Newer Entries » Posts Tagged ‘Growing Food’

14 Apr 2009

Growing Food in the Backyard!

Posted by Jake. View Comments

 

We decided a while back to convert our whole yard into an edible landscape, after seeing the Dervaes family at pathtofreedom.com and how successful they’ve been at converting their own yard into a food source…. 

freedomgarden.org

So… we decided to convert our lawn sprinkler heads into drip emitters and now… instead of watering grass…we’re growing food.. with less water usage!

The video above is a tour of own backyard and sprouting room.  We’re learning as we go….and having a lot of fun! 

We’re using no chemicals.. of any kind in the growth process of the plants….and no pesticides on near or around the plants.  Instead, we’re experimenting with all sorts of organic/natural methods….like using, compost, kelp, ocean water, rock dusts, beneficial insects, and worm/compost tea. 

Also we’re using high quality seed from local growers, and using heirloom strains…from growers we find from everywhere.  We just heard of this seed company that sells only Native American seeds..here

We recommend growing your own food to anyone! 

It’s not only incredibly nutritious.. it’s relaxing, meditative..FUN..and connects you to your food!

26 Mar 2009

The Growing Dome “March 2009″

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This is the the growth update since the last video in January.  The major update other than growth, was the addition of the tomato bed in the middle.  Also, lots of peppers and herbs like basil, lavender, fennel, dill, cilantro and of course the leafy greens and edible flowers and fruits! 

The plants seem to be loving the “Sonic Bloom!  Just found this great video on how Sonic Bloom works..worth checking out!  We’re also foliar spraying with diluted ocean water…from growgreens.com, every couple weeks, in the morning, as the Sonic Bloom plays.  There’s a whole chapter dedicated to Sonic Bloom, in “Secrets of the Soil.”  This book contains amazing insights from farmers and growers… from many different cultures around the world! 

Secrets of the Soil : New Solutions for Restoring Our Planet

Just wanted to mention the Growing Dome itself…which if you’ll notice in the video above…has amazing light that diffuses through the shapes of the Growing Dome.  It creates an atmosphere that makes you feel like you’re swimming in light. 

We purchased it as a kit, from growingspaces.com.  We went with the 18ft. diameter kit, because it would fit perfectly in the space we had in our backyard.  There are many different sizes though…all the way up to… I believe 52ft. in diameter and as small as 12 ft.  The Tree of Life has a Growing Dome also…  Courtney Pool posted a cool picture on her blog…here.  Then there’s Anthony Anderson’s Growing Dome over at rawmodel.com, who was our original inspiration to get a Growing Dome…he’s completely amazing us with his, “model for living permaculture project”…which we’re following very closely.  Worth checking out for sure, he has a 22 ft. diameter Growing Dome!

The plants are starting to grow quickly now as temperatures are increasing outside….we just planted cucumbers and melons which will be in the next video.  Having lots of fun!

13 Mar 2009

GROW YOUR OWN GREENS… for…GREEN SMOOTHIES!

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Freshly harvested greens, flowers and fruit from the dome and square foot gardens...Aloe Vera, Mint, Collards, Chard, Kale, Freckles Lettuce, Jericho Romaine..Violas, Calendula and a Meyer's Lemon

Freshly harvested greens, flowers and fruit from the dome and square foot gardens...Aloe Vera, Mint, Collards, Chard, Kale, Freckles Lettuce, Jericho Romaine..Violas, Calendula and a Meyer's Lemon - click for larger image

For pretty much my whole life, I never ate salad.  Never really ate vegetables of any kind!  That probably was a contribution to my health decline in recent years!  But when I found Victoria Boutenko’s books on raw foods and specifically “Green For Life” on blending “greens” up in a Vita-mix… something resonated!

Green for Life

At first, I had to go to the store to familiarize myself with what dark, leafy greens even were!  I stood in the organic produce aisle just staring…. taking in names like, Kale, Chard, Arugula, Romaine, Dandelion, and Collard!  So much to take in, so many new names, but it all felt so good!!  We started applying the lessons from “Green for Life” by blending our greens with a little fruit and it made it taste great!  For the first time in my life I was getting fresh greens!  I always loved fruit, but this made for a perfect marriage of the two..

We love the smoothies sooo much, that we’re now growing our own greens.  The organics available at grocery stores are great, since they don’t have pesticides, etc…but these greens are a whole new story….you have to taste homegrown food to know the difference!  Find a local farmers market to taste the homegrown difference…these local growers can help you get on your way to growing your own!

Here’s a video from a couple days ago, March 8th 2009.  Outside temps. are around freezing at night still, but in the high 60′s during the day…..so we’ve removed the plastic covering over the sq. ft. gardens and are now using AGRIBON – 19 exclusively on the gardens.  It’s working great, keeping the bugs and wind to a minimum as well as frost protection!  The plants breathe through it, and push it up as they grow!

Here’s the seeds/seed companies we used for the greens in the video:

Heirloom Lacinato Kale

Heirloom Golden Chard

Organic Champion Collards

Check out “Green For Life!”  We always include the books/references we learned from, so you can ingest the information yourselves.  You don’t even have to buy the books, they’re probably available at the local library!  Worth reading for sure!

We just noticed Victoria has a new book on the subject coming out this summer….called, “Green Smoothie Revolution.”

Green Smoothie Revolution: The Radical Leap Toward Natural Health

We’re excited to see what updates she has, she’s an amazing researcher!  We love the simplicity of her perspective, like how she mentions that…..

Mountain gorillas don’t eat hamburgers, spaghetti etc..  they eat leafy greens, supplemented with fruit, and reach their massive size from the pure proteins, enzymes, chlorophyll and minerals found in the GREENS!

This made sense to my mind, when I read it, but when we applied it, and started drinking green smoothies……..that’s all the proof we needed.  We felt great!  The Vita-mix rips the plant cellulose apart….releasing much more nutrients than if you were to masticate the greens for a very long time!  Victoria describes the plant cellulose as little sponges that ”sweep” through the intestines and colon, cleaning them out, while mineralizing and providing pure sunfood… CLOROPHYLL.

We now do a smoothie a day, and gratefully have the option now to go outside and pick the fresh stuff just outside our back door.

Here’s the follow up video…….blending fresh greens for breakfast!

Grow your own greens….then blend em up!

19 Feb 2009

The OCEAN WATER CONNECTION

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The sprouting/ocean room, perfect climate conditions! 

The sprouting/ocean room, perfect climate conditions!

 

There seems to be a connection to ocean water and growing healthy food, of therapeutic quality!  

 Dr. Gabriel Cousens mentions using ocean water, in “Spiritual Nutrition” and says they use ocean water exclusively at the Tree of Life Center in Patagonia, Arizona.  It’s working so well, that interns from around the world have started going there to learn more.  He references the work of Dr. Maynard Murray, in “Sea Energy Agriculture, for where to learn more about using ocean water in farming.  So we did!  We picked up a copy of Murray’s book and another book on the subject, called Fertility from the Ocean Deep, by Charles Walters.

After reading and applying the work found in  ”Sea Energy Agriculture” by Dr. Maynard Murray, and “Fertility from the Ocean Deep” by Charles Walters, we’re convinced it’s profoundly true! 

So here’s the connection…………if you feed your soil minerals……..plants pick up the minerals from the soil………if people and animals then eat the plants……… they get the perfect quantity of minerals…… in the perfect form,  prepared for them by the plant. 

Great mineralization means healthy plants and healthy people!

The Ocean Room / Sprout Room 

The Ocean Room / Sprout Room...growing anemones and tomatoes.

 

According to Dr. Murray, if you visualize for a moment that minerals found in the soil are little rubies and gems, then, you can imagine plants for a moment as “little miners” or extractors of these minerals.  He said it’s easy to then visualize the gardner as the caretaker of the ”mine” or ”soil” and how each different plant the gardener puts in the soil mines specific minerals through it’s roots and into itself.  Gardners, in this case, are more caretakers of the soil and have the responsibility of replenishing it with minerals if they want strong crops!   It’s a fun visualization because literally, that’s whats happening.  As crops grow, they leech minerals out of the the soil eventually leaving the ground they’re in…depleted of these life giving minerals.  The farmer is extracting the minerals/gems out of the “mine/soil”, not with his pick, but with his plants!  

These “minerals” are the major and minor trace minerals we know as Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Iodine..etc… the periodic chart from science class!   They’re also known as Macronutrients and Micronutrients

Either way…..the minerals are gone, unless you give them back to the soil somehow.  There are many methods to keep minerals in the soil, from green manures, to using seaweed, to using rock powders.  All which we’ll check into in later posts!

 

Heirloom tomato seedlings... sprouting in ocean water & coconut coir! 

Heirloom tomato seedlings... sprouting in ocean water & coconut coir!

Here’s an example from, ”Sea Energy Agriculture” of how many minerals a plant will extract from the soil, if the minerals are present.  Tomatoes will “mine” almost 50 of the known 92 minerals (minor and major).  Sweet potato will mine about 63 minerals.  The grass family (wheat, rye, etc..) will mine all 92 known minerals!   Only if given the opportunity though!  The minerals have to be in the soil first! 

When asked where he would get the minerals to add to the soil, Murray suggested the OCEAN!  Every known mineral is found in the ocean, even gold!   Not just any water, his insights were specific, at least 50 miles from shore…and the water must be collected at 40 ft down and 30 ft up from the ocean floor.  Interesting insights!  Worth checking into….all in these books.

Murray suggested diluting the ocean water to the proper parts per million.  He did numerous tests on many different farms and had huge successess, from increased yield to increased nutritive value.   Huge increases!  Sometime increases in mineral uptake of 300 percent!  The plants just loved it!  So did the animals that ate the plants.   His tests on increased animal health are also in the book.

 

Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Prudens Purple, heirloom tomatoes!  Growing under a 250 watt metal halide, 10,OOO Kelvin bulb

Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Prudens Purple, heirloom tomatoes! Growing under a 250 watt metal halide, 10,OOO Kelvin Bulb

 

With this understanding, he said that we can then start providing the plants with the proper minerals, which, when extracted out of the soil by the plants, they become STRONGER….and are resistant to pests, mold, fungus and disease!

 

 Heirloom Spinach, Kale, Arugula, Nasturtium sprouting in ocean water.

Heirloom Spinach, Kale, Arugula, Nasturtium sprouting in ocean water.

 

Stronger plants, means more strength, health and vitality in those that eat those plants.  This has been scientifically proven in multiple tests done by Dr. Murray.  He proved that farm animals raised on ocean grown plants didn’t get sick!  They were bigger in size and they were happier! 

 

Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach....loving the ocean water!

Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach....loving the ocean water!


The Key is the Minerals
!  Ocean water just so happens to contain all known minerals!  Most of the World’s soils are depleted of these essential minerals.  Through erosion, bad agricultural practices, etc…soils have slowly become void of life. 

Where there is life giving soil (virgin soil)…farmers usually exploit it with one or two good years of production on the land, and either move on to new land within a few years or watch their crops vitality waste away with each new growing season. 

 

Just snowed, Feb 7th 2009

Just snowed, Feb 7th 2009

 

Historically, farmers in the U.S. have seen good results these first few years, but then, as the crops they’ve planted pull the minerals out of the soil, farmers begin to add chemicals in the form of (N.P.K) nitrogen, phosphorus nd potassium, only 3 of the 92 known minerals!  Most chemical fertilizer mixes add no more than 12 more of these known minerals!  Farmers have historically been forced to keep buying these chemical fertilizers to see the same production the following year.  Even worse, since the plants are weakened, nature sends in pests to get rid of the plants…..well….. farmers just add more chemicals to fight them off……!

 

Plants..keeping warm...ocean grown, kept warm by the dome

All Ocean-grown plants..keeping warm...under a canopy of snow!

 

You can see the cycle here……..!    Why not just grow your plants in highly mineralized soil….and when those minerals are depleted…. re-supply the soil with minerals in the form of diluted ocean water?   

Life seems to be there, in the water!

Plenty of Green under here....

Plenty of Green under here....

 

One other thing I liked that Dr. Murray mentions is this. 

For humans, the most bio-available form of ingesting these essential minerals is through the consumption of plants.  Not through direct intake of these trace minerals! 

The reason, is that plants, make these minerals more organically available to our bodies, this is one of their beautiful functions! 

This made a lot of sense when I read it, not so much to my science mind, but to my intuition.   The plants are processors of these in-organic mineralsSo the best/deepest way to get mineralized is through eating highly mineralized plant foods!  Foods that had the opportunity to pull up every mineral they could from the soil they were growing in!!!!  The minerals they extracted are now found in their perfect essence in the plant!  Perfect for human consumption!  The plant will not pull up what it and we cannot use!

We’re going to continue using ocean water in growing our food!  It tastes better!   It feels better!

Attempting to undertand why things work from a science perspective is one thing…..it has it’s place………but biting into and tasting for yourself and feeling with your intuition………. ,the food’s vitality…….,for me,….  is the most direct way,  to decide if the food you’re eating is nutritious!  So, next time you bite into a tomato, think about all the minerals that are….or aren’t or could….be there! 

 

Budding Fig!  Blossoming Almond in foreground!

Budding Fig! Blossoming Almond in background!


So where do you get ocean water??  We’ve been using diluted ocean water from growgreens.com…of all the sources out there we like these guys!  They’re using the exact methods described by Dr. Murray and they’re even adding to it.  They’re including the methods of Rudolph Steiner, the Bio Dynamic farming pioneer.  They’re potentiating the mix, using the Bio Dynamic preps. spoken of by Steiner in his famous lectures in the 1920′s and vortexing them in valerian, dandelion, and other such known homeopathic remedies to give us…..

                                                THALASSA MIX

Thalass Mix, from..GrowGreens.com

Thalassa Mix, from..GrowGreens.com

 

We just can’t say enough about this stuff!  We’ve been growing hydroponic wheatgrass, sprouting all of our seeds, fertilizing our gardens, all with with this Thalassa Mix, from growgreens.com!  Since each plant requires a different dilution, we just mix up a batch of spring water, diluted with the proper amount of ocean water, then test with our digital TDS meter for the proper parts per million.   THAT EASY!  Our one gallon container we purchased from growgreens.com is only half way gone!  We’ve used it constantly for almost 8 months.  You only need about one cap full of ocean water per 5 gallons regular water, a little goes a long……way! 

Interestingly, Dr. Maynard Murray died before his ideas could be accepted.  In fact, he died many decades ago.  He lived in a time when chemical companies ruled the earth.  His ideas were conveniently forgotton or laughed at.  Until now….

That’s about it for this overly long post!  More to come on ocean water.  We’ll be doing a post on growing wheat grass very soon.  All you need is a tray and two paper towels, then ……… 

Just add ocean water!  Everythings in the water!

15 Feb 2009

GREENS EXPLODING! SQUARE FOOT GARDENING!

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The greens in the square foot gardens are outgrowing their boxes!  These are some before and after shots of the sq. ft. gardens.  If you have little space, but still want to garden, or even if you have a ton of space…square foot gardening might be for you!

The first shot was taken in late September 2008

square-foot_11

 The following shots were taken February 7th 2009.

square-foot_2

square-foot_3

After our first attempt at this form of gardening, we can definitely recommend it!  It’s a 4ft. x 4ft.  square box,  made out of lumber purchased locally.  The “raised beds”  keep the soil warmer, allow for a “specific” soil mix, and is easier for backyard growing because it takes up way less space.   You can also protect the gardens from the weather and pests quite easily!  It’s more controlled!

square-foot_4

The PVC pipe provides a frame which plastic is draped over, keeping the plants from completely freezing..outside temps are averaging around 30F.  The yellow tape hanging from the center pipe attracts flying pests, like gnats and flies.  Quite effective, when the gardens are covered!

We highly recommend the book, 
All New Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew

square-foot

Mel says after retiring as an engineer he began to garden and approached the garden like an engineer, looking for easier ways to get the same results.  After trial and error, he has broken down how many crops you can plant by thesquare foot.” 

For example: one broccoli can be planted in one square, but the next square to the right can have 4 swiss chard plants.   The wood subdividing each sq ft garden box provides a great way to learn crop rotation and just visualize your garden better.  

 We also put a weed cloth on the bottom and haven’t had any weeds!  

Check out Mel’s book if you have a backyard and don’t want to rip up the ground, are unsure of the soil quality etc…   I’ve even seen pictures of square foot gardens on apartment balconies! 

They provide a great way for everyone to grow their own food!!

square-foot_5

square-foot_6

square-foot_7_21

square-foot_81

square-foot_91

Grow your own, “wherever” you are!  Check out Mel’s book!