Great lecture on Ben Falk’s point of view of good design systems and his business Whole Systems Design in Vermont.
Signs of Spring
After a six month hiatus from the internet and then the next few not bothering to write, it’s been a long time since I blogged…The winter has been a jump back into full time jobs and adjusting to a different kind of life. Our new place is nestled into the Gatineau hills beside a lake. We’ve got free range forest chickens and some veggies growing out of our hot bed/mini coolhouse that we constructed out of straw bales and old plastic. Things are greening up here and the spring ephemerals are popping up all over the place. It is definitely spring!
More jungle! My tomatoes grew like crazy this year and with barely any rain in August their sugars and flavour were concentrated into the best tasting I’ve ever had. I have dried, frozen and canned (paste and sauce) tomatoes that will last me well past the winter. More squash- I let them take over the whole garden once my string beans and onions were done growing. I snuck some sunflowers in beside the jerusalem artichokes.
Part of a jungle of my garden. First, the pumpkins I planted into the lawn in hopes they would grow down over an existing rock wall. A success! Second, squash plant hanging from the jerusalem artichokes. Third, the squash plant making its’ way to the other side of the huge patch of jerusalem artichokes.
Bread is one of my staples and even though I buy from local, sustainable farmers when I can and I make it all from scratch, I think about growing my own all the time. Broadcast and harvested by hand. We need to look to Masanobu Fukuoka and Sepp Holtzer for inspiration and our next steps. This article looks at the bigger picture than my own little garden, on how we can grow staples on a large scale to feed North America.
I certainly share her views.
Here are some photos of a blanket my boyfriend and I felted for a wedding gift this summer. Most of it was done rolled up in a blanket around a PVC pipe with soapy water. This is an old Mongolian felting technique-although they used to tie the wool wrapped around a log behind their camels. As they grazed through the plains the wool fibres interlocked together. We had to sit in chairs and roll the pipe between our feet for quite a few hours. After that part was done I added some more detail with a needle felter.
