Dryland Permaculture - Continued

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIelsCmdTA8

Starting gardens in very dry area of Botswana

How termites improve soil

Central Victoria - industrial farming turning land into desert

Dryland Permaculture - Kalahari Desert

Fava Beans

Suddenly, the fava beans are ready to harvest, at least it seems sudden, since I've been away in San Antonio for a couple of days.

I harvested a mixture of Egyptian fava beans and Super-agua-dulce (from Italy) this evening and prepared them as follows:

• Pick, shell, and peel beans
• Boil in water until tender
• Toss with olive oil, lemon juice, chopped parsley, chopped chives
• Salt to taste

They were heavenly! It's amazing how the flavors of these ingredients blend -- you'd swear there was meat and cheese in there somewhere! I don't know whether favas from a grocery store would be as good. I've never bought any and never eaten dried ones from the garden, so I have no idea what they're like other than freshly picked.

Spinach, also from the garden, was the perfect accompaniment. The meal took about 10 minutes to prepare once the beans were shelled and peeled. Peeling fava beans is a nuisance. But it's not so bad, really. In fact, shelling and peeling fava beans while sitting on the kitchen step looking over the herb and flower garden is downright therateuptic. Sitting there, listening to a flock of grackles who'd stop by to visit, I could view the hectic week I had at work from afar, like a distant memory of a book I read once, a long time ago.

A Visit to the Antique Rose Emporium

Although I sometimes wish I could spend every day in the garden, if I am honest with myself, I have to admit that there are many things about my double country/city life that I enjoy. Two of these are Fanick's Nursery and the Antique Rose Emporium, both in San Antonio. I can drive from San Antonio to Lockhart via IH-10 which takes me east to Luling, where I exit and drive north to Lockhart; or via IH-35, which takes me north to San Marcos, where I exit and drive east to Lockhart. Both routes are about the same distance and take about the same amount of time. The IH-10 route passes within a mile or so of Fanick's Nursery, and the IH-35 route within a few miles of the Antique Rose Emporium. I took IH-35 today.

It's worth going to the Antique Rose Emporium just to stroll through the gardens, but of course I can never resist buying a plant or two. They have an overwhelming selection of roses and also sell a wide assortment of ornamentals, herbs, shrubs, and vegetable starts. I had to hurry past the tomato seedlings without looking too closely, to avoid being tempted, since I had excellent germination of all the seeds I planted and already have more tomato plants than I need.

I bought a Duchess de Brabant shrub rose for a hedge-in-process, an ox-eye daisy, a John Fanick phlox (I planted two last year, and they performed so beautifully, I wanted to add another), and a couple of white blooming pentas. And some marigolds in flower, because I just can't wait until the ones I started from seed are old enough to bloom.

The pic is of sweet peas planted in a container. What a great idea! The sweet peas in my Lockhart garden are only about 6 inches high right now. Lockhart is about 45 miles north of San Antonio and lags about 3 weeks behind in the spring, but the ARE's sweet peas must be at least a month ahead of mine. Need to plant them earlier next year.

Obamas Will Have Veggie Garden at Whitehouse

I was very happy to see this news today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/dining/19garden-web.html?_r=2&ref=dining

On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but arugula will make the cut.

Spring Time For Real

Spring sneaked up on me this year, perhaps because the countryside was so dry there were no wildflowers to speak of. Seems as though one week I was thinking there might still be time to plant some more garden peas, then suddenly the mesquite trees are leafing out and it's time to plant corn.

I took off work early today and spent the last few hours of the afternoon in the garden. There was a wonderful point just to the west of the southwest corner of the house where the scents of jasmine and sophora mingled. I do wish I could make odographs, but to do it right, one would have to capture the warm Gulf breeze, because that too was part of the whole effect.

There were scores of butterflies visiting the flowers, and later in the evening moths, but only a few bees.

The potatoes are poking their snouts out of the ground, but no sign yet of the corn and sunflowers I planted over the weekend. Garden surprises of the day: tiny volunteer basil cotyledons coming up all over the kitchen door herb & flower garden and a pale yellow Western Tiger Swallowtail butterfly sipping from the deep purple petunias.

I planted Weinlanderin beans this evening, just before dark.

HR 875

I am concerned about laws with vague language aimed at food producers. It would be tragic if local food producers such as Will Allen were regulated out of business. As with most government regulation, the food regulation laws have the potential to harm small businesses, while large businesses will be able to get their people on regulatory boards, bribe regulators, and so forth. Here's the text of a letter I sent to a local Congressman:
=============================================

March 7, 2009


Mr. Henry Cuellar
336 Cannon HOB
Washington DC 20515

RE: HR 875 – The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

Dear Congressman Cuellar,

I live in San Antonio, and have a country home in eastern Caldwell County. Thus, I barely miss being one of your constituents. However, I communicate on a regular basis with your constituents, some of whom are my clients, some of whom sell me goods and services.

I am writing to you today, because you are a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, to which HR 875 has been referred. While government regulation of industrial scale agricultural producers and food processors may be a good thing, we do not need regulation of small farmers who sell their produce locally. In fact, this law as written could put small farmers and farmer’s markets out of business and destroy a source of food at a time when many food producing regions of the world are experiencing severe drought and food shortage is of real concern.

The bill as written is so broad that it could even be applied to backyard gardeners, and the definition of contaminant is so vague that the law could end up making organic farming illegal, since organic produce sometimes contains insects.

This is NOT the time to put small farmers out of business! Please consider the implications of the bill as written, and insist on amending it to exempt small farmers who sell their produce locally.

Sincerely,


Barbara Lamar