The Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, and Ranch Report

So people in Brazil are forming an association to provide the EU with GMO-free soybeans the news says.  This is good, since Brazil is one of the leading growers of GMO, clearing vast tracts of rain forest daily to do so.  Usually those going the organic route act more responsibly with land stewardship.

Reuters released an article recently saying 1.5 billion people will starve due to land erosion.  Just look at what is happening to Haiti with the hurricanes.  Since all the trees were cut down there is nothing to stop the topsoil from running with the water.  We know water seeks the lowest places.  That means the ocean for little islands.  The island is washing away.  What do you do in such a situation?

So much happening in the world.  The Slow Food movement is gaining momentum (not speed).  The controversy over bio-fuels is growing as more facts are uncovered about it pushing food prices up, causing hunger and starvation issues.  Monsanto announced breakthroughs in their developments with corn genes, as they continue to arrogantly make their claim with Mesoamerica’s olden sustenance and pride.

Of course, the growing numbers of young s entering the fields, literally, to spearhead the grassroots movements in working the land are inspiration for all.  Those who have gone ahead: behind you the next generations are emerging to “cover your back”, to sit at your feet, and to pick up the plow so you may rest a moment.

The garden here in Tumacacori?  Yes, it all comes back to this.  We are striving to live it.  This has been an amazing summer, to say the least.  Without the combined efforts of a great group of hard-working brothers and sisters, of all ages, there is no way it could have happened.  Kamon and Tarenta, the two main heads of the gardens stood before our fields and took long, hard looks, called the shots, got on the tractors, rallied everyone for after dinner weeding sessions, timed plantings, directed the efforts into specific areas and specific plants when needed, and combined with our IPM (Integrated Pest Management) approach we’ve succeeded somehow, amidst the onslaught of insects, plant sicknesses, and weeds.

I was standing next to one of our basil patches.  Talk about aromatherapy!  Especially the lemon basil.  Crouching down to get an eye-level view, the whole world transformed into a bubble of buzzing, flapping, darting insects.  It’s great to have such an abundance of healthy basil this year that we can let many plants flower out.  Not only the honey bees love these flowers: in that minute I took, in stillness breathing the scene in, I counted 11 other varieties of wasps, flies, and bees.  Some of the bees are so fast you only get a glimpse when they briefly land.  Others are metallic green.  I’ve never seen these various wasps that have shown up lately –some must be beneficial, although I need to learn more about them.  Of course I spot our honeybees wherever they appear.  They are like an extended family to me.  If we only knew our places in relation to the whole, and functioned together as well as they do!  OK, so the poor drones were getting kicked out yesterday as I watched in the North Garden.  Hey, when the nectar flow is down the freeloaders must go!  Of course, they had their place too.

Now we have planted the lower garden with our winter crops: broccoli, kale, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, collards, beets, carrots, daikon, kohlrabi.   We’ve been preparing the greenhouse for a crop of greens too.  Soon it will fill with life after sitting dormant all summer.

The new greens will see the movement of autumn into winter over the Santa Ritas and Tumacacori Mountain ranges.  They have watched over us like tribal elders stewarding their precious valley.  They’ve witnessed this very soil worked for a long while now.

The nights are getting down into the 50’s.  Autumn is coming.  Time to bring the neem trees in.  They’ll take up more room than last year, one of them growing over three feet since the spring, bringing them both up to nearly six feet in less than two years.  The cooler weather is welcomed by most plants, along with us gardeners.  The young cucumbers and summer squash (our succession planting) have really responded.  The tomatoes that made it through are expressing their happiness, and the okra is having its own party out there, providing more than we can really keep up with.  Now we just need to figure out how to grow the cacao trees here.  Any ideas are welcome, as always.