Esme shares her family’s vegetable harvest

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Transcript from video:

Eme: Taking video of me peeling my bamboo shoots?

Courtney Brooke: Yeah what are you doing Esme?

Esme: Peeling a bamboo shoot!

Courtney Brooke: What are you gonna do with that bamboo shoot?

Esme: Eat it!

Courtney Brooke: What? You can eat bamboo shoots?

Esme: Yes!

Courtney Brooke: You can eat just all the bamboo shoots any different kind?

Esme: No you can’t eat the furry ones when the bamboo is like furry.

Courtney Brooke: Oh you can only eat the ones that don’t have fur?

Esme: Uh huh.

Courtney Brooke: Yep.

Esme: They’re always really furry like this inside.

Courtney Brooke: Let’s see?

Esme: They’re furry like this inside.

Courtney Brooke: I can’t quite see the furry, let me see?

Esme: They’re furry like this inside.

Courtney Brooke: Oh year, like little fuzz.

Esme: Uh huh, their fuz. Then you peel them and then you cook them fry them and then you can eat them.  And you peel the outside layers off…. but you see this?

Courtney Brooke: Yeah.

Esme: That’s what we want to peel off.

Courtney Brooke: Ah, Okay so then we just eat like the heart of it like the core.

Esme: Yeah, you only eat the core.

Courtney Brooke: Cool.

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Around this time of year at Earthaven, you might see several varieties of heritage corn being dried, including Oaxacan Green, Carl’s Glass Gem, and Bloody Butcher. These are used, respectively, for tortillas and hominy, popcorn, and cornmeal. Twelve-year-old resident, Stone, grew the Bloody Butcher corn pictured; his fifteen-year-old sister, Gaia, arranged and took the photographs.

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As COVID-19 continues to distort our once-familiar realities, many people—residents of Earthaven included—are asking questions about systemic uncertainty. Food security is, quite naturally, at the top of many folks’ lists.

Check out some of the initiatives taking place in and around Earthaven with an eye toward food security. Some of these projects were already in existence and others are in direct response to COVID-19.

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On July 5th, a group of residents and neighbors gathered for a Food Interdependence Discussion Series. The series featured four sessions for discussion, as well as identifying actions. The sessions were created based on interests expressed on a community email list.

The mission of the Stock the Pantry Initiative is to establish and maintain a supply of nonperishable food for a community-owned, six-month emergency food stock. The project plans to include about 50 different items such as various grains, beans, nuts, seeds, flours, and dried fruits.

The Canned Bean Collective, which started before the pandemic, grew out of the project generator’s desire to reduce waste and to foster more thrift. The idea is to have the convenience of opening a jar of home-canned beans instead of trying to remember to soak dry beans a day ahead.

Tricia and her family, who live on land adjacent to Earthaven, created space for this work on their homestead because, “it feels very tribal and ancestral to work with others to put up food together and is a great way to have social connection and accomplish tasks.” A team of nine people meet in different configurations twice monthly for two to three hours. In July and August alone, they have put up over 120 quarts of beans.

Veggie Ladies is two years old and was created by a farmer to meet increased labor demands, while also promoting connection among women. She leads a weekly four-hour work party of six women. The women put in a small amount of money for seeds and supply ongoing labor in exchange for a portion of the harvests.

In a similar cooperative model, Bread and Butter Farm has a joint venture to build up corn production for high quality winter animal fodder. Community member Bruce puts up the seed, and supplies labor in planting and weeding, while the farm lends a portion of their field for the growing. The farm will use half the green corn for silage, and Bruce will use the rest for his own purposes.

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Now in its 24th year, I believe that Earthaven is in a stage of cultural succession in which collaborative farming has more of a role to play than in the early years. The pioneer effort of Earthaven’s first two decades created both the literal and cultural topsoil needed for supporting plants and the human systems it takes to sustain that production.

Food production has as much to offer the community for its human relational benefits as for its survival function. For now, we know we won’t starve if our crops fail. Our privileged access to many backup food sources is a huge cushion. Although it is likely in coming decades that intensive self-reliant food production will become necessary instead of optional, for now it is a choice.

So why would any of us choose to grow food? Why don’t we just keep growing good topsoil? Growing significant amounts of food is hard work that requires diligence, sacrifice, and a total reset of activities and priorities, without anything like a guaranteed success.

Although I cannot speak for the livestock or biodynamic farmers or the numerous home gardeners and landscape managers who are my neighbors, I’ve articulated these goals for myself, and I believe we generally share them:

To develop a culture of collaborative farming and mutual aid which is enjoyable, satisfying and full of purpose.

To maximize learning now through successes and failures of edgy experiments, while fossil fuels and specialized resources are available as a safety net.

To develop an adaptive, climate-resilient agro-ecological system that can healthily sustain people indefinitely, even in a subsistence lifestyle.

To obtain enough yields of diverse foods, medicines, fiber and fodder and to learn to skillfully cook and/or process them for an integrated agro-ecological lifeway.

To influence other farmers through example and proof of concept, as communicated through farming together, as well as educational formats and writing.

To design a system which is >90% self-sufficient in nutrients, minerals and organic matter.

To breed seeds and plants for maximum diversity, for polyculture and successional farming practices, for micro-local adaptation, and for flavor and nutrient density.

photos, from top: Local liquid concoctions for Xmas Eve; preparing “lasagna” gardens is a big job!; Meira leads Julia through the milpa; Full Circle Farm potato harvest curing.

Zev Friedman is a leading permaculture designer, researcher, teacher and writer in western North Carolina, specializing in hands-on, in-depth permaculture and earthskills education. He lives in the Hut Hamlet. Feel free to contact Zev directly with comments, questions, and your own stories at zevkudzu at gmail.com.

The post Why I Bother to Farm at Earthaven, Part Two: A Collaborative Farming Manifesto appeared first on Earthaven Ecovillage.

For the living, food is a master course in survival and well-being. Our community members strive to learn how to grow and prepare soil to cultivate vibrant, nourishing plants and animals, demonstrate a healthy balance between work, relaxation and celebration, and continue to develop a cooperative management approach to various goals of self-sufficiency. Medicine is the other power course, which we’ll shine a light on in future issues.

We are food people. What we eat, what we grow, what we trade, what we know about our food, and the ways we share food and food stories, are a big part of our lives in community. At Earthaven, organic food self-sufficient practices are a dream in the process of fulfillment, albeit with a long way to go!

We’ve yet to build our long-dreamed-of community center, with multi-purpose spaces for dining, workshops, parties, classes, games, a place to share more of the lifestyle we’ve dedicated ourselves to. Connected to soil, seed, animal life and recycled resources, little by little, folks learn and apply the learning.

Meanwhile, we eat together at weekly potlucks and cookouts, at celebrations, and in a few neighborhood kitchens that provide more intimate spaces. Recently, Marybeth started a “Sunday Soup ‘n Somethin’” supper group, mixed up from neighborhoods across the community. This idea is likely to go viral in the months to come.

This holiday season, folks were attentive to ways of sharing food. At the Bizarre Bazaar before the Winter Solstice, folks sold holiday food. 

On Christmas Eve, Monique and Juan Pablo organized a spectacular dinner party at the White Owl, where Rachel and the kids provided warmth and welcome. River Otter served chicken dinner on Christmas Day at the Hut Hamlet Kitchen to guests from around the community. A surprise ice storm had most folks staying home New Year’s Eve, gathering momentum (one hopes) for more food-focused events in the near future.

Using opportunities to build our food culture with nourishing social connection and opportunities to work, learn and grow together, we learn to care for the soil, discover best varieties, best seasons, best preservation and trading partners. By learning its energetic and nutritional value, by seeing how our food heals and sustains us, we grow stronger. By storying the food and paying respect to its goodness and purity, by remembering what we know of where it came from, we carry on the good work.

The learning will go on, while the concentric circles widen around the essential goal—a human and planetary resilience that promises to fulfill our dearest and most tender needs.

photos, from top:

  Darren in the cornfield.

  Cornelian Cherries.

  Chrismas Eve at the White Owl.

 Michaeljon delighting Heron at the fish pond.

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“The pioneer effort that founded Earthaven created both literal and

cultural topsoil, which is now capable of supporting not only plants

but the human systems it takes to

successfully grow food.”

I’ve heard early members of Earthaven frequently remark that this ecovillage was framed as a pioneer project: they wanted to start a project that was boldly different than anything that existed, not just graft onto existing societal norms and have to compromise from the outset. They also chose a piece of densely forested land with no clearings, which meant they had to clear large amounts of forest, thereby re-starting the process of succession.

below: Carving Gateway field from the forest

After a forest is cut down, fast-growing, sun-loving “pioneer” plants explode into activity, filling the forest canopy gap with life and beginning the process of what ecologists call succession. Pioneer species grow rapidly, make lots of biomass and begin to restore topsoil, cover horizontal ground, prepare and then give way to secondary succession species, onwards through waves of other stages until a forest ecosystem peaks at around 125-150 years of age.

Due to the initial conditions at Earthaven, the first 10 years of physical work was mostly spent clearing trees and creating basic infrastructure, all while people worked to make income, raise children, and develop the organizational architecture of the community. I’ve heard that many visitors during the pioneer stage remarked on how little food production they witnessed, expecting to see residents eating meals composed of all homegrown food. What they witnessed was an assortment of mostly urban refugees attempting to rapidly master many new skills at once. To nurture the dream of a self-reliant ecovillage would surely take many decades or generations to come into fruition.

above: The milpa in cover crop viewed from the remains of a pioneer-era structure.

Now that Earthaven is going into its 24th year, we’re moving into a new stage of cultural succession, in which collaborative farming has more of a role to play than it did in the early years. Some major infrastructural bones of Earthaven are in place, so the flesh of plants and farming culture can grow on them. Another way to say it is that the pioneer effort that founded Earthaven has created both literal and cultural topsoil, which is now capable of supporting not only actual plants but also the human systems that it takes to successfully grow food.

above: Zev and friends replanting the Hut Hamlet Milpa.

Feel free to contact Zev directly with comments, questions, and your own stories at zevkudzu at gmail.com.

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I first learned about pawpaws from Chuck Marsh. He was an enthusiastic advocate of new and under-appreciated fruit. When I became a partner in the nursery in 2010 we gathered and planted selected pawpaw varieties everywhere—his yard, at the nursery, and in Geoffrey’s and my orchard. When his first pawpaw tree started blooming, Chuck gathered flowering stems from other trees in the village and brought them to pollinate the flowers in his tree. He was a proud papa when his trees bore fruit that fall!

For the nursery, we gather seeds from superior genetics to grow into plants for our customers. One of our favorite pawpaw sources is Wynn Dinnsen’s Pittsboro farm. During a recent plant delivery, I bought 10 pounds of pawpaws from Wynn. The pulp will go into a variety of baked goods and ice cream. And the seeds will grow into pawpaw trees for our nursery customers.

Losing Chuck so suddenly has been a big shock, and I appreciate all the support our crew and I have received through this transition. We were 50-50 partners in the nursery and had each willed our half to the other, to give the nursery its best chance of continuing without one of us.

In addition to producing thousands of useful plants each year, the nursery provides much-needed jobs in the ecovillage—and will continue on. We have a great crew and plenty of plants for the fall and spring. And with these seeds, we will have pawpaw trees for years to come.

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Celebrating elderberry season!

Walking in more than one Earthaven neighborhood in July, you would have enjoyed the dark, luminous clusters of elderberry hanging from both the older, taller trees and ones just beginning to bear. And while folks do harvest some of the white flower clusters earlier in the season, also enjoyed for food and medicine, it’s the berries that get folks out there with boxes and buckets.

This year, neighbors Susan and Bob Broadhead’s crop (at Full Circle) yielded many boxes and bags of goodness for families and herbalists across the watershed.

Soon, elderberry jams will appear, just for their deliciousness, and then the syrups, many doctored with favorite herbal extracts to boost the healing power of the berries, and to serve as season-changing tonics. Come Christmas, local herbalists will be selling a variety of healing concoctions made with elderberries. and those who haven’t made their own will be stocking up for Winter.

Varieties of Zev’s standard elderberry syrup recipe appear every year. What would you do with yours?

Zev’s Elderberry Syrup Recipe

 For 10 pounds (or about 1.5 gallons) of berries:
Cook elderberries slowly, on medium low heat, about 2.5 hours, adding 1/8 to 1/4 cup at a time of the liquid from a decoction of:

1) Appalachian Reishi mushroom, 2 cups
2) Maitake mushroom, 2 cups
3) Chaga mushroom, 2 cups
4) Burdock root dried, 1 cup AND

5a) for a preventative syrup, you can add 1 cup astragalus OR

5b) for a syrup to take once you get sick, you can add 1 cup osha root.

You also need 190 proof alcohol, (raw) honey, and apple cider vinegar in these proportions of berries to alcohol to honey to vinegar: 4:2:3:1.

After straining the decoction, cover the remainder with alcohol and set aside. Cook elderberry mixture till skins turn mushy—the consistency of thick tomato soup. Strain skins and seeds through a sieve and add to mushroom-root-alcohol concoction. Cook the elderberry syrup to a consistency between tomato soup and maple syrup. Let cool just to body temp before adding the honey. Mix in the vinegar and alcohol—also using the alcohol from the soaked ingredients.

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Thirteen Hut Hamlet neighbors recently established a chicken co-op, endearingly referred to as Posse Poulet. From these 50 or so birds, we have been receiving almost all of our needed eggs, and we’re looking ahead to a possible moderate increase in number of birds, including some ducks. We’ll also be slaughtering some of the older hens this fall for stew.

Working together, we get an integrated rotational chicken system with a manageable workload and cost for each household, as well as the fun of collaborating. We purchased 45 laying hens from Imani Farm (who decided to reduce their flock this year) and received several hens and another two roosters (one is now digested soup) from Black Wolf. With the financial structure and roles within the co-op set up by last spring, we made the leap and purchased equipment (such as electric fencing, materials for a moveable coop and feed containers) and then the birds in June. Since then, they’ve been rotated through three overgrown agricultural areas in the neighborhood. One of the areas the chickens cleared was around the House of Oneness, which will be deconstructed this season and salvaged for reconstruction as the House of Diversity in the Village Center (see related article in this newsletter).

Kimchi, another co-operative in the coop co-op, writes: “The chicken co-op has been a great way to experience and expand our connections with the land, the source of our food, and learn how to share with each other. What a gift to create rich relationships at Earthaven!”

We’ve also been experimenting with “alternative feed systems” such as black soldier fly larvae and red wiggler worm production, and of course we feed all of our seedy weeds to the birds, thus reducing weed pressure in our compost piles and giving nutrients to the birds. We’ve also been experimenting with using charcoal in their pen, nesting boxes and roost to absorb manure nutrients and odor and create biochar.

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