Looking for a Sign Part 4: Am I just lucky or was it meant to be this way?

When I was touring colleges out in the Pacific Northwest I almost didn't go to Whitman.  It is out in the middle of nowhere in not in an exciting city like Portland or Eugene.  I did decide to go for it though and made arrangements ahead of time for a tour and all the other trappings.  The e-mail I got said to show up at the admissions office at 8 AM for my tour of campus.

My mom and I rolled into town kind of late the night before my visit and ended up staying in a cinder block Howard Johnsons (now the Walla Walla Vineyard Inn where they busted a meth lab last year) as all the other hotels were full.  HoJos was nice and close to campus though and so we were able to walk over on a sleepy Saturday morning. (I'm pretty sure it was a Saturday, I don't think there were classes going on).  When we showed up at the Admission Office it was all locked up.  We double checked the print out of the e-mail that said 8 and then knocked.  A woman came to the door and said oh no, it must have been a mistake because the first tour that day wasn't until 9, but we were signed up for that one.  No problem, my mom and I went to go snoop around the school.

I knew that I would want to be an Environmental Studies/Biology major so we walked over to peek in the Science building, at that point just having construction finished up.  We tried the doors, but they were locked so just peered through the windows.  Then the lovely Dr. Wallace came up on his bicycle and asked "Are you a prospective student?"  I said that I was and that I was going to major in Biology and he swept us away up the stairs to his new lab to show us the cool new microscopes he had and the videos his Intro to Bio students had made of some little water critters (and at the time I was really into water quality) and he was just so enthusiastic about it all.

We eventually had a really wonderful tour and I had lunch with some cool students and my mom and I agreed that Walla Walla was a cute town, but I can't say for sure that I would have gone to Whitman if it hadn't been for the error on that letter and meeting Dr Wallace.  And if I hadn't gone to Whitman I would have never ended up in Walla Walla and met Matt and Laura and Lina.   And if I hadn't done that I don't know that I would have ended up getting into starting a local food co-op.  And I might not have ended up meeting farmers and then realizing I wanted to be a farmer.  And then where would I be?

Looking for a Sign Part 3: Year of the Moon

The moon is important for many farmers.  In Biodynamic farming all planets and celestial bodies are considered to effect plant growth, but the rising and falling of the moon is considered especially important.  Much like the pull of the moon effects tides it is also considered to effect the movement of sap in the plants.  This helps to dictate advantageous times to prune, cut timber, transplant, plant and harvest.  There is actually some science to back this up.  Planting by the moon is also advise by some Old Farmer Almanacs and certainly just the ability to work into the evening has inspired the title of the Harvest Moon for the moon occurring closest to the autumnal equinox.  All the old farmers in Walla Walla would also tell you that a frost is most likely right around the full moon, something that I observed during my time there for sure.

The moon is also obviously an important sign of fertility as human women and females of other species typically have their cycles in a way that corresponds to waxing and waning.

In my own life the cycles of the moon have also often denoted special happenings.  Particularly I remember all the full moon nights I had in Tanzania as being significant in one way or another, including on on which there was a lunar eclipse.

This year the full moon is on my birthday (May 6) and I am already planning to pick up some chicks for a laying flock on the full moon weekend, which also happens to be passover and easter (which I assume are always on the full moon since they follow the lunar calendar?)  The signs for this to be a year of lunar signs, especially full moons, seem plentiful.  This is perhaps not the best sign to pick as other than associations with women, fertility and menstruation it is often associated with madness and insanity.  Somehow I feel that that might also be apt.

Looking for a Sign Part 2: Year of Fire

I was introduced to the tradition of Beltane in Spring of 2009 by good friend Emily Dietzman of Welcome Table Farm.  Beltane is a celebration of the crosswise or halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, celebrated on May 1.  It usually involves big celebrations involving fire.  Traditionally you jump over the fire from one direction to another depending on what you want your year to have.  north symbolizes earth and stability (like Taurus), south for fire and passion, west for water and compassion, east for air and inspiration.

Beltane 2011 was during a tumultuous time in my life.  It has been about 6 months since a major relationship of mine had ended, a little less than a year since I had decided I would leave West End Farm, still 3 months before I would figure out where I would leave for, 4 months before I would actually move to Detroit.  I don't remember what direction I was trying to jump from but, I know I was jumping towards the east and some inspiration.  When I landed though I slipped backwards on the flowers encircling the fire and ended up in it for a second before my friends lifted me out.  At the time it was embarrassing, but fire became my theme for the year.

Besides being associated with the south and passion, fire is also cleansing and I think that it is a good sign for a year of new beginnings.  Besides my Beltane close encounter I rung in the new year 2012 with a bonfire down by the river.  It has been a year of new starts in myriad ways, but as Beltane 2012 approaches I am ready for a sign that is less wild and destructive.  It is probably my Taurus nature.

Photos from Occupy Detroit Sunday night

I haven't made any signs yet because people keep making signs like this that perfectly sum up my feelings and so I just use them

Lots of people dancing around the center fountain last night.  Some to a bongo drummer, some to a boom box, some to a trombone and trumpet

Folks just chilling out on a Sunday night.  Behind them you can see the new food/comfort/medical tarp all set up.

Here's the inside of the new services tent, looking towards the food side.  Used a fire line to move all this stuff across the park earlier in the day.  Great example of cooperation and many hands make light work.  The new area still needs to be organized, but should be a lot better.

Lots of kids out in the park on Sunday.  Perhaps celebrating the freedom to draw on the sidewalk with chalk?

Juan's awesome cargo bike with a motor.

Another cook bike with industrial strength trailer.

Dancing in the evening light.

Chilling in the park with their kid.

Trombone!

Guy with tie and sweater helping homeless guy to get the fire started.

Screen printing more Occupy Detroit patches and other arts and crafts projects.

A fiddler and some other folks look at the map of Detroit where people are putting dots for where they are from.

Right on.

I assume this sign is leftover from the "International" rally Saturday.  Occupiers from Detroit marched down to Hart Plaza and waved across the river at some Windsor Occupiers.

New welcome banner.

The statue near one of the entrances to the park. Turns out this guy is AWESOME.  He was the mayor of Detroit that gave out land and seeds to poor folks during the depression of the late 19th century, basically the first proponent of urban agriculture.  He fought monopolists and land speculators (Matty Maroun anybody?) I can't find the quote of his that is now written in front of the statue in chalk, but here's another in the same vein: "Unfortunately the laws are generally on the side of the trusts and corporations laws made or purchased by them for just such occasions and so are most often the decisions of courts."  Things apparently haven't changed much in the past 100+ years.

A little union support.  Heard there were lots of UAW folks at the BoA protest Friday.

While I was holding a sign on Friday night a guy pulled his car over to ask where folks were.  I explained that since it was late many folks were hanging out either near the food tent or around some of the little campfire stoves that were going in the park.  He asked why we were there and I told him that we were there because we thought connection between corporations and the government had grown to tight and that the vast majority of people no longer had a voice.  He then asked why were protesting banks instead of the government then and I told him we'd probably do some protests at government offices too, but that this week we'd been protesting at BoA because of all the foreclosures in Detroit.  He said it seemed pretty silly to camp in a park if we were upset with the government.  I said that money talks with our current system but since we don't have any money we have to do this instead, and hey, it had worked since he and I were talking.  Then we said good night.

Saturday night before I talked to the skeptic I talked with a guy on his way to work at Ford Field for a long time.  He works for a cleaning company and would be working from about 10 PM to 6 AM to clean up after the Lions game.  Even though he has a job he can't afford a place to live so is homeless.  He's not without hope though, he got a Pell grant and will be starting a degree in Social Work in January.  He worries that he won't be able to finish his degree though because Pell grants are often under attack by the Republicans.  Having to shelter hop also makes things difficult.  If he loses his Pell grant he said he'd probably go into the military because that is his last option.  We talked for a long time about the state of politics and protest and Detroit and the wisdom of investing in people like him where such a little money can go such a long way

#1*

Reason to use agriculture as a community organizing tool #1*
It is a great common ground for people.  Last night we ran a neighborhood work day at a Soup Kitchen garden.  Folks were there to work and to learn about how to get their garden ready for bed and plant garlic.  There were people of a large variety of ages, races, genders and backgrounds.  The sort of people that you would think might not have much in common, but for all of them they have gardens in common (and probably more that they don't realize).  But we were all talking like old friends in no time about worms and soil and compost and the finer points of mulching and how you cook Crowder Peas and what the best place in the garden to plant garlic might be.


* I sense a series, we'll see if it develops

Things that made me smile today

"Alice, you look like a farmer!"- My coworker Sister

The people at the hardware store where I've been buying lots of stuff including canning jars says "You're back again!"

Yesterday's post was too long

So some brief snippets from today

• Man with gray hair and dreads who was an apprentice last year and runs Feed'em Freedom farm which is rapidly expanding and where they were putting up a low tunnel hoop house today.
• Catherine Ferguson School, a high school for pregnant and parenting young women.  Has goats and a horse and geese and chickens and ducks and a HUGE garden.  Super cool.
• Brand new super nice greenhouses in a parking lot downtown owned by the MGM Grand Casino.
• Near Eastern Market a site where we are about to put in a 2 acre model farm including 2 or 3 passive solar hoop houses.
• A lot of other really nice urban gardens.   This city is growing!

I had my first day of work today...

and I just can't even describe how great it was.  Greening of Detroit, the place that I'll be working for this year, is just pretty amazing and I could go on and on about it, but I will just try and describe a little bit about why Detroit in particular really needs the sort of work that they do with Urban Agriculture.

First let's just talk about how bad the food system of Detroit is.  56% of Detroiters get their groceries from liquor stores.  Places with only processed food available in general, where there is no customer service, where there is plate glass between you and the person selling you the food and where your money is most likely going to leave the community.  This percentage is even higher for people on food stamps, mostly because the neighborhoods with the worst grocery store availability are the poorest.  The sort of food you can buy in these stores not only is unhealthy and thus adds to both adult and childhood obesity problems, but also a sense of just generally depression and low self esteem.

Detroit in general is not a place where people usually feel good about the place they live.  Detroit has a bad rap and has been going down hill in many ways for a long time.  The area of the city is larger than Manhattan, San Francisco and Boston COMBINED.  There used to be 2 million people living in the city and now 730,000 folks live here, and that is still dropping.

When things get bad like they are in Detroit people tend to turn on themselves and act in self abusive ways and just try to take what they can get from life.  Luckily Detroit has a history of using farming and gardening to pick itself up.  In what may be the first example of urban gardening Mayor Pingree during the depression of 1890 gave empty plots to hungry people.  He even sold one of his own horses to buy them seeds.  This became a model for many other cities and was repeated with Thrift Gardens during the Great Depression and Victory Gardens during World War 2.

There was also a great program here during the 1970s called Farm-A-Lot which I'll try and learn more about and write about here later.  The point is that Detroit has a history of using agriculture as a way of picking itself up during hard times, which with 11.6% unemployment this certainly is.

And there's plenty of space for it.  There are about 50,000 PUBLICLY owned lots in Detroit with zero structures on them.  Note that this doesn't even begin to address all the privately owned lots or lots with structures that should probably be taken down.  There are about 10-14 lots per acre so we're talking about 5,000 acres of potential farm land.  A study found that with just that publicly held land Detroit could grow about 76% of its current consumption of vegetables and 42% of its fruit.  That is amazing potential to change the way Detroiters eat and live.  Truly an inspiring work to be involved with.

Another good reason to deliver flowers by bike

Rather than in the truck:
It is easier for the owner of Graze to shout at you from the sidewalk: "HEY! Are you selling those flowers?"

And of course the answer is "Why yes, yes I am."

Time

Time is such an interesting thing. There are so many ways of marking and so many reasons that it is a good idea to pay attention to it.

I don't mean in the way that most people pay attention to time, the minutes and seconds of the day, the day of the week, how many hours until the next event.

I am thinking more of passage of the earth through the cosmos and the rest of the cosmos around each other as well. I can't say that I am very good at paying attention to these things, but the cards imply that I should pay more attention.

As a farmer, I already pay attention to the sun more than most. I know the times that it goes up and down, and how that will change as the seasons do. I know how it passes through the sky during the day, much lower in the winter, barely rising above the large trees in the front of the property. During the hotter months it will stary behid the eastern trees only until 8 AM, and then start to make the spinach wilt.

I wish I knew more of the stars and the moon though. The constellations of the zodiac which I plant by, but rely on a calendar to tell me what they are doing. I can't pick out more than a few, and don't recognize a single planet. I can usually remember if the moon is waxing or waning, but not whether it is falling or rising.

These are the things I need to know if I really want to understand time. Time means nothing without movement, and the movement of the large things is important to understanding that.

I also hope to see the movement of the smaller things as time passes, but that is a series of thoughts for another day.

Off Ometepe and on the homestretch

Ometepe was a blast. I didn´t want to spend too much time writing earlier, but Zopilote was by far the best place I stayed. Probably what was best about it was the feeling of it being a home away from home, rather than a hotel or lodge at which you were a guest. The communal kitchen that one could cook in was certainly the biggest contributor to this, but the atmosphere in general really added to it as well.

It was also fantastic because of the global crossroads it represented. Owned by Italians, French and French-Algerian staff. Guests from Poland, Argentina, Canada (French and English speaking), USA, Maylasia, France, Germany, England and probably more that I am forgetting. The lingua franca of the place went back and forth from English to Spanish depending on the day, but there were always side conversations going on in all sorts of mixtures. In any event though, a lot of great travel stories to hear, with people staying at Zopilote for 2 days to 4 weeks and on 2 week trips to Central America or indefinitely long trips all over the world.

Let me tell you though: If you are going to Central America please learn at least a little Spanish. Here are 3 examples of siguations that should have NEVER HAPPENED 1) At the tienda after picking out a few snacks to buy and being told how much they cost `What does once mean?´(and if you don´t know, it means 11, please learn how to count) 2) "How do I ask which bus to get on?" 3) "Quiero polo." Confused look "Do you want chicken?" "Yeah. Polo." "Quire pollo (pronounced as poyo)" "The double ls make a y?"

Don´t be that person.

Also, why would you ever offer a joint to someone who is chopping limbs off a bamboo stalk with a machete. That just seems like a bad life choice.

Sweating it out in paradise

I am here on Isla de Ometepe, in the hot hot humid air. it is absolutely gorgeus though. Huge island in the middle of a gigantic freshwater lake. I am staying at Finca Ecologica Zopilote, a big organic farm with tons of backpackers from all over the world staying there in bunks and cabanas and hammocks and tents. There is a lovely communal kitchen where we can make our own meals and shop that sells all sorts of farm products. Also, there is a big wood fired oven where they make bread every few days and pizza three times a week. I haven´t been here for a pizza night yet, but I´ve heard they are amazing and people from all over the island show up.

As part of staying ther I am doing a volunteer stint (20% off the cost of accomadations). So far it has been pretty cool. This morning we helped this older Italian guy make a new bed. It had already been all dug out, but the soil here is so rocky and harsh that they have to sift through it and then add compost and rice hulls and put it back in there to make a bed that grows a lot of things. It was really labor intensive (no wheel barrow, very small sifter), but we got it all done and it was super nice to be dirty and tired and getting calluses on my hand again. Plus a major feeling of accomplishment to have actually done something after so many days of being at farms but not actually part of them.

In any event, I think I will wrap this up because it is ungodly hot in this computer room and there are some Canadians here who offered to buy me a drink. 4 more days on the island and then back to Chontales.

It is warmer when you leave the mountains...

In fact, it was quite hot today. And I spent almost all of it in one or another of those busses I described in the last post. Now I am in Granada, a pretty rad city (or so I'm told, having spent all day traveling I haven't had time to look around) at a youth hostel with free internet access and more NotreAmericanos than you can shake a stick at (plus a few spare Euros).

From where was I traveling today? Well I was traveling from a little bit outside of Esteli, in the Miraflor Nature Reserve. I think I described it before, but basically I was staying at another organic coffee farm (though much smaller than the others, it is part of a cooperative rather than exporting independently). This coffee farm is next to a whole bunch of other farms that produce other thingsand then there are a whole bunch of other trees intersperse too and you are not supposed to cut down the trees without permission and now there is some ecotourism going on to insentivize that as well.

The first night I was at Finca Lindos Ojos there was another family staying there. The parents were originally from Nicaragua, moved to Costa Rica and then New York and now live in Nicaragua again. The kids (all adults now) still reside in the US, one in New York with her husband (who was also there) and the other in Washinton DC. In any event, they were really nice and fun to talk to and very New York (though they didn't say it, I'm pretty sure they live in the city or at least nearby). I also got the parent's number in Managua and might stay with them the night before I leave, though I fly out pretty early and they apparently live on the other side of town from the airport.

After they left I was the only person staying at Lindos Ojos for the next two days. It was kind of nice, but also a little boring and isolating. I had some really nice long walks in both the forest and through some farms, but sort of wish I would have hired a guide for at least a half day because it was hard to find the trail heads and I feel like I didn't get as much of the forest as I could have. The woman who cooks and runs things at Lindos Ojos was totally awesome though and VERY patient about my crummy Spanish. Also her kids were seriously adorable and amusing.

Overall though, I was just as happy to leave this morning. First the hour and a half long bus ride to Esteli, down out of the cloud forest into the more arid forest and then the tobacco fields (apparently Nicaragua has good cigars?) Then from Esteli the 3 hour bus ride to Masaya. I sat next to this nice Nicaraguan man who lived in Canada for 5 years (yay real conversation due to English, boo to my continuing abysmal Spanish ability). He is a chef and furniture maker and moved back to Nicaragua because his wife is a radiologist and can't practice in Canada or the US without a new certicficate. Anyway, we talked food and northern climates (he likes Vancouver a lot better than Toronto) and a few other things and he helped me get my bus to Granada a lot quicker than I otherwise would.

In any event, now that I am here I hope to walk around the city really early tomorrow morning and then try to La Finca Ecologico Zopilote at a reasonable hour tomorrow (boat ride). Expect another post on the other side of the water.

Report from the rainforest

Well I´m actually down in the valley at the moment, but heading back up to new mountains soon. During my absence I moved from Selva Negra to Finca Esperanze Verde, where there was no internet, so I will try and catch things up quickly. Esperanza Verde is another coffee farm, but farm more remote and much more Rainforest, less farmstead. It is owned by a Sister City organization between San Ramon, Nicaragua and Durham/Raleigh, NC. With a more remote location came less english skills in the staff (and the tour guide on the coffee tour) and fewer guests. In fact, I had the entire place to myself last night and only shared the lodge with one other family the two nights previous. Nothing like paying Youth Hostel prices and having the entire bunk house to oneself.

On the coffee tour there I got to pick some of the coffee and then they put it through the wet mill (thats the first part of the coffee process). Picking coffee is way hard, let me tell you. And yesterday afternoon I spent a lot of the day watching them sort through the beans, taking out anyones that are a little small or a little burnt, etc.... I thought it was hard and time consuming to sort my culinary beans, that is nothing compared to this high quality coffee process. The hardest part of the coffee picking is that the trees actually get pretty tall, and so you have to bend the whole bush over to get the beans at the top.

What else what else...I also saw a sloth! And some birdies! But here´s a confession of my one major vacation snafu so far: I forgot to bring my binoculars. I know, really dumb. Don´t tell Hutch (my Natural History Prof, for those not in the know).

Also, there is a butterfly house and butterfly breeding program at Finca Esperanza Verde and it is pretty. (I mean, what else can you say about butterflies?) The youth hostel is right next to it and so I pretty much just went and looked in it all the time. There was also a waterfall and you could swim in it! It was mostly too cold for swimming, but if you hiked a whole bunch in the hottest part of the day and then went straight there it was totally refreshing.

After this and picking up some food I will be headed out to Finca Lindos Ojos in the Miraflor Nature Reserve, which is going to involve some serious buses.

The buses! I haven´t told you yet about the buses! So you remember that Blue Bird school bus you rode in 7th grade? Well now it is pimped out and being used for the Matagalpa to Esteli bus route. From what I gathered this is the list of priorities when converting an old school bus into is 1) Add a bitching sound system, 2) Add bumper stickers that say "God has blessed this bus", 3) Add luggage racks and bars for standing room passengers inside, 4) Paint route name and Jesus/Mary on the back, 5) Paint route name and flames on the front or 5)b) Paint route name on front and paint whole bus in bright awesome colors 6) Add more bumper stickers inside proclaiming that God is looking out for the bus and passengers, 7) Add novelty horn.

Anyhow, now for that food and bus. Hasta Luego!

I am in eco-farmer geek paradise

So this morning I went on a long walk on a very slippery path while it was misting but there were lots of trees and epiphytes and birds and monkeys (I only heard most of the birds and only heard all of the monkeys) and I only fell in the mud once so I think it was a total success. And then I went on a farm tour that BLEW MY MIND

All right, so we already know this is an organic coffee farm growing shade grown coffee and with part of it set aside for forest and at least some animals and veggies because that is what the menu at the restaurant said. BUT THERE IS SO MUCH MORE.

First of all they make 1000 tons of compost a year. Then from the coffee processing waste and the human waste and some of the animal waste they do anaerobic decomposition and harvest the methane which is what the workers use to cook. Thats not all the renewable energy though, they also have a small hydroelectric plant that makes enough power for the farm during the rainy season (and by farm I mean village for 200 workers that includes primary school, clinic, etc....). So what sort of animals are these that they get compost and methane from? Well there are about 63 Jersey cows, primarily used for dairy and most of that to make European style cheeses. And then there are the pigs, which they use mostly for German style sausages. And then there are the Quails whose eggs they use for some gross sounding appetizer. And then there are chickens (eggs and meat). Oh and what else, well there is citrus and banana trees scattered throughout the coffee fields and veggie garden and 240 bird species. Oh, and some goats here and there. Apparently they don't actually like coffee though, like in the story. You don't know the story!?!

So the story is that the way the caffeination power of coffee was discovered back in Ethiopia, where coffee originally comes from, is that the guys in the forest saw some goats eat some coffee and the goats started jumping and dancing and the guys were all: Que pasa? (ok, so that is Spanish and not Ethiopian, whatever) and then somehow from that the guys figured out how to brew coffee. But Eddy says it is a lie since goats don't like coffee, but it is a good lie so he still tells it.

In any event- Montana Selva Negra Estate Coffee is officially endorsed by this blog as being grown in an incredibly cool place (and I don't know coffee, but I assume it is tasty) and it is apparently sold in Whole Foods stores all over. Also Montana Selva Negra Hotel is a rocking place to visit. Apparently one of the daughters is getting her masters in Tourism in the US right now, so if you want to come before it gets more Americanized then come NOW, and if you want more of the signs to be in English, come in a few years: selvanegra.com

Oh, but if you come, don't be obnoxious and loud and talk over the guide like the one guy in my car. I wanted to punch him.

And, stop Climate Change because if it gets warmer there will be less high quality coffee and the rain forest will die.

New Years Resolution Entry

I fell as if it is fitting to start out the new blog and the new year at the same time. While most of the first bit of content in this blog will be my impending trip to Nicaragua, it will eventually focus more on agrarian and cycling pursuits. It is primarily a personal blog though so below are my resolutions for the coming year:

1. Update new blog at least once a week
2. Fill up my farm's CSA
3. Better fulfill my role as a Walla Walla Democrats PCO
4. Do my bike tour to Oregon Country Fair in July, and plan at least one other over night bike trip.
5. Build better storage for potatoes and winter squash.
6. Learn how to better use my dried flowers.
7. Practice piano at least 1 hour a week
8. Learn more bike maintenance and get the tools to make it happen.