Xenji here, our resident camera phone photographer.
Here are a few photographs from our main house looking out at the land.
The beauty is humbling.
Winter Garden
Reply
shitake mushrooms!
shitake fruits (mushrooms) here! did you know that mushrooms are merely the fruiting body of the organism that we call ‘mushroom’? the prolific and growing part of the creature is the mycilium which grows through a piece of wood or the forest floor or a compost pile, etc…
when the mycilium is ready to reproduce is is putting forth mushrooms which in turn spread spores through out the universe. for real – these spores can travel through space undisturbed.
here we see the fruiting body of shitake mushrooms – a gourmet and medicinal, ancient food source. i inoculated these fresh alder logs 4 years ago with shitake spawn. i wrote them off after 3 years because they did not show any signs of growth of life. just as we were about to reclaim them for firewood the other day, xenji and i noticed these little mushies bursting out! what a joy! we cooked them immediately and boy were they yummy.
in this case- 2 out of 14 logs fruited. this gives me some hope that the rest of them might bust out and thus we will allow them to grow a little more, just till this summer… if they’re going to fruit at all they will do it between now and late spring as it becomes warmer but still plenty wet. updates to follow…
shitake fruits (mushrooms) growing off an alder log after 4 years!
i seem to have caught our bwoy xenji in a keen moment on the log hustle… here we see a huge maple tree that fell over the driveway, onto a truck, onto a shed, and into the field. in cutting it up we have the blessing of making this decision: do we use it for great firewood next year or do we save it to grow mushrooms on?
fire wood or mushroom logs?
hardwood like this burns well and is very valuable for the hearth. it is also ideal for cultivating gourmet mushrooms on. again- very valuable. to grow mushrooms on wood you need freshly downed logs… logs that are still relatively alive and not occupied by other competing fungal species. we will split it in half – burn some and inoculate some. after inoculation we will set them in the shade and hopefully in a year or 3 they will give us tons of food and medicine.
tons more info out there on mushroom cultivation. google it. also look at paul staments’ work up in washington… fungiperfecti.com
thanxomuch! blessed sweet love!
10 veggies u can grow with out full sun!
something i found online today! great info here!
When most people picture a vegetable garden, they imagine a spot that bakes in the sun all day. For some vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, and squash, this is the ideal site. What if we want to grow vegetables, but don’t have a site like this “ideal” one available? There are plenty of vegetables that will grow well without full sun. Those of us who have shade can grow vegetables, too.
Basically, a good rule to remember is that if you grow a plant for the fruit or the root, it needs full sun. If you grow it for the leaves, stems, or buds, a little shade will be just fine.
Keep in mind that no vegetable will grow in full, dense shade. The following crops will produce with three to six hours of sun, or fairly constant dappled shade, per day.
- Salad Greens, such as leaf lettuce, arugula, endive, and cress.
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Peas
- Beets
- Brussels Sprouts
- Radishes
- Swiss Chard
- Leafy Greens, such as collards, mustard greens, spinach, and kale
- Beans
In some ways, growing in a site with part shade is easier than growing in full sun. You won’t have to water as often, and crops that are quick to bolt in hot weather, such as lettuces and spinach, will grow quite a bit longer given some shade.
The best thing about knowing that these crops will successfully grow with some shade is that you’ll be able to get more produce from your garden. Even if you’re lucky enough to have an area with full sun that you can reserve for a vegetable garden, knowing which plants will take some shade will help you get the most out of your space. You can use that sunny space to grow the sun-lovers: peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, corn, and squashes. The other crops, those that do well in the shade, can be tucked in anywhere. Grow some beets or swiss chard in your part-sun perennial border. Grow some lettuce or radishes in a container or window box. Make use of the space you have, in both sun and shade, and you can easily double the amount of vegetables you would usually get.
Having a shady garden doesn’t mean you’re destined to live a life devoid of fresh garden vegetables. By making the most of what you have, you can harvest lettuces, peas, and other tasty veggies from spring through fall.
original website here
seeds!
its still possible to harvest seeds that we didnt take in yet in the early part of the rainy season which started for us around october this year. i am still gathering seed of blue vervain – the invisibility plant, st. johns’s wort, zi ciao, joe pye weed aka. gravel root, all kinds of greens and salad, lobelia, etc.
its as simple as stripping them off of the plant or dumping them out ,wrapping them in an envelope, and label them for the coming spring. some, however, require cleaning the seed from the chaff; the bits of organic matter left over from the seed pod or the flowering part of the plant. its best to just isolate the seed so that when planting, you are just sowing seed, not little bits of plant matter as this will surely mold or rot or attract fungus which will kill off all spouts.
see here some st. john’s seed that i was able to just dump into my hand. i have so much of this saved already that i didnt bother to collect this little handful. rather i just chuck it around the garden to ensure a huge crop of st. john’s flowers. it’s really a weed if not controlled….. they call it kalamath weed for it grows rampantly in the kalamath river valley of northern california.
it hasn’t become a big problem for us yet here… thank goodness…
st. john's seed pods
then you can just dump then out into your hand to save them. they must be dry... must do this on a clear day.
if you collect seed when its wet you must put them somewhere to dry or else they can rot or mold. nothing’s worse than going back to your seed stash all wrapped up all nice, only to find that there was some moisture in there and they all molded.
ps- here is my favorite yellow sweater that my dear ma gave to me back in the day like 13 years ago! it brightens up the gray winter like nothing else can! thanks ma!
see here lots and lots of seeds of an ancient chinese medicine herb called zi-cao. these look identical to job’s tears which is a big tropical grass, the seeds of which are often collected as beads or crafts. these zi-cao seeds are like tiny versions of that. so beautyful and abundant. i will come out here with a cordless dust buster vacuum tomorrow and collect these with that. it makes it super easy. there are several thousand here. enough to replant then sell, trade, gift, and share the remainder. jai seeds!
dirt
the other day xenji and i cleaned up the fire wood area in the forested part of the farm. in doing so, we were able to scrape up a lot of rich forest soil and leaves and duff from the area. this we brought down and fed to some of our key garden beds. we gave it mostly to perennial beds – the echinacea, valerian, balloon flowers and skullcap beds, etc.
this forest soil is so rich in nutrients, minerals, living microbes, mycelium, and countless other organic materials and benefits for the garden soil. this brings a new boost of life into the garden beds which are otherwise just native clay soil, compost, cover crops, or anything else that we’ve added over the years. the forest soil is a huge added bonus here. ideally we would have enough to spread on every bed. its a lot of work. we did good with just 6 or 7 wheelbarrow loads.
see xenji posing so nice with our freshly cleaned firewood area. here is where we were able to scrape up lots of good forest dirt!
see this super rich soil here! amazing. so good for these beds. we could feel the plants responding as we applied it.
im getting very excited to see the perennials pop up this coming spring. they are getting a lot of great attention this winter and will be super strong in the coming growing season!
moonlight
full moon over the house, taken from the garden by xenji.
fun and for life
here is some plant art with a deer skull that was processed with my main man jahmi jes karper. the skull split open with a machete to obtain the brain for tanning its hide. the plants used here are an oregeon native iris and a trailing penstemon. ill post a pic again in the spring when this starts to bloom and grow.
blessed sweet love
