Cultivate Simple: Lost in the Jungle
We will return to our regularly scheduled podcast next Sunday, as much as we wanted to record one this past week, it wasn’t feasible since we were traveling. You’ll hear all about it next Monday as we will be filling you in the details on episode 19.
Sorry for any hiccups that have occurred on the blog over the past 10 days, Mr Chiots and I have been in South America. We traveled down on the 8th, after a flight cancellation we ended up on the red eye to Bogota arriving at 6:30 am on Saturday morning. As you can imagine, it was not pleasant.
My dad picked us up at the airport and we were off down through the mountains onto the prairie below. It’s a beautiful drive, more about it later. We met the rest of our group, 7 others, at a camp for a week of work. Mr Chiots I were on hand for filming and photographing.
From our cabin, we could see some jungle, we enjoyed watching the howler monkeys one morning and lots of wild parrots and toucans. The temperatures were in the 90’s during the day and the 80’s at night. Thankfully, it wasn’t humid.
Today, we’re actually on a flight back to the US, at least hopefully we are. This post was quickly scheduled on Saturday night when we were in the capital city in between events. You’ll be hearing more about our trip in the coming weeks, I’ll even share the links to the videos we made.
Have you traveled anywhere tropical in your life? Where & when did you go?
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Quote of the Day: Rudolph Steiner
“So long as one feeds on foods from unhealthy soil, the spirit will lack the stamina to free itself from the prison of the body.”
Rudolph Steiner from What Is Biodynamics?: A Way to Heal and Revitalize the Earth
Over the past month, I’ve been reading about ways to improve the soil. I want to make sure the soil I’m growing my food in is as healthy as it can be, because that in turn will provide the healthiest vegetables for my plate. I’m trying to come up with the best plant to remineralize this soil with minimal inputs and maximum benefits.
I’ll write more in the future about what I decide to so, most likely it will involve lots of compost, animal manure, green manure, beneficial microbial additions and rock/mineral powders. I’m debating on whether or not I want or need to get a soil test completed or if I just want to add beneficial amendments and let the soil balance itself out over the coming years. I really want to focus on watching the plants as they grow to learn to read them.
What’s your favorite way to grow the soil in your garden?
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Quote of the Day: Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd
Within the large context of gardening, the raising of vegetables if peculiar, for the nourishment it offers is both physical and spiritual, a rare meeting of body and soul. In its pursuit, one becomes more directly a second Nature, seeding and tending and harvesting, usually in one season. There is a directness, too, a straightforwardness of process, a neatness expressed even in the rows, that makes vegetables gardening, among all other sorts on might think to practice, peculiarly satisfying. And, though all gardening creates litanies – the blooming of the first snowdrops, crocus and daffodils, roses and Joe Pye weed, the turning of autumn leaves and the appearance of the first colchicum – the maturation times of vegetables become unusually precious beads on a long string.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd in Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill
There’s something wonderful about watching a vegetable go from seed to table. I especially appreciate the cycle of the humble garden pea. Perhaps it the size of the seeds, the quick growing nature of the vines or the amazing taste of freshly harvested peas. It doesn’t carry the poshness of arugula or the flamboyance of a large round tomato, but garden peas are a true delight. If you want to learn more about growing peas, head on over to read my Growing Great Peas guide on the Your Day Blog.
What’s your favorite vegetable to watch mature?
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Warm & Toasty
AH, being warm & cozy is something I really enjoy. Perhaps that’s why I appreciate a cup of hot coffee or tea so much. For many years, I’ve been saying I needed to get a pair of flannel lined jeans. I spend a lot of time outside during the fall/winter/spring seasons, and regular jeans just aren’t warm enough sometimes.
A pair has never been in my dresser, because I’m so incredibly picky about how my clothes fit. I just found a pair of prAna flannel lined jeans. Now I’m warm & toasty during my morning chores, heading out to the chicken coop and the duck house doesn’t involve cold legs.
The great thing about these jeans is that they’re not too hot to wear around the house either. I like them so much, I bought another pair. I’ll be wearing these 6 months out of the year!
Do you have a favorite warm & toasty piece of clothing?
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Friday Favorite: Graph Paper
Growing up in South America gave me a love of graph or quadrille paper. For some reason, it’s the paper of choice there, ruled paper is not easy to find. Since I possess a slightly obsessive side, this plays right into my love of straight lines and tidiness. I don’t use graph paper much anymore since most of my work is done on the computer, it is still my paper of choice when it comes to garden planning.
Since my garden is much bigger now, I was thinking about taping a few sheets of graph paper together, then I stumbled upon 27 x34, 1″ Square Easel sized graph paper – SCORE! This gives me more than enough room to plan out the big main edible garden down to the square foot. I also purchased a pad of 11″ x 17″ quardille paper paper for planning purposes – my small sheets weren’t large enough to plan out an entire year.
Graph paper bring me much joy and happiness, I love nothing more than to sit down with a fine point pen or pencil and a piece of graph paper. Even though I spent much of my day writing and planning on the computer, I find deep satisfaction in writing with a nice pen on good paper.
Do you have a favorite kind of paper or textile for writing/planning?
