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Showing posts from 2017

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 o

Sanding the Beams for Children's Bedroom

We got enough rain to turn up the hydro turbine and use the electric sander for a few weeks. Our wwoofer, Luka, did a great job sanding the beams that will be installed in the children's new bedroom that is under construction. Very dusty work, but great fresh air and sunshine with an amazing view to keep morale high.

Upgrading Drainage to Control Storm Damage

After another heavy rain, we nearly had another disaster like the  2015 disaster. We had already built a spillway to accommodate the thunderstorms that seem to be increasingly frequent in the last 3 years. However, this was not enough to keep the rising flood waters away from our gardens and home. With the help of Fiona and Elisa, our two young wwoofers from France, we increased the drainage systems downhill from the spillway. After the soil is piled downhill of the new trenches, we planted the new berms with Taro for both erosion control and edible functionality.

SuperBowl Garden is in Full Swing

Sylvia brought her awesome organizational skills to our farm and helped to plant and weed the gardens.

Transporting Building Supplies

We were lucky to have a strapping young lad stay with us for a few weeks.  We put him to good work helping to fill bags with sand and gravel and then send them down the zip-line to the concrete mixer. Odin and Mitra had a great time wheeling the line back after the load was removed at the other end. Frank was a huge help in bringing the concrete blocks (CMU) from their drop off location to the building site. Thank you very much FRANK!!

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 decompose

Volunteering on Flores, Azores - Travel for free/WWOOF

Sweet Potatoes

Last year I had a good Sweet Potato harvest, but not nearly enough to keep my family fed through the winter.  This year I have cleared more land and planted about 500 slips of 5 different varieties. Above the forest trees are cut down and then the exposed roots are cut to kill the tree.  As it dies and rots it will feed the soil for me. Above is an experimental patch using recycled cardboard as a pathway mulch and fresh cut grass to mulch the Sweet Potatoes.   Another forest patch above. Above is the Super Bowl garden with Figs and Banana on the hillside and Sweet Potatoes on the drier level areas before the land drops into a boggy Taro garden. A row of a new experimental variety is above. The tools of my trade.  I am an OG (original gardener) .  A mattock and a hoe are all I need to take virgin forest land and transform it into fertile beds, just like my ancestors before me. A steeper garden cut into the mountainside is above.  I

Guinea Fowl are Reproducing

The 20 Guinea Fowl eggs that I ordered on the internet 2 years ago, hatched four healthy keets under a broody hen.  This year the four adults are breeding well and are giving me 2 fertilized eggs daily.  There was a power play by the males, and now one male gets both hens and the other male is lonely.  Those guys fight rough!  I thought the loser was going to die for sure. Above are my two year old adults and genetic starting point for my new flock. The guineas boss around the chickens, but the rooster still gets his fair share of food. So far, I have 8 new keets and hopefully more coming before summer ends.  I keep them in their own cage to be sure they do not stray into the jungle and get eaten or lost. Above the keet pen is seen within the larger adult fowl pen. The parents patrol the area, keeping  threats far away.  Apparently they can take on snakes, rats, cats and dogs. I had a fun surprise in the genetics with several white keets

Taro Expansion Summer 2017

I have been steadily clearing boggy areas of our property and planting more Taro.  I think I have enough plants now to feed the farm and visiting friends year round on these tasty vegetables. The original Taro patch is below. My boys enjoy playing under these massive leaves, a good way to stay cool in the summer months. I am now incorporating Water-cress into the Under-story of the Taro with great success. Below are two cultivars of Taro with Water-cress thriving among them.  In the periphery is Nasturtium, another summer salad favorite.  This is my second Taro Patch. A closer view... Below is the newest Taro Patch, it is still filling in, but soon it will be larger than the previous two patches combined. Below is another view of the Third Patch with Sweet Potatoes growing in rows in the drier areas of the land.

New Tropical Micro-Climate Garden

Magnus has been working diligently to remove the jungle and debris from a great location on our farm for several years.   The first steps were taken in earnest last year and recorded at  this blog post from 2016. With the help of AviChai, Magnus managed to get the "Super-Bowl Garden"  cleared of large trees that had accumulated over the years. This year with the excellent help of Anne and Matts, the garden if functional and beautiful. Above Anne uses cut Canna Rocha ( Hedychium gardnerianum) to mulch around freshly planted Taro . While Anne mulches, Matts pulls all the cut wood out of the stream bed and stacks it for future compost. Above, the scope of the garden can be seen, with a beautiful spring fed stream running through the center. Banana trees are planted near the mountainside, with Taro in the boggy areas and fig and avocado in the dry areas. Young Taro transplants are growing their true leaves now and harvesting the solar e