Another beautiful sunny day. 14 degrees & 90% humidity in the greenhouse this morning. No, I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to growing my own food. I'm wingin' it in a big way. But the kale transplants and prize choy, chard, broccoli, silverbeet and raddichio that are in there seem happy. I do a daily slug patrol after they nearly devastated some of the plants. Hopefully the plants recover. I really want to eat fresh greens this winter, not something imported from California (or China, for heaven's sake). I have more transplants to go in the ground, but the problem is the "summer" crops haven't quite finished - the tomato plants (2 of 'em) are huge, and while they have beautiful delicate yellow flowers all over them, there are no tomatoes in sight, and being that it's nearing the end of the growing season for them, I'm considering taking the plants out so I have more space for winter crops. Same goes for the green beans and the winter squash, which doesn't have any fruit on them at all. It's frustrating because I don't know if it was something *I* did wrong (did I plant too late in the season? not water enough?) or was it just the cool summer and the fact that the deer came and munched them when they were seedlings, delaying their growth even further? Now that they're behind fence & plastic greenhouse sheeting, there is no chance of the deer getting at them, but still, I really feel uneducated when it comes to growing my own food. And what a sad statement on our times that is. Sure, I can tell you about psychology, about the physiology of your brain, I can have a debate on nature vs nurture with you, I can calculate 12% tax in my head - but I can't tell you how to grow a good crop of kale. We all have to eat. It's kind of important knowledge, don't you think?
Kind of like my girlfriend who says she doesn't know how to can food. I grew up in a house where we canned peaches, pears, cherries and more each year, so I find it odd when people my age (20s/30s/40s) say they don't know how to put food away for winter for themselves and their families. This year I canned 20 lbs of peaches, and I'm probably going to do more peaches and pears, and probably some applesauce. Nothing serious - not like the year I pitted and canned 100 lbs of cherries, 80 lbs of peaches & 60 lbs of pears. That was a crazy amount of canning, especially with the 100 lbs of blueberries & 100 lbs of raspberries I froze!
So when I think of what's important knowledge to pass along to my children, it's not the quadratic equation or where all the different First Nations tribes lived in North America, it's how to do simple, life-affirming things, like providing food for themselves - whether growing it or foraging wild food, like how to build their own shelter - and cob is great in that respect - it's pretty simple, like how to compost, and how to build our own simple composting toilet when the sewer or septic system fails. There is something to knowing how to split firewood, how to find clean water, how to build a solar oven or provide solar energy for your needs, or how to build a wind generator... these are skills that will, in my opinion, increase our ability to live more fully... a life that is less abstract and based more in reality - more in touch with meeting our life's needs.
Those're just my thoughts this moment.
4 comments:
Nicole, you need to teach me to do canning. Next year, put me to work okay, please. My Mom and Grandmother used to do it, and grow their own vegetables, but never did they teach me. I was only good enough to "weed" the garden (and sneak carrots, snow peas in a pod and rhubarb :o) eheheheh, that'll teach em.
Elizabeth Street
You weren't even the girlfriend I was talking about, Liz! That means there's 2 of you who don't know how to can! Good grief! LOL Yes, of course I'll enlist your help and share my wisdom with you. LOL it's really not hard.
I am thinking your tomato plants are not getting pollinated. Going around from flower to flower and 'tickling' them with a small feather will do the trick!
And how does one learn all those skills, esp living in the city? (Great to have....really would like to know them...my mom always canned and froze and makes jams and jellies etc. Easy peasy)
Great blog by the way!
Alessandra
i was wondering that, but i did go around and tickle them. Someone suggested using a vibrator to tickle the flowers with. An original idea, to be sure! I still wonder that it's not too late in the season to be beginning to set fruit, though. We shall see!
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