying
fermentation of grasses and rush in the dry areas could be a step to ease
the squeeze. . . 

Thanks for your existence (all together) !

wildly grazing Orava


On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 09:14:35PM -0800, yarrow@sfo.com wrote:
> von-fi@elonmerkki.net> wrote,
> >  I'm wondering (because have not found info on this issue) if there are
> >  permaculturalists experienced in using freshly squeezed green juice from
> >  wild rush, grasses and other plants as a fertilizer for growing other 
> >  stuff?
> 
> This sounds like a great idea. I've made fermented comfrey tea for 
> the garden, and it makes sense that a fresh green juice would be even 
> better. How did you make the juice?
> Tanya
>