Soil Fertility

Thankfully Rio chose to rest in the leaf mold mound, rather than the chicken poop in the foreground of the 6'x25' compost mixing bed

My biggest challenge in the ever expanding garden is building/encouraging healthy and productive soils. The native soils of Black Diamond Canyon and most of Gallup are heavy clay that's prone to compaction when watered and difficult to work (brick-like) when they dry out. Consequently, I'm constantly adding organic matter, sand, and gypsum for balance. The latter in an attempt to reduce the 'stickiness' of the inevitably high percentage of clay that will always remain in my garden beds. Anyway, the main thing is the organic matter, partly for the nutrients, but mostly for the structure and resilience it adds to the soil. Over the past several years I've added straw (too slow to break down/nutrient poor), sphagnum moss (too expensive at $13/bale), and trailer-loads of brown leaves hard to find/collect-- my favorite leaf producing trees and leaf catching fences in and around Gallup are a closely held secret). I've also added endless bags of $2 mushroom compost from Home De*, organic steer manure from the Holiday Nursery ($4), and chicken manure/kitchen compost from my own coop. And yet, my soil still leaves my wanting.

Dusty but rewarding crap

Luckily, I recently got some advice from Tom and Ella of Connections/CSA. They use manure (horse/cow/anything) gathered from local corrals to improve their soils. The decomposing hay and manure adds desperately needed porosity to the soil, and while the nutrient content may vary with different degrees of freshness/decomposition the slight potential to over or under-feed your plants is more than off-set by the long-term soil structure benefits of tilling manure into your soils.And so, after cleaning out my coop this spring and collecting leaves last fall, I'm on the hunt for sources of manure. Cow Town and M&R Trading Post on 491 have great corrals to empty. The 2 vets in town have corrals, but I avoid them fearing medications in the poop, and then there are an endless list of coworkers with livestock eager for a free barn-hand. There's plenty of manure in and around this town!

The pint-sized powerhead 550

Until I've developed the soils of my dreams, I've used compost tea to deliver nutrients/fertility to my undernourished and compacting soils. Compost tea is made by soaking compost or good soils in aerated water in order to encourage the beneficial bacteria, micro-organisms, fungi, etc (everything good in soil grows better with water and air) to multiply. The compost goes into a pillow case (loose compost will clog any pump/airstone) and the air is usually supplied by an aquarium pump supplying an air stone that diffuses the air into fine bubbles. The problem with that type of air pump is you have to get a pretty big one (expensive to buy and operate) to push any worthwhile amount of bubbles deep into a bucket or barrel, and then the airstones constantly get plugged. I've found a better solution is to use another aquarium tool: the power head. Powerheads are basically a submersible pump that uses the venturi effect to suck air into the out flowing water-stream. I've found they're much more efficient at delivering lots of oxygen to the water and rarely get clogged.

35 gallons of 'bubbly,' on the right.

Native Seeds SEARCH order

Navajo's believe that spring begins when the first thunder is heard on one of the four sacred mountains, and today, a day before the equinox, a loud storm swept through Gallup. Spring is definitely here. In tune with the season, my seed order from Native Seeds SEARCH also arrived today! NSS is a non-profit organization in Tucson that is dedicated to collecting and preserving indigenous varieties of crops, native to the Americas. I've ordered from them before, and been a member since 2007, and while slightly expensive, the results have never been disappointing. This year I ordered 3 varieties of winter squash (Navajo Hubbard, Navajo Grey Hubbard, Penasco Cheese) and a variety of popcorn called Navajo Copper. Most of these varieties were collected on the Navajo Nation (the Hubbards originally came from the 1901 Navajo Nation Fair in Shiprock) and have been grown-out and preserved by NSS. The NSS website/catalog describes the background and location of each seed variety sold, enabling gardeners to chose varieties that best suit the diverse growing conditions of their corner of the Southwest. In the past I've mostly stuck to Hopi and Navajo varieties, but have also had really good luck with blue corn and squash from other NM locales like Velarde and Penasco. NSS limits purchases to 3 packets of each variety, and provides free seeds to Native Americans.

Shitake Mushrooms Deep Freeze

Logs #20 and #28; white stuff is mushroom spawn

One of the biggest challenges with raising shiitake mushrooms from oak logs in the southwest is maintaining the high humidity of the midwest or Japan, where the cultivation technique is common. The internal moisture levels should be kept above 35%, but lacking a wood-moisture meter I follow the advice of trying to keeps cracks on the end of the logs at less than a 1/16" wide. In the spring, summer, and fall this means monthly soakings (for a day or two) in rainwater, but in the winter it's much easier; just bury the 40" logs in the deepest snow bank and forget about them until spring arrives.

What happened to the snow pack?

Eventually, I'll build a small mushroom shed to provide high humidity and protection from the drying winds and sun, without all of the physical effort and planning my current process requires. Remember, if your planning on starting your own mushrooms in oak logs, winter is the only time to harvest the logs and 'plant' the spawn in them. However, unlike established logs that can be kept beneath a cold blanket of snow, newly planted logs need to be kept warm and moist while the initial spawn-run occurs (about 6 months long).

Planting onions and snow peas

Planted sets before smoothing over the soil

Last week I planted 300+ mixed onion sets and a package of snow peas during a lull in the El Nino storm-track (since returned). The soil along a rock wall with good southern sun exposure had warmed to around 48 degrees, and I couldn't wait any longer to get the first (non-cold frame or garlic) crops in the ground. I may be gambling with the inevitable spring cold-snap still to come, but I plan to harvest all the onions as young scallions, and plant onions to grow-out to full size in a different bed (with more summer sun exposure) later in the spring, so these were spaced only a couple inches apart.

Snow pea 'seeds'

The snow peas are my first attempt at this cool-season legume, and a package of organic seeds from H.D. (Both the local nursery and ACE hardware were sold out of snow peas; evidently I'm not the only one in Gallup who knows of the frost-hardiness of this rare vegetable suited to Gallup's frigid spring nights) planted a 20' row. When they sprout I'll build the necessary trellis structure. Last year around April and May, as I waited patiently to get all my summer crops in the ground, I was more than a little jealous at the numerous reports of abundant snow pea harvests from around town.

Rio contemplates a life with snow peas

Winter Lettuce Cold-frame

2 week old sprouts reaching for NM sky

Nothing beats the crisp crunch of salad greens to balance out all the preserved meat and dried carbohydrates of a local winter diet-- actually, nothing really beats a salad at any time of the year. But back to late winter. Unfortunately, the co-op's greens aren't always that crunchy (please become a member and buy more frequently!) and the organic boxes of salad at the big stores aren't cheap in several respects. Either way, this time of year I can't get enough fresh leafy greens in my body and I find a convenient way is to grow your own.

The warming mass of the rock wall and neighbors garage

So in that theme, I recently remodeled my window-topped cold frame boxes of the past several years into a single, taller cold frame, the general dimensions of a storm-door. To be 'green,' and conserve some cash, I built the frame (the older ones had both broken their windows- at my errant hand.) with 100% recycled materials I had on hand (the screws were new, but recycled from a previous projects budget: the wood came from mom's old fence, the windows and glass panes I seem to collect cheaply without purpose, the storm door came off my house, and soil with my hens compost finished off the materials list. The storm door has clear windows on all but the western 20% of the lid, a large glass window fills the eastern end, and two slim windows fill the front, southern-exposed side of the box. The box, with diligent daily opening and nightly covering with fleece when below 20, keeps the soil temperature around 62 degrees, compared to diurnal fluctuations of between 42-52 for similar unprotected soil.

62 degree warm Romaine roots and sprouts

I planted various varieties of lettuce on Valentines day, including Bibb, Romaine, Black-seeded Simpson, and the ubiquitous Mesculun mix- colorful when young, and. . . exotic, almost scary when it bolts! First raking a rough micro-furrow pattern with a tined rake, I broadcast the seed, and smoothed over the low furrows with my palm. Within a week, the seeds nearest the 40 watt light were sprouting, and all the rest within the next week; the warmth really helps. I also planted 100 onion sets to harvest as scallions for salads and soups along the back wall, painted white for higher reflectance and an attempt to lower daytime temperatures. The latter triggering the bitter onset to the lettuce's bolt. By the time I post this, the tallest green onions are 5".

2010 Eggs

The lighter colored egg is a minute old

This week, my flock of five 2-3 year old hens came out of their winter egg-laying hiatus, and filled the first egg carton of the season. They stopped laying eggs around November, and I decided that unlike last year, I wouldn't light their coop with a compact florescent to stimulate laying through the winter. It works well, but I felt that these older birds certainly seemed to need to take a break. Though I'll admit, before they started laying, and wondering if they ever would again, I had started to eye the canning recipes for old hens. Old, tough birds being the perfect poultry to withstand the cooking rigors of the canning process (1.5 hrs. at 240), without just turning to mush. But, for now, with regular daily eggs, they've secured their keep in the garden for at least another few months.

Cows in Black Diamond Canyon

Cow Town, USA?

It's not the first time that cattle have wandered down from the hills north of town into my neighborhood along Wilson Ave, yet it was still a surprise to see them and the dog catcher at the end of the road last week. After 30 minutes or so to gather their posse, the animal control guys, ranchers, a couple cops herded a dozen or so cows back up to N. Country Club road and north along the mesa to the GAMERCO land with the grazing lease. I first saw the urban cows a couple years ago when I came home one summer evening to find them in my backyard (without planted gardens that year) munching on 4-wing saltbush and ripening wolfberry. Just as I began to shoo away the herd, the clearly winded dog catcher jogged around an adjoining building and as he continued to herd the cows up the steep slope, seemed to hesitate and struggle with whether or not to ask the question, if these were my cows. He did. And I replied that I only wished so. I felt proud just to be asked the question!

But, the full story is I have a history with the dog catcher. The same guy, who lives just a block down Wilson, had visited the year before, with his full rig and a coworker, to inform me that my front-yard free ranging flock of 9 hens, 5 guinea foul, and a turkey violated Gallup's rules that limit pets to, "three cats and three dogs." He gave me 2 weeks to slaughter or get rid of them, which I did with most of the hens, but I kept the guineas and the turkey till later that fall and never saw the guy again. I also kept them out of the front yard, and have never raised those tough, incredibly loud little African birds again. That turkey, a huge tom, was stolen Christmas eve later that year, the night before it was to be served. Not the most successful start to raising poultry, but I've kept at it. A little more successfully than that first year. More on that later.

Leeks, at long last

With an extended break between snow storms, the disappearing snow cover has allowed the bright days to warm the soil and reveal the last vegetable to harvest from under the deepest snowbanks in my garden; the little leeks.

I kept these transplanted leeks in the ground from spring through winter with the hopes that they would fatten through the late fall, and perhaps grow-out to full size early this spring. They've shown the incredible 'anti-freeze' properties of all alum (onion) family members, but I was still surprised at how healthy these plants did in their lightly mulched beds. However, as the soil warms and plans for this season's garden start to come together, it became clear that all but a few of the leeks (the lucky ones are interspersed with my perennial bed of young chard) are in beds I have different plans for this year and need to be harvested soon. They'll be a wonderful fresh vegetable addition to a number of early spring dishes/stews and yet I'm also excited to see how the few remaining leeks grow-out through this spring, and just maybe grow to a respectable size.

Short Ribs from El Morro

Prime Beef

Tonight I braised another pair of short ribs from El Morro Valley Ranch (see their add in the Gallup Journey, and support local, organic, and ethical producers with your dollars!) Olive oil, shallots, garlic, red wine, tomato/red chile sauce, and these two incredibly marbled and meaty ribs (1.14 lbs) went into the little enameled dutch oven for 3 hours at 300 degrees. Served with rice, it's damn sweet red meat. Literally.

Cabin 34's Rosemary

Every growing season I try to plant numerous herb-filled planters--clay or plastic 5 gallon pots-- this year rosemary and sage dominated. . . tasty, yet, I definitely miss the parsley and thyme that also filled several pots last winter. With a half-dozen rosemary plants thriving in my windows or waffle garden this year, I had to bring one of my kitchen center-pieces to our cabin (Bill, Jack, and Lloyd are my revered cabin-mates!) in the western Zuni Mountains, at McGaffey, NM. No need to worry the 8000' elevation or days without occupancy, rosemary seems to endure frigid temperatures and dry soil amazingly, so it will surely thrive up there in the cold, dry air; plus, Cabin 34 (on old 10th 'street') never drops below 30 degrees with our newly installed southern windows.

Our hand-shoveled 'trail-head' at McGaffey and the hauling sled

Too, Early Garlic?

Last week, as the snowpack retreated in the backyard, and warm days despite frigid nights, triggered inch or two tall garlic sprouts to make themselves known. After 5 or so days exposed, including 2 nights of lows around 13 degrees, the outermost leaves seem to be damaged, yet still growing. I'm going to mulch a little deeper on most of the 2 beds, but I do fear that this store-bought garlic-- Christopher Ranch @La Montanita-- while eagerly fertile, may be growing a little to early for Gallup's highly contrasting diurnal shift in temperature, emblematic of the dry, high Colorado Plateau; hopefully I'm wrong.

Winter Squash

2009 Butternut and Spaghetti winter squash

For many centuries one of the only fresh vegetables in the Americas at this time of year was the hard-shelled winter squash. Easily lasting through the winter and well beyond, (I have several Navajo hubbard squash that have lasted through a second winter- I'll harvest seeds and try to eat them soon; look for a post) these squash were a significant contribution to the world food-stocks when early explorers brought seeds back to the old-world. Along with corn and beans, squash forms the symbiotic triad called the "three sisters" of the new-world. Corn grows tall, shading and fed by the nitrogen-fixing beans, and squash vines spread and smother weeds around and between the mounds of corn and beans.

Two of the 'three sisters' during the summer

This year I planted summer and winter squash, separately in five large clumps. Each 3' mound was planted with three starts from the local nursery and vines spread 5-10' in diameter. The summer squashes did great and I enjoyed plenty of yellow and zucchini squash (fresh male squash flowers were the delicacy of that season), but the winter squash struggled; in October I brought in a couple dozen small-ish butternut and spaghetti squash. This harvest paled in comparison to the previous year's harvest of various Navajo winter squash, grown together with it's two sisters, and all from seed from Native Seeds/SEARCH. Next year I will definitely return to the traditional method of mixed plantings and local seed stock.

Winter Lunch

As my 'cold-cellared' (on a bed of Gallup bricks at 45 degrees) stock of winter squashes steadily disappears, I recently grabbed two butternut squash for a winter-themed lunch. I roasted the halved squash at 400 for 25 minutes, sautéed onion and garlic, and then blended the lot with chicken stock. The puree was then simmered with milk for a while. However savory, the delicious, creamy, and healthy squash soup --topped with a crunchy fried sage leaf-- was still out-shined by a good friend's grilled-cheese with sharp cheddar, brie, portabellas, and a touch of pesto. Yum! And more than enough calories for a great snow-day ski adventure.

Hope Community Garden Update

Looking East over the future raised-beds and cold-frames of the Hope Garden

Over the past couple months Blue Sky Builders of Espanola, NM have made steady progress on the community/demonstration garden project at the Community Pantry in Gallup. The perimeter fences have been built, the retaining walls of the garden beds built, and four rainwater harvesting tanks installed. The later coming just in time to capture the winter snowfall- all four tanks were filled to the brim (around 10,000 gallons) and over-flowing, yet no valves or plumbing had been installed (a hard thing to do when fighting so much water pressure).

On my 1500 gallon rainwater tank, I lost a full load of water the first winter it was installed when the 2" ball valve cracked during a week of sub-freezing weather. Insulation and an electric pipe warmer have since solved that problem. However, if I had chosen a more sun-exposed location for the plastic valve, I doubt I'd have any problem, as is the case at the Hope Garden's tanks. Three of the four cold-frames they've planned have been fitted together, still waiting their protective plastic covers and rich soil. I'll meet with the Community Pantry staff soon and post an interview on the specific status of this great project.

The Seasons Begin Again

So it feels like the sun is coming back north again.

Both the garden (over-eager garlic shoots have already made a fruitless/frozen appearance above ground) and I can anticipate coming out of our cold, rejuvenating dormancy. Yet, as most second-graders know, despite the occasional feeling to the contrary, it’s us who are on that elliptical route around the bright sun. Either way, it’s warming both our gardens, and hopefully my fingers to keep this we(b-log) going; so thanks for returning.

Just as is the Native American cuisine this time of year, through this winter I’ve mostly been eating stews of many varieties: Lamb and late potatoes, green chile/beef, red chile/anything (All with garlic, and seasonal veggies and canned at 14 lbs. for 1.5 hrs). Frozen Zuni Mtn. elk and El Morro Valley beef have also kept many of my friend's crock-pots full. Thanks for sharing guys, and thanks to all of you who are supporting local growers. (El Morro Valley Ranch is in the Gallup Journey!)

Coming up in this season I’ll post about my egg-less hens/gallup’s chicken prohibition, frozen leeks, perennial rosemary, The Hope Community Garden, local restaurants w/whole foods, NM-grown at the Co-op, cold frames and year-round crops, Native Seed/SEARCH, Julia and Julie, geo-thermal tiliapia aqua-culture, Kitchen Impossible/Food Network in Gallup, historic produce production of the Zuni Mountians, Gallup’s awesome CSA, Navajo a'chee sausage, the incredible local foods of the Gallup Flea Market….and then more.

Again, thanks for coming back to my blog. Kevin