A ladybug cleans the seeds from a carrot which has gone through the cycle of flowering. We let the seeds spread and plant themselves over the dormant season. Often surprised at where they pop up the following season, we work around where the seeds choose to grow and let them decide where to rotate crops.
Volunteers, they’re called
They’re the first up in the Spring
Along with the weeds
Zucchini through the growing season: A bee pollinates the flower, the pollinated flower grows a zucchini, Thatcher Gray enjoys eating a rather large zucchini, harvested before the plant succumbed to the first heavy freeze.
For pollination
Many bees are essential
Pesticides kill them
What’s a pesticide, granpa?
Well, cide means killing. Like homicide is killing a hominid – a human. So pesticide means killing pests, like garden pests, you know, like weeds or insects – anything which hurts the plants.
Do we use pesticides granpa?
We don’t use chemical pesticides – they can have bad side effects, like killing good insects, like bees. And poisoning the soil. And that poison would go into the vegetables, and we would eat them? No way.
Uggh.
So we try to keep our plants happy and healthy, so they are strong and insects don’t bother them. Insects and disease attack weak unhappy plants. And we put a lot of mulch around – smothers the weeds. Actually, we like weeds – they’re great for compost, don’t you think?
Yeah granpa, let’s play legos.
Just before the first freeze, we pull in all the squash from the garden.
Such a good harvest
Stored in a cool dark dry place
We’ll eat all winter
(And into the spring)
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Aside from the fun of carving pumpkins on Halloween, winter squash allows us to eat fresh from our garden well into the cold winter and early spring seasons. They are easy to store and last a long time. Late in the season, we keep an eye on the weather so that we can harvest them before the temperature drops below freezing. Squash which has frozen does not keep as well, but they are fine to eat soon after being picked. After harvesting winter squash, it is important to let them cure. Curing allows the skin develops a firmer shell which protects the interior fruit. Some varieties will change color as they cure, embodying the colors of autumn through rich oranges and deep greens. The best place to ripen squash is inside with good air circulation; we decorate our house with them through the fall season. Ideally, they should be stored long term in a cool, dark place with little moisture. There is more flexibility to storing squash than other root cellared vegetables; we have successfully kept squash in cooler corners around the house.
One of the best reasons to grow our own food is that it does not have to travel to get to our table. Much evidence has been presented on the fact we have reached Peak Oil, which means that the amount of oil which we can extract from the ground is on a decline. While we are not sure how sharp this decline will be, we do need to consider how to live without so much dependence on oil. On average, our food travels thousands of miles to get to our table. As oil becomes more scarce, prices for food which has traveled will go up. When considering the emissions in shipping food, it is also cleaner to eat from our back yard.
There are several resources to help us eat locally, whether it is from our own back yard, or by supporting local farmers. One of the biggest challenges of eating locally in a seasonal climate is the lack of fresh vegetables in winter and early spring. Some foods preserve well through canning, freezing or fermentation, which is how our ancestors were able to maintain a balanced diet even in seasons where little grows. Winter squash is a wonderful vegetable to grow as it offers the opportunity to eat fresh vegetables through the winter.
A calabash stretches out vines to grow up and produce. Thatcher harvests the gourds to use as large rattles. In Africa, they are cut and used as bowls. Some people drill a hole in the dried gourd, paint it, and hang it in a tree for the birds.
Known as bottle gourd
Make a birdhouse, attract birds
Birds love to eat bugs
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When poisons are introduced into the garden to control weeds or pests, it has the effect of harming beneficial organisms in the soil, and those who help our food grow. Butterflies, bees, ladybugs and birds all help produce food by pollinating flowers or by controlling pests. If we introduce poison into our landscape, it can make us very sick in the long run. So it is wise to collaborate with birds by letting them eat insects which harm our crops.
One way to encourage birds to stay is by making them a home. Growing calabash, or “birds nest gourds” provides a natural form for a birdhouse. In the autumn, harvest the gourds before the temperature drops below freezing. Let them dry for a few months in a warm, dry, sunny location with plenty of air circulation. Drill a hole in the large part of the fruit. Add a string so that it can hang in a tree, and voila! You don’t have to clean out the seeds as they provide food. And you can paint the exterior with a non toxic, water-based paint to add some color. A great option is milk paint, which is very strong and completely natural. An ideal projects to encourage kids to get creative in the garden.
Weeding by hand eliminates the use of toxic chemicals in the garden.
Green, nitrogen rich
Destined for the compost pile
I love to pick weeds
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For many gardeners, one of the least favored things about gardening is weeding. We ease the burden by working together to make the task of hunting out unwanted plants and nabbing them fun.
Fertile soil is alive with micro organisms, bugs and worms. It is important to nurture these colonies of life instead of dumping poisons on them. Herbicides not only kill weeds, but introduce noxious chemicals which harm the beneficial life in the garden AND us! Large scale industrial agriculture has genetically modified crops to be able to survive heavy douses of herbicidal poisons. Not only this poison harm the environment, but it also makes exposed farmers very sick with things like cancer. Now it has become evident that weeds are evolving more quickly that we had anticipated and are becoming SUPER WEEDS. Super weeds withstand the poisons found in herbicides like Roundup. Big Ag tells farmers that they are required to use stronger poison to kill them, which in turn harms the farmers and introduces nastier chemicals into the environment. These chemical poisons reduce biodiversity of the surrounding landscape and kills the soil. Ultimately it becomes very difficult to grow anything because the land is poisoned.
The three sisters; beans, corn and squash, ripen in late summer while Thatcher Gray harvests the dried beans...some to eat and the biggest to plant next year.
Beans for nitrogen
Corn for support, squash for shade
Good symbiosis
Swimming through squash leaves looking for the sweet orange fruit
Searching in the patch
The thrill of discovery
It’s fun finding food
Acequia cleaning
Three hundred year tradition
A spring ritual
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For over three hundred years, the community along our ditch has been coming together to share the water as it runs off Taos mountain. We live on one of the oldest acequia systems in the country. The irrigation system and the form of governance was established by the Spanish. Every year, before the snowpack on the mountain begins to melt, all of the parciantes who use the ditch water come together to clean out the acequia madre, or mother ditch. They have to cut out branches and rake out leaves so that the precious water will run swiftly and not be wasted in an overflow. As the season progresses, each parciante requests water from their Major Domo, who oversees the distribution.
Living traditions like this build strong communities of people working together to nourish the land. In the old days, communities were interdependent when it came to survival in the high mountain desert. As in rural places everywhere, neighbors helped eachother, exchanging food and seeds and working together for the benefit of the whole. As development fills the valley, some are letting go of these traditions. But they remain. For more insight into the Taos acequia, read High Country News, Taos’ return to the acequias.
Grandpa loves being on the acequia system. He started coming out west when he was 16 to work on a cattle ranch in the Colorado Rockies. He fell in love with the flood style of irrigation practiced on the ranch and after 50 years is renowned through the Blue River valley as the master of irrigation. Now he is able to pass his wisdom on to his grandson.
