Catching up

 Wow, this blog still exists. I apologize for dropping off the face of the Earth for so long. I was so disheartened by some losses and failures that I completely missed out on chronicling my journey to becoming a "real" farmer. It did happen eventually, just not the way I imagined it. 

    My dreams of becoming a vegetable farmer were more or less dashed after that last season I wrote about here. By 2014 the weeds became overwhelming in my lazy no-till scheme (I still whole-heartedly believe no-till can work, just not the way I was doing it). The need for soil improvement was (and still is) so great and it's hard to know where to even start. What happened is I gave up on trying to be a "real" farmer and eventually I became a seed farmer of native wildflowers and medicinal herbs. I started a food forest with drought tolerant native fruit and nut species and improved my pollinator habitat. I started making salves and tinctures with the plants in my yard--including the weeds! Last year I started experimenting with ecoprinting and botanical dyeing, which yielded some fruitful results! 

    I also returned to school since my last post. My thesis research is on the sand cherry, Prunus pumila, and its pollination biology. I have struggled with finding a rewarding career that pays enough while living in a rural area, so I hope that improving my education will assist me with that. I feel lucky and blessed to be getting paid to go to school (yay STEM fields!) and to have that guaranteed income at a time when so many people are struggling or out of work. I hope to graduate at the end of this year and then start a new career in the spring of 2022. I really want that 2-3 months off in between to a) replenish my adrenal system after all this crazy stress and b) spend some time turning all my beautiful plant-dyed fabrics and yarns into cool stuff I can sell. 

    I also started a family since my last post. I am so excited to try gardening with my kid this year. I made some new beds by piling peat, compost, and straw on top of cardboard and we planted some cover crops and cold weather crops in them. Nothing has come up yet, so we may need to try again. I took an inventory of my seeds and discovered I have way too many of them. I have begun to transfer them from my closet to other growers so they don't just die here. It's a difficult process, deciding which ones I'll actually plant someday and which ones are better off in someone else's care. I have some cool seeds because in 2013 I invested quite a bit in heirloom varieties and I compulsively bought rare seeds when I encountered them. So far a Romanesco broccoli and a Russian kale from 2013 have sprouted with really good germination rates, so I am hopeful for the rest. 

an abundance of seeds

I have been buying seeds like a maniac lately and now have far too many to be able to plant all of them this year. I admit I did get sucked in to the 2012 doomsday hype a little, and felt I should be at least somewhat prepared for a societal collapse or other disaster. I have also been searching hard for Ojibwe heirloom crops for work and for the community I live in, for my husband's tribe. I have been thinking quite a bit about seed saving, and preserving crops for war-torn countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, as well as traditional indigenous crops that are becoming rare. For some reason the word "rare" seems to be a cue for me to click on "add to cart." I guess that's not a bad thing. I will take care of the seeds, propagate them, and distribute them to other seed savers, so they are certainly in good hands. Inexperienced hands with good intentions, anyway. Actually, I have been advised by more experienced seed savers to buy what I can of the rare seeds because they will not always be available. I joined Seed Savers Exchange, which comes with the added benefit of access to the Seed Savers Yearbook, an enormous catalog of seed savers across the world (but mostly in the USA) offering thousands of rare varieties. Unfortunately I haven't been able to use my 10% membership discount with Seed Savers Exchange much because I have found that I'm more interested in the seeds offered by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and I have purchased the majority of my seeds from them. I have also found some gems sold by Turtle Tree Biodynamic Seeds, Trade Winds Fruit, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Native Seeds/SEARCH, the  Museum of the Fur Trade, and Renee's Garden. I feel like the $35 membership fee is worth it just for the access to the Seed Savers Yearbook, though. In browsing the yearbook I'm drawn to anything with Ohio in the name (Ohio Pole Beans, Ohio Cutshort Beans, Ohio Calico Corn, Ohio Pink Tomato, Ohio Blue Clarage Corn...) probably because I'm homesick. I am also drawn to purple or blue vegetables, pretty dry beans, varieties from the northern Native American tribes, endangered varieties, and novelties. It can get expensive fast, though, especially for "unlisted" members who don't have any seeds listed for sale. For example, one packet of corn, with around 50 seeds, costs $5 for unlisted members.
Since I have encountered a dearth of Ojibwe heirloom varieties, I have been seeking out seeds of the crops grown by their neighbors, like the Mandans, Arikaras, Hidatsas, Lakotas, Menominees, Oneidas, and Ho'Chunk, and their relatives the Potawatomis, Odawas, Lenape (Delaware), and Algonquians. Also, since climate change research suggests that Minnesota summers are becoming hotter and dryer, I want to trial some dry farming techniques from the southwestern tribes. The Hopi techniques are particularly unusual to me. They entail very deep planting of many corn seeds in one 12-inch hole. I want to plant the seeds of plants who have grown this way successfully, so I want to use Hopi corn for this experiment. I think I already expressed my excitement for the success I had with Hidatsa Red beans in the 2012 growing season. They are amazingly drought tolerant, prolific, and low-maintenance, and they matured faster than any other beans I grew. I'm hoping the beans from the Hidatsas' allies, the Arikaras and Mandans, are just as rugged.
I started saving seeds last year but I meant to save a lot more. I learned quite a bit about seed saving, though, so I certainly feel more prepared. I bought corn condoms so I can grow several varieties and hand pollinate them. I will also be twistie tying Curcurbit blossoms to hand pollinate those. I can't wait...