Revolution Disguised as Gardening

I’ve been doing a lot of planning for the future in the past month. While i was at Kerikeri Organic, i set myself up with a hot pink room in South Minneapolis, a third season with the Northeast Minneapolis Farmers’ Market, and an ongoing gardening partnership with the fabulous Abby Rae LaCombe. I have been really excited about going home to live this life!

I also made a little time for a final New Zealand hurrah – at last weekend’s Permaculture Hui.

At what? Where?!

I know…i know. I haven’t even defined the term permaculture for the workingmembership reader, and here i go jumping ahead and tacking a Maori word onto it. Bear with me…

Hui more or less means gathering. This Hui was structured like a conference, with workshops, site visits, and shared meals. Amazing ones! (I was on the kitchen crew, so i suppose i’m a little biased…)

And permaculture…well, that one’s a little more complicated. In conversation, i often describe permaculture as designing food production and human habitation systems based on natural ones. A better explanation might include the Permaculture Ethics – Earthcare, Peoplecare, and Fairshare – and perhaps even delve into the Permaculture Principles. And a more thoroughgoing academic explanation would inform you that permaculture was developed by a couple of Australians in the ’70s around a set of practices that save time and energy through good design. In the garden, these include “zoning,” which sites the elements of the garden system according to the frequency of their use, polyculture (as opposed to monoculture), and integrating animals, a food source in and of themselves, to do much of the work of weeding and fertilizing.

These descriptions have their place, but i much prefer Whanganui Permaculturist Lisa Talbot’s: Permaculture is revolution disguised as gardening.

Fucking sweet.

To the people in the present day permaculture community, it’s not just about “permanent agriculture.” It’s also about “permanent culture” – redesigning from the ground up to create sustainable human scale systems for all of our activities. It’s not prescriptive or reductionist thinking – in fact it’s the opposite. Every context needs its own solutions, developed on the ground, designed around the situation and using what’s available.

I’m a little green, so i’m gonna let that stand as the workingmembership definition of permaculture for the moment.

And the Permaculture Hui?

The Hui was really inspiring for me. Okay, so i napped through a lot of it, and i cut myself twice while working in the kitchen, and i found most of the workshops boring – but that wasn’t really what it was about for me. It was about sharing space and ideas with other people who share my values – and, in a lot of cases, my confusion. There’s no straight line for which way to go with this stuff. Should we start intentional communities, build food forests, learn to forage? Or travel to distant lands to learn about traditional ways and new innovations? To really dig into the dirt in Minnesota, do i have to go to the Southern Hemisphere?

After my five months of permaculture exploration here, i finally found a peer community to explore these questions with. So leaving, now, is bittersweet for me. My heart aches with love and the sadness of separation from all of the amazing people i just met.

But, on the other hand, i am looking forward to coming home to join the revolution.

Biodynamic Composting

I have done my fair share of composting over the years – and advised a few aspiring composters, too.

I believe that composting is easy, and anyone can do it.

Since coming to New Zealand, i have seen some people that really have a system down for producing great soil. In Whanganui, i even saw a hot compost that digested a dead goat in two weeks!

(That’s Nelson Lebo’s composting method hard at work)

Derek Mouldy is Kerikeri Organic’s compost whiz kid.

At a recent workshop, i was part of a team led by Derek that made a “lasagna compost” consisting of…

Cornstalks (carried by farm visitor John to Marty’s chopping block)…

Hay…

Seaweed…

Kitchen Scraps…

(That’s Peter, KeriKeri Organic’s token Bulgarian WWOOFer)

Sawdust…

Fish Broth…

Lime…

Rock Dust…

Cow Manure…

…and Dead Grass.

There were literally dozens of layers in the compost, alternating between nitrogen-rich “green” layers (cornstalks, manure, kitchen scraps) and low-nitrogen high-carbon “brown” layers (sawdust, hay). Plus the stinky bonus items and rock dusts to remineralize the soil. And water. Composting takes water.

To finish off a batch of KeriKeri gourmet compost, a final dosing with biodynamic preparations is necessary.

Aside from the 500, KeriKeri Organic orders its preps through the Biodynamic Association, also known as the “pusher man.”

A few balls of dung, a pinch of each preparation…

And voila!

Derek “turns” his compost at least once a month, which speeds the decomposition process along. Unturned compost can take up to six months to break down; Derek’s is ready in three.

Apparently, some compost nerds in Berkley turn theirs daily and get a batch cooked in two weeks!

Turning finished compost into a garden bed provides much of the nutrition plants need. Seedlings can be planted directly into a ball of compost to give them an extra boost. And, as the name “lasagna compost” suggests, the stuff’s good to eat, too!

Well, for some species, anyway.

500

Hello world!

Six weeks have passed since my last post. Ya have to wonder…what kind of shit have i been getting into?

At the time of my last writing, i was in Southland, at the southern tip of the South Island. During my stay with the Guytons, i was invited to sit in as a teachers’ assistant for a Sustainable Rural Development Course in subtropical Northland. Although i had a ticket to go to Australia, i couldn’t resist the opportunity to get my hands dirty at the far end of New Zealand. After this journey, it has been a great relief to stay in one place for a few weeks. I feel like a grown-up again – i have class two days a week, and i’m farming the rest of ‘em. Biodynamic farming, at Marty Robinson’s Kerikeri Organic farm.

Bio-what?

Biodynamics! Biodynamic methods are based on a series of lectures by Rudolph Steiner, who is also credited with developing Montessori education. The gist of the method is treating the farm as a living organism that needs to be vitalized and revitalized with enzymes, minerals, and other, smaller living organisms.

The specifics of biodynamics are quite lively and interesting – and have earned it a bit of a hokey reputation in the industry. Alongside more traditional organic practices, biodynamic farmers plant according to the moon cycle and use nine soil preparations formulated to bring life and vitality to the soil.

The preparations are: 500 (cow manure stuffed into cowhorns and aged underground over the winter), 501 (ground quartz crystals stuffed into cowhorns and aged underground over the summer), 502 (yarrow flowers aged in the bladder of a stag), 503 (chamomile flowers aged in cow intestines), 504 (stinging nettle), 505 (oak bark aged in a skull), 506 (dandelion flowers aged in a bovine mesentery), 507 (juice of valerian flowers), and 508 (horsetail tea). Each preparation has its specific purpose and use in “feeding” the farm organism.

Winter is coming in this hemisphere, and, for Kerikeri Organic, that means burying preparation 500.

To make preparation 500, you need some of this…

…and some of these…

…plus an enthusiastic WWOOFer…

…or two.

(That’s Montana Dan Cleanfingers. His legendary flax-grasshoppers and ukulele-pickin’ skills will be remembered at Kerikeri Organic for years to come.)

Voila!

“What the heck are we gonna do with all these shithorns?”

(On the left is Garden Manager Derek “Electric Folk Dreams” Mouldy. On the right is Amber Caramba, one of the three princesses of Kerikeri Organic.)

The cowhorns will remain buried for six months. Come spring, the 500 will be ready to dilute and spread on the fields.

(Thanks to Amanda “Doesn’t Everyone Prefer” Joy for taking these pictures and keeping shit off my camera!)

500 (part 2)

Joy, Dan and i got the full 500 experience over two days last week. After preparing a “fresh as” batch of the stuff, we spread last year’s 500 in the paddocks.

(That’s the finished 500!)

(And that’ s the biodynamic farmer himself, Marty Robinson!)

Recipe fiends/Thea Neal/Aspiring biodynamicists: Add one ounce finished 500 per three gallons warm water.

Then, stir, creating a vortex, for one hour.

Reverse the vortex frequently.

Derek told me that photographs from a previous workshop had contained inexplicable flecks of light over the vortex about halfway through the stirring. Do these?

(Or is it just the light cast by Princess Rosie?)

Fini!

We used fir boughs to sprinkle the mix over the paddocks. A little bit goes a long way…

At the end of the day, my clothes were stained with 500 and i had a sense that i had done good by something or other.

No doubt, i will never live the photos down once they make it onto Facebook.

20/2/2011

Howdy! Eighteen days have passed since last i wrote – and eighteen nights, too. Half of these were spent in a tent.

By hook and by crook, i made my way South from Abel Tasman – down the almost untouched West Coast, through tourist hubs Queenstown and Wanaka, and across sparsely populated Southland. My destination: Riverton, home of Robyn and Robert Guyton. The Guytons care for the southernmost food forest in the world.

My week with the Guytons has been filled with diverse work: Apple grafting, beekeeping, hedgetrimming, signmaking, produce vending, assisting the local electrician…I even got to be on New Zealand TV with a celebrity chef!

This, i have been thinking to myself, is political gastronomics done right. A little food co-op, a little farmers’ market, and a big garden. But not only that; it’s life done right as well. The Guytons are socially and politically engaged, but they are also relaxed and optimistic. They have elegant simplicity down pat. And they are, above all else, a loving family.

I and my fellow WWOOFers, Alex and Estelle, have been welcomed into this dream with open arms. It’s pretty cool down here…and there is precious little else to say but “Thank you.”

 

Abel Tasman National Park

Hello! As i had hoped, the South Island is beautiful and bountiful. Wild blackberries are just coming into season, and a nice Swiss couple taught me to hunt for mussels yesterday. Chafing dish fuel is the cheapest campstove you can buy…but it doesn’t get hot enough to cook that which comes from the sea.

These photos are from a tramp i took through Abel Tasman Park last week. Thanks to Sara L. for the suggestion — and the connections! By wild coincidence, there was a group of students from Carleton, her alma mater, in the park. They were great company, and also provided me with the first four-dessert meal i’ve ever had on a camping trip.

Best food forest ever.

And Nao for Something Completely Different…

On January 2nd, Team Trouble made a triumphant return to the karaoke bar. My last night in Wellington, it was exactly how i want to remember the Troublemakers: Singing pop songs and shooting bad pool, sipping wine and gulping Tui, talking trash and playing Uno into the morning hours…

This kind of excitement on an empty stomach? No way; “International Dinner!”

Nao Rules International Dinner with a Quadruple Iron Fist

Nao.

The Japanese girl who can drink me under the table.

The sous chef who could outdo the head chef any day of the week.

The person who made the choice i wanted to make eight years ago: Fuck school. I’m gonna work my way around the world.

Nao coordinated a team of six in the tiny Cambridge Hotel kitchen, all working together to produce Japanese dinner: three kinds of sushi, Okonomiyaki pancakes, chicken hearts, Gyoza dumplings, and three sauces. It was fried food heaven!

I was one of the Gyoza makers. Check this recipe out!

Make a simple dough by mixing flour, water, and salt (komugiko, mizu, shio). Knead it together until it is no longer sticky and set aside.

Chop a lot of cabbage (kyabetsu), then squeeze it until most of the moisture is removed. Ditch the resulting water.

To cabbage, add ground pork, chopped ginger, chopped garlic, chopped green onion, salt, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili oil (butaniku, shouga, nin’niku, nira, mizu, sato, shoyu, gomaabura, ra-yu). The mixture should be about half pork.

Mix by hand.

Wash your hands.

Set aside a small bowl with a bit of water in it.

Roll the dough into a cylinder. Chop the tip off and roll it into a circle, about two inches in diameter and as thick as a coin.

Place a small ball of pork mix into the center of the circle.

Dip your finger in water and use it to wet the inner edge of half the dough circle. Then, bring the other half up to meet it, sealing the pork inside with a little bit of pressure. Good lookin’ gyoza has a ruffled edge, but it will be alright as long as it seals.

Set your dumpling on a plate, then repeat the assembly process until your ingredients are gone.

Now, fry the dumplings in oil (shokuyo-yu) on medium-high heat. Three or four minutes per side should do the trick.

Pour water into the pan, then cover with a lid. The perfect amount of water will half cover the dumplings and boil away in a couple of minutes, leaving them perfectly moist and fully cooked.

The sauce Nao made for these was made of soy sauce, vinegar, and chili oil. Yum!