We come in peace, to dig and sow

Today LJ and JDH IV and I dug a new bed, in which Bud planted 2 long rows of seed corn.

I'll plant black beans in between the corn rows tonight once it cools down a little.

It was so delightful to dig with friends. Unbelievably, we didn't think to sing the Diggers anthem that LJ and I have been singing intermittantly for the past 24 hours, which actually mentions corn specifically - more on this later.

Bud says that the first time he planted corn was in 1998 after he got back from England (home of the original Diggers of 1649 fame, incidentally). So 10 years later, he's still planting corn. He's planted it pretty much everywhere he's lived -- mostly in cities. I remember him tending a couple of rows on Crown Street in West Asheville years ago when we first knew each other.

Here's Bud planting corn today.

I wonder if corn was grown on this land in prehistory? It's an ancient, ancient food, and I'm grateful to Bud for blessing this land by planting some here now.

Now, back to the Diggers. I've heard this song called both "The Diggers' Song" and "World Turned Upside Down" -- it was written by Leon Rosselson based on the true history, and the first version I heard and loved was performed by John McCutcheon. Later I came to to love Billy Bragg's version too.

It's a great song for today's digging with friends, and all work to restore and renew the commons, cultivate land, grow food, resist "the god of greed," and build community....

In 1649
To St. George’s Hill,
A ragged band they called the Diggers
Came to show the people’s will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed
reclaiming what was theirs

We come in peace they said
To dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common
And to make the waste ground grow

This earth divided
We will make whole
So it will be
A common treasury for all

The sin of property
We do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain

By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command
They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feeds the rich
While poor folk starve

We work we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters
Or pay rent to the lords
Still we are free
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory
Stand up now

From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers’ claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed
But still the vision lingers on

You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The orders came to cut them down

Broccoli!

Speaking of good clean fun, we celebrated my dog-niece Pippen's first birthday last weekend.





Pippen got a can of catfood with a candle in it and some kind of dog treat called "Grizzly Nuts," and the humans got FRESH BROCCOLI straight from the garden!

We harvested the first two heads, and many broccoli antics ensued (see below). We steamed it lightly and had it with some roasted garlic mayonnaise .... mmmmmmmm!



There's lots more broccoli out there, so I can only imagine the possibilities. This is what happens when you don't have TV.

I remember eating broccoli from my mom and dad's garden as a little girl, so it was great to be able to feed them some from mine. In any case, here's my broccoli-loving sister with the goods.





Bring on the broc.....

Garlic harvest

Last night we started digging up the garlic, and as luck would have it, Melissa was here to school us in a far better method than we used last year for hanging it up to dry.

While I was cooking up chard, kale, mustards, and herbs to toss with pasta for dinner, Christopher and Melissa tied up all of the Inchelium Red and Polish Hardneck. Bud kept us entertained with a running stream of conspiracy theory and Mr. T videos.

Inchelium Red

This morning Christopher pulled the next variety of garlic, Transylvanian Artichoke, which turned out to be whoppingly huge.

Frankie looked on, stoned on catnip, from an adjoining garlic bed.


Frankie tripping

While C. pulled Transylvanian, I planted the last of the zephyr squash starts with Black Oil Seed sunflowers and Cherokee black beans in the bed where the Inchelium and Polish garlic had come out last eve. We used this same succession planting last year--the timing works well and the legumes seem to build the soil after the garlic is done.
Transylvanian Artichoke

Fat, beautiful parsleyworm...and some less desirable garden vistors

Watering the garden this evening, I came across this beautiful creature (at left) in the towering fennel.

Thanks to the internet, I was able to perfom a quick google ("fat black yellow striped caterpillar") and discover that s/he is a parsleyworm, which is actually the caterpillar stage of the black swallowtail butterfly.

Thankfully, I did not squish before googling. After attending "Bug Church" at the Organic Growers School, I know better.

It turns out that they don't eat much and really don't affect the health of their host plants unless the plant is already weak or there is a major infestation.

In any case, this caterpillar was gorgeous. And really fat. I wonder if s/he will make it to butterflydom or get eaten by a bird first? Apparently they have "a forked, glandular process behind the head that can be everted to emit a strong odor distasteful to predators." (Arthropod Museum Notes.)


So after the photo shoot, the parsleyworm went back to her normal life and I moved on to finish watering and weeding.

A few minutes later I came across a spotted cucumber beetle and then some eggs that turned out to be cucumber beetle eggs (see below). The spotted and striped cuke beetles, tied for second place most despised insect in my life (after the mexican bean beetle), were swiftly executed (squished, drowned in steeping compost tea - what a way to go).

Cabbage worm update

So the cabbage worms are doing what they do best: eating cabbage. We sprayed BT on the cabbage yesterday, and we'll hit the rest of the brassicas today.

I learned from Sandi that Christopher's pool net method is not entirely unique. She uses a badminten racket for cabbage moth control (see below).

We'll be able to save these cabbages, but I felt a blood lust for cabbage worms after seeing the damage. Here's to helpful bacteria (BT) and the good old-fashioned methods, too.

Radishes....crunchy, spicy, and EASY

Here are some "Easter Egg" radishes we harvested this week...we interplanted them with Spanish Black radishes and Nantes carrots.

The radishes grew so fast, and were so easy.

They practically beg you to pull them when they're ready, bulging up out of the ground. Seeing the purple, pink, and white radishes of this variety nestled down in the dirt really does remind me of an egg hunt.

We've been eating them in salads, and the sheer profusion of them inspired me to make the first batch of kraut of the year, which should be super-radishey. I used almost all local produce--cabbage, beets, and walla walla onions from the farmer's market, radishes and dried last-year's dill from our garden, and some non-local carrots.

Mmmmm, it already smells great, krautey, and sour!

Updates....

Since it has been over 90 degrees every day lately, blogging in the nice cool house is more and more apealling.

So here are a few updates and enhancements to previous posts....

First (above), the much-hyped photo of CF on cabbage moth patrol in the garden with pool net in PJs. Apparently he has developed a very effective method for total cabbage moth annihilation. And it fits with the permaculture practice of "stacking functions" because it provides fine entertainment for me at the same time.

Despite the fact that we have not sprayed BT (yet), the brassicas are kicking it out--see below.

Broccoli and cauliflower













Kales and cabbages









Brassica explosion!













Also, the Cherokee black beans are up (see the remnants of the bean still on the sprout?)

And the red mustards are HUGE (see below).

I think that's all I have to report for now. Keep on rockin (vegetables) in the free world, as they say.....