Gardening is ultra complex

It's Halloween and it's garden clean up day. I love Saturdays. This is the one day that I save for taking care of my home and garden. I don't actually "work" on Saturdays. We have a light drizzle here in Enumclaw today and its warm. It's nice and I'm just in from cleaning up my garden. Tomato plants and Shasta Daisies are out and composting. Sunflowers are cut for the chickens and I'm making a dent in that pile of junk that I pulled out of the shed when we made the stall for Abby.

A master gardener from our local Garden Club clued us all in this week about how to prepare our gardens for Winter. We are all tres attentive to all of her advice. I learned a lot of things I didn't know and I didn't even know I didn't know them. I am eating it up because the improvisational approach I take to art doesn't work so well for gardening and I've suffered the consequences of this approach this year. I learned how to garden and to paint by watching and helping my mom and then by reading and trying things out over the years. The garden club is really great because there is so much gardening knowledge in the room; now I have a whole lot of moms I can learn from.

I think gardening is ultra complex. It's at least as complex as designing software; maybe not quite as complex as theater. Oregon, where I learned to garden is different than California is different than MA is different than Washington. The light and soil conditions are different every few feet. The seasons come and go and are different every year. We learn new things about growing plants all the time, aesthetic goals change. MAN.

So here are my personal take-aways from Maureen's garden clean-up advice:

1. Dahlias rot in the ground over the winter because rain water drains down to the root through the stem. If your soil drains and you cut the stems and protect them from the rain you have a good chance your Dahlia's survive under our gardening conditions. Sword Ferns and Fir limbs make good winter cover for Dahlias. My first year of growing a lot of Dahlias I left them in the ground and they rotted. The second year I planted a new crop not quite so big, I dug them up and stored them just like they said in the book and lost those. If you dig your Dahlia tubers; don't wash them before you store them in a cool dry place for the winter.

2. Don't put shavings from the horse barn directly onto your garden; compost it first, then spread it in the Spring. Sawdust draws the nitrogen out of the soil. Who knew? In MA I grew my pumpkins right on top of the horse manure pile, lots of shaving there, they grew great. I learned that from my farmer friend.

3. Maureen recommended cutting Raspberry canes to the ground. In MA, I cut them about a foot high and had bumper crops.

4. Clean out all your weeds; these keep growing over the Winter in in WA they look ugly and they are really bad by Spring; not so in MA where we usually had a foot or two of snow or ice for months.

We've got a lot of dairy farms here and I'm longing for a truck load of manure; gotta get out there and mingle with the neighbors to find that. What I don't know is if I should spread it over the grass that is covering the garden area now or if I should till the whole thing so that I can flatten it out and then spread the manure. I've got to do something or I won't have more than a a few jars of current jam and a bowl of tomato soup from my garden again next year. I'll shoot Maureen a note and ask her.

Small Tomatillo and Tomato Crop This Year

This was my first year to grow tomatillos. I had three plants develop out of the 60 I was hoping for.  Prolonged rains this Spring and then a heat wave didn't help and as I've mentioned before, the dirt at my new home needed amending (so I learned.)  Truth is though, I thought I knew what I was doing and could wing it through so so (no cost) seed starting conditions but nope.  I didn't do a good job at all of  starting my seeds and a lot of things went wrong.

I harvested just before the impending freeze last week and ended up with 5 cups of chopped fruit, some of the darn things no bigger than a quarter.  I had a friend in CA that grew a row of Tomatillo plants up to her neck and 15 yards long one year; my vines grew a couple of feet along the ground.  The fruit turned out to be tastey nevertheless.  Last night I made these jars of salsa and a pot of fresh tomato soup from my tiny (but delicious) tomato crop (same issues.)

All in all I figure my harvest dinner and 5 little jars of salsa only took me 6 months to prepare. Go ahead and laugh; I'm laughing too.  Next year, I'll (try again) to grow a real crop of tomatoes and tomatillos and, cilantro, dill and onions to go with them.

Deep down I know I'm not a farmer; I'm not even much of a kitchen gardener this year.  But I just can't stop trying; I don't know why. I've always thought it was some kind of ancestral thing; my grandpa always grew a good garden and my mom and her twin sister were both driven flower gardener.  I spent a lot of time in the garden with mom; she used to let me dig the holes for the bedding plants and I used to love to water.  Where I grew up in Marion County Oregon, I spent a lot of time on farms picking strawberries and beans when I was a kid and one of my first memories was of my mom taking me to her friend's farm where I got to collect eggs from the chicken coup.  I still so love that.  Prior to my grandpa though, I don't know much about my ancestors or if they were farmers from way back.  Could have been royalty for all I know.  For whatever reason the sights and sounds and smells of farming and farming lifestyle have inspired me and gardening (if not farming) is in my blood. 

And this brings me to something I'm thinking deeply about.  I've joined a social networking group called Farmers for the Future.  What a great thing it is.  In one of my conversations there some of my new friends said they were angry about farmer stereotypes; I bet you know what I am talking about.  Uneducated dirt farmers, driving 50 year old cars because they have to, one dollar in their pocket. That's the movies.  That's TV and novels.  It certainly doesn't describe Farmers for the Future. 

And to all of you out there who read my blog, be aware that stereotyping is hurtful, just like all stereotyping is and those of us who know better well, we ought to help others know better too.  I'm smart and I have a killer education but there is no way I'm smart enough or even tempered enough or strong enough to run a farm that can feed my family, let alone the world.  

I'm less romantic about farming than I was at the beginning of this ethnography and I'm far far more respectful. I wish I had  known when I was young what I know now.  If you are young and you want to farm, be really smart and learn from elders and go to an agricultural college.   We don't pull knowledge from thin air and take it from me, trial and error farming isn't going to feed your family. 


Cynthia
The Wanna Be Farmer

PS: Is there such a thing as premature celery? I had one plant with stocks that were as tiny as they could be and still be celery.  

Hidden dangers: A call for small farm and yard toxic waste awareness and reclaimation programs

After a year and a half of working on the Small Farm Life Along the Cascades Range ethnography project I have clarity about one very important problem in need of a set of education, advocacy and entrepreneurial solutions.

We need small farm and suburban yard clean-up and toxic waste awareness and reclaimation programs.  It really hasn't been all that long in a cultural historical sense that we have had garbage service let alone the knowledge that we need about properly disposing of toxic waste. 

Yesterday I found dead old oil cans in our shed and dampened spilled slug bait and weed killer that filled the drawers of an old cabinet.  I was able to clean up a good part of the spilled oil but not all of it but guess what, now it's in a equine senior feed bag and I haven't a clue what to do with it.  Last year I lived on a farm that had an old and unused underground gas tank only 50 feet from the well we used for household cooking and bathing, old car batteries sitting outside in the rain, insulation from an old trailer strewn around the property after a wind storm and reams of plastic sheeting decomposing under a thin layer of top soil, a legacy from a short-lived attempt at flower farming. 

This is just two farm properties among thousands that have been polluted and now pose hidden dangers.  What else is out there?  How do we find it?  What do we do about it?

As beginning farmers take over  older farms that are changing hands and reclaim abandoned farms to create new ones and as farm land is turned over to suburban dwellers who grow kitchen gardens, these new farmers need to protect themselves, their animals and customers from from these unseen and forgotton poisons.

We need research, advocacy, education and entrepreneurial solutions to address the hidden dangers caused by forgotten and unseen toxic waste in our farm and garden soils.

I received a survey from Waste Management in my e-mail yesterday, now I know what to tell them about their service and how to improve it.  Rural communities need education and affordable, consistent and dependable toxic waste testing, removal and disposal services.  These once or twice a year collection activities just aren't enough to meet the need.  

Cynthia

The Wanna Be Farmer
Pacific Ethnographic Research Center

Wanna be farmer suffers from Trash Trauma and Toxic Waste

Oh my god.  The wannabe farmer had quite a disgusting day cleaning out the shed that was supposed to be cleaned out before we moved in to our place last year.  YUCK.  I swear that I will not leave toxic waste behind in my shed when I die.  I'm on a quest to get rid of every toxic chemical that was left behind here and I'm telling you, there is a lot.  5 gallon buckets of oil, lots of them.  Some of the oil spilled and was smelling so bad I was sick and almost lost it yesterday.  If it makes me sick it can't be good for my little old pony gal so today, with rain clouds thick and winter coming, I had to clean the shed.  What kind of mom would I be to build my horse a stall and maker her breath toxic waste?  Ten dollars and 99 cents later I'm home from the Ace Hardware with some environmentally friendly oil spill clean up powder.

I dump the white powder out to sop the oil up and yeah it works.  I was able to sweep the oil up but now what do I do with the soggy crud?  Toxic waste anyone?  Sell it on Craig's list?  E-bay?  Save it for that once a year toxic waste day we have around these parts?  What do I do with it until then?  AH yuck.  I find more spilled oily stuff on the shelf of an ratty old cabinet.  I open the drawers and what do I find?  Drawers full of spilled slug poison and weed killer.  OH MY GOD.  I couldn't face it.  I'm afraid of it.  I'm taking a break but I know I have to get it out of there.  Am I going to die of poison dust or of disgust or of the combination?  I'm swearing.

The wannabe farmer (moi) meant well.  John and I are building a stall in the shed for Abby, my old horse, to keep her out of the rain this winter.  I foraged for wood from the old barn that lies rotting under the blackberry bushes out back.  Found some good pieces.  John removed all the nails and then had a heck of a time sawing the old wood.  He muscled his way through the circular saw cuts with motor burning and smoking (I was screaming but he couldn't hear me) with moi sitting on the fur side trying to hold the board still as it rocked forward on the wheels of the ancient edger it was sitting on.   Not the safest of situations.  Got the wood cut without a mishap (thank you for that huge favor)  only to find out that the nails we had wouldn't go through the wood.   HUH?

I really have to laugh as I fight the urge to jump in bed for the night and rid myself of the look of disgust that has taken over my face.  The good news is that Abby will soon have a place to protect her from the the rain and the "rattling devil winds" that come whipping off of Mount Rainier.  We will have succeeded once again in making do for our animals using our meager talents, tools, materials and finances to get the job done.  We are big on fortitude.

Meanwhile, piles of toxic waste and garbage are now sitting in our back yard and I'm praying that it doesn't rain tonight and that John brings home a tarp from ACE.  $10.99?  You think?  He did.

Thank you Johnny boy for all you do when you would rather be doing something else.

Did you know that cement nails and finish nails don't work when you are framing but framing nails work great?  Now I know that too.

Drawers in the old shed were full of snail bait and weed killer spilled out of old bags

Miscellanious junk spending the night in my yard

Disgusting

This is where the stall will be

This is junk I set aside for a local sculptor who makes fabulous art out of this kind of thing

Old milk cans; we'll keep these

My Abby girl with the neighboring cow girls.  Tonight about 40 of these beasts surrounded Abby's corral and wanted in to share her hay.  Oh my god.  80 eyes in the flash light scares us all.  

M

Ethnography, Art and Farming

As DuVal Ethnographic Research Center I've chosen two of the most financially precarious professions to study with my ethnographic lens i.e. contemporary art and small farming.  Why I have this passion to find and foster a convergence of ethnography, artistic pursuit and farming or where it will lead, I really can't say.  But I do have the passion; that is the fact.

I just returned from a road trip to California where I helped some of my artist friends with their new music performance called Hand to Mouth, a celebration of the seed from soil to plate.


I was concept testing a business idea Fresh Hot Art Promotions, an Internet mentoring and on-line marketing and promotions service for artists.   This is an outgrowth of other Internet mentoring services I was testing with non-technical solopreneurs earlier this year and the curated blog I started recently featuring the "freshest art of the day."  I post art that has just been completed on the day or as close to the day it is completed as I can manage.  Hmmm.  Fresh Art.  Fresh Food.  What's the connection?  Creative unfolding?  Journey's?  The make or break it function of context?  Time sensitive delivery?  Like cooking?  Like picking fruit?  Like innovation? Like product development and delivery? These are all creative endeavors. 

My friends have been creating and performing highly intelligent, entertaining and insightful performance art in the San Francisco Bay Area for years and didn't have an on-line presence.  With the new show scheduled to open in May and near-term rehearsals and benefit performances coming-up I dove in head first to do what I could to "help grow their audience beyond their mailing list." 

Hmmm.  Growing.  Subsistence Arting?  Subsistence Farming?  Just barely getting by?  Sometimes not getting by?  Working a job to support the art?  Working a job to support the farm?  There are some haunting parallels between ethnography, artistic and farming lifestyles.  But what that means and why I care?  This is ethnography and the truth is, I'm not sure and its OK.  Ethnographers, artists and farmers all have to be comfortable or at least tolerant of uncertainty.  It's something we have to be good at or we perish, in one way or another. 

My goals were to encourage my friends and their the work in progress, help them build their Internet skills, build them an Internet presence, work fast, work collaboratively, give them an on-line voice with aesthetic integrity and meet aggressive deadlines using free Internet tools, my digital still and video cameras and my (yes, beloved) side-kick, my MacBook Pro. I wanted to provide the how and the why to their what. 

The result?  Pretty good!  We collaborated from afar for about a week using e-mail and then Google applications to share text, jpeg files and build the blog.  That required setting up a new IGoogle account and mentoring how to use the applications to achieve immediate goals.  Together we wrote a press release and secured a newspaper story, created the content for a set of flyers and posters, chose and then altered an image for these flyers and posters (with the help of artist friends) and rewrote and proofed until I thought I would lose my mind dealing with all of the revisions we created and vetted.  I got the flyers and posters printed here at my local copy shop where they give me one on one help to get the results I want and then...off I went on my 1500 mile road trip to document rehearsals and street performances at Farmer's Markets in Northern CA.  A two day drive from my place, a week on location and three days home.  You do what you need to do to meet the goals right?   If your plums are ready to pick, you pick them and can or jam them or you lose them.  I wanted to capture those rehearsals when they were ripening, during the jamming, before they were set, while they were fresh! 

Here's a taste of the Hand to Mouth blog today; http://www.agapeperformanceart.blogspot.com

I've written before about how difficult it is to be away from a small farm.  Farmers just can't leave the the farm long.  Plants and animals need near constant attention not to mention the machinery and the family.  It was difficult for me to leave my place and leave it to the guys to manage.  They aren't as engaged in the farm as I am; they aren't farmer wannabes like I am.  My tomatoes were just beginning to ripen, apples were coming on, the broccoli was just ready to pick, pears were plumping up and the horse needs a shelter before the rains.  When I got home the broccoli had gone to seed, the Halloween pumpkins had succumbed to an underground attack by some unseen beast, the apples had fallen to the ground, the elk had trampled the little pear tree, my potted flowers were dry as a bone, blackberry vines had grown over my vegetable beds and the lawn was a foot high.  There is good news too though.  My family is well and happy to have me home, our young rooster has learned to crow, all of the animals are still alive, the sunflowers grew a couple of feet, the tomatoes are still turning red and we have two new sugar pumpkins for our Thanksgiving feast.  

What I've learned about real farming is that like artists farmers are virtuoso improvisers, they create highly complex and usually very large compositions and they plan and practice these compositions as a conductor might conduct an orchestra but over a much longer time.  A farm is a work in progress for the life of the farmer and the life of the farm.  Keeping up with time is a musical challenge and it is a farming challenge.  Farming isn't something with a rousing finish or predictable acoustics.  Farming is a coming together of man with nature and is a process of composition that is fundamentally dialogic, in the moment and perpetually...fresh.

Farming is far from the simple life that non-farmers might imagine and farmers bring incredible intellectual and creative talents to their work; they are inspired and driven like artists to create irregardless of social and financial reward as long as they can possibly manage to keep going.   

Harvest Day: A Bumper Crop of Blackberries and 6 Things I've Learned about Small Farming

Ahhh. At my one year anniversary of living on this small farm property it's harvest time and I have beautiful and bountiful fruits to harvest on my little acre and a half. Thank goodness we still have some bees left in our neighborhood! I wasn't sure what to expect form the old orchard, last Fall it didn't do well and the Elk got most of the fruit we did have.

The old orchard is producing quite nicely now despite the fact I wasn't able to trim the trees properly this Winter. Oh I suffered over that and envied my neighbors who have perfectly tended fruit trees. We have two old prune trees producing a fabulous crop. We have a yellow plum tree that didn't produce any fruit last year that is loaded with fruit today. Delicious! Pears and apples are coming on nicely but aren't quite ripe yet. (See the Harvest Day slide show at right.)

This year the blackberries were late coming on due to lack of rain but after a recent rain storm boy howdy, we must have a million wild blackberries over-ripening on our place and billions ripening on wild blackberry vines that are growing on untended land in our little town. It's a blackberry bonanza. Thank you mother nature! That couple of days of rain really helped us.

I've made some progress on canning this past week. My first batch of blackberry jam ended up being blackberry sauce :-(. It didn't set because well, for a couple of reasons. I didn't use enough sugar, I didn't cook the jam long enough for it to thicken and I didn't seed the jam with several unripened berries for their added pectin. Plus, I was using a sauce pan for the 10 minute boiling water bath, it spilled over after I put the jam jars into the pot and my oven top was temporarily "off the grid." The sparks and smoke were a bit more drama than I expected from an evening of canning! I was able to get the water back up to super hot but not a rolling boil and I think (but don't know for sure) that may also have contributed to the fact that the jam didn't set. I sure made some good blackberry sauce for pancakes, ice cream and milkshakes though and the sauce will make sweet little gifts once I have time to print up my sweet little homemade labels and put them on my sweet little jars.

My next batch of blackberry jam turned out beautifully; I was able to correct all of my "jam didn't set" problems thanks to reading comments from several ladies who took the time to respond to another information seeker with the same problem I had, and share your blackberry jam success strategies on-line. Jam Makers Rock! (Hey, is that where the word, jammin' in the musical sense comes from? Does it mean the coming together of collective knowledge? Refer to creations that unfold over time and are completely time dependent as canning and music making are?)

My next adventures? Jam jars and then I'll be making more blackberry jam late tonight and my first ever plum jam tomorrow. I hope the guys get home soon to pick the trees. I don't have time to pick the trees myself before the fruits are over-ripened because I'm working on an open innovation project plan, collecting the writing I've been doing on the future of work and launching my new blog Fresh Hot Art to develop business for Pacific Ethnographic Research Center.

And this gets me to some of the Small Farm Life lessons I've been learning. I know you could read about this stuff, hear it from farmers all over the world but, I now feel what I have learned really deeply and I think this deep knowledge is what fuels the fires that drive me to do the things I do. (Ethnographers pursue "deep knowledge" as part of the cultural ecosystems they seek to generate knowledge about.

1) It certainly takes more than one passionate person to keep a small farm going. We would certainly be dead of starvation if I were depending on myself and my small acreage to feed my family. Most of my seeds didn't survive the weird wet weather we had this Spring and I personally, can't possibly do all the work that is needed and work at my profession too. I'm not strong enough, I don't have the equipment I need, there isn't enough time in the day. It just could not happen. I knew this of course, just as you know it, but now I feel the reality of this very deeply.

2) Most small farmers require income from sources other than their farms. They have retirement savings or pensions from long careers that began when pensions still existed, they work "real jobs" and get a paycheck, they have spouses that work off the farm. I don't have any of that and with the economy the way it is, I pretty much work around the clock to keep my professional work going.

3) You can't turn an unknown property into a farm in a season unless you've had time to get to know the soil and plan for what it needs. How has the soil been managed? Are there any pollutants in the dirt that are going to effect the crops? What grows well in this climate? At this place, the garden soil looked great but was depleted; I didn't know it in time to fix the problem for this year's harvest.

4) You can't realistically expect to step onto a property and transform yourself from a gardener to a farmer without a whole lot of knowledge about farming to bring to the task. How much of what crop do I need to feed my family? How much soil do I need to produce that much crop? How do I run a tractor? Where do I get a tractor? Should I plow? Can I grow crops in a wetland? Will the elk eat my crops? Do I have enough water to water the crops? How much is that much water going to cost? Is it going to cost me more to grow the food than it is worth? How many jars of jam do I need for a year? How many jars of jam can I produce from the raspberries that are here? How many raspberries are here? How much can I earn from "jammin'?

5) Farming takes time and I mean don't mean the time that it takes to tend to the farm even though it takes a whole lot of that; what I mean is that farming takes seasons, it takes practice and it takes inter-generational knowledge to develop the tacit knowledge that it takes be be a successful farmer in a specific location.

6) It is not easy being a farmer. When times are tough, times are really tough. Ask some of the American dairy families who have gone out of business this year. "Got Mile" may be taking on a whole new meaning when we don't have any local milk producers. The saying feast or famine? It must come out of farm life. This week, we are feasting on blackberries, plums and eggs from our two laying hens.

I'm all fired up now about inter-generational farming, co-operative farming, community farms, town farms, helping older small farmers harvest their orchards and about what sustainable local food economies are. I know what they aren't and that is a bunch of indepenent small farmers who have a little extra crop to share with with the community. More to come on this in another post. The guys are home and I need to go and sweet talk them into picking the plums.

Farm Land Security

I spend a lot of my time shooting pictures of farm sights, sometimes out my car windows or the sun roof while driving. I see great sights that are so momentary, you just have to catch them on the fly or forget it.



It is haying season on the plateau. The grass hay isn't the most nutritious grass hay in the world but it gets the farmers by if it is mixed with grains or better quality hay from over the mountains. This used to be big time dairy country but a lot of dairies in the area have closed up shop. The price of hay was up so high last year and the price of milk so low that well, you can only rob Peter to pay Paul so much. This year a couple of dairies in the area, my neighbors for example, bid to be bought out. The dairymen create a pool of money to buy people out and the result? Cows are put down;land is leased out. The neighbor looks like he bought a new boat but I hear a lot of tears are still being shed. Farms are labors of love and they are big long term projects that take constant attention; they are the place the family comes together to celebrate holidays, the livlihood, a deep connection with nature.

I met a couple of dairymen this past week. They both chased me down in their pickups at different times to find out why I was taking pictures of their land. Turns out that someone wrote a letter to the editor complaining about the smell that comes with fertilizing the hay fields with liquid cow manure. It's a decent sustainability practice. Good for me I'm on their side because boy howdy, I would not want to be on the wrong side of that fence. You know what though? It does smell and maybe there is a solution that would suit both the dairy farmers and the residents well. These manure lagoons have only been around for about 10 years. Innovation opportunity there? Is there a sustainable farming strategy that could work better? Maybe.



I asked one of the dairymen if I could do a "day in the life" documentary of a dairy farmer. He said that every day is different and he expected I would not want to see him do a day of work in his office. I said well, maybe I would. How about two "a day in the life" documentaries, one in the office the other in the field? He said maybe he would. He never knows what he is going to be doing day to day because he is always interrupted by emergencies. Could be that what you think you are going to get done one day doesn't get done for 10 days because this or that thing needs repairing or maybe a cow is sick and needs tlc or maybe a gun to the head.

I've seen the dairyman working since we talked and I really have to wonder if I can possibly keep up with him for a day. Can I stand the heat and the smells? Can I not be too darn sappy about the animals? I'm going to give it a try. If I can spend a night chasing bad guys with the Seattle Canine Unit I can sure spend a day with a dairyman; as long as I'm not the bad guy being chased!

Moving on

I've been driving by a beautiful old farm house and property for the past year as I make the 5 mile drive between my house and where my horse Abby lives over at Devlin Farm.

There is a house for sale on the same road that would make a great headquarters for Pacific Ethnographic Research Center and home for my family so I've been taking that route and putting the "that's my house" wishful thinking whammy on the house day after day. Stranger things have happened in my life believe me; I know miracles happen. About a month ago a for sale sign went up on the old farm house and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

On the way back from bandaging Abby's leg I decided I'd just stop in at the old farm house, see how it felt to drive in to to the place, get a feel for what it might feel like it if were my home. I knocked on the door, no one home. Just as I was about to look around a bit the owner drove up. I introduced myself and told him I had been admiring his beautiful farm, could I take a look around? SURE. He was happy to show me around the place, glad for the company, glad to show off his life's work.

The farm was so clean and neat and tidy I thought maybe he was Scandanavian like my mom and grandfather, both on-board with the keep it neat way of life. Nope. German, from Pennsylvania, Amish country. The place was as clean as a light house; inside and out. He showed me his wife's pantry, still full of mason jars, a few canned fruits and jelly's here and there on the shelves. He gave me a jar of crab apple jelly dated 1998. Is jam still good after 10 years? He said his wife used to have the pantry lined with food she preserved for the winter.

I asked him, "it must be hard to take care of all of this by yourself." So much sadness came out in the "that's sure true." He was most certainly missing her still. Later I learned that his wife passed on 9 years ago.

He showed me the old barn. He used to run 15 beef cows during the winter months and 24 during the summer. He had one 5 acre pasture and one 4 that he would switch them between. An electric fence divided the two; that was gone now. He pointed out the two barn doors the cows used to come in and out, one from the pasture, the other from a holding pen. He told me they could get in the barn in the Winter when the weather was really bad. It does get cold and very windy here. Showed me pictures of them later. "My steer", he said. Nice.

He had replaced the original foundation for the barn; it was built on old logs that were rotting as a result of poorly functioning gutters. What a huge job that must have been and it was done among friends. They raised the barn, rebuilt the foundation with cement and cinder blocks. The old garage was build for model T's; he parked his car in it i 1974 and half of it stuck out the back of the building. He laughed. Then built himself a deluxe two car garage. So much history, so much labor of love gone into the place. "It must be hard to leave?" "You know it!"

We walked the orchard and he showed me the apple trees and filberts. He wasn't getting any meat in the filberts at first and discovered he needed a male tree. That was something he lived and learned about; how do you tell the sex of a tree? About one tree he said, "that is the best tasting apple in the world right there, they are so sweet and the apples are small and they fit real nice in a kid's lunch pail." Talk about SWEET!

Later we walked by a huge Rhubarb plant and he offered me some. Taught me how to break the stem off at a 45 degree angle so as not to tear up the roots. Hacked the leaves off with one swift swing of a knife and left the huge leaves to decompose on the grass; he'll chop them into mulch with the lawn mower later.

He also showed me the interior of the house. It had the cozy feel of old farm house. It was really quiet though, felt too quiet, made me understand how he could think of leaving it. I asked, "What are you going to do with yourself?" He said "I really don't know, I've been thinking about it."

As I was about to leave I asked him if there was anything I could do to help him. "Oh no." I gave him my card and said I'd be back at apple picking time; and I will. I hope he'll still be there.

Biodynamic Field Day in Review

I spent the day reviewing video I shot at Biodynamic Field Day, an educational event sponsored by Washington State University. I can't wait to do the editing and share some of the clips. I have to do some troubleshooting at the Apple Store and have a Final Cut Pro training session, again. I captured a few stunning images and some usable footage of the great information and thoughts that were shared through out the day.


Here are some reflections on the the day inspired by watching the video:

Barry Lia demonstrated how to stir the biodynamic preparations into vats of water to make solutions using a ritualistic stirring practice. You mix the preparation by stirring a vat of water using a long stick. You stir in one direction until you create a vortex in the water that reaches to the bottom of the vat and you keep stirring and keep stirring and keep stirring for several minutes. Then, you "break the water" by moving the stick perpendicular to the flow of the water. It's quite lovely to observe and hear and is a physical workout. What captivated me was the sound associated with the stirring and the fact that so many of the students wanted to try it. You can hear/see an example of this stirring on the contacts page of my website (here); I'll post another clip of it when I edit the four hours of footage I shot. Don't even try to see the video unless you have a high-speed Internet connection and even then, you have to be patient...but it is worth it, I think.  

The digging of the horns was an exotic new experience for all of us in the crowd. I wonder about how the first person thought to fill cow horns with manure, bury them, dig them up months later, harvest the manure from the horns, recognize the it is in a transformed state, then, make a solution from it and apply it to dirt or crops.  (There is a picture of the digging of the horns in the slideshow of Biodynamic Field day in the right column of this blog.) 

I'm passionate about the aesthetic experience and beauty of farm scenes and realize that I'm as interested in a purely visual ethnography as I am in the ethnography of farming lifestyles. Documenting changes in farm life over time through pictures. Yep. There is so much change. Farms scenes change over minute and long periods of time, from moment-to-moment as the light changes, from day-to-day as crops grow, from season-to-season as crops grow from seed to maturity and decay, as rivers rise and flood the land and recede, year-to-year as crops are rotated and from generation to generation as farm lands change hands. And that's all we see in our lifetimes. What we don't see are the inter-generational changes except in stories and photographs, drawings and paintings.

Intellectual integrity of farmers - assume no lack of education, intellectual maturity, creative talent and fortitude among farmers. They are orchestra conductors conducting a piece of improvisational music that lasts for years.

Spirituality in farming - people working together is a beautiful thing no matter what the circumstance, nature, beautiful of course but when collective work and nature join forces, human passion and work are directed to the preservation of life and and you see a collective outpouring of love and care for  dirt, plants, animals and earth now and forever into the future, that work and the aesthetic experience of living and observing it, can and does for some, be spiritual. It was this sprirtual aspect of biodynamic farming that several of the "students" came to learn about and experience. Biodynamic Field Day did not disappoint in this regard.  Come back another day for video that will show you what I mean.

It's the Bloody 4th!

It's been a hot fire crackin' 4th of July here in Emumclaw. Independence Day USA. Bombs and I mean big booming bombs have been going off in the distance for days and their frequency is increasing by the minute. The first one we heard a couple of weeks ago scared my son and I; every last one scares my dog.

I admit to feeling just a tad sad that my son isn't with me today and that friends and family are gathering a four hour drive south. But all is well here; well except for the fact that I'm lonely as heck and Willow just escaped out the front door and is hunting birds in the pasture. I can hear her tags jingling; can't see her though.

The baby chicks are fine; there of six survived. Hoppy and Honey (our grown up laying hens)are enjoying their new coup, the garden is watered, the cats are fat and lazy, the kitten is surviving her ordeal, house is clean and ready for guests and Abby's leg is cleaned and bandaged. Yep, I'm keeping things alive here, for now. Feeling pretty good about that.

Having a few minutes to spare this afternoon and feeling deserving after the dreaded vacuuming I took advantage of a creative leap and designed a new drink that I call The Bloody 4th! Hang on, I'm feeling a bit parched and I need to refresh my memory on how to make it.

OK, here is how you make The Bloody 4th

Fill a chilled glass with ice cubes (I started with a big glass, my second is much smaller)
Add Organic Blood Orange Italian Soda (fill glass 2/3 full)
Add Bombay Saphire London Dry Gin (pour to your taste)
Add fresh lime (a big squeeze of juice)
Float two thin slices of lime
Add one crushed spearmint leaf
Drip homemade Redcurrant sauce on top (just a little to sweeten things up)
Stir gently with one (red) chopstick and leave it in the drink
Garnish with 2 fresh spearmint leaves

Voila! It's the Bloody 4th! Nothing like red, white and blue. It's a post modern drink, a mash up of local and long distance ingredients both grown here and purchased over at the Safeway. Pretty isnt' it? And tres refreshing too.


Willow is lusting after Hoppy and Honey


C'est moi with the kitty Zola found and brought home at 3 weeks old, we call her Luna


This is Abby, my horse and my friend, she has an infected tendon poor gal; she got her ritual 4th of July bath today, the 25th at least and is doing better day by day.

The Fuller Family Garden

Ethnographic Field Note: The Fuller Family Garden
Project: Small Farm Life Along the Cascade Range
Sunday June 28, 2009

I rent a house that is tucked up against foothills North West of Mount Rainier in the incorporated south side of the town of Enumclaw, Washington. The house was the family home to the Charles Fuller family for many years and sits on approximately 30 acres of one of the most biologically diverse areas in Washington State. When we arrived here in the Fall of 2008 the garden area was overrun with Blackberry vines.



During Fall and Winter I reclaimed the old garden space by clipping the thorny beasts to the ground and burning them in bon fire after bon fire.



The Blackberry vines had buried Raspberries, Redcurrents, an old Blueberry bush, Shasta Daisies, an old compost bin filled with beautiful dirt and three 4 X 10 garden plots boxed in with old wooden planks,probably salvaged from the old barn that was once standing out behind the house. I envisioned a pristine garden by planting time. HA!



Well since the reclamation project was "completed" and the rains and sun have done their job, I've had quite a battle going with all of the grasses and Canada Thistle that has temporarily won control of the garden space. One sprained back and three weeks later and the grass is up to my chin and the thistle is now towering above me. These things make me feel very small and a little sorry for myself that I don't have a big family and that the one I do have is going through a lazy spell.



I'm bending over again ever so carefully and have started cutting the grass with a small sythe just as people did before the grass was cut by machines. There is a rhythm to the cutting, danger to it and a deep sense of connection to the past. It feels good. I bundle up the grass using old burlap bags I found in the potting shed here on the property so the grass won't make me itch when I carry it. It's in the trunk of my car now, soon to be eaten by my dear old horse who thinks it is the best supper going.

I tell you all of this to share with you my amusement and pleasure at losing the battle for control in the garden and yet still having seen and eaten the first ripe Raspberries and Blueberries of the season yesterday. And I'd like to tell you how very gratifying and enjoyable it was to wade through the grass, hacking down the Blackberry vines that have regrown to my height in a few short weeks, to pick the Redcurrents I later spent three hours making into two cups of sauce.



There is a whole lot to learn from a participant observation of farm life. I understand now how closely farm families are tied to home, to the weather, to the seasons and how farm life requires learning to take the ups and downs of life in stride...and a sense of humor helps too.

You know what? The Fuller Family Garden Is My Family Garden For Now