Author: niffer

Plum, pear, and apple guild ready for the winter.

Tis the time to think about the coming winter season. Time to gather up the garden edges and tuck them into the earth for a good long winter's nap. It is a reflective time of year. A breath of both relief and sorrow at the end of the growing season escapes the earth. Next a great inhale for the winter ready, preparing to exhale all the stored winter energy next year.

But we are already planning for next year.

Linden and apple guild almost ready for next year's plantings.

The slow and constant march to expand out forest gardens is a never ending quest. Every autumn our neighbours bring over their leaves, away from their land and out of sight. Of course we welcome this influx of biomass and nutrition. Great piles of plant material wait under our trees. Waiting to be spread across the landscape in curvy shapes and beside pathways. Spread inches thick to protect the soil and the animals that hide in the litter all winter.

We don't know what these leaves hide. Conventional wisdom says we should not pile "strange" leaves on our land as they may harbour diseases. I suppose that is a valid reason to haul them off to the municipal compost, have them turned into compost, and then bring it home again. But we would rather bypass that whole cycle and the energy used to do it. We would rather compost in place. If there is a disease or insect hiding in the leaf litter, we feel it is our job to make the ecosystem healthier so it can resist the attacker instead of trying to get rid of the attacker. The healthier the ecosystem, the less likely the attacker is to have an impact on it.

Sunflower heads ready to help feed the birds in winter and provide winter shelter for other critters.

So we let nature even herself out and become balanced. Less work and chemical free. It will take a while, but it does seem to happen. We are even beginning to see anecdotal evidence of that in our gardens.

We are grateful for the leaves from our trees, and for the leaves of our neighbours. It helps lay a great deep bed don for the next year. By the time spring rolls around often the soil critters have done a great job at breaking down the leaf layer. Of course the grass doesn't do very well, but that's the point, less grass to cut for the coming year.

Our gardens get similar treatment to the leaves. We don't do much once everything is harvested. All the leftover vegetation gives homes, and hovels for a variety of insects and critters over the winter. Dead plant heads are a wonderful food for so many of the winter birds too. the chickadees and juncos are already beginning to harvest the goldenrod, echinacea, and sunflower heads. Some will be good, some critters will be bad, but they will all end up as food somewhere along the natural cycle circle.

Carrot Common in Toronto is an anchor in the health food store landscape in Toronto. There is a charitable foundation branch called Carrot Cache. Carrot Cache is a well know supporter or organic, community, and alternative food systems. Every year Carrot Cache sponsors an Organic Farming Innovation Prize. Past years have seen this prize give credit to some incredible ideas that may have otherwise been overlooked.

Last years winner, Bob Balour of The Fresh Veggies, created an open source computer program for vegetable growers. His program enables farmers to select crops, decide how many weeks they want it harvested, the quantity per week, and the price. The program then generates a succession plan,  seed order, greenhouse, field planting, transplant, and harvest plan.

This year we submitted out $100 Food Forest to be considered for the Innovation Prize. Check it out!

Sunchoke harvest of 2011.

This year was the first crack at our perennial root harvest. They aren't quite potatoes, but almost. These tubers are known as sunchokes, or Jeruselum artichokes. Really they aren't artichokes at all but the perennial sunflower, Helianthus tuberosus.

Two or three years ago (I can't remember exactly) we planted the sunchokes with the hopes of getting a yearly harvest. For the first couple years they were just left to populate the soil. We didn't want to over harvest them for fear of harvesting viable populations of tubers too fast. First rule of foraging, only take what can be sustained by the system, even if it is in your own back yard!

So we left them, and left them another year. Finally, the third year, we could harvest. Tim is very happy about this as he just LOVES sunchokes. When we first bought tubers from Whole Circle Farm he was very sad that we couldn't eat them. But we did manage to keep them for the winter and plant them in anticipation of yearly harvests down the road.

And here it is.  This lot came from perhaps 3-5 foot area square. Just a small space. We thought this was a great harvest from such a small space, especially compared to growing potatoes in a similar space. It was only a fraction of what we could have harvested as you  see.

Sunchokes harvested.

We have two areas of sunchokes. One beside our annual gardens in a kind of sun trap. It is beside a large erratic boulder brought in during the ice age. It is a warm little spot at the edge of some tall spruce trees.The second plating is along the front fence of the house. We wanted to ensure that we had a sizeable harvest every year, to test different growing conditions, and to provide a visual barrier from the road.

Sunchokes are very versatile. Not only can we eat them, but they can be used as winter feed for animals, as a silage feed, and have potential as a biodigester crop. Talk about a top 10 permaculture plant!

Stems from the sunchokes, a lot of biomass.

So we harvested this lot. Of course we aren't in a position to create silage and don't have a biodigester so what do we do with the stalks?

The best stalks were picked and are drying in the greenhouse. Maybe they will make good wood substitutes for simple fencing, as bowdrills for fire making, or who knows. Not too sure how they will be used, but I am sure we will be able to find SOMETHING to do with them.

Sunchoke stems drying.