Maytime Composting: Worm compost is indeed soil magic
I’ve been thinking about soil a lot this week. Likely it’s the hard frozen ground outside and rare below-zero temps that have me pining for the smell and feel of rich garden soil in the springtime. Last year we worked a nice patch of ground into garden. The soil was fairly soft under the lawn grass, a few inches of decent reddish-loam. In most areas you could push the shovel all the way in. After years of gardening over gravel this is joyous! A bit deeper down there is sandy clay and big smooth rocks reminding me the creek was up here in some geological past before working its way down to its present bed.
The raised beds are a few inches higher than the paths once I shoveled the soil in the (future) paths on top of the (future) beds to give them more depth. The result was pretty good. It was after adding compost from Maytime Composting that the soil started to get that “alive” look and feel that makes this gardener swoon.
Read MoreWassailing the Orchard for Valentine’s
The wassailing may be a little later than early January this year, but since spring arrives about a month later here in the NC mountains than it did back in Arkansas, Valentine’s might be just right. At the new farm, we will have the delight of toasting and cheering the five old apples trees our farm is named for, in addition to the tiny new trees I’ve planted our first year. One change since this post: Since we are in an amazing hard-cider making region, the libations this year will be the real thing. Woo hoo! This is a great tradition. Do try this at home.
love, Leigh
Read MorePraise the Table Scraps
There is a silver can on the counter for kitchen scraps. In the mornings we put used coffee grains and the paper filters, now cold after the aroma has faded, into the bin. By midmorning broken eggshells, a paper towel and a bit of leftover oatmeal have been added. Lunch and supper bring additions of lettuce trimmings, those last beans left in the pot, the bruised end of a banana.
If it’s been a big cooking day, there may be a large bowl out on the countertop to put all the carrot ends, the potato peels and celery bits. The fridge clean-out that adds some old yogurt and stiff spaghetti noodles can create a golly-wow bonanza for you chickens. We use the bowl, not the silver bin for the chickens. They are
Read MoreEvent Jan 26 – Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate
From: http://asapconnections.org/front-page-posts/lengnick-event/#more-6788
How will a changing climate affect the way we farm and what we eat? How do we begin to build resilient and sustainable food systems? Join ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) and Transition Asheville for a talk and panel discussion featuring Dr. Laura Lengnick, author of Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate and lead author of the recent USDA report “Climate Change and U.S. Agriculture: Effects and Adaptation.” Dr. Lengnick will give a talk on climate change effects on the U.S. food system, which will be followed by a panel discussion featuring local food system and climate change leaders sharing their work to understand and prepare for climate change.
Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate
Monday January 26, 2014 from 7-8:30pm
UNCA Sherrill Center – Mountain View Room (SHE 417)
Time, And Turkey Stock
It takes time to live in a way that feels good. I was pondering this as I turned off the crock pot this morning. The beginnings of turkey and wild rice soup bubbled inside. Overnight the turkey carcass from Christmas dinner simmered along with our last carrots from the garden, chunks of celery and big slabs of onions transforming into the kind of rich stock you can only get from making it yourself. It takes time.
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