A day of muck and grub

Today at Econ Farm I met 3 other interns. Pauline is probably in her 40s. She is from Canada and will be living/working on the Farm for a month. She usually winters in Dominican Republic, but after rowing (yes, in a crew boat) from Canada to Florida, she decided to explore Florida a little bit longer and discovered Terry's Green Education Center and Econ Farm. Alicia, it turns out is my neighbor who lives only a few blocks from me and has a 2 year old son, who I look forward to getting to know better and introducing to my 3-year old boy. Andrea is a licensed massage therapist who also does energy work, feng shui, and chakra therapy. She grew up on a farm in New Mexico and has always been close to the earth. Her familiar voice made me feel as if I knew her and it turns out we do have mutual friends in common. It's a small world.

Econ Farm is a model of Permaculture Design. The cabin was built by Tia and Terry and is almost entirely off the grid.  In the foreground is the au natural vegetable garden.

Bamboo grows on the property. Once harvested, it serves as building material.

Today we cleared and replanted a spiral garden- a great design for Urban Farming with small space. At the top grows Okinawan Spinach, tomato, and oregano. We planted Dill, mint, and rosemary. The spiral design offers different climates for the varied herbs. We watered with a compost tea and learned that compost tea must be aerated. Our compost tea was worm casings that soaked in aerated water for 30 hours.

A short walk down to the river access offered lots of rich black muck to layer in our compost pile.

Water hyacinths harvested from the river (an invasive species) serve as a living method of fertilizing rainwater. Below is Terry explaining the benefits of nutrient rich rain water. This barrel feeds a misting system that he has over his seedling area. The gutter leading into the barrel captures the rain water. Aside from seedlings he does not irrigate his crops. Permaculture, he explains, is designed to be low maintenance. 

Below is me sifting compost with a very thoughtful design. A wheel barrel underneath captures the fine rich black compost while the mesh sieve that I vigorously shake back and forth holds the large debris that goes back to the compost pile to breakdown further. This is a serious work out. I lasted about 3 minutes!

Below is our finished lasagna layered compost pile. We began with dried up palm fronds (brown) and layered harvested water hyacinths (green), then layers of muck (rich black soil), leaves, water hyacinths, ash from a fire pit for carbon, kitchen scraps, and then topped with a thick layer of leaves. A well layered compost pile is 3X3X3 and when tapped on one side moves on the other. This compost pile will be ready to use in 2-3 months.

After tending to the spiral garden, reworking the compost, and shoveling muck for the compost, we harvested produce for a light lunch. On the menu: A coleslaw of grated carrot, ginger, and green papaya finished with a curry yogurt sauce. A salad of chopped Lacinto kale, curly kale, bib lettuce, radish, chayote squash, walnuts and raisins topped with a spicy balsamic dressing. Collard wraps with raw collard greens rolled with peanut butter and chili sauce. Terry had harvested some fresh lemongrass to make a refreshing tea. It was a sweet ending to a second day.