Recommended Reading

My up-the-valley friend Bob Andrews sent me a good tip this morning. He recommends reading "Everything I've Ever Wanted to Do Was Illegal" by Joel Salatin. Is there a title that could capture the imagination of an aging hippie any better than this? But Joel Salatin isn't battling the Nixon administration. No, something a lot more lasting. He is battling agri-businesses and mass marketed, triple wrapped food.

Bob writes,

You may remember Salatin as having a prominent place in Michael Pollon's "Omnivore's Dilemma." Salatin is a Virginia farmer who grass-feeds his beef, pastures chickens, and in general runs a very environmentally friendly and biologically healthy operation. Salatin is generally fed up with the government regulations that penalize the small farmer, yet do nothing to ensure the safety of our food supply. He narrates dozens of stories from his personal experiences dealing with the long-armed, dull-witted branches of government with vigor and humor. He offers numerous potential solutions and is willing to consider any reasonable approach.

There is something for everybody in the book. BUT I promise, that no matter what side of the fence you are on, what political persuasion, what beliefs you hold, Salatin will, from time to time, make you wonder just where he is coming from. Bear with him, as he has a lot to offer and is definitely on the right track. Salatin is a born story teller and his book is highly readable, informative, and time well spent.

Bob convinced me. I'm off to acquire the book. Wait. It's not in our public library. I can get it from Amazon for $16.95 or I can order it from my local independent bookseller, Babbling Books, for it's list price, $23.95. Time to practice what I preach. Tom Heywood, proprietor of Babbling Books, will have it here in a week. Remember, money spent locally circulates many, many more times right here in the Chilkat Valley, than money shipped out to a big box store like Amazon.

Onions and Lettuce

Bob Andrews, an Upper Chilkat Valley farmer, sent in this tip:

I'm not sure how many people are interested in raising onions, but we use a supplier in Texas (embarrassing to admit that) called Dixondale farms. They have a web site - Dixondalefarms.com, and their product is excellent. They ship onion plants, not onion sets. That way, mature plants are less likely to go to seed. We upper valley folks have been using them for several years, with excellent results. They also ship leek plants. Plants are shipped in bunches of approximately 60, and up to 10 bunches are shipped postage free.

I am tempted. I've been burying onion sets for years. Time to try something new! If anyone is interested in making a group order, give me a call.

My lettuce seedlings are thriving, but right now they are on their own. I have gone south for a week - 360 miles south to Ketchikan where the grass is green! (Not green-er. Our grass is still under feet of snow so there is no current basis for comparison.) This might be the time to confess that I am what Sid Moffat calls a "cowboy" gardener. Kind of rough and ready. I don't baby my plants. Anything too terribly tender really doesn't capture my interest. That being said, it's true that I have geraniums, ivy, begonias, fuchsias, cacti, and spider plants that are 17 years old and still blooming - though I've noticed that the Christmas cacti really ought to be named Thanksgiving or Easter cacti.

I have two rules for houseplants: #1, water infrequently (easier and easier to do as I age) and #2, put them outside, in compost full holes in the ground, in the summer. My Vermont sister taught me rule #2, explaining that she was sure those roots needed to stretch out after a full winter indoors. Made sense to me. It's fun to do and rather guarantees that soil gets changed, and roots trimmed seasonally. Even though I was inspired by a sudden empathy with the inner life of my plants, I am guessing that I was at least briefly channeling a more horticulturally informed guide!

Use Those Old Seeds!

Just four days after planting, the oldest seeds I planted (from 2006) sprouted, quickly followed by those from 2007. Here are the varieties and the companies in order of sprouting: Provencal Winter Mix, Territorial Seeds, 2006; Simpson Elite, Farmer Seed & Nursery, 2007; and Red Salad Bowl Leaf Lettuce, Denali Seed Co., 2007.

I think it is important to remember that these seeds sprouted in optimum conditions: bottom heat (they are sitting on a grated vent 2 open stories directly above the wood stove), in a relatively dark place and they were kept evenly moist. I've moved the sprouted seeds onto a window ledge - awaiting sun, but at least enjoying daylight.

You might wonder how carefully I "save" seeds. The answer is "not carefully at all." I fold the top of the original packet, toss it into a zip lock bag with other similarly folded packets, and put it in an open container in my pantry. My pantry is insulated from the rest of the house and thus, always cool, but I can't vouch for its moisture content.

I am sure many of you also use old seeds. I mean, it seems incredibly wasteful to toss them, doesn't it? I've planted old seeds for years; what's new is deliberately keeping track - verifying that my extraordinarily simple methods "work." How affirming! Now, what if the seeds from 2000 sprout?

Haines Is On the Map at Post Carbon Cities

Haines has been in the news as an outdoor mecca, but now it is making news as one of the communities trying to tackle the decline in oil production and the rising price of energy. Meaningful mitigation requires foresight, forethought, commitment to change. The Haines Energy Task Force will transmit its final draft report to the Haines Borough Assembly March 11. I hope community members will take the time to read the report (follow the links posted at the left) and send comments to the Borough clerk. The more of us who raise our voices encouraging leaders to prepare for an oil-scarce future, the greater the political will to embrace the changes that need to be made. While you are at it, check out Post Carbon Cities to read what other communities in the nation are doing.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) - a Possibility in Haines?

Once I dreamed of raising nothing but flowers - by subscription. My idea was that people would "subscribe" for a month or two of weekly bouquets. They would pay in advance and once a week I would steal silently into their homes, take away the tired old blooms, and install fresh flowers. No need to do that money exchange thing over and over again. It seemed a little easier on everyone.

Community Supported Agriculture works something like that. The USDA website gives this explanation:

Community Supported Agriculture consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community's farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production

It sounds great - sensible. I met today with three folks from Haines who are thinking of launching a Community Supported Agriculture venture. I hope they do. Experts keep reminding us that the supply of inexpensive energy that fuels the food system is steadily and even rapidly dwindling. Don Murray, in Oil and Food: A Rising Security Challenge, Energybullentin.net, reports that US food systems uses as much energy as the whole country of France. But growing the food accounts for just one-fifth of the energy.

The other four fifths is used to move, process, package, sell, and store food after it leaves the farm.

Increasingly, we will need to grow our own food or to faithfully support those who grow it for us. Local Community Supportive Agriculture ventures are good things. What do you think?

Plant Now?!

I'm anxious to plant but opps, no seed starting medium. I do have a bag of Whitney Farms Plant Compost and some vermiculite. So I added the two together in no particular ratio - but I did try to create a light weight medium that would allow those little roots to grow unimpeded. My approach to gardening is a little like my approach to knitting - those "directions" are just "suggestions," right?

Opps, again. No new seeds. Let's see what happens with last year's lettuce and kale. And not just last years! I've planted some from packets labeled 2006 and even 2000!

It's 49 degrees in the coldest corner of my greenhouse. It just doesn't feel toasty. So I'm going to put the tray of potential salad on the grate that lets the heat from the wood stove on the first floor flow all the way up to the third floor - bottom heating the seed tray. No need to plug in the heat mat. I predict sprouts in 5-6 days. Stay tuned!

What are Haines Gardeners & Farmers Doing Right Now?

Let's use this space to encourage each other to work toward those days in late May when we can get back outside. Who is doing what right now?

I am going to transplant those geraniums that have been setting roots in vermiculite all winter; get my begonia corms out of the root cellar and into some dirt. What about starting lettuce? It germinates, you know, at 42 degrees!

Haines Energy Task Force Final Draft Report

"Peak Oil & Energy Transition: Preparing for Challenges and Opportunities," the final draft of the report to the Haines Borough Assembly from the Haines Energy Task Force (HEFT) is out! Public comments are being solicited.

The Task Force finds that dwindling oil production and rising petroleum prices will bring pressures to bear that can only be mitigated by increasing local production of food and other products. Thus, there are many recommendations and actions throughout the report that pertain to gardeners and farmers in the Chilkat Valley. Link to the PDF of the report through the Haines Borough website. "Addressing Issues Affecting Food Security" starts with recommendation 5 on page 32. Action 6 of Recommendation 6 encourages the school district to introduce gardening and farming into its curriculum.

The report recommends support for farmer's markets under "Addressing Issues Affecting Economic Security" on page 38.