After the Flood…

Anyone else looking forward to the new Margaret Atwood novel? Back to the world of Oryx and Crake, people!!

Anywho, decided to write a brief update. The recent weather kind of trashed the veggie garden. We live on a floodplain, right next to the river, and while we benefit from the rich, beautiful soil, we sometimes get wet. Or at least, the lawn and gardens get a nice silty bath. Mmmm nutrients and minerals… and really gritty chard. :P The weeds are getting a tad out of control, but I try to liberate one tomato plant a day. Haha ambition.

I didn’t stake the tomatoes, or peas, or cucumbers, or mallow. I meant to, I really did, but I think that deep down I may just be an agent of chaos, and feel that things are more awesome when they are wild and free. Or I’m just lazy. Probably that too.

Exhibition is this weekend and the next. I didn’t enter anything, but I do intend to go and view as much stuff as possible. It’s not difficult, ’cause things get downsized every year. A lot of the work is done by older people, and when they can’t volunteer anymore, there isn’t a lot of younger people interested in taking on the jobs. Kind of like farming. On a brighter note, our Exhibition still has cattle, sheep, and poultry competitions, and is not merely a dog-and-pony show like that other exhibition. (*cough Halifax cough*)

Ze pigs are growing. I think it would be best for all involved if the actual slaughtering of them was done here, so they aren’t stressed out by being loaded onto a truck and taken to a strange place. Is this an odd thought to have? I worry that some stranger will be rough with them, and that they’ll be frightened, but I still intend to have them killed. Maybe I’m just a weirdo. That could be quite possible.

I’m also considering buying a gilt (young female pig) to raise next year. There are farms not too far away that have Tamworths, Large Blacks, and Berkshires, so it probably won’t be too difficult to get one of those breeds (all heritage!). Then instead of buying weaner pigs each year, I’d have my own source and some to sell. Time to make friends with someone who owns a boar. :D

And… it’s all quiet on the poultry-front. Well, relatively. Down to 4 and 1/4 roosters (Australorp, Ameracauna, Catalana, Faverolle, and Mille Fleur). So there isn’t a huge kerfluffle in the mornings anymore. Satanica (pictured here) hatched out one baby chick, and if anything it has made her more evil. She now has a small pen for herself and the baby (Damien?) for everyone’s safety, lol.

Oh, and I missed the Hand Mowing competition at Ross Farm, but I found pics of it on the Annapolis Valley Heritage Seeds blog, which is how I realized I’d forgotten to go. Not that I know how to use a scythe, but it’s totally on my to-do list. I’ll try to find more pics of the competition and link them, too.

And I guess that’s that. Time to go back outside… :D

This is Necessary

Does anyone remember Tool’s song Disgustipated? ‘Cause the “chorus” is stuck in my head today. Anyway.

Today I was thinking of a discussion I had on a pagan forum years ago, where someone had posted that they could no longer weed their garden because they felt so sorry for the plants they were uprooting. My response: Things die, and sometimes it’s because I killed them.

Which seems harsh, but true. If you don’t weed a garden, the plants you value the most, the ones that will become medicines and food, won’t thrive. If you don’t cull your herd or flock of unhealthy animals, others might get sick. If you eat meat, an individual animal with its own personality and spirit has died so that you could do so.

And it’s something you have to get your head around. We are living beings that consume other living beings in order to keep on living. There are ways to make this better, however. I’m not saying vegetarianism is the answer; I, for one, got very sick trying to stick to a vegetarian diet. I have no intention of not eating meat. But I won’t eat meat that was tormented and tortured while alive. And unless the animal was raised by me, a family member, or a farmer with the same values as me, I don’t know if it was treated with the dignity and respect it deserves.

To get back to the pagans: It’s not all light and pixie-dust. Death doesn’t go away just because we find Her methods distasteful. And I’m often wondering why the neo-pagan community seems to be so much at odds with these concepts. Is all this blathering about “Nature” just lip-service paid through a living-room window? If this is “Earth-based” religion, why the distance from the basic cycles of life on Earth? A bit of spookiness at Samhain doesn’t teach the necessity of death, and without that how can the preciousness of life truly be recognized?

And so as to not just pick on neo-pagans, I also think that heathens partaking of animal sacrifice in blót should only do so if they (or someone in their kindred) raised the animal themselves. I mean, if the closest you’ve gotten to a pig is buying bacon from the supermarket, is it right for you to offer a living one to the gods? If you have no connection to the animal that you are making an offering of, is that offering really yours to make? I mean no disrespect to anyone, because there is always the sacrifice of time and money involved (not to mention reputation, on occasion). It just seems a bit bloodthirsty (haha), if you aren’t invested in life, as well as death.

lol Do I make any sense? This is just kind of a rambling rant. To sum up:

Point One: We can’t live without killing things.

Point Two: We don’t have to be jerks about it.

Point Three: Having no connection to a sacrifice doesn’t make for much of a sacrifice.

Haha there we go. My thoughts for the day. :D Time to go back outside.

Belladonna and Brugmansia

Everything around here is in bloom and looks lovely. Or looked lovely. The rain wiped out my poppies and foxglove, and flattened the mugwort, delphinium, and feverfew. The belladonna is thriving though; I put bones around her feet. She’s still loaded with blossoms; I wonder how long she’ll bloom?

And I have about six baby Brugmansia. I have no idea what species, and I probably won’t know till they bloom, which could be a while. The package said Maikoa, but I don’t know if that’s specific to a species or to the genus. More research is required, I guess.

And in other news, my new favourite book is Daniel A. Schulke’s Viridarium Umbris: The Pleasure Garden of Shadow. Sure wish I could’ve had it nine years ago; it would’ve helped me make sense of a lot of things. Oh well. Such is life. :)

Porky and Hammie

The pigs arrived last Wednesday. We picked them up at the feedstore and brought them home in a plastic tub in our van. I made up a stall for them to live in, with clean straw to sleep on, but they immediately rooted up most of it. They’ve left a small corner clean to sleep in, and have set about destroying the rest of the pen. Pigs have a very strong instinctual urge to root, and this is denied them in factory-farming situations. Here are the boys:

My siblings have named them, even though I’ve asked them not to. They couldn’t resist. One calls them Spider-Pig (as per the Simpsons movie) and Slim Pig (after the CBC cartoon); another Dimples and Slim Pig; and another Harry Plopper and Voldesnort. Sadly, I’m not kidding. Another thinks they look like pink versions of her dog. And another is convinced that they are utterly aborable.

As for myself, when I look at them, I just think mmmmm bacon. :D

New Plants

Buying started plants is cheating, I know. But my seed-starting table (formerly of dining-room fame) is full, as are all windowsills, stereos, pianos, and basically any other flat surface with sufficient lighting. And sometimes it’s nice to just lovingly dump something in the garden and see how it goes.

And I was at the Village Nursery in Pleasantville (which is, true to name, a very pleasant place) and had access to hundreds of varieties at really good prices. Four perennials for $3.19? How could I resist? Really, I have no will power at all when it comes to plants. None whatsoever.

• Hyssop
• German Chamomile
• Echinacea “Baby White Swan”
• Black Hollyhocks (I started seeds, which are now sprouting, but I wanted some backup.)
• Foxglove “Pam’s Choice” (White with maroon center.)
• Sage (Yeah, I’m getting lazy.)
• Rue (Somehow I managed to kill my rue plant, which had been with me since I was fourteen, last year. Kind of sad, but now I have four rue babies to take over, unless the chickens dig them out.)
• Skullcap (The alpine variety?)
• And Pansies (Accord Black Beauty)

I also volunteered to help at a local plant sale, and was gifted with burgundy and yellow irises, a burgundy peony and a “toothbrush plant” for my troubles. Pretty good deal, eh?

In other news, the cattle have been moved to their summer pastures, I’ve found a home for six of the roosters, and tomorrow is Pig Day. Should be hilarious, if nothing else. :)

So Datura’s an Outlaw?

I can’t seem to find anyone willing to ship Datura stramonium seeds into Nova Scotia this year. Neither Veseys nor Richters will ship it anymore. Apparently the Dept. of Natural Resources has declared it a noxious weed, which seems to be rather harsh. I’ve never been able to find it in the wild, so it can’t have invaded that much yet. Perhaps I’m just not looking in the correct areas?

I started two more pumpkin varieties: Small Sugar, which is basically for eating, and Warlock, which better be freaking amazing given the price of the seeds.

My Richters order came in (minus the D. stramonium) and I’ve started most of the seeds already:

• Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger)
• Rampion (Campanula rapunculus) Rapunzel, Rapunzel…
• Maikoa (Brugmansia spp.)
• Black Hollyhock (Alcea rosea nigra)
• Horehound (Marrubium vulgare)
• Syrian Rue (Peganum harmala) For dye, or for … other purposes…  hmmm…

Common Comfrey and Blue-Seeded Opium Poppy also arrived but have not been planted as of yet.

And in the garden, the Belladonna and Black Cohosh are awake, as well as the Mugwort, a small bit of Wormwood, Lady’s Mantle, Echinacea, copious amounts of Spearmint, Lemon Balm, and Catnip, Tansy, Feverfew, Delphinium, a weird Lily, Marsh Mallow, an aromatic ground cover whose name escapes me (Sweet Woodruff?), and many others.

In the woods, Trilium and Bloodroot are in bloom, as well as the May Bush (might be Sheep Laurel?), yellow and purple violets, Poison Ivy (yippee), and a few others I can’t identify. One’s a shrub with small whitish bell-shaped flowers that hang down in pairs, and the other is maybe half a foot high with small whitish bell-shaped flowers, and looks like a lily. And then there’s something that’s looks like Hemlock, but I’m not sure. Jewelweed, Meadowsweet, and Irises are also making appearances. Amazing the things you find when you’re out and about for hours at a time picking fiddleheads, lol.

And five Mandrakes are up and accounted for. Hopefully they stay awake this time. :)

The Mandrakes Live! (I hope)

So, there are signs of life from the mandrake pots. Two shoots in one, and one in the other. I sincerely hope that these shoots are in fact the return of the mandrakes and not the return of the self-seeding plantain, which decided to grow in the mandrake pot, and not in the dirt beside it. Nothing has appeared in the pot which contained the tree daturas, who apparently have shuffled off this mortal coil. Not even plantains, which brings me back to my hope for the mandrakes.

The reason for my current mandrake obsession is that I can no longer buy new seed from Richters (their own supplier bailed on them), and that I was pretty sure I’d killed these ones. Dead but dreaming? Simply sleeping? Or just unfortunately dormant after I left them out on a frosty night? Because these ones went dormant, they won’t flower or fruit this year, which means I have to keep them alive (and awake) for another full year and a half before I can get seeds.

I did find seeds at Alchemy Works, at 5 for $5 American. I also found seeds at Bouncing Bear Botanicals, but chose to buy them from Alchemy Works instead. I figure if I can’t buy local (or even provincial), I’ll buy Canadian (national), and if I can’t buy Canadian, I’ll buy pagan/heathen. But who knows, maybe BBB is pagan-owned as well. I dunno…

Currently Sprouting

• European Mandrakes (Mandragora officinarum) (var. unknown, possibly vernalis.)
• Brandywine Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum) (tastes great, heirloom O/P variety, and saying the name reminds you of Hobbits; how awesome is that?)
• Earlianna Tomatoes (supposedly very early, hence the name. Hopefully not a hybrid. Found a heritage Earliana tomato, maybe it’s the same one?)
• Okra (Gumbo) (Abelmoschus esculentus) (Clemson variety. Never tasted Okra before, might be interesting.)
• Sweet (Bell) Peppers (Capsicum annuum) (Various heirloom varieties; I won’t know for sure until they grow.)
• Borage (Borago officinalis) (Blue star-shaped flowers taste great; apparently you can eat the leaves too.)
• Eggplant (Solanum melongena) (Black Beauty variety; I’ve never had Eggplant before either.)
• Calendula (Calendula officinalis) (Pacific Beauty Mix)
• Dill (Anethum graveolens)
• Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) (Yes, I actually planted this. I just can’t find it in the wild around here.)
• Leek (Allium ampeloprasum porrum?) (Large Musselburg variety)
• Lumina Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) (A white ornamental variety; hasn’t shown up yet)
• Uzbek melon (Cucumis melo) (No other info on this one. Apparently, Uzbekistan is famous for melons, of various varieties, so I don’t know if this is a specific variety or just a melon that originated in Uzbekistan. It might be this.)
• And a seed mix that contained Basil (Ocimum basilicum), Chives (Allium schoenoprasum), Parsley (Petroselinum crispum), and Thyme (Thymus vulgaris).

Phew, that went on forever… And that’s just the beginning…

Chickens of Evil…

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the henhouse… :D

 

This is Satanica, a Silver-Laced Wyandotte. She is at least six years old, possibly seven. She still lays eggs, mostly because it gives her a good opportunity to bite whomever has to gather them (meaning me). She usually aims for hands or arms, although she will peck at your eyes if given the opportunity.

Hatchery catalogues usually describe this breed as “quiet,” “calm,” “good pets,” and “docile.”

They lie.

My four Wyandottes are the nastiest hens on the place. I know chickens have a pecking order, and I know broody hens are tough to deal with, but these ladies go beyond all of that. They are utterly malevolent. (I still like them though.)

Pigs, Perhaps…

Seriously considering buying a couple pigs to raise over the summer. Thing is, I’d like a heritage breed, and they are much more expensive than your average commercial hybrid pig. Which is entirely understandable; it takes time and money to find heritage breed stock, and you don’t want to sell it for less than it’s worth.

I don’t eat a lot of meat, but I want the animals that I do eat to be raised humanely, allowed to be outside, and not pumped full of antibiotics. The best way to ensure this is to raise them myself. I’ve been finding it hard to eat bacon after reading this article (scroll about halfway down the page to where it says, Pork and Bacon). Sad, huh?

Anywho, a pig adventure might commence soon. There hasn’t been a pig on this farm since before I was born, and those that were here were kept inside. So, time to experiment in pasture-raised pork… (and in fencing pigs, lol).

Rain

I can hear the river from inside my house; my lawn and garden were temporarily a lake earlier this morning. In the river’s middle current there are waves four-feet high. It’s kind of exciting, living on a flood plain. You’re always slightly paranoid, making offerings to the river gods, thankful for the nutrient-rich silt and other gifts the river brings: picnic tables and benches from the park up-river, fresh trout, a place to swim and play and relax.

It’s good, but occasionally very dangerous. I love the river dearly.

I’ve been scrounging “countryside” books at local thrift shops and used bookstores. Today I found The Countryside Yearbook: A Cook’s Calender by Gail Duff (which is beautifully illustrated with wild green growing things), Lambsquarters: Scenes from a Handmade Life by Barbara McLean (about a farming family’s relationship to the land), and Nature Through the Seasons by Richard Adams (didn’t he write Watership Down?). Love of the land is apparent on every page. He quotes Walter de la Mare at the start:

Very old are the woods;

And the buds that break

Out of the brier’s boughs

When March winds wake,

So old with their beauty are-

Oh, no man knows

Through what wild centuries

Roves back the rose.

In other news, my strange chicken-kitty will now take food from my hand, but shows no further inclination to domestication. She sleeps in the nesting boxes with the hens. I’ve been more concerned with the feed my hens are eating recently. It’s not organic, and I figure they’ll never be “organic” hens because in addition to any feed, grass, strawberries (grr), and grubs they scrounge, they also eat composted pancakes, rice, bacon fat, cereal, bread, spaghetti, potato chips, and doubtless many other strange and disgusting foodstuffs whose ultimate origin is unknown. I mean, we grow and make more things from scratch than most people around here, but we can’t make everything. I’m off track: what I meant to say was: I don’t want my chickens eating processed chicken entrails. Gross. And on that note…