Sparks in the Soil

Is 'Authentic' the New 'Organic'?

I just read an interesting post on a Boston Locavore blog (click here) that supports an argument made by Maine farmer Eliot Coleman (click here) that the term "authentic" should be used to mean what "organic" used to mean.

In a world of "big organic" companies, Coleman says, the O-word has become washed out, either diluted to mean "generally healthy," or over-concentrated to refer to specific quality standards required for labeling food products.

"Authentic," he argues, is a term that embodies everything that sustainability-minded folks should care about: "Beyond organic," he calls it. 

The word comes from the Greek word authentes, which means "one who does things for himself."  It connotes being trustworthy, genuine, reliable.  All things that we hope for from those who make the food we use to nourish our bodies.

It strikes me that in our world of superficial technology (for heaven's sake, giving someone a "gift" on Facebook is a virtual act only--no one actually gets the flower or teddy bear or hug that you sent!), "authentic" is something of a universal yearning.  It's what's behind the do-it-yourself movement, the proliferation of crafting (witness the success of Etsy), and of course, the locavore/sustainable agriculture/foodie movement.

There's something spiritual about the yearning for authenticity too.  We want to experience life, feel what we can with our hands, but also feel connected to the genuine, authentic mysteries of the world, like how a tiny seed can become a growing, fruiting plant.  We are trying to learn how to distinguish between false promises and genuine truth.  We're searching for what's real.

What do you think - is "authentic" what you're looking for?

Hanging Lettuce Planter Update

Last weekend, I successfully set up a soil-filled sphere that I intended to hang and stud with lettuce seedlings.  A huge problem immediately came up: the ball weighs 25 pounds and is too heavy to hang from my porch. 

Several readers offered smart suggestions (thanks, all - I especially liked Laux's idea to separate the planter's 3 chains and hook each one individually).  But much to my own surprise, I ended up landing on a relatively inexpensive, simple-to-execute solution right at the Home Depot.

For $19.99, we bought a four-sided decorative iron stand that's meant to house a hanging plant. It isn't bothered by the weight of the ball at all - even after a soaking rain surely ratcheted up the poundage well into the 30s.  The only thing we need to do is use some rope to hook the stand to the nearby fence post so that a big wind doesn't topple it over. 

Because I had intended to sow lettuce seeds directly into my garden (before I saw this "salad ball" idea in Organic Gardening mag), I don't have any seedlings started. So I'll have to wait another week or two until the garden centers start putting them out.

For those who asked how the thing works (bummer that O.G. didn't put that article online!), once the ball is ready, you take a box cutter and slice an "X" into the coir, and ease a seedling through it into the potting soil inside.  Spaced out every 3 inches, the seedlings should transform the ball into an edible topiary that you can add to every few weeks through the growing season.  I'm going to try salad greens, baby spinach, and some herbs. 

It's all a fun, and hopefully tasty, experiment!  I'll post another update when it's time to plant, please stay tuned!

Ellen Goodman on the White House Garden

From a great column by Ellen Goodman in today's Boston Globe, this idea applies to churchyards and schoolyards just as much as it does to our own backyards, and the White House's:

"Today, lawns cover 40 million acres, making them the largest agricultural sector in America. They consume 270 billion gallons of water a week, or enough for 81 million acres of organic vegetables. They suck up $40 billion a year on seed, sod, and chemicals, leading one historian to compare them to "a nationwide chemical experiment with homeowners as the guinea pigs."

We mow the lawn, we fertilize it, we pesticize it, we water it, for the absurd purpose of keeping this useless patch in a deliberate state of arrested development.

This may be a fertile time for change. During the housing bubble, people thought of their homes as an ATM or a transient way station. If we settle into a view of home as a place we nurture ourselves, we may have a grass-roots anti-grass movement."

Click here to read the whole column, and click here for more on the White House garden.

Redworm Update: They're Eating!

My redworm composter is officially humming along!  Not literally humming, thank God, but at the end of the first full week of hosting my wormy buddies, I'm starting to see evidence that they're settling in and doing their work.

For the first few days, the worms were all around the perimeter of their bed and food, not burrowing in as I thought evolution had made them to do.  I think, disoriented from their travels as they were, they were trying to get out and not realizing that good stuff was the OTHER way!

I had read that leaving a light on near the bin would prevent them from trying to escape (worms hate light), so I put one on, and lo and behold they started burrowing in.  When I turned off the light a couple of days later, though, two worms got brave and found their way out.  May they rest in peace.  And then there were 498....

I've been adding handfuls of food every couple of days (the worms are concentrated around the food scraps) and spritzing the shredded paper with water to keep things moist.  I think it may be time to add more shredded paper, as the breakdown process has begun and the whole bin is starting to compress. 

Dare I hope that I might be on track to have some usable compost in 2-3 months, as the bin manufacturer promised?  So far, so good!

The iPhone Locavore App

I recently upgraded my iPod Touch so it can accept apps, and one of the first I downloaded was "Locavore," a new app that tells you what foods are in season, what's coming into season, and where the nearest farmer's markets are to your location.  Within the U.S., it can tell what state you're in (who knew Big Brother was a locavore?)

I'm excited about the app, but my first run out of the gate was a little disappointing.  Mainly because it said there are no in-season foods in Massachusetts at the moment.  Now I know the farms aren't yet teeming, but I also know that just last weekend I bought spring parsnips from Verrill Farm that were just delicious.

Even more discouraging, the app also tells me, "no new food coming into season soon."  Again, I know Massachusetts has a short growing season, but asparagus, early lettuces, and even pea tendrils aren't that far off....are they?

The farmer's market feature works great, though, and will be fun to use this summer to discover new nearby markets.  And you can browse by state in case your friend in Maine wants to start eating local (note: beets, cabbage, garlic, winter squash, parsnips, and more are listed as "currently in season" in Maine.  Um, is the Mass. list broken?)

Click here for a great Treehugger review of the app (and note that their screenshot is from Hawaii, sigh....)

The Monsanto Food Safety Bill Debate

My friend Don over at Evangelical Ecologist commented on my "garden advice" post, worrying that the new Food Safety Bill (HR 875) would stop churches and other small institutions from growing food because the bill would prohibit, among other things, the sharing of seeds and the use of non-government-farm property to grow.  Here's his post: Farmer's Markets - RIP.

I will be honest and say that I hadn't heard of this issue before he brought it up, but looking into it, I really believe that we have a major misunderstanding on our hands. Here's what I can piece together of what happened:

It started with a widely-circulated blog post by Linn Cohen-Cole called "Monsanto's Dream Bill, HR 875." In the post, Cohen-Cole alleges that the bill (sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro D-CT) is little more than an effort by industrial agriculture (specifically, the agribusiness giant Monsanto) to protect genetically modified food and fat government subsidies, and to put the little guy--even the pastor farming his church's backyard--out of business. Cohen-Cole writes:

"The corporations want the land, they want more intensive industrialization, they want the end of normal animals so they can substitute patented genetically engineered ones they own, they want the end of normal seeds and thus of seed banking by farmers or individuals.  They want control over all seeds, animals, water, and land."

This would all be very alarming--and, frankly, sounds plausible given what we learned about agribusiness in The Omnivore's Dilemma and other books--except for the fact that these issues are simply not present in HR 875.

For one thing, seeds and organic farming are regulated by the USDA, not the FDA, which HR 875 would affect. Secondly, there is nothing in the bill about backyard (and churchyard) gardeners or local farmer's markets--the bill is directed at farms that participate in interstate commerce. Finally, Cohen-Cole's accusation that Rep. DeLauro's husband works for Monsanto is not true either: Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic political strategist and consultant, did once have Monsanto as a client, but not in the past 10 years.

Generally speaking, the bill really is not about how, where, and by whom food is grown as much as it's about how food is kept safe when it is going to be presented for sale to the American public.

Click here for Rep. DeLauro's statements and an FAQ on the bill, plus to read the full text of HR 875.

To me, this sounds like a well-intentioned effort to prevent salmonella and other dangerous outbreaks in our nation's food supply.  The bill is backed by the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, Consumers Union, and The Pew Charitable Trusts, among others. Plus, for what it's worth, it's sponsored by a Democrat from Connecticut, so how likely is it that she's in the pocket of agribusiness?

In short, I think church gardens--and my backyard plot--are safe. Do you?

Garden Quote: Joseph Joubert

I came across this quote on the inside cover of my garden journal. Funny, I had never noticed it before. It's by the 18th century French moralist and essayist Joseph Joubert, a simple but lovely thought:

"All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so."

Do you have a favorite garden quote?

Hanging Lettuce Planter: Great Idea, But Too Heavy?

In addition to making seed tape for my veggie garden this weekend, I was eager to try out Organic Gardening's idea to make a "salad ball" out of coir-lined hanging planters.  Lettuce and herbs hanging on the back porch, not taking up garden space?  Sign me up!

Everything went fine, until it was time to actually lift the thing and I realized that it would rip out any hook I could possibly anchor into the top of my porch. 

Advice, ideas, thoughts?  We have a plan for what to try next, but welcome your suggestions as well.

Here's how far we got:

1. Detach the hanging chains from 2 identical coir-lined hanging baskets:

2. Fill with pre-moistened potting mix, making sure each half is very full:

3. Place a sturdy piece of cardboard or other paper (I used a thick paper bag) over one of the filled baskets. Holding the cardboard against the soil, flip it onto the other basket (this reminded me of turning a cake out a pan):

4. Carefully remove the paper/cardboard.  Secure the two half-spheres together with either sturdy wire (as the magazine suggests) or with garden ties (as I did).  I wound up with a sphere that looked like a cross between a medieval weapon and a science fair entry....

5. Reattach hanging chains to the bottom basket and hang.  Here's where the problem came up: our ball weighed in at around 20 pounds!  My husband tried in vain to commandeer a plastic tomato cage for the purpose, but that didn't do the trick:

We're currently devising a solution that either involves a thick wooden post with an iron arm/hook attached, or some kind of in-the-ceiling-of-the-porch option that won't easily strip.  While we continue to mull, please chime in with your ideas!

How to Make Seed Tape

If you're like me, this weekend was hard because (in New England, anyway), it was sunny, bright, and spring-like in every way except for the temperature (it never broke 40 degrees!).  Desperate to do something garden-y, I decided to try a technique described in the most recent Organic Gardening magazine: make your own seed tape! 

Seed tape is a great tool for new gardeners because you can just bury the tape in the dirt and start your garden off with the right amoung of space between plants. 

Here's the how-to:

1. Cut out 1-inch strips of newspaper (note: do not use newspaper with colored ink on it; black-and-white only!)

2. Lay out seeds according to the spacing recommended on the package (e.g. 3 inches apart for carrots, 6 inches apart for Swiss chard):

3. Make a papier-mache-like glue by combining 1/4 c. flour with enough water to make a smooth, flowing paste. This made more glue than I could possibly use for my tape (small garden = small rows), so measure your flour accordingly:

4. Use a cotton swab to dab a dollop of glue over the seed, or onto the newspaper under the seed:

Finally, wait a couple of hours for the glue to dry, then roll up your seed tape, marking each so you'll remember which seed is which.

Store in zip-top bags (O.G. recommends putting a paper towel with a tablespoon of powdered milk in the bag to keep the glue/seeds from drying out).

Plant when ready!

The First Day of Spring

When my Godson used to live here, he would come over on days like this so we could go "searching for spring," crouching low to the ground so we could spot the first signs of life in the garden.  He lives in Wisconsin now, but I thought I'd share (with him and you!) what my search showed today, on the vernal equinox.

Sign-of-Spring #1: Even my broken, over-wintered herb pot looks glittery in the sun:

Sign-of-Spring #2: My "New Dawn" rose's branches are yawning awake.  Brown becomes green when spring is here!

Sign-of-Spring #3: The march of the crocuses begins....

Sign-of-Spring #4: The Asian Lily bulbs send up a little red surprise:

What are your telltale signs of spring?  Happy equinox, everyone!