Avocado Season

We're coming to the end of this time's avocado season. For weeks now we've been feasting on avos to the point that were really tired of them. But I know from prior seasons that it won't be long before we will be longing for them again, so in preparation, I'm freezing some mashed avocado.

The simplest way I've discovered so far is to simply mash the avos into a pulp, spoon it into a small freezable containers, then squeeze a little lime or lemon juice on top. The citrus is to prevent the avo from turning brown. 

Not the prettiest jars around, but they work fine enough for this purpose. 

By using small containers, I can defrost the amount we will eat when I prepare guacamole for a dinner. I don't have enough freezer space to store enough to last until next harvest, but at least we will be able to enjoy many more servings of guac & chips. 

Coronavirus Lockdown - An Update

This first month is almost over. But we have another full month to survive. Lockdown has been extended through all of May. 

How is this little homestead farm going to survive? Basically with not too much problem. We have plenty of food, though certain items no longer grace our table. But between what I grow and what is at the local farmers market, plus fish that a good friend brings me, we are eating just fine. We've been making lots of meals out of the freezer, so by the end of May I should actually be able to clean my freezer and start over again! Defrosting that freezer is way I overdue, so something good is coming out of this extended lockdown. 

So food is taken care of, what about supplies? Again, mostly not a problem. I stocked up on most things, actually overstocked. But I'm seeing a few things running low. Mostly it's cat food. Buying cat supplies was hubby's duty, and he only laid in a month's worth. He was far more an optimist than I was, which is very strange. You see, he's a pessimist and I'm the optimist in this partnership. Anyway, it means that I'm going to have to breakdown and buy several bags of cat food before the end of May. Two other things I hadn't foreseen being all that important -- bleach and alcohol. I still have a gallon of bleach left. Plus I'm now using swimming pool chlorine tables for the catchment water in order to save the bleach for other sanitation issues. And alcohol--- luckily I had several bottles stockpiled. I still have 1 left which I hope lasts until alcohol returns to the stores. If not, then I'll be distilling my own.  (ps-- I found bleach at the Ace Hardware today. I had to go in a buy a can of spray paint for the Wednesday market and was greeted with a shelf full of bleach jugs. With joy, I added a gallon to our supplies. I feel confident I have enough to make it comfortably to June.)

We're not in isolation here. We need to leave the farm daily in order to feed the feral cats in town, plus to check on some housebound seniors. I'm often bringing food to those seniors, making trips to the pharmacy and banks for them, taking their trash to the trash transfer station. While out and about, I pick up gasoline for my farm equipment and milk for us. I take care to pick a time when there are few if any customers. 

The other day "M" asked me about getting garden seeds. Apparently there has been a mad rush on seeds lately. Gardeners either can't get them or they are in short supply. This little farm is just fine. I got my main seed order in before the epidemic hit. Plus I already grow my own seed for certain crops. And being a farm, I was able to order seeds for "M" with no problem. 

The one thing I've had my mainland friends complaining about is lack of out-of-the-house entertainment. Honestly, it's not that a big of a deal for us. I tend to stay at home working on the farm during normal times. And our nightlife means being asleep by 8. Oh, we're missing a few things, like meeting friends weekly for coffee or a meal. That is something we really miss, but it's tolerable. Also I'm not driving to South Point every week anymore in order to beachcomb and relax. Nor spending an hour at Honuapo shoreline like I'm used to each week. Yes, I miss that. But it's not horrific deprivation. And since we never spend time at the bar, go bowling, play golf, watch movies, go partying ----well --- maybe we're just dull people. We don't miss that sort of stuff. 

The bottom line is that we are doing ok. As long as we don't catch coronavirus, we will come out of the lockdown just fine. But it will mean we will have one helluva big shopping trip to restock the pantry in order to get ready for hurricane season....and the fickle volcano that we live on. Gotta be prepared. This lockdown was an excellent test to see how well prepared we were. And I think we have done fairly well. It just was difficult to foresee the need for so much alcohol and bleach. 

Using Fresh Manure

There's different opinions out there about using fresh manure in the garden. So I'd like to explore this topic a tad. I can only speak from my own experiences, so I may say things completely opposite of what you've read in some book. I think that the reason behind the differing advice is that there are too many variables to take them all into account with one chunk of gardening instructions. 

Fresh manures vary....

1... Animal species. Certain animal manures have a reputation of being "cold" and thus can be applied without composting or aging. Included in this group would be rabbit, sheep, and goat manure. Other manures are called "hot" and generally get composted or aged prior to using. On my own farm this would include donkey and chicken manure. And then there are omnivore (other than poultry) and carnivore manures, the most recognizable on the farm wood be pig. These last two types are the most controversial, not because they are hot vs cold, but because they carry a stigma. Our culture shies away from such manures. 

     I have often applied rabbit and sheep manure without composting or aging. I'll harvest the manure and use it as is, often immediately. I've never had a problem. But be aware that my animals are primarily grassfed and are not fed excess salt. That very well might have a bearing. 

     I often compost or age donkey and chicken manure. Not so much on purpose because it is "hot", but often because I have more than I need at the particular moment. The donkey manure is large lumps, so by throwing it in with the compost, it softens and breaks the lumps down. Then it's easier to use. The chicken manure is mixed in with the pen litter, which is chopped up grass and weeds. So it's already decomposing right inside the chicken pen. When I scoop up a bucket of pen litter to use, there actually isn't much really fresh chicken manure in it. It's mostly aged to some degree and decomposing already. 

    I prefer to use omnivore and carnivore manure either hot composted or else restricting it to just flower beds. Reason? Intestinal parasites. Hot composting destroys parasite eggs, if the composting is done correctly. But I find it easier to just use these type manures in the flowerbeds where they won't accidently contaminate food. I used to dig these manures into the orchard areas, and since my land doesn't flood, it was a safe enough method. But with a wwoofer now living on my land who tends to pick up and eat fruits that have fallen to the ground, I no longer feel that it is safe manuring the fruit trees that way. 

    I have not seen a problem with any of my manure applications. But then again, I don't use large volumes of it at any one time. I have had better results using frequent small feelings. So again, this is another viable that needs to be taken into consideration. 

2... What the animal is being fed. All my own livestock is grassfed. They get very little grain and no salt supplements. That's contrary to what you'll read in the books. But the system works here in Hawaii. If I were raising horses, I would be using mineral/salt supplements. But I'm not. My donkey isn't a young one needing to grow, nor is she being used for breeding or draft work. As for my sheep - if I were aiming for fast meat gains on the lambs, I would consider grain/salt supplements. Or if I were pressing my ewes to breed as often as possible. But I'm doing neither. My livestock get a tad of salt as a treat now and then. But not a daily onslaught. That's much like how hubby and I are doing it ourselves. We don't consume large amounts of daily salt either. I haven't had a saltshaker in my house for the past 15 years. We get our salt treats from our weekly restaurant outings. 

     When an animal consumes a lot of salt, the excess needs to be excreted. Manure is one outlet. I wonder if the high salt content of the manure is what contributes to the "burning" of the plants since I don't normally see plant burning from my manures, but other people report it from the manures that they use. Could the high salt content be part of the problem? I don't know, but it's something to be explored. 

3... How it is used. Digging or tilling manure into the soil gives different results that applying it on top like a mulch. And using it as a weak liquid fertilizer also gives different results. Applying in large quantity would cause differences as compared to lesser amounts. 

4... The type of soil. When I first started working with my soil, I found that plants really hyper responded to manures, especially fresh manures. They grew robustly. Then the response seem to  change, with the added manure resulting in too much nitrogen. The plants did poorer. But after a couple of years, I again saw a change in the trends. The plants did well with manures, even the  fresh stuff. Could the answer be the soil life, the increased and established soil microbes? I started out with crappy soil. It took a couple of years before the soil started to look and act robustly alive and "healthy". Now my soil is full of life of all kinds.

5... Soil moisture. Soil that dried out seemed to have problems with manures, especially fresh ones. But if I was diligent in keeping the soil moist, never letting more than the top inch or two get really dry, I saw less problems when applying manures. When I switched to keeping mulch atop the soil at all times, I stopped seeing issues with using fresh manures, at least with the way I was using them. Again, I am suspecting this has to do with robust soil life. 

6... Soil temperature. Higher or lower soil temperatures tend to effect not only soil life, but the various chemical reactions going on in the soil. It can effect the availability of nutrients. Here in Hawaii my soil temperature doesn't fluctuate wildly, which again may be part of the reason I don't see many problems with manure applications. 

So you see, there are lots of variables. There are most likely more variables that could be taken into account. I'm no soil scientist, so I just observe and learn as I go. I experiment and watch. 

Weekly Mini Fertilization

Mini fertilization. This is a method I've come to prefer over periodic macro fertilization (applying fertilizer when the growing bed is prepared just prior to planting), or even micro fertilization which implies that small amounts of nutrients are delivered with each watering. My method of mini fertilization is this........

Weekly, or sometimes only every other week, I make up a weak solution of fertilizer of some sort. Sometimes it's diluted urine. Other times it's sheep/donkey manure soaked in water overnight. Other times it's chicken pen litter stirred into a trashcanful of water. This rather weak solution is used to water the plants. Not much. Perhaps a cupful or less to a pineapple or taro plant. Or a light watering over a bed of peas or beets. I don't have any specific formula to give you. Sometimes I make it stronger if the plants act like they could use it, sometimes weaker if they are growing too well. And it depends upon whether or not the plants need irrigation that week. If they need to be watered, I make the fertilizer solution weaker and apply more volume. If the ground is already wet, I use a stronger solution, but less of it. 

One little side note in case you plan to try emulating me. Keep in mind that I also amend my soil with compost prior to planting. Plus I use fresh grass clippings or shredded compost as a mulch, which in turn provides the plants with nutrients. So this mini fertilization system isn't the sole source of plant nutrients. 

Yes, I know people are going to ask, "How much?" Ok, I'll try to give some guidelines for about 100 square foot of garden space.

... Urine. 1/2 gallon per trashcanful of water. 

... Manure. 2 cupfuls per trashcanful water. 

... Chicken pen litter. 1/2 gallon of manure containing litter per trashcanful of water. 

That's only a very rough guideline, because sometimes the plants don't need much fertilizer. Other times they are screaming for more. I have to read the plants to see how much they need. At times I even use much less than this amount. And now that I've said that, there are times that I double the fertilizer to make it stronger. 

I stir the fertilizer into the water. With urine, I can apply it immediately. For manure and pen litter, I stir and let it sit an hour, stir again, then apply. I use a sump pump to hose the water onto the garden area. It's slow, compared to farm irrigation, but it's a pleasant and easy way to pass time in the garden, contemplating the world---or perhaps future gardens. It's also a good time to listen to podcasts or audiobooks. I do a lot of reading and this is one of the ways that I have time to digest another book--while fertilizing the garden. I find the act of watering the garden to be a time of calm and rest. In fact, when I'm bushed from doing other farm work, I'll often go water the garden beds for some relaxation, plus sip a glass of something for rehydration at the same time. Add to this an iPod playing music and I set. 

Coronavirus Has Arrived

Sad to say, but coronavirus has arrived in my little town. I can't tell you more because our health department won't release more information. People here find it very frustrating that we don't have access to more information so that we can better educated steps to protect ourselves. We're blinded. 

Since we have no particulars, I'm seeing two different reactions from the people I know.  

....group 1- taking more severe precautions. Becoming paranoid. 

....group 2- blowing the whole thing off and becoming far less cautious. The reasoning? I can't do anything and the officials don't care. So it looks like I'm going to get it too, so I'll just enjoy myself now until I get sick. 

In my opinion, group 2's reaction is why the officials should be providing more information. People are so stressed out that many are simply giving up. They are going to be the ones spreading the virus. 

So how am I doing? Outside of being depressed last night, and angry today, I'm doing fine. Really. I hope to stay angry. It's better than losing hope. 

New Plantings

For my square foot accountants, here are my recent plantings.... 

Comfrey - 21 new starts. 

Beans - 16 sq ft , variety : Royal Burgundy

              12 sq ft , variety : Calima

Peas - 10 sq ft , variety : Oregon sugar pod II 

Green onions - 20 sq ft

I have lots of various seeds just started in the mini greenhouses, but I won't list them until the seedlings are ready to transplant out into the garden. 

Start of Recovery

Right now this farm is an excellent example of why NOT to neglect the weekly work schedule. After three months of doing little except harvesting, I'm faced with weedy beds and empty growing containers. It's enough to make a new gardener throw up their hands and quit. Not me. I see it as a challenge in a way.  And I know that I am capable of whipping this baby back into shape. Besides, it's the kind of work I enjoy doing. (And with this coronavirus lockdown, I surely could use the exercise!) 

The very first thing I did was create myself a goal. I spread out a layer of cardboard in one of the larger biotrash/hugelpits I'm working on filling in. Ugly exposed cardboard gave me an incentive to gather lots of weeds and trimmings to cover it up. The easiest and quickest way to get said weeds was by cleaning out the growing beds. Many trashcanfuls of weeds later, the cardboard was covered and I had several nice cleaned veggie beds. 

A new comfrey bed. Three weeks ago this was solid tall weeds. 

A little shovel and tiller work gave me space to sow seeds. And while I was at it, I decided to divide a large comfrey clump and start new comfrey areas. Looking at bare garden soil makes me want to plant something in it. It's like looking at a button on the wall and having a strong urge to push it. Yes, I admit that I've pushed buttons. And I just gotta plant something! 

Comfrey starts. 

So the beds around the house now have a couple types of beans growing, peas, green onions, and baby comfrey cuttings. It's a start. 

Onions, beans, and taro out my front door. 

April 15

Normally this date is Tax Day, but not this time around. Instead, it became Reopen The Market Day. With much trepidation, I reopened the local farmers market. The past couple days were spent prepping, trying to foresee any problems and fixing them before they happened. The coronavirus problem hasn't gone away yet. No, officials waited far too long before taking action for this to be only a short term problem. So we're stuck with this mess. But folks around here still need to eat, and importantly, they need a safer way to get their food than going into a closed in building full of lots of shoppers not wearing protection and not social distancing. Supermarkets are proving to be dangerous places to go.

The market grounds are spacious, open, airy, and normally sunny. It could accommodate 20 vendors widely spaced apart. Parking is such that people can avoid one another with little effort. So working from this base, a small market could be operated far safer than any grocery store. 

I've opened the market to food related items and sanitation/protection items. Period. Nothing else allowed. Today we had 11 vendors show up selling a variety of fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, juices, jams, honey, popcorn, and prepared food. In addition there were some food plants, handmade soap, and masks for sale.

Sign at the entrance. 

Market rules included wide spacing of tents, social distancing, sanitizing of hands and gloves, and facial covering for everybody-- no exceptions. All the vendors, their helpers, and 177 customers complied. But I ended up having to refuse admittance to 5 people who would not wear a mask or bandana. They expected me to argue with them, but frankly I didn't have the desire nor time. I simply stated that they couldn't enter and went about my business. They got the message and left. Little did they know that I prepared to have them arrested if they had not left. Yes, I had done my homework and was prepared. 

I have been asked if this was a wise thing to do, opening the market. It's a tough question to answer. It will only be in hindsight that I will be judged to be wise or foolish. But I took serious steps to ensure the safety of vendors and customers alike. The market looked to be far safer than any grocery store I've been in during the past month.

Back in the Saddle Again

Ok, I need to force myself back in the habit of blogging. First it was the farmers market that kept me away, simply because I was devoting all my free time to creating it. Then along came coronavirus and boom!......no more market. But my free time got gobbled up trying to set up schedules for checking in on many of the now housebound seniors, bringing them supplies, picking up their medical prescriptions, hauling their trash to the dump, etc. Right about now I've settled into a routine and once again find that I can have time for myself. Whoopee! 

This past week I'm back to farming. Whipping this place back into shape going to be a long uphill battle. Weeds moved in and thrived. Crops got picked but neglected. Perennials could use some cleaning up. Everything is crying for mulch. Hee, hee, hee, hee --- I'm in my glory......the plants need me! 

While I'm gleefully back to farming, I haven't picked up the habit again of blogging about it. Evening comes and for some reason my interest turns to other things -- creating a new soup, playing puzzle games. I even dragged out the sewing machine and mended clothes. Egads, next thing you know I'll start housecleaning! This coronavirus lockdown has caused me to go insane. That must be the answer because housecleaning and I aren't known to be bosom buddies. (By the way, I scrubbed the kitchen floor last night.)

So this is my first post back in the saddle. I'll start taking photos of the farm tomorrow and give everyone an update.