Summer Gardens are growing well with all the Sun

We are taking a break from construction to return to the gardens this week.

Above, Alex clears the jungle that is encroaching on the Banana Patch.

Good ventilation is crucial to minimize fungus and rot on the newly forming fruits.  This year we have about 150 trees and we will continue expanding as we clear more jungle.  Everyone adores bananas.  We always run out no matter how many I harvest.

 

Estrella, Samantha, and Alex remove the weeds that are choking out the Taro Patch and opening new land to expand the existing patch.

The Swiss Chard is going strong still, providing a tasty and healthy green leafy vegetable to eat daily.

Everybody lends a hand to remove the weeds before topdressing with fresh compost in the Zone 1 gardens.

Nadine hauls weeds from the gardens to the compost bin, where they will be recycled until next year.

Jasmine is organizing the Zone 1 gardens with fresh compost, irrigation,and seeds.

My boys, Odin and Mitra, lend a hand in the Wetland Taro Patch.

Nadine shows some Cana Rocha who is in charge!

Samantha sorting through the Taro Tubers to decide which are for dinner and which are for replanting.

The sweet potato and tomatoes are thriving in the summer sunshine.

Springtime at Flores Permaculture

Spring is nearly ready to turn into Summer as the Solstice arrives.

The gardens are nearly all planted and soon construction on the house continues.

The Japanese Blue Sweet Potato flowers are blooming.  The cuttings are in the ground and hopefully will produce a bountiful harvest in the Autumn.

We are now harvesting Flores Yellow Sweet Potatoes that were planted last year, as well as Bananas and Taro.  These three crops are the staples that allow us to survive yearly.

"Cozido de Porco" is a house favorite using the Kale and Sweet Potatoes, alongside island raised Pork.  

Hopefully, we will keep our own pigs next year.  In theory we have enough surplus to feed two pigs, we only need to build the housing for them.

The Sugar Cane is growing very well in the Tropical Micro-climate.  In the future, it can be used to help the fruit wine achieve a higher ABV.  

The African Yams have sprouted and are now getting planted out in the Tropical Micro-Climate also.

Both the Apple and Pear trees are full of flowers, so we should get fruit this Autumn.  If not, they are still beautiful to gaze upon.

The Coffee Bushes are full of ripe yellow fruits and will soon be harvested and processed into a power packed brew!

This year, we took cuttings for rooting.

The Coffee Cuttings are placed into a heated humidity dome to help them grow roots before being planted out.  They should make an excellent edible hedge to stop the winter winds.

 

Our new lamb arrived.  The boys have named her LambyKins and she is very fuzzy and cute.

Our yearling goat arrived also for weed control and future meat production.  The boys have named him Goaty McGoatface 2.0.

Vernal Equinox 2018 Farm Update

Spring is upon us once again.  Time to shake off the cold and the cobwebs and get back to work.

The Guinea Fowl that were bred last year all survived the winter and are healthy and noisy as ever.  Watch the clip below for an earful of their amazing alarm system. 

Our first woofer for the new year arrived, Sofie.

We taught her how to catch trout in the front yard of our farm, along with many other skills.

We butchered our Sheep from the previous summer.  Very tasty mutton.

Our second woofer joined Sofie to help clear some jungle and plant new gardens.  Sofia and Sofie, what are the odds?  :)

As usual, Odin observes the work and offers helpful observations.

The strawberry patch overwintered well in the newly cleared jungle and is ready to explode with growth now.

Sofia and Mitra plant Kale in a sunny location that was jungle a few weeks earlier.  The large trees are left to decompose on the ground and provide fun walkways.

Sweet Potato slips are planted in the freshly dug soil.

We are STILL harvesting Sweet Potato from last years plantings.  We have steadily been feeding 4 adults and 2 children with last years crop since October.  Below is one of the areas that we have not harvested Sweet Potato from yet and their foliage is still lush and now is sprouting many new slips.

We grew 5 varieties last year, and this year we will try to grow 6 varieties.  Below is an assortment.

Sofie helps to harvest some ripe Bananas.

Citrus Season is upon us also.  We have more oranges, lemons, and limes than we can eat.  The orange trees are also great fun for climbing.

The Sugar Cane is sprouting new growth and soon will be able to spread into a huge Sugar Cane Patch.

One of the perks of jungle clearing is getting to make Bonfires from all the tree branches!

Sweet Potato Harvest

This year we managed to clear the largest flat area on our farm and plant it with Sweet Potatoes.
I planted five varieties and all did very well.

Above the brush fire is still smoldering as we turn the twigs into ash for fertilizer.  

In the photo above you can see the massive Eucalyptus trees that still need to be cut down. For now 'ring-barking' them makes the leaves fall off, allowing the sun to enter the gardens.  

A freshly harvested row shows the fantastic forest soil we begin with, now just to keep the natural balance intact and the gardens will keep giving forever.

Sabrina helps to unearth more rows of yummy food.  The leaves are also excellent to cook with.

Mitra is a huge help at gathering all the sweet potatoes as they are unearthed and gently placing them in a bucket for transport.

We dry them in the sun for a day or three, until going into storage.

At the present we have to store them inside our house, which is rather full of food this time of year.
Our future project is to build a storage house in the backyard that will be cool and dark year round.
Above is about 10% of our total harvest.  We have enough to feed 4 adults and 2 children daily for 6 months now, and still more left over for a pig in the future.
Next year we have a new variety to try and then we will have 6 different varieties growing at once!

Returning to Zone 0 aka Ground Zero

After expanding the farm for the last five years, I am finally satisfied that Zones 2 and 3 are producing well enough to feed us through the winter!  This summer I turning my gaze again to Zone 0.

The first step was to install a new zip-line to get materials to Zone 0 from our Zone 4 drop-off point.  The limitations of our summer-only dirt road dictate that heavy construction be done in the dry summer months only.  I asked my good friend Augusto to build me a new and improved post with a return wheel to bring the empty wheel and hook back after sending down a batch of building materials.  He used a recycled trike wheel as the base of his design that includes a brake to control the speed of the descent down the mountain.  Odin and Mitra love to help operate the brake!

The first job is to build my boys their own private bedroom.  The original stone house had two dividing walls inside to create two bedrooms and a kitchen.  Those walls were built of wood and decomposed into the forest many years ago.  I prefer concrete construction for a host of reasons.  Before building the concrete block wall, I built an iron reinforced concrete base to be sure that the wall does not settle and crack in the future.  Above, the form wood has been removed and the base is ready to built on.

Next, the blocks are built up layer by layer to create the partition wall with a door and window.  I am no mason, but I can keep the wall fairly straight and true.

After the first block work is done, I made a second iron-reinforced  concrete beam that tied into the exterior walls.  Breaking out the original stones was tedious, but by allowing the iron to enter into the huge stone walls creates a very stable interior wall.  The beam will act as the lintels over the window and door also.

After the concrete is poured and the form wood is removed, the new beam can be seen clearly.

The second Zone 0 upgrade is the installing of a bathtub.  At the moment we have a great outdoor shower, but it can be a bit drafty in the winter months. 

The first step was to build a reinforced concrete slab to take the full weight of a water filled bathtub and its occupant(s).

 I made a wooden form to allow for the drainage system to be mounted below the tub and then filled in the remaining space with concrete.

After the slab set, I built a concrete block wall to house the tub and help support the weight along the rim.

The next step is to tile the bathtub and the bathroom floor.