The Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, and Ranch Report

Cosmic Dust

alveed — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:25:09 +0000

I was reading an article in a recent ACRES publication. If you’re not familiar with ACRES, it is one of the best out there for those interested in REAL agriculture and related news alternative to mainstream. In his writing, “Our Soil’s Cosmic Connection”, Harold Willis talks about the constant rain of space dust that accumulates in our soil. Even though the amounts are miniscule in comparison to amendments farmers and gardeners add annually, he is correct that it shouldn’t be ignored as unimportant overall to our soils compositions. In homeopathy, biodynamic preparations, and Bach flower remedies for instance, we understand that their worth is dependant on very subtle essences and often minute amounts that seem contradictive to the standard idea of “more is better”. In some cases these are energies and substances that are not measurable by our modern scientific instruments. Still, they work, millions will testify.

This article, while focused in a scientific manner, reminded me of all the forces at work on our farm with our plants and animals that are hardly measurable, seen, or understood. In the course of four seasons we experience a whole range of interesting surprising observations, from mysterious seeds appearing, a healing for an animal that was too far gone (to someone’s eye), plants acting in manners never observed before: displaying characteristics from buried genes(?), growth in different ways (lettuce thriving in 100+ degrees), … too many to list or remember. I’ve gotta start recording these things better.

While our understandings of all the forces at work is expanding due to those good brothers and sisters in the fields who are going deeper into their work (just read a copy of ACRES to see this), there is still so much to be discovered as integral parts of the processes behind the scenes. It often seems here that whatever effort we put forth in our gardens we are met with assistance from the “other side”. No matter how knowledgeable a person can get about gardening, to go further with it they must reach into levels of intuition, deeper sensitivity, and do I dare say… faith?

Gardening with faith, yes faith in the processes set forth from time’s beginning to facilitate this amazing process. A faith that there is a motion both seen and unseen that is greater than me (the tiny little gardener in the vast cosmos), that I have the ability to join with or stumble over and impede if I get in the way. How wondrous it is to cut a branch off a fig, put in a glass cup on the window sill, and watch it grow roots, large leaves, and even begin to fruit! Or how about the lettuce that went to seed last fall, blowing about when the winds picked up. Later in January, little tiny dark red sprouts poked out and I chuckled to myself how their desire to grow was so strong, but with a bad sense of timing. “They can make it on their own if they so choose such a time to go for it.” Well, a couple weeks later, with their tender new leaves 1 inch spread, they survived a drop into the teens, without skipping a beat! Ok, if they want to gift themselves to us that bad, I thought, here is some straw to snuggle in. They ended up filling our salad bowls in the early spring. And of course, enough people have noted that within a tiny seed that has inside it the programming to expand 10,000 times bigger in size and complexity. Seems like some kinda spiritual metaphor I’ve heard before.

Faith that this planet can become the Garden of Eden that it is destined to be.

Here on the ranch we have our live-in training programs rotating with visitors, including our dear WWOOFers. It’s nice to have help, to share what we’re learning, to serve next to kindred souls, and hear new stories. If you read this, wherever you are, come on and jump in for a week –we’ll feed ya good (wink!). The cooks are whipping up some incredible smoked baba ganoush with the ai gua eggplant. Someone figured out the tricky trick to making pita bread to go with it too. And there’s nothing like picking cinnamon, genovese, and nufar basil in the morn, and having pesto greeting you at lunch time.

Our okra is coming in, and I figured a lot of the folks in our CSA program would be surprised by it, but most already knew about when we delivered. They were happy still to have it as one of the next new veggies. I guess it’s escaping from the South more over time. Finally makes sense about its beautiful flowers when I read it’s related to hibiscus and hollyhocks. All the way from Ethiopia they say. The miles things and plants and peoples have traveled to get to where we all find ourselves now.

I hear that the sugar industry has bowed to the GMO players now, so mark off beet sugar next to the corn-derived sweeteners as a dangerous non-food additive. Soybeans are about taken over now by those same players, and these people have been buying up heirloom and other seed companies to squeeze the market narrower, I’ve been told. After the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and India are the leaders in GMO crops. Will the voice of the people be heard loud enough to turn their agricultural future around? Another way to put it is: how secure is your food supply, really? When a poor farmer in Dinod, Haryana, India can’t save his seed because the seed’s code to continue its lineage forward has been destroyed, then there is no future. Or because the companies have made it illegal to save their copyrighted seed. What a mess.

The good news is that traditional crops are making a comeback in Kenya, Cuba is extending agriculture land rights for its co-ops, urban gardening is taking off in Detroit, and beekeeping also is taking flight in cities all over as a sustainable, local, and practical food source. Who could resist some home-grown Brooklynified honey dripped on their big apple? Yes, our own Avalon Garden honey, pollen, propolis, and wax, is on its way in due time.

Effective Organization of our Organisms

alveed — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:19:59 +0000

Here in the garden we have the good, the bad, and the ugly creatures on larger and smaller scales. As much as we want to go beyond the whole good/bad dichotomy, and see the whole symbiotic web of complex interrelations as inseparable from each other, let’s face it: goat head/puncture vine (Lat. Tribulus terrestris) is a real troublemaker! Yes, like virtually every plant on the planet it has medicinal qualities used in traditions somewhere (the Chinese, for example, and how they put to use nearly everything you could ever imagine that is “natural” in their medical cabinet). It needs its own special area set aside though, if it’s gonna be used for medicine. I mention this because we were pulling out big piles of it today.

I also mention goat heads because here we are cultivating relationships, with a long term vision. We have implemented integration of beneficial micro-organisms into our garden environments in order to facilitate this better. This is one part of building an ecosystem’s immune system, and one that we humans are not separate from also. When I spoke with a friend about our use of these micro-organisms she responded “I hope I can be an effective micro-organism also!” Well put. How can we all become more complimentary in our symbiosis with the world around us? Our own thorns can jab others, and vice versa.

Ok, the garden. We have all these vegetables growing, along with the “weed” plants (some bioregional, like the devil’s claw, others imported, some of whihc are on official “invasive lists”, and are more of a problem.). We have our precious lady bugs, along side with the pesky flea beetle. We have our mice that chew, and the bull snake hunting it. There is the mildew that occurs in the moist inner growth of the squash, there are the bees pollinating, and the ants that aerate the soil and move seeds around. We have all the swallows swallowing millions of mosquitoes and other insects, but they also bring mites into the barns and make messes with their droppings. We have our manure/compost teas also, which everyone worldwide has used forever in their agriculture with great results, but if you read on the net certain “health officials” warn to not make it anymore because it can have high E. coli counts. Gotta look at everything from many angles and weigh pros and cons.

From a certain perspective we see a massive “war” going on where we (and those on our side, i.e. ladybugs) fight and fight for our livelihood and prosperity against the opposing forces, but isn’t it time for the warring to end? Isn’t it time we quit the fussing and fighting that divides us and sets us apart? So, here we are in the garden. Instead of an endless battle of good and bad that the “Green Revolution” spawned in its terrible tragedy, we cultivate the higher approach so many others also are employing more these days. This is seeking a balance with the forces that oppose a healthy garden rather than the approach of total annihilation of “harmful” things by harsh chemical warfare and unnatural land management techniques. As we become more effectively organized in this complex garden ecosystem the health will increase, and the healing energies inherent in nature around us will increasingly integrate and come forth.

Today a group of us harvested cabbage, collards, carrots, beets, peppers, summer squash, and basil. Towards the end of our morning, we planted more basil. Many hands make light work. With the monsoons coming in, our vegetables are really starting to go for it. Soon we will be swamped with harvesting. No complaints about that!

The rains have cooled us off. It’s really pleasant to have some cloud-cover to work out under here in Arizona, where the blazing sun seems ever present. Everything is becoming more lush, green, and filled with life. Our CSA program is getting going now, with our first deliveries the past three weeks. The process of learning how to make this happen has been educational for us. Always, so much more to learn, and more to share of the ongoing experiment…

Choices For a Future

alveed — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:16:09 +0000

OK, we’re witnessing the highest rice prices ever, semi-trucks are paying 1000 dollars a tank to fill up, the government is subsidizing the massive corn agribusinesses to grow GMO corn to sneak into every little food item they can and create biofuel to monopolize that emerging market, the disaster response groups in the East have reported 800% mark-ups for basic food supplies, and Haitians are subsisting off of “cakes” made of dirt, vegetable oil and salt to fill their bellies. What is going on?! Who’s getting richer off this? Who is ill-managing this world crisis, behind the scenes? People are reporting that there have been deliberate disasters allowed by governments to further their own agendas. I guess what we can do is manage it on our ends, however we may, by making better choices.
Choices: getting to the asparagus that needs attention, the basil, broccoli, tomatoes, and peppers that need planting, …or is it the harvest (carrots, bunching onions, beets, sweet peas, collards…) that the kitchen is awaiting that is the priority? Of course, the weeds aren’t waiting for me, and plants need water, the cabbages are getting aphids, we need to move the rabbits into their new mansion, and the fruit trees need some fertilizer, …and we’ve just got a call about a swarm of bees in Nogales we should go get ASAP. Such is the life here in the garden. Developing a sustainable eco-village here in the Santa Cruz Valley is a lot of work! The farm is just one small part of the bigger picture here, but one that keeps us always busy. We choose to better the world around us, starting with our very own soil, literally and metaphorically.
We had a group of youth visit to get a first-hand taste of some of our various angles of permaculture we apply on our ranch. They were at that age of emerging teen hood, where we may recall the attention span towards s and most everything outside their little bubble = about 2.3 seconds on average. Still, they were nice kids, they are our future, and every bit of experience we can facilitate for them is worth it. Plus, their help with weeding, transplanting lettuce, and planting basil was appreciated on our part. We are thankful for all the many hands that contribute to this experiment here. Day by day, with the combined efforts of this group of dedicated group, including the visitors, volunteers, guests, friends, neighbors, and family members (got my dad planting tomatoes with us the other week, on his visit from Michigan) that aren’t community members, we are building this future. It is a future alternative for all the peoples of the planet, where food security, to name one area, won’t be an issue that a child loses sleep over.

“a land flowing with milk and honey”

alveed — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:30:03 +0000

    The bees are increasing their forces with us out here. Our bee team has been busy collecting the annual spring swarms out and about, as one after another call comes in. With their population declining rapidly all over the world the true value and real cost of their golden elixir will become more apparent in the future. The honeybee is the only insect that produces food for us (not including that many insects are eaten worldwide), traveling the distance of twice around the planet, and visiting 2 million flowers to produce a single pound of honey.
    It’s interesting, observing all the hype about the “killer” Africanized bees. While it is true that in the 50’s some African honeybees intermingled with Brazilian bees, producing a more aggressive bee on the American continents, it isn’t true that every bee around here has flown up from down south with the intention to destroy anyone who gets near them. Today we handled two hives without the need for suits or veils. I was able to scoop bees out of a hole with bare hands. They licked salt off my shoulder skin, and when I hummed with them in their winged tone, and went down a semi-tone they followed, and then we went down a half step, and then a whole tone together. They are sensitive, complex, amazing creatures.
We need to do all that we can to preserve them. Support natural bee-keepers and buy their products. Without our little friends, some 70 fruit, nut, and vegetable crops that we eat here in the States would collapse.
    As for the goat herd, their forces have already been with us -we go way back, many generations. In fact, our Swiss Toggenburg lineage goes back to a group that Carl Sandburg’s wife (a famous breeder of champion milk goats) had. Their numbers have grown quite a bit this Spring, with all the new kids, and are happy (as a goat gets) and healthy from the daily grazing excursions, and all the good attention given them. We all feel blessed to enjoy all the benefits of the raw milk, cheese, yogurt, and kefir (and even occasional ice-cream!) from our Toggenburgs and Nubians. They do struggle though, with holding the stirring spoon (you know, hoofs) while making the yogurt.
    For most of the planet, cow milk is either a luxury or not available.   Instead, people drink goat milk, water buffalo, sheep, camel, …many others, even moose in Russia, I read. After hearing so many horror stories about the conditions of the cows in the dairy industry, including the hormones and antibiotics they’re injected with, it is reassuring to have our own source. If every person knew of the conditions and sources of how their food was raised eating habits would change. And, we even know our goats individually by name. Imagine that, holding a cup of cool refreshing goat milk up for a toast to the source, our dear old, humble Denora.   I’m thankful to know where my sustenance comes from.

“And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of they household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.”

We had a grand ol’ planting party in our North Garden this past weekend on Mother’s Day, celebrating our dear Mother Earth by getting our feet and hands in the soil. Nearly fifty of us planted hundreds of tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. Felt great to participate in such an old, time-honored tradition: the village planting day, with all the kids, and even our dog Annie. Last week we had watched the documentary “All Jacked Up”, which addresses the fallen food system, and the damage we’ve experienced from it. Getting out in the field, participating so closely with our natural food source, was the appropriate action in response to the sad view presented there. We all gotta get up and do something about the troubles in the world. Eh?

“A Hungry Mob is an Angry Mob”

alveed — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:33:14 +0000

The Issue of Food Security in an Increasingly Greed-Controlled World Market.
There I was harvesting beets with our WWOOFER Lynda and another community member, Ah’Nuit. We have so much to eat in the category of “greens” that we pulled the tops and gave them to the rabbits. A lot of people out there would have grabbed them up in a second for their empty bellies.
You’d think that we could take care of this problem of hunger by now. The so-called “green revolution” in agriculture, which many have deemed one of the greatest disasters of the 20th century, has played its role in the world-wide food crisis occurring. I’m thinking about this these days, as it weighs on my heart and mind. Here’s the opening line in a recent article: “The first food crisis to topple a national government in the 21st century occurred last weekend in one of the world’s most desperate countries.”… “Demonstrations and food riots have now occurred in Austria, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Cameroon, Mozambique, Senegal, Mexico, China, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Italy, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Guinea and Burkina Faso. Russia and Pakistan have imposed selective food rationing. India, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia have placed controls on rice exports. In Vietnam, armed guards protect paddies from rice thieves. In South Korea, a food panic stripped supermarket shelves.” Just search the net under “food crisis”. See for yourself.
What I feel is sobriety, and my own personal responsibility to do what I can to not only speak up, but also to take continual action here on the land we’ve been led to. We’re all gonna have to get back to growing our own food, not only by growing our own little back yard plots, but by also supporting the local/bioregional gardeners and farmers however we can. When a person becomes hungry and has little or no ability to do something about that due to the circumstances they find themselves in, this is a grave problem. Most of us have little idea what that feels like. It is not the same hunger feeling as a voluntary cleansing fast.
Once I had my food taken (I won’t say stolen) by a man I was living with, and after my initial reaction of “what the..!?” I immediately remembered he was a Kurd Iraqi refugee who had nothing, and was hungry, desperate, and meant me no harm. Do I really understand what it’s like to be in a starving person’s shoes? Not really.
I do think about it though: on the ranch we are blessed with an abundance of healthy food grown by our own hands. We are blessed to have wholesome meals every day, to have clean, abundant water, fresh air, and shelter from the elements. When I forget and am reminded, I feel ashamed: there are millions of people who would gladly work the soil in the hot Arizona sun all day, every day, simply for a good meal.

Winter Gives Way to Spring

admin — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:45:55 +0000

Farm Report From
Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, and Ranch in Tumacacori, Arizona.
2/08

February witnessed the preparation and anticipation of spring. In this climate spring sneaks in fast out of winter, and is gone into the blazing summer without waiting for anyone to catch up. We are getting our seedlings going in the greenhouse. When it is warm enough outside they will have that head-start to go right into the ground, for early produce. We continue to harvest plenty with our winter crops, along with beginning to enjoy the beets, parsley, and new round of carrots emerging.

We’ve kept busy building the soils with our own compost made from our goats, rabbits, chickens, horses, and cattle. We’ve mixed wood ash, charcoal, leftover food scraps the chickens overlooked, alfalfa shake, wood chips, and sprayed it with EM (Effective Microorganisms™) in order to assist break it down.

The winter so far has been warm and very dry. We can sure use any rain we get. The experts say we’re in a ten year drought out here in the West.

Recently we’ve begun to set in motion our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for the surrounding area. Anyone from Tucson, Nogales, Green Valley, Patagonia, Aravaca, Tumacacori, Tubac, and surrounding areas that interested in having the freshest, home-grown organic vegetables possible can sign up to participate with us. E-mail or call us to get more details. We’ll appreciate all the support we can get doing our part here to realign our local food security and eating habits towards more bioregional, healthy produce.

We’ve had some visitors come by lately for our gardening exchange program. People can stay with us in exchange for helping out on the farm. We’re always looking for extra hands, so if any of you out there are interested in agriculture, and want to see what we’re doing here and pitch in, please let us know: we have a live-in agricultural training program, and will also accept day workers. We’d love to have ya.

A New Beginning in The Garden

admin — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:44:56 +0000

Writing from Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, and Ranch in Tumacacori, Arizona, winter is the time for introspection, a time for settling in and processing the past year, to prepare for the spring. The New Year brings opportunity for growth, sowing new seeds, trying fresh experiments. Here in the garden we are thankful to have abundance year round. With the cold (it has gotten down to twelve degrees!) not everything will grow, but we’ve been able to protect quite a bit with our simple set up of hooping and covering. We are blessed to be eating a variety of organic kale, collards, spinach, cabbage, radish, lettuce, tatsoi, bak choi, mustard, arugula, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cilantro, sweet potatoes, carrots, and parsnips. There is no food available in any store that is more wholesome and fresh than what is picked in the morning from our fields in the morning, delivered to kitchen, and found beautifully prepared for lunch and dinner that day. For this we give our thanks to the many hands that participate in the process, from those who create the compost piles, to those who water, pull weeds, sow the seeds, mulch … to the hands who create with it in the kitchen. It’s a big group effort, which also includes a whole host of unseen creatures on the microbial level, and unseen beings of a more angelic nature, who all contribute to this complex symbiosis occurring.

New Crop of Farmers: Young, Educated, and Seeking Organic Certification

admin — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:44:13 +0000

According to an Associate Press article by Joann Loviglio, there is a new breed of farmers cropping up—more and more college graduates are taking to the fields “Agriculture has been so subsidized, corporatized and globalized,” said Tom Murtha who studied English at Penn State. “There’s definitely an interest and desire for younger folks to get involved in agriculture.” Long-time farmer Dawn Buzby welcomes the fresh attitudes of the new farmers, “The new blood entering farming is a great trend that has really energized longtime farmers,” she said. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm out there.”

Genetically Engineered Grass Found in the Wild

admin — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:43:24 +0000

The Associated Press recently reported Grass that was genetically engineered for golf courses is growing in the wild. Creeping bentgrass was engineered to resist the popular herbicide Roundup to allow more efficient weed control on golf courses. But the modified grass could spread that resistance to the wild, becoming a nuisance itself, scientists say. Such resistance could force land managers and government agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, which relies heavily on Roundup, to switch to “nastier” herbicides to control grasses and weeds, said said Norman Ellstrand, a geneticist and plant expert at the University of California, Riverside.

Food for People or Cars?

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 23:42:21 +0000

The Earth Policy Institute reports that the massive diversion of U.S. grain from food to fuel for cars is raising world food prices. The article notes that corn prices have doubled over the last year, wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years, and rice prices are rising too. Additionally, the Institute reports that "the countries initially hit by rising food prices are those where corn is the staple food. In Mexico, one of more than 20 countries with a corn-based diet, the price of tortillas is up by 60 percent. Angry Mexicans have taken to the streets in protest, forcing the government to institute price controls on tortillas. Food prices are also rising in China, India, and the United States, countries that contain 40 percent of the world’s people. Rising grain and soybean prices are driving up meat and egg prices in China. January pork prices were up 20 percent above a year earlier, eggs were up 16 percent. In India, the overall food price index in January 2007 was 10 percent higher than a year earlier. The price of wheat, the staple food in northern India, has jumped 11 percent." The effects are just beginning to be felt in the United States. "…the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that the wholesale price of chicken in 2007 will be 10 percent higher on average than in 2006, the price of a dozen eggs will be up a whopping 21 percent, and milk will be 14 percent higher."