Wood-Fired Oven Focaccia

Join Goodheart at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown NC for a five day cooking class: “ Garden to Table: Introduction to Yumptious Natural Foods” from 22 April to 27 April, 2012. This is part of the folk schools’ Earth Week session. The teaching kitchen is a great and friendly space, as is the folk school itself. Check the course listing online: better yet, request their free catalog…

This is very different from the winter of 2009-2010 as well as December and January 2010-2111, when the oscillation was strong. Those were unrelentingly frigid times for the southern Appalachian mountains, and indeed much of the Turtle Island continent (North America) as well as the entire northern hemisphere.

Pleasing and Frequent Front Door View

When the Arctic Oscillation is strong, it forces the Jet Stream south. The jet stream is the prime highway for frontal systems that dominate our winter weather, rolling through on an average of every 7-8 days.

Ice Angels Presence during a Frigid Winter

The further south the jet stream undulates, the farther south arctic high pressure frontal systems descend: this, in a nutshell, determines the severity or moderation of our winter experience.

Those living south of the jet stream enjoy much milder weather than those living north.

Looking West: Winter Scene with Orbs

When the jet stream is north of Asheville, NC (home to Barefoot Permaculture Gardens, where I live), we can have a relatively mild climate experience, while nearby areas, (e.g. 60 miles north) under the influence of the northern section of the jet stream, are in blusteringly frigid conditions.

This winter’s weak oscillation, and the resultant higher latitudinal presence of the jet stream, has meant for us, a relatively pleasant weather pattern: 2 – 3 cold days (lows in the high 20’s) followed by 4-5 moderate days (highs in the upper 50’s to low 60’s Fahrenheit).

My body loves this relatively mild weather pattern. With some cold, I have the opportunity to wear my beloved wool garments (t-shirts, sweaters, and outer wear). The milder times allow me more gracious outdoor time: wondering, wandering and taking care of our landscape of orchard, gardens, chickens, bees and all.

At the same time, my ecologically aware self, (including the very same orchardist, gardener, and beekeeper) has concerns about this mild winter season’s prolonged warm temperatures’ effects upon the always precarious blooming time of the orchard, awakening of garden perennials, and activation of the hives.

Tulips Proclaim a Miracle, Zhu-Zhu Looks On

The bees we started with 5 seasons past were of Russian descent. For the beekeeper, this means these bees have a propensity for grooming (which helps to control the veroa—and other— mites) and for economy of their winter honey use.

Over the seasons, we have had new queens and their mating flights involving other honeybee varieties, bringing other genetic traits into our current hives.  Still, we think of them as natural Russian hybrids.

With so much warm weather, the bees are much more active; breaking winter cluster, flying, foraging for water, pollen, investigating opportunities for whatever the hive may desire.

This activity means more of the honey stores are consumed, and what would have been an adequate amount of honey to carry the hive through a more normal winter, is inadequate to meet their energy needs.

Nectar availability in winter is very low. Once a hive depletes its honey stores, it dies.

Although I observed — six days ago— a comforting amount of activity (comings and goings, including pollen) for all three hives, my wife (Chiwa) brought to my attention 2 days past, that our eastern hive showed very little activity. We looked again yesterday, and while the other 2 hives were active, we saw almost no bees coming and going from the eastern hive.

I immediately opened up the hive: the 62 degree weather  (31st of January) allowed this winter intrusion. The top hive body was light, thus empty. Removing this upper body, I saw bees hanging out on top of the lower hive body’s top bars; indicating the hive was still alive, although most likely with diminished populations.  I closed up the hive.

If there was any chance of saving this hive, immediate action was called for: feed the bees!

I mixed sugar to chamomile-infused water, at a 2:1 ratio, and added some last years’ raw honey, enough to fill 3 quart jars (with enough left over for another round of replenishment). Attaching these upturned jars onto entrance feeders, and inserting them partway into the hive entrance slots, I also reduced their entrance space, in hopes of averting “robbing”.  I especially narrowed the eastern hive’s entrance to one bee space, due to their low numbers.

Stepping back and away, I felt an immediate sense of relief. Time will tell if we responded in time, and if the eastern hives’ queen is still alive with enough workers to repopulate and thrive.

That anyway, is my hope, wish, and prayer…

First was a 30 day stint on the M/V Liberty Island, a 300 foot ship (hopper dredge) on a beach replenishment job at Nag’s Head, at the Outer Banks of North Carolina; working as an Endangered Species Observer. In that month, 2 hurricanes and a tropical depression chased us 3 times into the harbor 10 hours up the coast at Norfolk, VA.

The ship would get to work for 1 – 2 days before storm surges threatened, and then we would have to hightail it for protected waters. Fortunately for me, we tied up at a dock near the downtown area, so I was able to walk to a nearby community coffee shop “Elliot’s Fair Grounds Coffee” on Colley Ave., across from a Starbucks.

Normally, with no other coffee shops in sight, I am delighted to find a Starbucks, yet this time a local – and wonderful‑ café called me all 3 times we sought safe harbor: 3 times for a total of 13 days.

During those days, I also got to visit with my daughter and her family, and enjoy Malapeque oysters and excellent local beer at my all time favorite locally owned seafood restaurant: A. W. Shucks off 22nd. Street (also within walking distance from the ship).

Due to the 3 storms, the ship was able to work only 10 of my 30 days aboard! And most fortunately for me, my truck, parked at Nag’s Head, elevation perhaps 5 feet above sea level and within 200 yards from the Atlantic, stayed high enough and dry enough to escape all the very serious flooding from Hurricane Irene’s almost direct hit.

From the Endangered Species experience, I returned home with 1 1/2 weeks to do some triage care for our orchards, gardens, and bees, and begin work on my broom production for the upcoming October Southern Highland Craft Guild show.

My inventory was down to 4 brooms, and I needed quite a few in order to do the show, not be embarrassed, and make it worthwhile. These are incredibly beautiful and functional hand tools, made from broomstraw (sorghum) fibers and natural wood handles. I use the strong and beautiful Shaker weave, attributed to the Shaker women.

History tales say the Shaker men said it was too fanciful. The women replied “show us a stronger, more functional way to attach the broomstraw”, and the men were unable to do so: thus, we have benefit of such a beautiful weave on these brooms.

Goodheart In Broom Making Mode

Prior to the Guild show, I traveled to and taught a 6 day cooking class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, entitled “Around The World With Flatbreads and Flavors”. My class was full, and we made good use of their incredible indoor wood-fired bread oven, as well as the new outdoor oven. From Naans to Tortillas to Focaccias and much more, we were a bunch of baking fools! In addition, we accompanied the breads with (made from-scratch) dips, chutneys, chili pastes, and other condiments from the countries where the breads developed.

The following week was devoted to the Guild show: loading a rental truck with our booths (my clay artist wife Chiwa’s and mine), unloading and setting up at the Asheville Civic Center (a full and strenuous day’s work), 4 days of the show itself, and on the last night, breaking down, loading what was left (and the booths) back into the truck, and heading home to unload the next day. This is a fairly hectic and intense time!

What made it all worthwhile was that:

Heading To Cape San Blas

Forth: The next day, we loaded up our sit-on-top kayaks and headed towards Cape San Blas on the Florida peninsula, and our yearly stay at the Old Salt Works cabins.

For 2 weeks we arose prior to sunrise, and walked out on a small, low dock, over a Spartina marsh at the bay’s end, and watched as the marsh day began.

Marsh Sunrise from Old Salt Works Dock.

Reddish Egrets teaching other long legged species to do the dance: lurch, spin, hop & twist with wings uplifted; Willets prowling the flats with water almost to their feathery skirts; Black-Bellied Plovers running & stopping, so solitary; Western Sandpipers running about; distant flocks of ducks flapping furiously; Marsh Hawk (Harrier) swooping tiltingly low over the marsh grasses.

Mature and immature Bald Eagles gliding over our heads every morning; Clapper & King Rails calling nearby and sometimes showing themselves, like ghosts materializing then dematerializing; and the ever present Fiddler Crabs moving out and retreating en masse…

Then the sun would multicoloredly glow the eastern sky, and through the pines appear. Even when the weather was unpleasant, we kept the marsh sunrise schedule: life is too much a miracle and way too uncertain to do anything but!

A Successful Day's Fishing in St. Joe's Bay.

Goodheart and Freshly Caught White Trout.

We paddled as we were able, caught and ate a few fish, cooked and ate wonderful meals, and watched several sunsets from a favorite remote, west facing shore,

Sunset Through A Submerged Forest, Cape San Blas

where we toasted the incredible majesty of sunsets with a gin & tonic, and swatted a few mosquitoes and no-see-ums, being very appreciative of the freewheeling bat population overhead doing their good ecological work.

Three days after our return home to Barefoot Gardens, I departed for Jamaica with good friend and colleague Chuck Marsh, where we would be teaching a Permaculture Design Course for Jamaicans, over a 3 week period.

I had always wanted to visit Jamaica, and I never wanted to do so as a tourist. This was a perfect opportunity to learn about Jamaicans, visit in depth their beautiful garden island, and do something worthwhile (be of service).

Pre-Dawn Above John's Town, Jamaica.

We were not on the tourist side of the isle.
We were cared for by the wonderful people of The Source Organic Farm, located near the southeastern section, above Johns Town, in St. Thomas Parish. Nicola Shirley (of The Source) promoted and arranged the PDC, and did a marvelous job.

Our Teaching Space, on the Beach, by Yallis Pond.

Class participants were all Jamaican, and caught fire with the permaculture material, recognizing its value for Jamaica. All were ecological and social movers and shakers: already doing good works. All being employed, we arranged the PDC in 4 three day weekends, with the forth and final taking place in mid March. This created a win-win-win; in that they could participate and still work, we could have some non-teaching time (although it filled with consultations) and they would have 3 months (plus) to work on their final design.

Friend, Fruit Grower, Historian and Taxi Driver.

Jamaicans are lovely people: friendly, intelligent, passionate, and wonderfully boisterous. We made some good friends, starting with our airport taxi driver: Kirk (arranged for by Nicola) who greeted us with a big smile, drove very well the 1 1/2 hours back to The Source, stopping at a roadside cookery for my first taste of Jerk Chicken.

We saw and visited with Kirk several times: he is an ecological/organic fruit grower, planting permaculture style with polycultures of many fruits, foods and herbs. In addition, he is an eloquent historian, and we learned that  Jamaica’s most famous slave revolt took place in St. Thomas Parish, and although much good eventually came out of it, the parish was still not looked upon well (the terrible roads and broken waterlines showed this to be true).

We visited other “garden-of-Eden” tropical fruit/food polyculture food forests too, where every step was taken carefully, due to the incredible abundance of foods, fruits, medicinal & culinary herbs, nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs (and on and on), many in all stages of development, from newly sprouted to fully ripe.

Sign Above A Small, Rernote Beach.

The site for our PDC was awesome: 100 feet from the ocean, and across from a large, landlocked salt water pond, which hosted familiar (to me) varieties on Mangroves, Pelicans, Herons and Egrets, and… American Crocodiles!
Seawater temperature was perfect, and salt content must be high, for it took effort not to float.

For all my mornings at The Source, I arose early, made a cup of Jamaica’s Blue Mountain coffee, and went up on the flat roof, kept company by cisterns, and watched the day begin. I was above John’s Town, facing southwest, towards the Caribbean Sea (less than a mile distant). With the sun rising behind and over my left shoulder, I watched the lower hillsides of green light up, and thus celebrated the sunrise.

It was easy to be in Jamaica in November: still, the three weeks went a little too fast, and too soon the morning of our departure arrived.
By this time though, I had been mostly absent from my home in Asheville, NC for 3 months: I was ready to be home…

Temperate Citrus In Festive Garb.

The story continues, for I was coming home 3 days prior to our Home Show and Open House, taking place the second and third weekends of December.
Each weekend was heralded by a special event. The first Friday evening was our “opening”.

Chiwa always makes 30 wine cups and they go to the first 30 people to arrive. We have, of course, wine and cider with which to fill them, as well as other homemade goodies such as Artichoke and Palm Heart Dips, from-scratch Nachos, cheese and crackers. Our friends, neighbors and clients gather and stay for 2-3 hours. Is a very pleasant scene!

The first Saturday/Sunday are quiet, and people seem to come by one or two at a time, and we have time to visit and sip Chai Latte together.

Every Year a Different Recipe.

The second weekend begins with homemade cinnamon buns emerging from the oven at 10 a.m. —first come, first serve, along with a large pot of excellent organic coffee. Again, people gather and stay for a few hours: a sweet, friendly and festive time.

Finally, all the busyness of a year, crammed into 2011’s last quarter, has passed gracefully, and as Winter Solstice approached, under Chiwa’s leadership, we completed our Biodynamic sprays and treatments for the year: Silica (for light enhancement), and the six compost preps (for finishing a compost pile biodynamically).

Biodynamic stirring of Compost Preps.

This allowed us to use the Three King’s spray on the day of 12th Night, also referred to as Epiphany (this year taking place on Friday, 6 January). Three Kings (containing gold, frankincense, and myrrh) treatment is stirred for an hour (making and reversing vortices), and sprayed outward from the property’s periphery, creating a safe and sacred interior.

Goodheart Trying Out His Wassailing Outfit.

On 12th Night, we had a gathering of friends for a Wassail (blessing of the orchard) ceremony. Wassail means “good health”. We began at dusk with a Mayan-style “Burning” with the Sun and Moon candles, Copal from their sacred tree, Incense, Frankincense & Myrrh, Sage, and other herbs. Then, dressed in festive garb, with ribboned and belled staffs, candle lanterns, drums and accompanied by Professor T-Bud Barkslip’s squeezebox, we sashayed in merriment over to and around a tree we’ve designated “The Old AppleTree Pollinator Man”

This Crabapple is our Wassail Tree.

Circling this grandmother Crabapple tree; singing the Wassailing song; stepping forward, men then women, tipping hats, bowing; chanting a wish for good fruiting for the coming season; driving out any negativity and limitations, and sending them fleeing with a good hardy, boisterous noisemaking and huzzahs; then dipping bread in cider and anointing the branches with the bread for the guardian birds, and pouring the remaining cider in the root zone.

Continuing the Wassail Event Inside.

Then we gathered inside and enjoyed a delicious pot-luck, with homemade hard cider, sourwood mead, and wine.

Chiwa and I arose the next morning to a mild, soft, slightly foggy, early day. This piece of sacred earth upon which we live and caretake felt especially nourished, as did we…

In our 16 (or so) years of Home Orcharding, fruit predation by birds has increased steadily, beginning around 2000, when a pair of catbirds decided to nest on site. I was excited to have new birds attracted to Barefoot Permaculture’s developing polycultural diversity.

It became quickly apparent that catbirds specialized in fruit consumption, following the ripening progression: cherries, mulberries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries. We chased them away whenever we were around, yet they took their toll. With the idea that we should plant 10% extra for the non-humans, the catbird’s predations were tolerable.

The fruit bounty was so good for the catbirds that, the next year, 3 nesting pairs appeared.  We had to net the cherry trees, and scramble to stay ahead for the other fruits. Fruit disappearance was high, and in addition, the free-for-all action attracted the attention of cardinals, bluejays, and brown thrashers. A feeding frenzy was underway: fruit disappeared at an alarming rate!

Three years ago, our chicken yard Russian Mulberry tree had a bumper crop. Since mulberries ripened over a six – eight week period, most of the fruit-eating birds spent their time in the mulberry, and mostly left alone our other small fruits. The mulberry bonanza has not happened since.

We are now used to heavy bird predation, knowing it is going to happen and be heavy. But we have never before experienced noticeable animal predation.

Sure, we’ve had a bear nibbling apples and blueberries, yet not so many and not very often. Squirrels our site has plenty of, since the western area of our site is planted (by squirrels years past) in mature Black Walnut trees. Squirrels are always visible and about. Never before has there been noticeable fruit damage from these somewhat intelligent, bushy-tailed tree rats.                                             

This year (2011) the game changed! Mammal predation was off the chart! For instance, our Chojouro Asian Pear was loaded with fruit (somewhere around 5 bushels worth). I was licking my lips, planning to sell some through our local food co-op, eat as many as I was able, put some in cold storage for later, maybe make some mead or cider, and give some to friends.

The furry ones changed all this into fantasy, pulling the rug out from under my hopes. I began to catch glimpses of squirrels in sneak mode; slinking close to the ground, moving furtively under cover of vegetation, with asian pears in their mouths. When I moved to get a better look, they would disappear. Within a very short period of time, the magnificent bounty was reduced to around 40 fruit.(about half a bushel). So much for counting one’s pears before they ripen!

So it has gone with other large fruits: European pears and apples. The drought has affected the apples and pears by causing the stems to be very brittle. A light brush against a branch will drop unripened fruit to the ground. Every morning I am picking up unripe fruit, some with bird pecks, other with rodent teeth marks. Raccoons raid the pears at night, and I had to pick them a little earlier than normal, in order to have any pears left.

For the Moonglow (European) pears, in spite of the heavy loss, I was still able to pick around 3 bushels, which are now in cold storage. Pears need to be picked before they appear ripe, because they ripen from the inside outward. By the time they look ripe, they are starting to rot in their middle. For the Moonglow pears (and many others too) the fruit will turn from green to yellowish, and when gently lifted upward, the upper stem will snap cleanly off the branch. This is the field test for when to pick!

Once picked, many pears do best with some cold storage. The cold retards the ripening process, stretching out the perishability factor. After a period of time ranging from a few days to a few months —mostly relative to the stage of ripening prior to cold storage — room temperature will finish the ripening process, and the pears can be eaten with a spoon!

I could live happily off fruit, and almost nothing is better than our own pears and apples!

With drought, some disease, animal predation and damage, and poor fruit set (on the six Goldrush trees), we will not have heavy apple harvest this season. We’ve been gleaning the damaged fruit, cutting out the good, albeit unripe parts, making cider, crisps, and just eating.

Use of Serenade (an organic biological fungal and bacterial protectant) has worked moderately well keeping last years’ disastrous Glomaria (summer rot & bitter rot) minimally present, as has been removing the fruit at first appearance of disease. Since I don’t have a hot compost pile going, the diseased fruit have been going into the trash instead.

I dislike removing organic material from our site, yet without a hot (active) compost pile generating temperatures hot enough to kill the disease organisms, I don’t want to spread the organisms around in the finished compost: so into the trash they go!

Last week, after a month of waiting for our honeybees to cap their honey (something they do when the moisture content is at a certain level) we took our share, harvesting 5 & 1/2 gallons of a delicious wildflower blend, which included Black Locust, our orchard fruits, Crabapple, Serviceberry, other berries and Tulip Poplar (first time in 3 years), as well as other local flowerings.

Every beekeeper thinks their honey is the tastiest, and so it is. Ours is too! This will be the first time we have some excess for sale. Chiwa (my wife) designed the label, proclaiming the honey was produced under conditions of BioDynamic, Organic, and Permaculture Design. We cannot claim that the honey is as listed above, since bees can range up to 3 miles collecting nectar, yet the conditions under which our bees live, and the honey is produced, is indeed described as listed.

Hive Resurrection: Long Live the Queen! Thirty-three days after introducing a frame of new eggs into our queenless hive, and not being able to stay away any longer (curiosity being an unrelenting force a little like gravity) a quick inspection revealed capped and uncapped brood, laid in a fairly solid pattern.

Jubilation!

Mystery as well! Could the new queen have hatched, mated successfully, and leapt into egg laying so soon?

Who am I to deny what my eyes have seen? This is another nice thing about “The Great Mystery”. .In my novice understanding, the number of days between egg and capped brood is within the realm of possibility: in my deeper understanding, the bee entity (hive) knows what it is doing. My role is to be attentive, and of service when needed.

Last years’ new hive, (several frames of brood with their attendant nurse bees, honey, and pollen) taken from the above resuscitated hive (referred to as a split), is rocking. Even late in the season (2010) the queen seemed very timid and would not venture beyond her one hive body; resulting in a small hive. I was advised by a female beekeeper to let her be, rather than follow the industrial advise to replace her (re-queen).

Her advise was sound, and in keeping with natural, holistic bee-caring.

Now, she is into her natural glory, and is moving among 3 hive bodies, laying in a large, half-moon pattern, with small arcs of capped honey in the upper corners.

Plate-Licking Good

Freshly Harvested Garlic

The supreme compliment for a cook and a delicious meal, is when one is so compelled for a little taste more, that no option exists other than to lick your plate.

I practice this whenever the above conditions exist.

With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that I teach a 6 day cooking class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C., entitled “From Scratch Cooking That’s Plate Licking Good”!

I’ve just returned from an early June session. The class was full (10 people) and we had a marvelous and productive time. This is an introduction to “natural food” and focuses upon health, nutrition, vitality and taste. This felt to be my most successful class, as everyone was keenly interested in everything I taught, which ranged from fermenting an old style sour kraut (Sandor Katz style: check out “Wild Fermentation”, Chelsea Green publishers), sourdough waffles and artisan bread (baked in a wood-fired bread oven), to whole grains, slow cooked crock-pot chicken (the bones melt in the mouth like sugar candy), scones and flan. And much more!

(Perhaps more in this vein will follow, since vital health and nutrition is a foundational part of Permaculture: Zone Zero, Sustainable Foundations).

June Abundance

Red raspberries are in! We’ve been eating, cooking with (sourdough raspberry waffles), freezing (on baking pans until quick frozen, then into food grade zip-locks), giving away to friends and neighbors, and inviting friends to pick and share the harvest.

And we still have berries ripening everyday!

Catbirds mainly, with Brown Thrashers, Cardinals, and Blue Jays, have decimated the pie cherries, mulberries, and are making a go at the gooseberries, jostas (natural hybrid between currants and gooseberries), as well as swooping into the raspberries and wineberries. Amongst all of us, the Goumis have come and gone.

I confess to getting mad at especially the catbirds (prolific fruit eaters) since they are so convinced that all the fruit is theirs, not just 10%. They first came to our permaculture food forest several years ago, ate what fruit they could, nested successfully, and returned the next year with other mating couples.

The catbirds view our site as an urban oasis.

So it is.

In the Ecosystems section of my Permaculture Design Course, I marvel at some of the topics’ most important findings, and the implications. For example, (and very close to home) Niches. A niche is described as either an unoccupied space or resource within an ecosystem.

In natural systems, there is no such thing as an unfilled (unoccupied) niche.

“Build it, and they will come” is a Hollywood version of this above mentioned natural law. One very effective way to increase bio-diversity on site is to create niches: nature will fill them!

For example: set a small, bird friendly post (stick) in the middle of your garden, and the niche you’ve created soon attracts a bird, who will survey the space, fly down to eat an insect or two, back to the post, enthrall you with a song, drop a small packet of phosphorus –rich fertilizer onto your phosphorus impoverished soil, and fly off.

Likewise, create an abundant home orchard and food forest, and nature sends in guild occupiers to take advantage of such sweet harvest!

So I cannot seriously begrudge these birds…

Closing Bits

Kaolin Clay sprayed on Apples

It looks like snow in the orchard, as apples, pears, asian pears, and grapes are white from sprayed Kaolin clay (Surround) mixed with a little biological (live) fungicide (Serenade). The clay provides an organic barrier to penetrating insects, while the biological organisms provide a living protection against some insidious bacterial and fungal blights that are rampant in our southeastern humidity.

A larger black bear is coming through regularly; a red fox was seen dashing, tail horizontal to the ground, along our driveway (no chicken in her mouth); raccoons are squabbling nightly, making their unearthly, musical trills; Copes Gray Treefrogs are singing from our Black Walnut zone; ripened, small fruits are everywhere on our site; sourdough is ongoing and active on our kitchen counter, with baguette dough in the fridge, awaiting warm-up time prior to baking for tonight’s pot luck gathering and presentation on Orbs; all 3 hives are finishing up capping their excess honey (which we can harvest); yellow-jackets and wasps are patrolling our cabbages for yummy caterpillars; chickens have slowed down some in their laying (averaging 3-4 eggs each day from seven hens, probably due to periods of above average temperatures); we’ve been so far blessed with almost an inch or rain per week, and have avoided hail and other damaging conditions that have occurred nearby.

Even as the days have been hot, and Summer Solstice occurs, Asheville’s delightful night temperatures descend to the upper 50’s and low 60’s.

Delightful!

Ongoing Tales of an Urban Oasis:

Hot Bees, Queens & Bears

A cold, rainy mid-May day, long time residents call “blackberry winter” circumstantially tells me its time to write on these pages again. At Barefoot permaculture, Blackberries are in bloom, as are the naturalized Japanese, ruby-jeweled Wineberries, and our workhorses, the Heritage Everbearing Raspberries.

Twice already I’ve sprayed our apples, pears (European and Asian), and peaches with a mixture of Surround (organic Kaolin clay) and Serenade (Bacillus subtillis: a bio-fungicide), in an attempt to stay ahead of the Plum Curculio (earliest damaging insect) and last season’s devastating Bitter Rot (Glomarella) which reduced 98% of our red apples to scavenged sections, only suitable for drying.

In the high elevations of the American southeast, humidity presents a challenge to aspiring organic fruit growers. However, it is still very worthwhile to grow our fruits cleanly and ecologically, so we can eat them right off the trees and shrubs, as well as feel ourselves as valuable members of the ecosystems in which we live.

As a species, we arose in a landscape that met all our needs for food, medicines, shelter, and connection. Our cultural creation-myths refer to this as the Garden of Eden. In my belief system, the Garden was a state of connected consciousness, as well as physical reality, and the “expulsion” was really self-exile. The storyline follows the ones who left the Garden, not the peoples who remained.

On its highest level, permaculture provides us with a powerful change of direction, from a species self-exiled (apart from) our natural community, thereby willing and able to profit from its exploitation and extinction, to being a part of the ecological system that surrounds us and makes life possible. This latter state segues us back towards the Garden.

Our goal at Barefoot Permaculture, is to recreate the Garden.

Hot Bees: Hot Whispers

After 3 full seasons of keeping bees, and loving their gentle presence, a very recent change occurred. Suddenly, whenever I was out and about in our landscape, 2 or 3 bees would appear aggressively at my face. Several times, while on my knees working, sometimes out of sight of the hives, I was harassed, chased, and stung.

This behavior was very different from all previous experiences.

I didn’t get the message.

Chiwa was taking a break, lying in the sun of one of our first warm days of spring, when a bee nailed her in area of her nose, between her nostrils. Within 24 hours, as I was emptying the mower’s mulch bag (70-80 feet from —and out of sight of— the hives), I was stung in the area of my nose between my nostrils.

Out of our combined 129 years of life experience, within a 24 hour period, we were both stung, unprovoked, in the same sensitive and unusual location.

This time, we got the message: the bees wanted our attention!

Queens

Its spring nectar season, a time of much honeybee activity, rising populations, comings and goings of many bees, and the potential for swarming. When the hive feels crowded, several new eggs are selected by the bees, and their individual cells are elongated into a peanut sized  chamber. The developing pupae are fed a steady diet of royal jelly, which alchemizes them into queens (as opposed to workers or drones).

The current queen is kept from food for several days in order to achieve flight capability, and then, in a magnificent moment, she and half the hive rise into the air in search of another place to live.  Thus, a  swarm, and a new hive is born!

Meanwhile, a new queen emerges from her chambers, disposes of the other potential queens, and rises on her maiden flights, mating multiple times with multiple drones.

Then, and only then, the remaining hive is ready to continue its functions as a living hive.

Her high altitude mating flights are full of potential dangers, such as hungry, sharp-eyed birds. Sometimes, she doesn’t return.

Message of the Hot Bees

t Entering Eastern Hive

The western hive looked good! I was unable to spot the queen, but I  saw      her tracks, in the form of brood. Small, close to being capped, and capped (pupating). Below the queen excluder, I put on a medium hive body of new foundation (ready for the hive to draw out in new comb), and closed up the hive.

The mid hive had all stages of brood too, so I just rearranged the two lower hive bodies, then closed up the hive.

Sure that I would learn the reason for the hot bees in our remaining hive, I opened up our eastern hive. I was not disappointed!

No queen, no brood: the hive was dying!

After an unsuccessful attempt to stimulate queen rearing (the introduced brood were too old), we were successful in introducing a frame containing new eggs from the western hive.

Immediately, the queenless eastern hive settled and calmed down. The hive knew queen potential was now present.

Return of the Bear

Meanwhile, we had begun to suspect that our solar fence charger was malfunctioning. Although the flashing, red indicator light was strong when it was first switched on in the evening, later the pulse slowed dramatically. And due to the bears’ frequent presence in our site, we did not want to lose our hives to a hunger for bee larvae.

One day’s test showed the charger working well, yet the next day showed no charge. Finally convinced that the fence was not under full protection, that very morning, during breakfast, a medium sized black bear sauntered into view and down stone steps 15 feet away, towards our back yard and chickens.

This healthy looking bear behaved well, and when I ran out and yelled, took off through out bamboo and Black Walnut woods.

Standing near the henyard gate, I made my best rooster crow call, letting the hens know that their rooster (me) had risen to the occasion and chased the bear away!

With such environmental affirmation, we immediately took the necessary steps and by evening, the fence was up and running under full charge.

Closing Bits

In another week, a new queen should be hatching: we have the timing marked on the calendar, and will listen for her pre-emergent song (piping). Meanwhile, all three hives have lots of stored honey.

Two tables in the back are loaded with plants we’ve started from seed, and transplanting time beckons.

Several of my in-situ grafts have taken: I am dancing with excitement over the success of grafting a proven female pawpaw onto a so far flowerless variety; 2 heritage apples onto young native hawthorns that otherwise needed to be removed in order for last year’s successful graft of a selected American Persimmon onto a wild rootstock; and a first time success (after 2 failed attempts) to graft our favorite peach (Redhaven) onto an unknown chicken compost seedling.

Other potential grafting successes I await!

My brooms have been steadily selling. Many potential handles, in the form of looking like good walking-stick material, await transformation into handles. Broom making season beckons too!

May 16^th was the feast day of St. Honore: patron saint of bakers, and we celebrated with good friends and fellow bakers and foodies with a pot luck gathering and wonderful foods, many baked! This we will add to our yearly celebrations…

We are enticed in Permaculture training with the statement “The purpose of the designer is to become the recliner”. It’s a great image, and belies the idea that proper placement of the elements of our site design eliminate unnecessary work. (Note the word “unnecessary”).

Front paw track from a Bear

I do love being in my hammock, under the flowering crab apple in full bloom, amazed by the fragrant wafts of scented air, and the vibrating buzz of pollinators — both domestic and native— attending tens of thousands of nectar and pollen rich flowers overhead. The days are warm and the shaded hammock space cool: too early in the season for biting insects: perfect!

This time of year, whenever someone asks what I‘ve been doing, I truthfully respond  “ spending a lot of time on my knees”. Before they can ask about worship, I add “in the garden”.

There is always work to be done, especially in the spring! In a similar way that Inupiat Eskimo have many words for snow, we need at least several for “work”. There’s the work we have to do to pay our bills; leaving what we may love to do to perform tasks that we may not especially enjoy. There is maintenance that must be performed to keep our living spaces upright and dry; our bicycles and cars operable, our bodies well nourished. There are tasks that must be done, that with a particular frame of mind, can be enjoyed. All these (and more) are forms of “work”.

Adding lettuces to a bed.

In my classes, I define work as “if you do not have enough people to make something fun, its work”!

Although when in the garden and orchard, I often am without other humans in proximity, I deeply enjoy connecting with earth and her natural systems; especially on the one acre that I have been caretaking for 20 years. The currency of this connection is often work: this work I deeply enjoy!

Small hand tools mean one is on one’s knees working. Every dry day, I am doing that: rooting out rampant grasses, chopping down other plants for mulch and leaving their roots to feed the soil foodweb.

Preparing the beds for occupancy. Leaving every flowering plant until the honeybees can gather its nectar and pollen.

Plants Walk Around the Garden

In our Barefoot Permaculture Garden, many plants move around at will. For instance, mustard greens appear as small rosettes in autumn, stay green throughout winter, then explode into waist-high towers of edible greens and yellow flowers in spring; performing multiple functions: as visual greenery; food —both raw and steamed; greens for our late winter, green starved hens; nectar and pollen for our sisters (honeybees); a trap crop for attracting Harlequin bugs (a pest insect); mulch; compost; and finally, a seed source for the next season’s greens.

We have not planted mustard greens for at least 12 years!

Walking Mustard Greens

These types of useful plants I love to have in my landscape! I did my work in introducing them 12 or more years ago: they now do the work of moving themselves around. True, I must perform some work in managing them: harvesting for food, mulch and such, and I must go out on occasion with a pail of soapy water to harvest the accumulated pest insects, but that’s hardly work.

Two weeks ago, while grubbing up a stoleniferous, invasive grass that specializes in entwining its wiry roots with the roots of other plants, at the garden center (which hosts a gazing ball, crystals, and special plants, my fingers closed upon a flint arrowhead. I rubbed it clean, and wondered about the person who made it, and either gifted it to someone dear, or used it him/herself. Did they drop it? Lose it in a runaway animal? Was their life joyous?

I am carrying the worked flint in my pocket, and feel a connection with its maker. I send wishes back in time for a healthy, happy, fulfilling life…

The Origin of “Lovely” is an Orchard in Springtime!

As I move through our home orchard in bloom, all that I can think and feel, is Lovely, Lovely, Lovely… Its really pure delight to care for a home orchard, and keep company of the trees and shrubs throughout the seasons, all the while traveling together on earth around the sun. I’ve made the journey 20 times while caretaking this acre: many of these fruits have journeyed with me 16 or so times: we are seasoned travelers!

Messengers of Love: Bees (Natural Beekeeping)

Spring is a time of delicious fragrances: from the fruit blossoms to the intoxicating scent of the native holly (filled with Cedar Waxwings and pollinators), to the spice viburnam to the lilacs. I stumble around in a state of “Yum”!

Our three honeybee hives came into full swing earlier than usual, due to our incredibly early spring: we have not had a hard frost since early February. The queen’s laying began in earnest earlier than availability of nectar and pollen. What this means for the beekeeper is that the hives are in danger of running out of food, and thereby starving to death. Even as the orchard is in full bloom, as well as the spring wildflowers, maple trees and such, the hive too is in full operation. The demands of the new larvae and rising populations use up all the stored reserves as well as what is being brought in.

I checked my hives last week, looking through each hive body, lifting out individual frames, hefting the boxes to get a feel of how much stored honey was left, and checking for queen cells: the sign that either the hive is replacing a queen, a queen has perished, or there has been a swarm (how new hives are created, without any help from the beekeeper). The hive populations were so high that I was unable to locate any queens, though I did find a fully developed queen cell in one hive. Without having knowledge of the queen, I felt the need to close up the hive and just let it be. If the queen had perished, this was her replacement. If a swarm was in process, it may have already departed and this was to be the new queen. Since I had not spotted the queen, I had no way of knowing, much less knowing what to do.

I closed the hive, feeling frustrated and wondering how, after 4 seasons of beekeeping, I knew so little! These days, with all the pressures on bees, working with honeybees is a complicated affair.

The mantra that rolled through my head was “… leave them alone and they’ll come home, wagging their tails behind them”. (Short for: Let them be, most likely they know what they’re doing).

Shiitakes & Stinging Nettles

Our hoophouse is filled with our from-seed starts. The hens are laying, bees are flying. I’ve been a mad grafter, grafting several pear varieties onto our pears, several apple varieties onto our apples, (including heritage varieties onto our hawthorn) and a few grafted American persimmons onto our male rootstock. Just when I thought there was no more available space!

The hammock still beckons!

My orchard self though, has been screaming  NO-O-O-O!!!

Such prolonged warm temperatures — highs in the 60’s and 70’s, lows in the 40’s and 50’s — so early in the year, is a fruit grower’s nightmare, by tempting the plants to break dormancy earlier than usual. Many of our fruiting plants break into full flower before leafing out. What determines the timing is a confluence of factors including genetic predisposition (referred to as chill factor), temperature, and perhaps day length. Its really all part of the Great Mystery (science just describes some of the more readily observable parts of it).

Chill factor refers to the amount of dormancy needed by each fruit variety before it is ready to break into visible life again, and go through another season of flowering, fruiting, and leafing out. In southern climes, such as northern Florida, fruits need to have a low chill factor, because some dormancy is required to get the plants through a winter that includes some freezing temperatures.

In Asheville, NC (where Barefoot Permaculture is located, at an elevation of around 2100 ft.) in the southern Appalachian Mountains, we require long chill factor varieties, due to warm spells in February, usually followed by hard freezes in late winter. (Any trick or technique that influences a plant to delay flowering, even by just a few days, is often the difference between having fruit that year, or being fruitless and sad).

Just because a fruit variety can do well in climates that include well below zero temperatures, doesn’t mean that here, we can grown them for fruit. For example, apricots grow well much further north, in –40 degree temperatures, because there, it stays cold until spring finally arrives, and then its warm. So the northern grown apricots stay dormant until the right warm temperature occurs for several days running. It’s a successful strategy in the north, but falls short of success here. As a consequence, we may get a crop on an average of every 5 years, depending upon the dates of our last series of hard freezes. Hard freezes don’t necessarily kill a tree that has flowered, what they do mean is no fruit for that year!

In checking my flowering chart (kept since 1994) the timing of apricot first flower varies wildly from a previous earliest date of 9 March through last years’ 11 April, with  almost all of the dates in the mid-March range. On this date (6 March) the swollen buds are pink, and perhaps a day away from bursting into bloom. Its on the too early side of early!

If it were just the apricots, I would have little concern. Unfortunately (for this absolute fruit lover and my wife and friends), the unusual lengthy February warmth has tempted other fruits too, and the Asian pears have broken dormancy, rolled over in their cozy beds, stretched, and have visibly swollen buds. Whether , once begun, the process can slow down, remains to be seen. Another glance at my chart shows earliest first blossoms for the Asian pears in mid-March, although the majority of dates are late March. (This exhibits a prime reason for keeping a flowering chart: helping relieve angst in late winter and early spring).

Yesterday evening, due to the advanced stages of bud swell for both apricots and peaches, I cleft grafted onto both fruit more desirable varieties. The 2 apricots we have are generically called Manchurian, and when we actually get fruit, are really nothing to get excited about. I cut some scionwood (last years growth) from a tree at Asheville’s Edible Park, and grafted them onto a young branch. Due to the advanced stage of bud swell on both scion and rootstock, there is a chance that the graft won’t take (be successful). And, due to the fact we are still in late winter, graft success is “iffy” due to possible heavy freezes. Time will tell!

Cleft graft of Redhaven peach

Our favorite on-site peach is a dwarf Redhaven, and is 15 years old. I took some of her  scionwood and grafted it onto peach rootstock from a chicken compost seedling. Again, both varieties are in serious bud swell, so we will just have to see if any of the grafts take! Grafting is touching into the Great Mystery, and as such, is a natural alchemy (as well as tons of fun), and the chances of success are much higher than the lottery!

Late winter / early spring is a busy time at this urban permaculture site, with our organic gardens, extensive home orchards, honeybees, chickens, vermiculture operation, compost piles, shiitake mushroom logs, small pond full of male wood frogs sounding like a flock of ducks, hoping to entice a willing female for some splashing together, and the start of the next generation of frogletts… Last night a black bear visited and tore down our handmade wood & clay bird feeder, smashing it badly, although may be repairable. The freshly filled suet feeder is “disappeared”. Good thing I remembered to turn on the solar electric fence around our bee yard…

Having been conceived and born in Panama, tropical is in my blood! I am frequently in a daydream where, in my immediate landscape are: mangoes, papayas, many variety of bananas, avocados, perennial peppers and tomatoes, mangostein, anonas, dragonfruit, figs, passionfruit, and others. Like me, permaculture was conceived in the sub-tropics, and is at its glorious best in such settings. The further north and south from the tropics, the more challenging it becomes. By no stretch of anyones’ imagination is permaculture not entirely worthwhile in the temperate zones. Being solution oriented, the exposure to, understanding and practice of permaculture adds empowerment and joy to living anywhere. We in the temperate latitudes just don’t have as full a pallet as in the warmer zones. Others may argue with this simple statement. Climate though, plays a major role in what we can and cannot grow, truncating our temperate growing season. In the tropics and sub-tropics, the limiting factor of fresh foods all year is not temperature, rather availability of water (wet and dry seasons). Our permaculture practices of storing water in times of abundance for use in times of lack, works to overcome this limitation. Its neither that easy nor inexpensive to overcome the temperature factor for us temperate peoples. So we design abundant landscapes in the frost-free seasons, and find ways of storage (drying, root cellaring, freezing, canning etc.) to carry us through the winter.

Anyone bringing a friend is entitled to a 10% discount, and any 3 friends coming together receive a 10% discount each!

6^th Annual Permaculture Design course

Location: Maya Mountain Research Farm, San Pedro Columbia, Belize

Dates: March 5^th – 18^th, 2011

Place: Maya Mountain. Research Farm

San Pedro Columbia, BELIZE

Instructors: Albert Bates, Andrew Goodheart Brown, Maria Ros, Christopher Nesbitt & local guest instructors

Cost: USD $1250  Includes site-grown organic meals; all course materials and expeditions; comfortable rustic on-site accommodations; and a Permaculture Design Certificate upon completion of the course.

Tucked into the foothills of the Maya Mountains, 2 miles upriver from the village of San Pedro Columbia in Southern Belize, Maya Mountain Research Farm is a working demonstration farm and a registered NGO that promotes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technology, and food security using permaculture principles and applied biodiversity

For details, or to register, please see mmrfbz.org or contact Christopher Nesbitt at info(a)mmrfbz.org