Cheneats Farm

2022-04-15T12:13:00.000-04:00

Hello, we are a suburban farm located in St. Petersburg, Florida and have organic seeds, cuttings, and plants from our own food forest garden orchard farm for sale. They are from our productive perennial or self-perpetuated plants adapted to this climate. We also have seasonal fresh chicken eggs, fertile duck eggs, ducks, and Tilapia fish for sale. Upon request, we'd be more than happy to give you a tour of our sustainable and regenerative food forest garden orchard and share our experience of best practices with you.

Seeds: Seminole Pumpkin (Florida native) Cranberry Hibiscus (aka False Roselle, African Rosemallow - Hibiscus Acetosella 2 varieties dark pink flower and dark red flower) Roselle Pigeon Pea (yellow flower black pea) Pigeon Pea (red flower red pea) Yardlong Bean (Asparagus Bean) Canna Edulis Everglade Tomato (Florida native) Thai Basil Spanish Needle Keitt Mango and 2 other varieties Cuttings / Plants: Chaya (aka Spinach Tree 2 varieties) Longevity Spinach Surinam Spinach Sweet Potatoes (3 varieties including dark purple one) Cuban Oregano Malanga Shell Ginger Shampoo Ginger Moringa Hawaiian Cassava (aka Yuca) Everbearing Mulberry Magnolia Fig Banana Plants (Dwarf Cavendish and Plantain) Papaya Plants Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia Diversifolia) Rosemary Loquat Water Spinach (aka Kang Kong, Chinese Spinach - Ipomoea Aquatica) Singapore Daisy (aka creeping-oxeye, trailing daisy, and Wedelia - Sphagneticola Trilobata) Dayflowers (Commelina) Chives Mint Edible Bamboo clumping type
We eat the freshest and the most nutritious food from our own farm. We sequester as much carbon as possible by composting all organic waste from our farm and kitchen. We create habitats for abundant, diversified and beneficial wildlife on our farm. We use earthwork such as swales to slow, spread and store rainwater and to prevent erosion on slopes. We create microclimates to grow diversified edible plants. We have a sustainable, regenerative, resilient, aesthetic, functional, productive and constantly evolving permaculture food forest garden farm. We hope that more people would join us to have a low-maintenance food forest garden even in a small scale than a high-maintenance lawn so that we can reduce carbon footprint and pollution for a better earth, a better us and a better future for our children and their children. Unlike a lawn or a conventional row garden demanding on-going high input of energy money and time, a low-maintenance food forest can sustain and regenerate itself after it's established. Come and look at what we have. We use Back to Eden permaculture gardening approach modeled after nature, no-till organic, heirloom seeds. In addition, we add layers such as overstory, understory, shrub, herbaceous, ground cover, root, vine, mushroom.

Other Plants in our garden: Papaya Avocado Carambola, Starfruit Sugar Cane Asparagus Okinawa Spinach Lemon Lime Coconut Palm Jackfruit Ginger Turmeric Gardenia Live Oak Queen Palm Cabbage Palm, Sabal Palmetto Date Palm Grapefruit Pomelo Orange Olive Pomegranate Ice Cream Bean African Mint Potato Purple Yam Cattail Cactus Dragon Fruit Lychee Lemon Guava Pineapple Guava Pineapple Aloe Katuk Malabar Spinach Green Malabar Spinach Red Brown Turkey Fig Salavatski persimmon (Russian soft seed) Papaya (Red lady) Passionfruit (yellow) Egyptian spinach Beijing grass Sassoo Spinach (Brazilian spinach)

Using Wood Chips to Fill Holes

2018-04-16T17:08:00.002-04:00

Wood chips provide wonderful organic matter even to fill up holes. If you live in an urban or suburban area, they are free from the waste stream. All you need to do is to contact tree service companies. They'll be glad to deliver them to you for free.

The Problem

There was a big hole caused by run-off rainwater on a slope in my neighbor's property right next to mine. All rainwater from his yard adjacent to mine would carve out a gully, rush down to the hole, make it bigger, then go under the fence to my property, and cause erosion whenever it rained.

My neighbor is almost 90 years old. I don't see him pushing a wheelbarrow and using a shovel to fill the hole. So I offered to help.

Initial Solution

The first time I used fill dirt to fill the hole. Dirt is heavy. I pushed about 6 cubic yards of dirt to fill the hole and the area caused by erosion. It almost broke my back.

To my dismay, the dirt was washed away by the next heavy rain. It didn't help at all. :'-(

Final Solution

Then I thought about wood chips. There are air pockets between the wood chips where the water can flow through without washing them away. In addition, they are much lighter and easier to work with.

To my delight, they did indeed fix the problem. :-)

Photo below shows where the hole used to be on my neighbor's property. Wood chips have slowly broken down into compost but they weren't washed away even after some heavy rain for a whole year! Weeds have started to grow. The yard worker who is hired by my neighbor to mow the grass lawn will start to spray herbicide. So I need to do something very quickly.

By the way, have you noticed I use wood logs to slow down rainwater?

Today I added more wood chips.

It will be good for another year. :)

The mango tree on my property as shown below grows its roots under the wood chips. It will continue to feed on compost broken down from the wood chips and it will not be affected by any herbicides. I am sure it will be happy. So am I!

Have you seen the mango blossoms all over the tree? It's going to be a great year. We harvested at least 500 mangos from this tree last year!

In summary, I am simply mimicking how nature makes soil. Nature uses organic matter and lets them slowly break down to compost to make soil.

Peeing and Making Bio-Char

2018-04-16T17:08:00.000-04:00

First of all, I would like to say it was not an easy task taking this photo!

The Preparation

It is cold outside. It is windy. I am just waking up. Worst of all, I need to go pee really badly while running around looking for my camera.It is cold outside. It is windy.

Finally, I get everything ready in the right place for a very important mission - taking a picture for this blog.

I have never done this before. So it is awkward, to say the least.

The Action

I dig the actor out from layers of clothes into the cold air. Oh boy, it is cold! I hear him.

While my left hand is busy holding my precious to aim the stream toward the box in the photo, I only have my right hand free to hold the camera steady in the wind.

I am also very careful to zoom in on the stream but not the actor. This is by no means intended to be NSFW. Sorry my buddy, no matter how much you complain, I just can't show you to the whole world.

Without a free finger to click on the camera to take a picture, I can only say cheese, again and again, until the camera finally hears me in the wind and clicks.

Before the stream eventually runs dry I get a clear picture. YEAH ... I am so relieved and happy :)

Life is Good :)

So what is it in the box?

Answer:
This is charcoal from sawdust. I am charging it with urine to become biochar. By the way, there is no offensive ammonia odor at all thanks to the carbon in the charcoal. There are other things that can be used to charge it, too.

What is Biochar?

Biochar is charcoal used as a soil amendment. Biochar is a stable solid, rich in carbon, and can endure in soil for thousands of years. Like most charcoal, biochar is made from biomass via pyrolysis. Biochar is under investigation as an approach to carbon sequestration. Biochar thus has the potential to help mitigate climate change via carbon sequestration. Independently, biochar can increase soil fertility of acidic soils (low pH soils), increase agricultural productivity, and provide protection against some foliar and soil-borne diseases. Wikipedia

A Precious Gift from My Friend

The city does not allow burning a big fire in my suburban backyard. Therefore, this sawdust charcoal was a precious gift from my dear friend Matt, who lives in a rural area.

He used a closed heavy duty metal barrel to hold the sawdust and cooked it slowly inside a concrete block oven as shown in the photo below to charcoal dust.

I am so looking forward to spreading the biochar in my garden after a month or so of diligently peeing and making it. :)

I'll keep you posted on the result!

Planting on Slopes

2018-04-16T17:06:00.002-04:00

Planting on slopes is not trivial, especially in areas with occasionally heavy rain. I have a 3:1 slope (horizontal distance increases 3 times as much as height) in my backyard. If steeper than that, you'll need to build terraces or simply leave it alone for Mother Earth to grow her own.

The design is very simple - basically using wood logs and wood chips to slow, spread, and store run-off rainwater, mineral nutrients, and organic matter in the soil.

My goals are:

Increase food production in my small suburban farm
Get rid of organic debris from cutting down 4 ornamental trees
Make productive use of the 150-ft long slope in my backyard

My solution: Hugelkultur and wood logs/chips!

Wood logs and chips are wastes in the cities. Tree service companies need to pay the city to get rid of them. You can contact those companies and ask them to deliver to you for free.

I lay down wood logs and branches from those trees I cut down on contour lines and put wood chips on top, make holes, put some compost in, and plant in it.

The photo below shows what it looks like after all edible greens and root crops have grown.

Photos below show a gentler slope. I use rows of wood logs instead of a Hugelkultur.

Wood chips between the logs, which would stop most rainwater run-off.

In summary, wood logs and chips are free from waste stream which you can use on slopes to produce abundant food.

Hugelkultur on my Concrete Driveway

2018-04-16T17:05:00.001-04:00

Hugelkultur, pronounced Hoo-gul-culture, means hill culture or hill mound. It is nothing more than making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. It makes those beds loaded with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant. As years go by, your raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life.

The design is very simple - basically piling up wood logs, wood branches, and wood chips then plant in it.

I have a few goals in mind and Hugelkultur becomes a solution.

My goals are:

Increase food production in my small suburban farm
Get rid of some organic debris
Reduce some hardscape surface on my circular concrete driveway

Hugelkultur is the solution!

First I pile organic debris on top of my concrete driveway. Starting from wood logs on the bottom and ending up with wood chips on the top.

I waited for 2 months, made holes on top of Hugelkultur and filled each hole with about 2 quarts/liters of compost, and planted my tomatoes. (I was waiting for the rain to fully soak up the bed; otherwise, I could have planted right away if watering it thoroughly.)
The picture below shows my tomato plants after 2 weeks of planting.

A closer look at the tomato plant

More tomatoes just planted in another Hugelkultur on my driveway. (lemon, sugar apple, asparagus in the picture, too)

In summary, Hugelkultur is a perfect no-dig solution for turning organic waste into raised garden beds for your productive food plants even on hard surfaces.

Banana Circle in my Front Yard

2018-04-16T17:04:00.002-04:00

A banana circle is an excellent way to grow banana, papaya, pigeon pea, tomato, bean, sweet potato, malanga, and other root crops while using up excess water and organic matter.

The design is very simple - basically digging a hole for feed/water and surrounded by many plants.

Our kitchen scraps have gone to a banana circle as shown below, on a gentle slope in the front yard to capture and store rainwater, mineral nutrients, and organic matter. It is surrounded by productive banana, papaya, pigeon pea, sweet potato, mahogany splendor hibiscus, and cassava.

It can make use of excess run-off rainwater, or if water is scarce, greywater can be directed to the circle so water is reused. I can even put a shower head there to reuse the water. After plants have grown to provide privacy, taking a shower there would give a true feeling of tropical jungle.

Do you see I use an earth berm made from dugout soil on both sides of the banana circle to direct rainwater from a slope to the hole?

The first 4 photos below captured what it looked like 3 months ago. Plants were struggling a little and not growing much.

Zooming in a little to the hole ...

Zooming in a little more ...

Zooming in even more ...

Zooming out ... this last photo is from this morning. Banana plants have increased their size multiple times.

What is Blooming on Our Farm

2018-04-16T17:03:00.002-04:00

We planted our edible garden to have flowers year-round in order to attract and feed honey bees, other pollinators, and pest predators.

These flowers are not only pleasing to the sight but also help maintain a healthy ecosystem. When little beneficial insects are abundant and happy, so are the plants in the garden and the people :-)

Cranberry Hibiscus

Canna Edulis

Sweet Potato

Pigeon Pea

Amaranth

Pumpkin

Singapore Daisy

Day Flower

Loquat

Banana

Papaya

Asparagas

Spanish Needle

African Potato Mint

Shampoo Ginger

Hibiscus Mahogany Splendor

By the way, most flowers shown above in our garden are edible by humans, too!

The Most Versatile Edible Plant on Our Farm and How We Prepare It

2018-04-16T16:56:00.002-04:00

This plant is amazing. It grows vertically like most other plants. When a strong wind knocks it all the way down to the ground, it continues to grow and produce fruits.

It is very easy to grow. I simply broadcast the seeds, which find their sweet spots to germinate and grow rapidly and bear fruits ready to be harvested in less than a year. Best of all, it can produce fruits continuously year round.

It has a small canopy so more plants can be grown in a limited garden space. We have at least 30 plants in our small yard producing thousands of pounds of fruits every year for our family.

The ripe fruit can be eaten raw and is very sweet. The unripe fruit can be cooked made into a salad. We eat this fruit every single day of the year as fruit, squash, or salad.

Its name is papaya, an excellent addition to a homestead or edible garden in tropical areas.

Even though it grows in a warmer climate, it can also be grown in a greenhouse in a colder climate. It tends to grow tall. But you can either get a dwarf variety or cut the top off and let it branch out to control the height.

Below are photos I took today to show you how resilient they are.

It is supposed to grow tall like these two. The left one was bent by a storm to a 15-degree angle off the straight line up.

This one was blown to a 45-degree angle.

This is a single plant. It was knocked down by a storm to be about 30-degrees off the ground. It continued to grow and bear fruits. Later it was broken in half by the weight of its fruits, yet it branched out, and continued to double and then triple its production.

Zoom out a little to see the whole plant

This one was knocked down by a storm just recently, uprooted, and laid down on the path, yet it continued to grow.

Same plant. I cut the top off because it was too close to a banana plant. The big flower on the top of the photo is a banana blossom. Now, look at all the new healthy growth from an uprooted plant!

More papaya plants

This one is less than one year old and already has fruits.

Another one less than a year old

This one could be seen when I looked out the window while writing this post.

We're only truly secure when we can look out our kitchen window and see our food growing and our friends working nearby. ~Bill Mollison

Photos below show different ways of how we eat it.

Ripe Fruit

Unripe Cooked Curry Green Papaya

Unripe Raw Green Papaya Salad

Getting hungry as I look at these photos. I will just post this blog and go eat some papaya. ;-) Until next time ...

My Personal Journey From Consumption to Production on My Own Farm

2018-04-16T16:55:00.001-04:00

High Energy Use of the Developed World

Not long ago I learned that an average American family with two adults and two children driving two cars to commute to work and living in suburbia uses thousands of times more energy than a family living in an African village. Energy consumption includes a one-time cost of building their house, ongoing maintenance, heat/air conditioning to make them comfortable, the energy cost of making cars they replace every few years and fueling those cars, and the maintenance of a landscape consisting of grass lawn and ornamental plants. Also, the energy used to grow and transport the food they buy from grocery stores, and the clothes they wear. The list goes on and on.

Even though this is an American dream come true for many middle-class to upper-class Americans, I ask myself if this non-sustainable high energy use is fair to the rest of the world population. Do these high consumption practices and the pollution they produce contribute to climate change and deplete non-renewal resource we have on the earth?

What Can We Do As Individuals?

Then I ask myself, what can I do as an individual and as part of a family to be more responsible for the use of natural resources so we don't damage this earth to the extent that my children and their children can no longer enjoy the beautiful nature as I do. Otherwise, we are like an irresponsible government incurring an astronomical amount of debt and letting the next generations pay for it. Who likes to be born with debt and a sick earth to care for?

Where Do I Start?

Where do I start limiting my energy usage? I started with food. My family used to buy food from grocery stores. These food are shipped from around the globe. Even if they are organically grown, the energy cost used to ship them long distances is still high - not good for the earth. Therefore, I started to grow food for my own family. I needed space to grow food so I got rid of my useless ornamental plants and grass lawn, which require a high energy input of gasoline, water, and labor to maintain them. In order to make them look good, high dosages of fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides are used and cause pollution.

Grow Perennial Vegetables

I started from growing vegetables. Instead of the high energy input of annual crops, I grow perennials. Most gardeners are familiar with asparagus, which is a perennial plant that can live up to 20 years. You plant it once, then you get to harvest it year after year for 20 years without tilling, exposing bare soil, laboring intensively, and continuously putting in non-renewable energy. There are different perennial vegetables for different climates. I live in a subtropical climate. Therefore I find and grow Moringa, Longevity Spinach, Malabar Spinach, Okinawa Spinach, Chaya, Water Spinach, and Sweet Potato vines for leaves.

Grow Starchy Energy Food

My staple food used to be rice and wheat, which grow thousands of miles away and are shipped to the local grocery stores. Then I put gas in my car and drive to buy them. Now I have grown sweet potato, malanga and cassava, all used by indigenous people, to replace them.

All three crops take no energy from people to grow. I don't need to babysit them. Our Creator takes care of them by providing sunlight and rainwater. Sweet Potato grows like a weed. As a matter of fact, they can even outcompete weeds. They supply us with not only tubers as a root crop but also leaves as greens. Malanga likes to be in partially shady and wet areas. Therefore, they are perfect for the herbaceous layer in a food forest. I strategically place them where there is little sunlight and where it is also wet. I even use berms and basins to create a microclimate to retain more rainwater for them to thrive. Cassava can grow well in poor soil. That's where I grow them before my poor sandy soil is built up slowly. Now I can completely wean myself off rice and wheat!

Image how many forests can be saved from becoming farmland and how much energy can be saved if more people living in suburban areas do the same things.

The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. ~Bill Mollison

How Indigenous People Grow Malanga

I am showing you how indigenous people grow and harvest Malanga. It's very simple and requires nothing more than harvesting, replanting immediately, leaving it along, and coming back to harvest it next year.

This malanga has been grown for one year and is ready for harvest.

I lift it up and separate the baby corms attached to the original corm I planted one year ago. You can see one corm produces 20-30 corms in a year.

I take the original corm, cut the top one inch off and save about 6 inches of stems. This will produce a much larger corm next year than planting from just a baby corm.

Put a leaf on the bottom of the hole and place the one-inch corm on top of it.

Use the leaf to wrap the corm

Cover with soil or organic matter

This is what it will look like after 2 months of replanting. I used the same technique to plant this 2 months ago. New leaves have grown from the one-inch cut corm with a few baby plants already growing.

Transplant a few baby plants into the shade where other plants don't grow well. A layered approach increases productivity by mimicking a forest in nature.

Harvest the larger baby corms for food and plant the smaller ones (not in the photo) just like seeds.

Thank you for walking with me on my journey from consumption to production and watching me grow and harvest malanga. I'll see you next time.

How To Improve Poor Soil Initially And Subsequently Without Buying Anything

2018-04-16T16:54:00.003-04:00

My Previous Bad Experience

My house is on top of sand, which is common in this area. It's fine for everything but not for growing edible vegetables. When we first moved in years ago, I didn't know much about gardening but tried to grow edible plants. I bought a tray of small tomato plants. I dug holes in my backyard and stuck each tomato plant into each hole and wish them good luck. I even gave them some water-soluble synthetic fertilizer wishing them the best. I watered and watched them every day. They did grow some little yellowish leaves and put on a few flowers immediately. A few plants even gave me one or two tiny tomatoes. Then they withered and died! That was the end of the story for my early adventure of planting vegetables in my backyard.

My Mistake

Later I learned the mistakes I made. The sand drains away any water and any nutrients. Yet, I didn't want to spend a fortune to improve the soil. Therefore, we continued to buy vegetables from grocery stores for many years.

Sheet Mulching

The turning point came after I learned a permaculture practice - sheet mulching with cardboard and wood chips from the waste stream, which is free of charge. First I use cardboard to cover existing grass and put wood chips on top of the cardboard. Then I dig a hole, put in about 2 quarts/liters of homemade compost from kitchen scraps and yard waste, and plant my tomatoes. Bingo! They grow!

Now I can grow plants not only on top of sand but also on top of concrete as previously posted. (If you are interested, please check my previous posts.)

Subsequent Source of Nutrients

Next, how do I continue to amend the soil after nutrients are taken up by edible plants?

There are two major sources I utilize to mimic nature.

Nitrogen Fixer - as described in its name, it fixes nitrogen into the soil so other plants can thrive.
Dynamic Accumulator - usually it has a long tap root to extract minerals from the subsoil. You can simply chop and drop and let it decompose around plants.

Plant selections for each climate are different. I know you can use clover for a nitrogen fixer and comfrey for a dynamic accumulator in a temperate climate. I live in a subtropical area. I tried comfrey once, and they died during the summertime, either by drowning in the rain or by being roasted by the hot sun.

In my subtropical climate, for a nitrogen fixer, I use perennial Pigeon Peas, which also give me abundant peas for up to 5 years. They are so delicious, too! We wouldn't eat other peas or dry beans afterward.

Pigeon Peas

For a dynamic accumulator, I use Mexican Sunflowers. They grow super fast and have beautiful flowers to attract pollinators.

Mexican Sunflower

I hope this post gives you some information that encourages and helps you to grow your own food. Thank you for stopping by. :-)

How to Mimic Nature - Chop and Drop

2018-04-16T16:54:00.001-04:00

Today I am showing you an example of Chop and Drop, widely used in permaculture practice to mimic nature and continuously improve soil fertility. The plant I use is Mexican Sunflower(Tithonia Diversifolia), the best selection of a dynamic accumulator plant in a tropical or subtropical area. If you live in a temperate area, the best selection for the dynamic accumulator is Comfrey. Remember that a dynamic accumulator has a long tap root to extract minerals from the subsoil.

As you can see in the photo, the plant that almost reaches the roof is a Mexican Sunflower plant, which has grown from a 2-foot cutting to 7 branches over 8 feet in only 3 months! It's a perfect plant for Chop and Drop!

After I cut down all 7 branches, you can barely see it behind a Cassava plant. Don't worry - it will come back within the next few months with even more growth.

I remove the leaves from the branches I cut down.

I drop some leaves around my newly planted Navel Orange plant.

I stick 3 branches into the ground here.

I stick one branch into the ground here. In the background from left to right, you can see a Papaya plant, a Cassava plant, two Mexican Sunflower plants, a Mango tree, and another Cassava plant. The ground cover plants are Sweet Potato Vines.

In another 3 months, I can harvest them for Chop and Drop again. And the cycle repeats!

African Potato Mint - A Starchy Energy Food and Cash Crop for Homestead

2018-04-16T16:53:00.001-04:00

I have mentioned in my earlier post about my story of planting starchy energy foods in my homestead to replace rice and wheat transported from thousands of miles away. In addition to sweet potato, malanga, and cassava, I have successful added African Potato Mint to the list!

This is the first season I planted and harvested African Potato Mint, which can be propagated by either seed potatoes or cuttings. I simply planted it in wood chips. As wood chips decomposed, the plant grew stronger and faster.

This is also a cash crop you might want to consider. It's highly sought after by high-end restaurants. They are willing to pay $10 per pound. A single plant produces 3 pounds and $30 for me if I were to sell them.

The best part is the minimum work involved. I simply planted it, walked away, and came back to harvest it.

African Potato Mint about 2 months ago. It looks like just mint. This is one single plant.

Digging out all potatoes from one single plant after the plant has dried out.

Leaving a large potato as a seed there for next season.

Covering it with old wood chips.

One seed potato turning into 100 potatoes in a single season without me doing anything. Nature has taken care of it by sending sunlight and rain.

Thank you for stopping by today!

How Did I Grow My 16-Pound Sweet Potato?

2018-04-16T16:52:00.004-04:00

Long story short - it was by accident! I was just going to grow this sweet potato vine for leafy greens. Yet one large sweet potato beneath the vines grew to weigh 16 pounds / 7.3 kilograms.

How To Grow Sweet Potatoes

The easiest way to grow sweet potatoes is to get some sweet potato slips, which are simply live sweet potato vine cuttings. The best time to grow them is when the weather gets warm. They are very cold sensitive. Therefore, any temperature near frost point will kill their vines.

Start by inserting the root-end of slip into a 3-inch pot filled with soil and leaving it in the shade so it won't dry out by direct sunlight before growing roots.
It will only take one week or even less before you can see roots almost coming out from the bottom holes of the pot.
Then, it's time to transplant it into the soil at a full-sun location. Sweet potato tuber needs room to grow so the soil will need to be loose. They don't like standing water so the soil needs to be able to drain water quickly after heavy rain. I have sandy soil in my garden so there is no problem because they are loose and can easily drain the excessive rainwater off.
Cover the soil with organic matters. I use wood chips from the waste stream. As the organic matter breaks down, it gives nutrients to the sweet potatoes and retains moisture for them to use.
In a hot and wet tropical or subtropical climate, it only takes 3 months for them to reach normal harvest size. If you don't harvest them, they will continue to grow into odd shapes as seen in my previous post. The good news is they don't become fibrous. The bad news is bugs can start eating them and turning them into humus - good for the bugs and your garden, but not for you if you intend to harvest them to eat.
If you live further north and do not have a hot summer, you can experience growing them in a greenhouse or a poly low tunnel to speed up their growth or to prolong the growing season for them to reach a good size.

How Did One Sweet Potato Turn Into a 16-pound / 7.3-kilogram Giant

Instead of harvesting tubers after 3 months, we were harvesting the leaves to cook. Therefore, it had one whole year to grow to that size.
It was next to a Hugelkultur, made of wood logs and wood chips, which broke down into humus slowly and fed it day and night.
It was next to a volunteer nitrogen fixer, which fed the nitrogen to it constantly.

The largest darker purple one in normal shape on the bottom right is 1 lb 12 3/8 oz (or 805 g) while the giant one on the top weighs 16 lb / 7.3 kg!

I showed how I cooked this giant sweet potato in my previous post. Thank you for stopping by today. I'll see you next time.

Harvest A 16-pound Sweet Potato and More

2018-04-16T16:52:00.002-04:00

Sweet potato is one of our starchy energy foods from the homestead. I am showing you how many sweet potatoes a sweet potato slip can grow in less than one year. I harvested only one-quarter of the area this sweet potato has taken over. I had to stop. There were simply too many!

Usually, under an optimal growing condition, sweet potatoes can be harvested in 3 months. I planted this one in the wood chips for about one year before I harvested. Let's see what has happened.

Those 5 in the front have the normal shape. They were about 3 months old. If you don't harvest them, they'll continue to grow to weird shapes just like those in the back.

This is where they grew. I had just pulled them out.

The largest one in normal shape is 1 lb 12 3/8 oz (or 805 g).

The largest one of all weighs 16 pounds (or 7.3 kg). I didn't know how to cook a 16 lbs sweet potato. It looks just like a turkey, which gives me an idea ...

I roasted it just like roasting a turkey - 20 minutes per pound at 325 F / 163 C.

It turned out to be very good. We simply sliced a piece of it whenever someone wanted to eat it. It lasted for a whole week.

Thank you for stopping by today for my sweet potato adventure. I'll see you next time.

My Favorite Nitrogen Fixer ~ Pigeon Peas

2018-04-16T16:51:00.003-04:00

Nitrogen fixers are great helpers for those who want to grow food for themselves naturally. When we observe the nature closely, we see many different volunteer nitrogen fixers in a healthy ecosystem. We can group them into short-term, mid-term, and long-term according to their lifespans. Example for a short-term annual plant is white clover. Mid-term plants such as pigeon peas live from 3 to 5 years. Long-term plants such as Ice Cream Bean (Inga Edulis) live 5 years or longer.

On my homestead, I have all these three plants mentioned above. My Ice Cream Bean plants are in their second year now and have not produced ice cream yet. Therefore, my favorite nitrogen fixer so far is Pigeon Pea.

Pigeon Pea is an excellent choice for the third permaculture design principle 'Obtain A Yield' - you can't work on an empty stomach. While serving the role of nitrogen fixer to enrich the soil, they produce abundantly for us in just a few months after planting from the seeds and will continue to produce for up to 5 years. Pigeon Pea is one element having multiple functions in a permaculture design.

One Element Multifunction of Pigeon Pea

Nitrogen fixer - add nitrogen to the soil for other plants to use.
Obtaining a yield - you can't work on an empty stomach.
Aesthetic - they are beautiful just like ornamental shrubs so you can plant them in the front yard where growing annual vegetables is not permitted in some cities.
Perennial - plant them once every 3-5 years to reduce labor and disturb no soil life.
Great taste - they are not only beautiful but also taste delicious.

This one is hanging over the fence into my neighbor's yard. Look how abundantly the peas are!

The same plant but on my side of the fence

A green variety

A closer look

Thank you for stopping by today!

My Permaculture Zone 5 ~ An Unmanaged Wilderness Zone

2018-04-16T16:51:00.001-04:00

Permaculture zone 5

An unmanaged wilderness zone for foraging, inspiration, and meditation.

Zone 5 is a wild natural ecosystem where we can observe and learn from nature, our greatest teacher who we can learn not only to be better stewards of our earth but also a place where we can forage sustainably and immerse ourselves completely to enjoy, to mediate, and to get inspired.

My Permaculture Zone 5

In the past posts, I have shown you part of my permaculture zone 5 behind my garden near the lake with abundant wildlife. Today I am showing you another part where I usually take a walk to enjoy nature and forage seafood.

All trees in the photo are mangroves, which provide nutrients by dropping leaves and habitats from standing roots for a healthy ecosystem. They also protect seashores from being washed away by strong waves and storm surges.

In the past, the man had tried to use seawalls to replace mangroves for seashore protections but always ended up with expensive repair costs. Nature's designs do not cost any and are always better than man's solutions!

The birds in formation in the sky are white pelicans with a wingspan up to 12 feet. A few turkey vultures are also flying high in the upper right corner.

In this photo, you can see more open water which eventually connects to the Gulf of Mexico, then to the Atlantic Ocean.

Blue crabs foraged from my permaculture zone 5

Thank you for walking with me today. See you next time!

Future Food Supply Challenges

2018-04-16T16:50:00.002-04:00

Have you ever worried or at least concerned about how we are going to feed the ever-growing world population?

The current world population of 7.6 billion is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030, 9.8 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100, according to a new United Nations report.

On top of population growth, climate changes will negatively impact food production with extreme weather conditions causing disasters such as droughts, floods, heat waves, wildfires, and storms.

I don't know about you - I am concerned even though I am sure I will be dead when food supply becomes a real problem. However, I love my children. Therefore, I am thinking more of my children's generation and their children' generation.

The question is what our generation can do to mitigate the potential food shortage crisis?

Solutions offered by the government and corporations are controlling population even by force (e.g. forced abortion in China) and unsustainably increasing food production at the expense of our Terra Mater (Mother Earth). For example, using harmful chemicals and GMOs to increase food production without taking the environmental cost such as destroying natural ecosystems, wildlife, and causing pollutions into consideration.

Let us forget about expecting government and corporations driven by lust for power and greed to fix their fundamental issues (i.e. lust for power and greed), then to fix this problem. The question for you and me is: in the spirit of self-governance, what can we do as individuals and communities to mitigate potential future food shortage crisis?

I would like to quote two sources which give me hope in dealing with the issues of population and food supply.

God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth ... ~Genesis 1:28

The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. ~Bill Mollison

I believe our Creator God and what He says in the Bible. When He commanded the man to be fruitful, to multiply, and to replenish, He knows what He is saying and will certainly provide for us. He gave the man the garden of Eden, which I believe supplying all food for the man. By mimicking natural ecosystem to grow food, I believe we can have our food needs met even with growing population.

By the way, the man was vegetarian or even vegan in the beginning until after the Flood in Genesis 9:2-3. Therefore, I encourage people to eat less meat, which takes up more natural resources to grow, and only meat from a sustainable source or practice. To be a good example, I don't eat meat regularly but only small portions on some special occasions. As a matter of fact, I am totally fine without eating meat at all even with BBQ aroma always present around my house from my neighbors' grills.

I have a small garden and use it to grow food for my family. I thought I needed a much larger area. However, amazingly I can grow perennial leafy greens and starchy energy food on a small scale to supply for 10 families.

In conclusion, I would like to encourage you to grow your own food if you haven't already been doing it even on a small scale. Or you really don't have any space at all, find a community food garden or use someone's backyard. If you really don't want to or can't grow your own food for any reasons, buy food locally from family farmers.

Longevity spinach, a perennial leafy green from my garden

I have documented how I grow my own food here on the platform. Please check my previous blogs. If you have any questions, simply ask. I will be more than happy to answer your answers. Thank you!

Why Do I Enjoy Gardening and Cooking

2018-04-16T16:49:00.001-04:00

Just like enjoying nature, I have been enjoying gardening and cooking since I can remember.

In the past posts, I have been showing different kinds of gardening and cooking techniques which I have learned or discovered by myself. In this post, I would like to touch upon why I have enjoyed them so much.

They Are Life

There are obvious reasons such as being self-sufficient, being more sustainable, eating healthy, saving money, etc. However, the most important reason for me is gardening and cooking bring joy to my heart. A joy to witness God's creation, the life itself, at work.

It amazes me to witness one seed sprout into a plant, grow bigger, put on flowers, bear fruits, and produce many seeds at the end. "But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold." Matthew 13:8

At the microbial level, reproduction rate is even more amazing. They are small yet replicate themselves super fast! I have worked with both cultured and wild yeast for making bread, beneficial bacteria for make fermented food, Keifer water, and Kombucha tea. Given the right environment, these little creatures surely work hard day and night! I am very pleased that even when I am sleeping, they don't mind keep working until the job is done. ;)

Cooking is Both a Science and an Art

It's physics/chemistry at work from the surface - combinations of ingredients, temperatures, time, how fast temperature changes, heat source, how much heat contact, etc. But it's an artist hand and a loving heart that make the food superb! No wonder mom's cooking is always the best and the most comforting. <3

image source

I hope I have encouraged you to do more gardening and cooking. Thank you for stopping by today, my friend!

From my heart to your heart. <3

Hurray! Spring is Here

2018-04-16T16:48:00.001-04:00

I am so excited that spring has come to this part of the earth. Many new lives and growth have started. I took some pictures today as I was walking in my garden and would like to share them with you.

A new Mexican Sunflower

New growth of Moringa - my vitamin plant

New Pigeon Pea flowers

More Pigeon Pea flowers

A Lizard - my little friend who helps me control the insect population. He is used to my presence now and doesn't watch me cautiously as he used to be.

New growth of Mulberry - do you see both new leaves and fruits?

More Mulberry

New growth of Orange leaves and blossoms

More Orange blossoms

Mango blossoms of a late-season variety - it's important to plant different varieties for more resilience in a marginal area. If frost kills blossoms of early season varieties, at least you have some backup.

It was a harsh winter for us here. Frost had killed the first batch of mango tree blossoms on the right. Fortunately, the second batch of blossoms has emerged.

A half-eaten fish in the water

Another dead fish. It will become food for some wildlife by tomorrow. Nature produces no waste!

Avocado tree by the lake has started to branch out! I am excited.

I pushed a stick of Mexican Sunflower into the ground next to the Avocado tree only a few months ago. Do you see how much growth it has gotten? Mexican Sunflower is a tropical dynamic accumulator. I will chop and drop its branches from time to time and feed them to the Avocado tree. Meanwhile, it also functions as a windbreak for my young Avocado tree. This is an example of permaculture practice - 1) one element multiple functions. 2) building connections between different elements.

New growth of Sweet Potato vine. By the way, do you see blue flower of Day Flower? Bees love them, too.

Mango blossoms from another late variety. Do you see a bee flying toward them?

Fortunately, the freezing 32F/0C temperature didn't kill all the blossoms of this early variety. A few fruits have started to grow.

This Jackfruit has survived this past winter. Jackfruit can grow its fruits up to 100 pounds each. No wonder it's is called the King of Fruits.

New growth of leaves and blossoms of one mature Avocado tree

More Avocado blossoms

Avocado blossoms - zooming out

New growth of Starfruit (Carambola)

New growth of Lemon Guava

A wasp on Bottle Brush blossoms

A bee on a Spanish Needle flower

New growth of Fig and a new fruit :)

Singapore Daisy flower

Canna Edulis flower and seed pods. Do you see a spider web? Spiders are my friends too ;-) Just like lizards, they help control the insect population.

New growth of Inga Edulis, or Ice Cream Bean, my long-term nitrogen fixer and source of delicious nutritious food. I am so glad the cold didn't kill the plants.

Last but now least - White Pelican. Somehow this particular one has used to my presence and doesn't try to quickly swim away.

The same one

Thank you for walking with me today. Spring has told me she is moving slowly toward your way if you live further north. Please be patient. She promises she won't miss visiting you this year. :)

Oyster Steam Egg - An Easy and Simple Oyster Dish

2018-04-16T16:47:00.001-04:00

I enjoy eating oysters. Many people like to eat them raw, but I prefer eating them cooked.

I took a walk in the water to watch the sunset and checked my crab traps today. The water is no longer cold so it was very nice to stay in the water and watch the sunset. What a beautiful evening sky!

There were no crabs in the traps. However, there were sea snails and oysters so I took some home for dinner.

I am showing you a way I like to prepare my oysters.

Ingredients

Oysters
Egg
Ginger
Garlic
Green onion
Water
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Steam oysters until the shells open (I used a microwave oven to save time)
Remove oysters from the shells
Cut ginger, garlic, and green onion into smaller pieces
Crack an egg
Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix them up well
Steam until the juice is clear (Again I used a microwave oven)
Serve!

Snails and Oysters from My Walk Today

Shelled Oysters

Thank you for cooking with me today. I hope you enjoy it. See you next time.

Does Anyone Know This Mushroom?

2018-04-16T16:46:00.002-04:00

I spotted this mushroom on my morning walk today. Anyone knows what it is? It is growing out of a dead tree stump.

I love mushrooms and am so tempted to try it. However, it is probably not a good idea to eat it without knowing what it is. :)

Another Gift Fish From Bird - All Cleaned Up

2018-04-16T16:46:00.000-04:00

I was taking a morning walk yesterday and saw a bird left me this fish. It is slightly larger than the one from last time. Last time I had to gut the fish first before cooking it. However, it is so amazing that this time the bird had already gutted it for me. All I needed to do was removing scales and cook it.

A Fish Tale And Dish

2018-04-16T16:45:00.000-04:00

For many people, this true story might seem to be only a fish tale. Yet, it was so real to me! After all, I am not as crazy as I used to think I was before I started reading A Language Older Than Words.

Yesterday, to my surprise, a great blue heron left a fish he caught for me ;-)

Long story short. I like nature and choose to spend as much time as I can to enjoy the earth, plants, and wildlife. I don't know about you. I had tried to talk to different forms of life since I was a kid. People talk to their dogs and cats and pets all the times, which I do too. However, talking to wildlife is a very different experience. They are not trained by you. They tend to be shy and run or fly away when they see you. But anyway, this blue heron is my friend now.

I was in my garden yesterday. I saw him from far away. I wasn't approaching him or doing anything else to scare him away. I had seen him catch many fish before. I talked to him one time and was just jokingly saying that it would be nice if he can please leave a fish for me someday. He did yesterday!

Of course, I had to cook it first before eating it.

Ingredients

Fish
Green onion
Garlic
Ginger
Dry shiitake mushroom
Salt to taste

Directions

Gut and scale and wash the fish
Rub fish with salt
Cut green onion, garlic, ginger and shiitake mushroom into smaller pieces
Put the fish and all the other ingredients on a plate
Steam it or cook it in microwave high for 3-5 minutes
Serve!

I Harvested A Huge Malanga

2018-04-16T16:43:00.001-04:00

Malanga is one of the staple foods on my homestead. This particular one is the largest Malanga I have ever harvested. It has grown for one year from a golf ball size to 4 lbs or 1.8 kilograms.

They are very easy to grow. I can simply plant them, walk away, and come back to harvest them one year later. After one year, 10-30 smaller corms will grow from the original one. Each corm can become another plant if I don't eat them all. :)

They like to grow in wet soil and can thrive in shady places. Therefore, they are ideal food plant for the herbaceous layer in a shady and low-lying area in a food forest.

Fish Nitrogen Fertilizer

2018-04-16T16:41:00.001-04:00

I saw a few dead large tilapia about 15-18 inches long near the lake bank on my morning walk. I decided to use a skimmer net to scoop them up one by one and bury them in a woodchip pile next to my loquat, mango, avocado, star fruit, and fig fruit trees.

What a nice combination of a free source of carbon (wood chips) and nitrogen (fish) to make perfect plant food! I can feel these fruit plants are getting very excited when I bury the fish next to them :)

Dead fish stink! Yet, there is no smell at all when dead fish is buried in the wood chips. The carbon in the wood chips absorbs the odor of decaying dead fish. Together they will make perfect compost!