March Forward

Pretty soon there's gonna be a lot to do, so I'm tryin to get a jump on it--time to plant inside and outside. It's still winter, but I know spring is just around the corner.

Earth Box Spinach 1 week later above.

Here's my 'control' pot of spinach to compare. They're both fine, but it's freezing cold out there and windy, not nice for gardening. Might as well work in the nursery inside.

My baby Copra onions, the best keeper onion of all time, and melt in your mouth saute scrumptious. Onions are photoperiodic, so they need to go in as early as possible, and keepers take the longest to mature, over 3 months. They start to bulb after summer solstice, so go for the most growth before then for the biggest onions. Plant early, easy to raise from seed. Put about 100 seeds in a 4" pot, plant out before they reach 5" into a nice friable loam. This is the first round, using up some old seed first. Lookin good.
$$ Tip: If you have the space, you might increase your number of seed starts. You could have some to give, barter with, and sell; a pack usually has plenty of extras. They need a lot of light, natural or grow lighting, and space for potting up once or twice.

First round of peas, I like to start some and direct sow some. Too cold out there yet. These are Cascadia and Sugar Snap sprouts under there.

Visualize juicy red tomatoes. This setup is pretty cheap, or you can use what you have. I use 6" pots and takeout trays with lids (wow, greenhouses!) I fill these cells w/a soil-less mix for germination, tamp a little, then pour water into the bottom tray and let it soak in gradually. This takes time but it's worth it. The dirt stays nice and fluffy for the seed, and the water doesn't run off and disturb the seed.

I made a list of what I want to eat/grow, and a little map of the porch. I put the date of when to sow by each; I'll use these cells to start the tomatoes and peppers as soon as I get my labels together. You can use popsicle sticks, even cut up window blinds work really well. Use a waterproof Sharpie, 'cause seriously, you won't remember what they are. So it's worth waiting to do that first. Plus there are some good planting dates by the moon comin up: March 1 & 2 in Taurus (earth), and 5 & 6 in Cancer (water), and the moon's on the rise, which makes for above ground growth. If we get some seed in the soil on the first 2, it could emerge on those second two dates, a nice experiment.

GE Crop Regulations Proposed Rule

GE Crop Regulations Proposed Rule

Public Comment Period Extended through May 2009

In the last months of the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a proposal to completely overhaul its regulation of genetically engineered (GE) crops, significantly weakening its oversight. No longer would the USDA start from the assumption that a new GE crop must be regulated; some GE crops could be exempted altogether. The proposed rule would virtually ensure that contamination of organic and commercial crops will become even more frequent, and excuses the USDA from taking any action to remedy such contamination. The rule would continue to allow the dangerous practice of producing drugs and industrial chemicals in food crops grown in the open environment, and, if implemented, the proposed rule would allow the wholesale deregulation of the agricultural biotechnology industry.

The USDA has reopened the comment period on the proposed rule. The Center for Food Safety's current campaign asks supporters to tell the USDA to:

1. Withdraw the proposed rule
2. Release the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) for public review and comment and to be used as a basis for further rule-making
3. Suspend all new GE crop approvals until the above has been satisfactorily completed and unless and until GE crops are proven safe

For more information and to comment, please visit the Center for Food Safety�s campaign by clicking here.

organic tillage in Ireland part 2: brian o regan

Organic tillage in Ireland has a lot of potential but few practitioners, despite supportive rule changes and a strong market.

One man who took the plunge recently is Brian O' Regan of Kinsale. Brian farms 100 acres of tillage. Depending upon the year and rotation, he grows oats, triticale, beans and wheat.

�I was conventional in 2005, but, after the sprays and fertilizers, there was noting out of it� he tells me. �I was always interested in organic. I'd look at the market and it seemed like there was a market for it. An issue at the time was that there was no organic cereal for sale. It was mostly for home use.�

Brian mentioned the importance of visiting other tillage farmers who were already organic. He cites Ben Colchester's farm near Urlingford in Kilkenny as being especially influential for him.

1st November 2006 was Brian's starting date, so on 1st November 2008 he was fully certified organic.

A bonus for those considering converting is the fact that after one year, in-conversion to organic tillage fetches almost the same price as fully certified organic, as it is usable by fully certified organic farmers.

�I was lucky in that in the 1st year of my conversion, conventional prices were high anyway, at 200e a tonne.�

Presently, Brian is achieving more than twice the conventional price. However the yield is half the conventional yield, so input costs, or the lack of them, really matter.

And as is with so many other organic farmers, both economics and other factors were motivators:

�Handling so many chemicals and fertilizers can't be too good for you, but it�s also about the bottom line. I was spending a lot of chemicals. If the year was good, you'd survive, but in a poor year you'd be left with a big bill� he points out.

Although he only stopped spraying and using synthetic fertilizers in late 2006, already, Brian has noticed a difference in the land:

�It�s only now that you'd start to notice the changes. There are more worms on the ground and the ditches are different now too. You don't have as many weeds growing out of them without the fertilizer. The normal herbage does grow, but none of the clumps of nettles you'd see elsewhere are growing there now�

I asked Brian about a hot topic amongst organic tillage growers - the feed holiday story that is doing the rounds in the UK.

This story suggests that because feed prices are so high and the UK market retracting, the UK�s biggest organic certifier, the Soil Association, are asking the competent authorities to weaken the rules on what can be fed to organic animals.

In the not too distant past, sheep and cattle could be fed a non-organic component.

It is worth pointing out that the Soil Association denies even making this request: they instead point to the need for a debate on how best to keep people farming organically, or as close to organically as possible in the current economic situation.

Understandably, Brian is against any watering down of the feed rules: �you are either organic or you�re not. If they started to let in a 10-15% bovine ration, it would kill organic cereal growing in Ireland - that's all they'd be fed, outside of grass. The feed mills would run it to the max - business is business, so they'd push it�.

He also points out that it would be bad for the consumer, �as they'd be unsure of what they're getting�.

Considering all the effort that's gone into getting tillage farmers to convert to organic, Brian claims that increasing the conventional component would slow down the rate of conversions to organic.

Another issue is the fact that in the event of a product recall, as happened with pig meat recently, organic farmers with a conventional component are exposed.

Every farmer in every sector has issues: the price they get, the money they spend, as well as non-economic considerations. Organic tillage, all told, may offer more opportunities than most.

My Earth Box

Playing in the dirt now gets more scientific with the Earth Box, a patented self-watering Garden Kit developed by a company in PA.

I set it up last week on my day off, these photos show its structure and the organic amendments in position for the bumper crops! It's now in operation with the first planting of spinach. I'm determined to raise more food on my porch; last year, I didn't get much yield because even the large containers dried out so quickly. It's a great microclimate with shelter from the wind and lots of sunshine, so I'm experimenting with this new product. I'll document its progress. I plan to follow spinach with peppers and something else, a tough decision...

I'm looking at their kits for the classroom too, complete with curriculum guides for kindergarten through high school. It's my dream to see every school develop an "Edible Schoolyard" and have access to that living laboratory for study and delicious lunches.

And speaking of science, let me drop a little on 'planting by the moon'. I got Ed Hume's guide which I like 'cause it confirms what I'm feelin sometimes and keeps me on track with my timing. I've followed planting by the moon for decades and there's always more to learn. Principally, that the moon has a pull on plants just like the tides, and if you 'work wid it' you can increase your effectiveness and harmony in the garden. So... science meets spirit too.

We're in a 'new moon' phase right now, and by the 25th and 26th, moon will be 'waxing' (getting bigger) and in a fertile sign, Pisces. Green light! This will be great for putting in the first peas and cool weather crops. Sure, it's still on the cool side, but give it a shot, and you can get into this riddim, too. We're not gardening in a vacuum, not outside anyway. There are lots of natural forces at work and play, so it's a chance to tune into these and see what happens. I'll mention more as I blog on.

About those natural forces...yeah, give thanks for those. It's so nice to 'get out' by this time of winter and get some o dat fresh air, sunshine, wind, freedom and color again. Rudolf Steiner formulated this whole approach to gardening "biodynamically" way back in the 20's. Read more here.

$$ Tip: Test Your Old Seeds First

Do you have some partial packs of old seeds lying around, and you really want those shiny new packs at the store? It can be a problem... I recently went through all my seed and found some that is 10 years old! I decided to test the germination before I toss them; you can do this too.

Put it in water in a bowl and soak till it swells, maybe overnight. Rinse well, toss any seed that won't sprout (no germ or broken), drain well, then cover the bowl with a damp paper towel.

You're creating a nice warm environment for sprouting. Keep towel moist and check seed a couple times a day. If you see any spoiled seed, toss it. Rinse seed.

Within a couple days, you'll see sprouts like these. I grew them for a few days like this. Now they're actually in the fridge till I get time to plant this week. My germination rate looks about 50/50, and took zero effort. Not bad for some seed from 2002.

Day One of Spring Training

Today was so productive and fun. Starting to get the porch dialed in, I have to create some chaos first! I'm converting my big pots from flowers to veggies and moving stuff around, repotting and givin everything some love and cleaning.

Then went over to the big garden. It's like goin to the beach on a pretty marnin.

This garden was love at first sight for me, I remember when my daughter first showed it to me. It looked like a beautiful patchwork quilt on the slope in Gabriel Park, here in SW Portland. It's the prettiest setting, one of 33 community gardens in the city; I've been gardening here for 9 years, and now have a raised 4' x 8' box, and the surrounding land, a nice macrocosm after my micro porch.

Gardening makes me feel so grateful. I harvested the rest of my leeks, harvested some compost, a half wheelbarrow full! and spread it on the garlic, transplanted overwintered lettuce starts, and dug enough potatoes to eat for supper. I can hardly believe these lettuce starts survived our freezing snowy winter in a pot---talk about life force!

To do: take cardboard over and do the paths. start grapes along the fence, maybe potatoes under. Take time to dream about what to grow and where. Visualize bountiful delicious beautiful food picked at the peak!

porridge, tillage and organic farming in ireland: prospects

Everyone, from Ray D'Arcy to Ian Paisley it seems, is eating porridge for breakfast these days.

Organic porridge oats are an increasingly popular and affordable breakfast choice these days for many households.


Along with Flavahans, Odlumns, Bunalun and Tescos all produce organic porridge for the Irish market.

Ulster says: eat your porridge!

And yet, within the overall organic sector, tillage is one of the poor relations. Only horticulture can claim to be as underdeveloped.

Less than 2% of Ireland's 45,000 hectares of organic farmland is devoted to tillage crops. Much of this is produced for use on the holding itself, or traded farmgate to farmgate.

The low levels of organic tillage production is unusual in many respects. There is undoubted and indeed rising demand.

There is strong feed demand from organic farmers as well as from the fish industry.
Organic tillage requirements in Ireland went up by 1000 tonnes last January, when the derogation allowing a portion of conventional feed in a certified organic ruminant's diet was scrapped.

Imports of organic feed and feed ingredients accounted for up to 7,700 tonnes, when last recorded.

And while this is significant, the UK is less than 40% self-sufficient in organic cereals. While the exchange rate between the Euro and the British pound will always affect the market, there is export potential for the sector in the future.

Another possible cause of conversions to organic tillage is the low costs involved, when compared to conventional. With lower costs and a higher price achieved, organic tillage's variable costs are less than 2/3 those of their conventional counterparts, according to Teagasc figures.

Taking all of this into account, while also adding other considerations, Teagasc came up with the rather optimistic total possible requirement of 18,000 more tonnes of organic cereals. This represented a six fold increase on the then situation in 2006-early 2007.

This was based on very ideal situations for organic tillage, and involved presumptions about dairy and the fish industry which were sunny to say the least.

Nevertheless, there has been some recent growth: In 2006 there were 72 registered organic farmers with a tillage enterprise farming 620 ha of tillage crops.

This represented an average of 8.6 ha of tillage area per farmer with approximately 2/3 of these farmers having less than 10 ha of crops.

By the end of 2007, there were 93 registered organic farmers with a tillage enterprise, farming 1283 hectares, which does represent a significant increase (2008 figures are as yet unavailable).
This growth has been helped along by policy initiatives aimed at further increasing the amount of organic tillage in Ireland.

Conventional farmers can now convert part of their holding to organic. Decoupling organic from REPS was done in part with tillage farmers in mind, while additional organic payments (E240 per hectare) were made available in 2007 for stockless non REPS tillage farmers who grow green cover crops for fertility.

The most challenging part of converting from conventional to organic tillage is considered to be the rotations.

At last year's highly successful organic farm walks, and indeed at the organic farming conference in December, representatives of Teagasc highlighted their seven year stockless rotation. This ran from 2000 to 2007 in Oak Park, Carlow, and consisted of two years grass-clover, winter wheat, potatoes, winter oats, lupins and spring barley.

Crops achieved the following: Winter Wheat 5.9t/ha, potatoes 32.7 t/ha, winter oats 5.8 t/ha, lupins (which were considered unsatisfactory) 2.4 t/ha, spring barley 4.5 t/ha and triticale 7.5 t/ha. Triticale was grown in one of the plots designated for winter wheat.
Next week, we will talk to a Kinsale-based organic tillage farmer, to see how the practical reality stacks up against the theories.

Look on the Bright Side

Today, I came home early unexpectedly because of slow business where I work, yeah, I was feelin low and trying to stay some full strides ahead o' mi worst fears. Everywhere I turn it seems, time tough and gettin more so.

What to do? Head out to the farm, my balcony in this case, and see what a gwan...

A little chilly, but there's a lot to do now that I'm out here. The Oregano is wakin up, and the green plant on the right is a righteous weed, Chickweed, in fact. Now this is a good herb to know and eat. Very nutritious and tasty in salads, try some, it's free. It makes a nice living mulch for spring too, watch for it in your patch and make use of it now. A good spring tonic.


The catnip is juicy and tender right now, just the way kitties prefer. I use it for a relaxing tea as well, and I love it---purrrrrr....


A shot of my Thyme pot, just needs a little food and attention and it's ready to cut for some Jamaican rice and peas. I feel better already!

Onto some real harvesting! I scattered some carrot seed in a pot late last fall just for fun, and now I'm pulling some real baby carrots, and they're great! This amazes me, because they survived snow and freezing temps 2 mos. ago. Now I feel like I'm absorbing all that cool cosmic energy that they've grown up with---you just can't buy that in the store!



This is another experiment that went well from 08. I grew a Habanero in a pot; they have a very long season, think tropical, so by the fall, it was just thinking about fruiting and wouldn't survive the winter outside. So I brought it inside and it's become a pet. Look at all the flowers...I'll put it outside into a bigger pot and hopefully have a habanero tree this summer.

Cool, I got started out there, and I feel so much better. Next, I'll be starting some peas and onions in peat pots. I'm lovin the future once more.

Happy Valentines!

Thanks to everyone who came to the Co-op to help us celebrate Valentines Day. We�re making Valentine cards from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and raffling off Valentine�s baskets. The basket raffles are going on all day long today, 2/14, so if you haven�t entered yet, by all means skip or stroll on over to the Co-op and fill out a raffle ticket. You don�t need to be present to win; we�ll call you!

Love, People�s (thump, thump)

Ready, Set.....

It's time to get everything lined up for the first plantings, yes already!

Pick up a seed catalogue and see what you want to eat. Check your seed you have and buy what's needed early. I'll discuss testing germination of old seed in a future post, so don't toss it yet. You can put in some lettuce seed and mustard, a salad mix, those hardy greens. I'll start with pac choi, lettuce, and some parsley seed. Within a couple weeks, I'll put in the first round of peas. I like to grow shell, sugar snap and snow peas, so I just stagger the plantings.

I went to the nursery today, and decided that in this terrifying economic time, I needed to invest in myself and my health, and I bought an Earth Box! This is the patented self-watering planter box that claims very good yields. I'll use it for vegetables on my balcony. I can't wait to set it up.

I got peat pots too for starting peas, tomatoes, onions, spinach, peppers, salad mixes. I like to start them at home for transplanting later into the community garden where they're more vulnerable as seedlings.

The nurseries are just starting to get plants in; they have bareroot strawberries which you can grow in pots. If you're blessed with more land, get some bareroot asparagus, rhubarb, grapes, berries, even horseradish etc. You'll save money by buying bareroot anything now; you can pot them up if your ground isn't ready and have your own nursery!

I haven't found herb starts yet, but I'll feature them in a post soon on growing herbs on a sunny windowsill.

Slow Food = Fast Food!

Remember the leeks I was bragging about? Here's what I did with half of one today. To me it's amazing that I'm eating these leeks from 2008, and it's almost time to replant them. Think about including these in your garden. They're almost labor-free, and you can store your harvest in the ground! They grow slowly, but they're fast in the kitchen.


I sliced it down the middle to clean it thoroughly, then chopped half. Put it inna pan to saute.


Next, I added tofu, some cooked kabocha winter squash, some pumpkin seeds and soy sauce.

Finally, threw in some cooked brown rice to reheat.

Here it is on the plate in about 10 minutes, with yogurt and hot sauce of course.

And that's a planter7 breakfast!

Sprouting Seeds & Beans

Both seeds and beans use the jar method. You can think of any edible seed, and if it's organic: grown without pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, grown with natural methods of nourishing the soil, and then not fumigated, irradiated, and sterilized, and stuff like that... it should sprout, of course. I just sprouted some fenugreek seeds last week, that fragrant seed used in Indian cooking. They're slightly bitter (tonic) and good.

Some favorites to try are radish, broccoli, and mustard seeds. These are smaller and more delicate than lentil, but grow the same way. Harvest at 1" long.


I used to sprout red clover and alfalfa all the time; I don't anymore. The FDA now advises that those two kinds in particular, when raw, may harbor bacteria that'll make you sick, as in salmonella. And you wouldn't want to cook them. I would say 'stay away' from those. I've even tried to grow alfalfa in the recent past several times and can't get a good crop, so there must be an issue with the seed.

With any sprouting, it's crucial that you start with organic seed; you can find it in any natural food store. Wash it well, use clean equipment, rinse the sprouts with clean cool water, and monitor their growth. If the location is too warm, they'll rot. Too cool, and they won't grow. By the sink seems like a good spot.

You're probably familiar with mung bean sprouts and possibly soybean. Those are commercially available. Your homegrown sprouts will be shorter and smaller, but tastier too. For mung, soy and aduki, you can put a paper bag over the jar to keep it dark. This extends the roots and minimizes leaf growth, just like store-bought! Only better. Bean sprouts are best lightly steamed or stir-fried.

Here's a trick: Try peas too. I sprout the ones that grow too long in the garden, especially at the end of the season. Sprout them, eat some and store some in the fridge for planting in the late summer.

And for camping and survival out on the trail, you can make a screen bag to sprout in and hang from your campsite tree bough.