South Fork Naturals – In the Beginning

 May 25, 2011

Our first official volunteer day was a rousing success.  We accomplished a lot even though the weather did not exactly cooperate with us, by completing 5 out of the 15 steps for the soil building process.

The day started off marvelously.  It was partly cloudy and cool.  Randy Weiss, Teresa Reed, Michael Paul and myself were the volunteers for the day. Teresa and Randy arrived with the “Barretto,” a red, 15hp, rear-tined rototiller and a new spinning drum composter and it was feeling like Christmas!

 

The Barreto

We began by marking off an area in the north pasture for the Nature Sanctuary.  This is an area that is now roped off with yellow nylon rope and is off limits to humans as it has now been dedicated to Nature.  From there we headed right in to playing with the power equipment.

Randy in the Main Garden

Randy tilled the main bed singlehandedly and Teresa and I took turns tilling the herb garden and what we call the long beds, while Michael documented the process as photographer.  It all went really well and we had a lot of fun.  We broke for lunch, which was provided by Chef Paul.  He presented us with a colorful, organic, vegan salad made with black beans, corn, and red peppers.  Spiced with cumin and lime it was served over a bed of fresh greens with tamari rice crackers.  Can you say delicious?

Randy being helpful.

Teresa having fun.

Claudia working it.

The next step was to spread around the mulch and manures.  We spread: used stall straw, fresh straw and pine shavings.  It started to rain lightly so we all put on rain gear and kept on spreading.  The subsequent layer of soil amendments, were the manures.  As it continued to rain I kept reminding myself how we would have less work to do as we no longer needed to water the beds as the weather was doing it for us.  But things were starting to get messy.  We had steer manure, bat guano and earthworm casings to spread next and we were getting colder and wetter every minute.

These pictures don’t really show the amount of rain, the amount of wet, or the amount of guano that stuck to our clothes, so use your imagination.

Bat WHAT?

These gloves used to be yellow.

Can we roto more NOW?

After all of the spreading it was time to rototill  again incorporating the whole mess into the soil.  Randy manned the Barretto while I started picking up and cleaning tools and Teresa jumped into a hot shower.  By the time we were done, Randy and I were such a mess I took the garden hose and washed us down as there was just too much mud on us to even take into the mud room!

After hot showers and dry clothes we sat down to another of Michael’s amazing meals.  But first we toasted the day with a pomegranate wine from Casa de Fruita.  Then we feasted on marinated, grilled, wild caught Ono; saffron rice; and steamed broccoli and cauliflower.  A beautiful tasting end to a beautiful, if somewhat messy, start to the South Fork Naturals project. 

Our Co-Creative Garden

I am surprised that no one has asked how I could possibly think I could manage a 2000 square foot garden and have it produce enough food to feed 10 families.  After all I have always until fairly recently been a city kid and could barely handle growing houseplants.  Well 2 growing seasons ago I talked my employer into letting us build him a raised bed vegetable garden for his 5 acres in Shingle Springs.  It took a lot of talking as he was of the mind that you just threw some seed into the ground, watered it, and waited for it to grow just like his dad and grandparents had done.  But they didn’t live in Shingle Springs and I’ll bet they didn’t have clay for soil.

A Bed in the Square Foot Garden, Shingle Springs, CA

Michael and I did it with the help of two books about square foot gardening and we made our own soil from a recipe that included compost, peat moss and vermiculite.  Things actually grew!  I surprised myself having only grown radishes and a few herbs in the prior 50 years.  We had tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, lettuce, basil, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, chard, kale and of course radishes.  I was absolutely amazed at how different a salad would taste when I used my own home grown produce then when it was only the produce from the store.  Even though most of what I purchased from the store was organic there was still a missing component.  I don’t really know how to describe it except to say that salads from our garden had a different energy about them.  They tasted fresher, better, and more alive.  Was it just that they were so recently picked or had it made a difference that I was out there checking on them each and every day, showering them with love and affection?

Claudia in the Square Foot Garden in Shingle Springs, CA

There is talk in some circles about things like race consciousness, universal intelligence and other entities channeling us earthlings information.  However, many in our culture do not even believe that there is life on other planets so these conversations are very difficult for many to listen to much less comprehend.  Some have told me to not talk of such things so I usually choose my words on these subjects very carefully.  But here on my blog I’ve decided to speak more freely.

Amendment Truckload #1, Garden Valley, CA

I have read a few books by Machaelle Small Wright.  It started with her book on the Medical Assistance Program (M.A.P.) where I was introduced to muscle testing that could be done on yourself using your own fingers (as compared to the 2 person process I knew using extended arms).  Then I became fascinated with her flower essences and learned that they all came from flowers that she had grown.  Next was her books on Co-Creative Gardening where she shared how she set up a partnership with Nature who then gave her the details of what and how to grow her garden.  The books were not just a biography and the development of Perelandra, Ltd., but a How To manual that any of us can use.

Amendment Truckload #2, Garden Valley, CA

Connecting with the Deva of Our Garden and using muscle testing I have been shown where on the 10 acres we inhabit is the best place for our garden.  I sent out that I wanted a garden that was only large enough to require about 2 hours of work per day and would feed approximately 10 families and was given its dimensions, how many raised beds to build and where exactly to place them.  The Deva of Soil for our garden has shown me the types and amounts of amendments to add to the clay that we have and has given me a 13 step process to follow over a 6 week period to turn what was once a small animal pasture into the garden that keeps filling my dreams.

Amendment Truckload #3, Garden Valley, CA

Nature seems to be very happy that we are building this together.  It doesn’t seem as if we humans consult them for much these days which may explain why we are encountering the problems we are with genetically modified animal feed and the problems associated with the weed killer, Round-up.  I still get nervous some days, sliding back into my old habit of feeling like I have to have all the answers before I even start a project and start questioning what in the hell do I think I am doing.  Then I will remember that I am not alone, have never been alone and never will be.

South Fork Naturals (SFN) whose motto is, “Healing ourselves and the planet, one forkful at a time,” will be set up as a small Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) organization.  We are looking for 9 more families who are interested in: improving their health by eating more fresh whole foods infused with Divine energy and improving the planet by buying locally from an organization employing natural growing methods.  While most organic CSA’s cost upwards of $600 for a 20 week growing season, often paid up front, we will only be charging $100 a share per production month for the 2011 growing season.   

So leave us a comment and let us know, what is your favorite vegetable?

The Big Ass Garden

I have started plans for a 1500 square foot garden this year.  I keep thinking I must be half crazy but every time I meditate and pray for guidance as to where I am supposed to be and what I should be doing, I am right there in the middle of it, all growing up around me, lush and abundant.  I keep worrying about the up front costs and what if no one wants to buy what I have grown and how I may be spending my retirement funds way too early.  But I keep reminding myself about the lessons in trusting the Universe that I was taught last October when I went to Sedona, Arizona.

I had been guided to attend Myofascial release training in Sedona but by the time I got brave enough to purchase my plane ticket I did not have enough time to find a cheap hotel room to stay in for the week.  As I was riding on the shuttle bus from the airport in Phoenix I apologized to my fellow passengers for talking on my cell phone and explained my need for a room for the next 10 days.  After a few unsuccessful calls a woman a few seats over tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I am on my way home to Sedona and I have an empty guest room that you are welcome to stay in.”  Just as I had been told, here was my “free” room and I could hardly believe it.

After reading the book, The China Study (See the Amazon reviews here) by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II, I am more convinced than ever about the need to eat organic whole foods.  Colin describes his early life on a dairy farm and his diet rich in animal protein and milk.  Yet after a 50 year career as a biomedical researcher of disease he and his family are no longer eating any animal products.  He does not ask anyone to change to a vegan diet, he only lays out the facts of the many research studies which point to the American diet as the cause of most of our disease.  We are talking about things like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, all of which are increasingly touching the lives of many more Americans than ever, even though we have spent countless hours and dollars searching for cures.  This book even has a before and after picture of a coronary artery clogged with plaque that had been returned to full functioning after the patient changed to a whole-foods, plant based diet.

My food sensitivities have driven some of my friends quite crazy as I bring my own insulated lunch box filled with my own safe foods while they dine out.  Muscle testing has taught me that my body prefers organic foods and sometimes there is even a difference between two organic brands, which says to me that where or how something is grown has its effects.  I go through all of this trouble as I continue to get to the bottom of my flatulence and my eczema, since the naturopathic doctor I was working with said that there was nothing else that she could do for me.  All I can say is that I feel better when I eat things that agree with me and I am much more pleasant to be around when a little green cloud of gas is not following behind me.

Now I am taking this whole health and eating adventure to the next level as I begin to grow food for myself and others.  At first I was just thinking about organic growing methods on a small scale but now I have found out that there is a need to protect our biodiversity and so I also want to concentrate on growing with seeds that have not been changed for the last 50 years (heirloom).  This first year may get off to a slow start with the odd weather (it is May and we are still getting rain and freezing temps) along with the 6 week process that we will be taking to get this clay soil to resemble something friable to grow with.  The first step is to add humus to the clay.  We will be rototilling three times this next week and incorporating into the soil: grass clippings, 2 bales of straw, 5 large bags of pine shavings, 12 cubic feet of shredded cedar bark, 6 cubic feet of steer manure, 50 pounds of bat guano and 60 pounds of earthworm casings.  After letting it rest for 3 days we will then cover it with newspaper and black plastic and let it cook for 30 days at which point the seeds from the grass and wildflowers that we don’t wish to have growing will have been killed off.  Then we will be adding over 300 pounds of stuff for fertilizing and conditioning before we can ever start planting.

We spent this weekend in SoCal with family where we got to witness the urban life and all of its trappings.  But I am happy to be going home to our goats and wide open spaces.  I wish I was better at verbally communicating what all of this means to me, wishing I could help my family understand why “getting a job” is not right for me.  I found myself starting to feel guilty for not having a “real job” like everyone else and then yesterday it happened.  Seeds I had planted years ago sprouted when my sister Carol said to me, “I hardly ever drink soda any more.  After you told me about how it leaches the calcium out of our bones I can almost hear it escaping on the occasions when I do drink it.”  And to think, I never thought anyone was listening to me.