Monster Veggies
I just finished reading The Natural Way of Farming by Masanobu Fufuoka. He is the author of The One Straw Revolution which is also a classic in permaculture circles. The natural farming book is a more detailed book. It also goes into more specifics about his orchard care and rotations of barely and rice cultivation.
Fufuoka is a keen observer of nature and supremely patient. For example, he wanted to know what the true natural shape of a citrus tree was. The only way to know for sure was to grow one from seed. He did this. He wanted to help his pruned trees get back to a shape that was more healthy for them and required less work from him. He did hundreds of test plots and used various seeds to find the most natural way. This work has taken him decades. But because of his diligence and patience we can glean much insight.
Our swales were planted with a variety of plants. Nitrogen fixers, soil builders, dynamic accumulators. But I don't think I really paid attention to the fact that we planted some vegetables as well. I saw the carrots flowering but assumed they were Queen Anne's lace. Then a few days ago when planting the new bare root trees, Stephen pulled out a huge carrot. Hmm. I guess those carrot like flowers were actually lots of carrots. Later we washed this huge carrot and ate it. It was quite good! I was surprised. It had germinated and grown on its own. And the radishes or turnips were massive. I had left them in the soil to reseed, break down and decompose. But the carrots were so good maybe the turnips would be good too?
We have definitely been enjoying the coriander which reseeded itself all over the swale. Maybe in the future we will plant more veggies on the swale. Oh, I almost forgot the butternut squash. So as you may know we throw old veggies into the swale if they are too big to go into the compost. Late last season I saw a squash plant living in the bottom of the swale near the wood plank bridge. I wondered what it would be able to do down there with no attention or supplemental water. It kept growing and after the first dip in temperature I harvested a good sized butternut squash. It was not huge or even as big as the ones at the farmer's market. But last week I made soup with it and it was the sweetest butternut squash soup I have ever had. I learned later that if you keep butternut squash inside for a month or so it does get sweeter. It was like dessert really. So the swale has become a new place to garden and grow not only food and soil for the fruit trees planted there but also maybe some food for us! :)
Here is a photo of the carrots:
Fufuoka is a keen observer of nature and supremely patient. For example, he wanted to know what the true natural shape of a citrus tree was. The only way to know for sure was to grow one from seed. He did this. He wanted to help his pruned trees get back to a shape that was more healthy for them and required less work from him. He did hundreds of test plots and used various seeds to find the most natural way. This work has taken him decades. But because of his diligence and patience we can glean much insight.
Our swales were planted with a variety of plants. Nitrogen fixers, soil builders, dynamic accumulators. But I don't think I really paid attention to the fact that we planted some vegetables as well. I saw the carrots flowering but assumed they were Queen Anne's lace. Then a few days ago when planting the new bare root trees, Stephen pulled out a huge carrot. Hmm. I guess those carrot like flowers were actually lots of carrots. Later we washed this huge carrot and ate it. It was quite good! I was surprised. It had germinated and grown on its own. And the radishes or turnips were massive. I had left them in the soil to reseed, break down and decompose. But the carrots were so good maybe the turnips would be good too?
We have definitely been enjoying the coriander which reseeded itself all over the swale. Maybe in the future we will plant more veggies on the swale. Oh, I almost forgot the butternut squash. So as you may know we throw old veggies into the swale if they are too big to go into the compost. Late last season I saw a squash plant living in the bottom of the swale near the wood plank bridge. I wondered what it would be able to do down there with no attention or supplemental water. It kept growing and after the first dip in temperature I harvested a good sized butternut squash. It was not huge or even as big as the ones at the farmer's market. But last week I made soup with it and it was the sweetest butternut squash soup I have ever had. I learned later that if you keep butternut squash inside for a month or so it does get sweeter. It was like dessert really. So the swale has become a new place to garden and grow not only food and soil for the fruit trees planted there but also maybe some food for us! :)
Here is a photo of the carrots:
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