Complete urban farmer #4 COMPOST

Things I learnt today
* there are four main ingredients needed to make compost - Carbon, Nitrogen, Moisture & Oxygen
* the difference between hay and straw -
Hay is when the whole plant is harvested and cured, such as lucerne, this means the nitrogen is retained
Straw is the fibrous part of a plant that is left after the peas/beans have been harvested, such as pea straw, which means it is mostly carbon
* humus is the stable end product after the decomposition process, ie what compost becomes when is cooked and ready
* Nitrogen - greens, grass clippings, food waste, manure
* Carbon - straw, cardboard, wood chips, leaves
* if anaerobic (if not enough oxygen is present), it is not compost, as the beneficial fungi and bacteria are asleep or dead and some other crazy creatures have taken over
* Fungi store carbon in the soil
* fungi can send out toxins and enzymes across distances to break down leaves and organic wastes so the conditions are favourable for when they arrive there later

Making hot compost

Hot Aerobic Compost
is a method to make a lot of compost in a fairly short space of time, it involves an optimum "Carbon Nitrogen Ratio" and because of the "heat" it kills weed seeds and pathogens, which is particulary useful if the source of any of your ingredients is questionable. The heat in this process is created from microbial production, as the little single celled bacterias eat and reproduce they create heat. If they create too much heat and there is not enough oxygen for them to breathe the compost goes "anaerobic" and thus this method is quite labour intensive as you need to keep an eye on it's internal temperature, or if you have a special compost temperature probe this makes life easier. If the compost is too hot or too cold, the entire pile needs to be turned. A pitch fork is good for this. The ideal is 55-65•degrees.
--
The compost our group constructed (as seen in photos above) consists of
6 month old compost (which hasn't completely decomposed)
straw
grass clippings
hand harvested weeds (nettles, grasses, mallow)
dried chicken manure
wood chips we found in a pile that had some fungi growth
400 liters of water

Watering the (hot) compost pile

To test if your compost has the right ratio of water (50%) take a handful and squeeze it, there should be barely a drip. Water should be chlorine and chloramine free.

Rainbows growing in the hot house

CUF #2 Chook care

I missed week two of Complete Urban Farmer as I was at the ABaF Arts Business workshop. Session 2 was on chook care which I definately need to learn more about seeing as two of my housemates are chickens "Betsy & Hen". Luckily I have been given these handy notes (made for the School holiday kids workshops at Ceres).
Points which are important to note (as in "note to self")
* Chooks need clean containers of clean cold water kept out of the sun and filled every day
* Chooks don't like loud noises or dirty laying boxes, to be hungry or thirsty or chased
* They like it when you move a rock and will rush over to check if there are any grubs or bugs underneath
* They like to talk to you and watch what you are doing
* They need lots of love and gentle care and for their house to be shut safely at night to keep foxes out.

My orange and soil aggregate notes

What I made for potluck

--
Carrot, kale and coriander soup
-
2 small branches of purple curly kale from Louis and Rachel's garden
4 sprigs of coriander from my garden, self seeded from last year
couple of mint leaves from my garden
8 or so small carrots from Ceres organic markets
1/4 avocado, organic Queensland
juice of 1/2 lemon from my tree
tsp of cold pressed hemp oil, from pure Delight Queensland
pinch of pink lake salt, packaged by mount zero Victorian company

Raw sushi
-
similar to what I blogged a few days ago, but cauli instead of parsnip (parsnips still win...), and I left out the garden lettuce, because it was too hot and I wanted to simplify my jumping around
1/2 Cauliflower from Ceres organic markets
2 tbs soaked biodynamic Australian almonds
1 tsp ume su, umeboshi plum vinegar from japan
1 tsp agave nectar from Mexico?
pinch pink lake salt from mount zero
Purple cabbage sauerkraut that I made at home with cabbage from Ceres
carrots from Ceres
mung bean sprouts I grew at home with dried beans I bought from Ceres, pretty sure they were Australian
1/2 avocado, organic Queensland
organic nori sheets from japan?

Voilà! Just like that eh?

I also picked yellow nasturtium and orange calendula flowers in case a garnishing moment came up.

Cauli's at Ceres

Whole ones hiding away, half ones cut open and showing their insides.
Such beautiful vegetables when vibrantly in season, I'm excited about
making the 'cous cous' type dish again.

Complete Urban Farmer

Day one: Propagation and seed saving
Today I started a 12 week short course at Ceres. We meet once a week and delve into many different topics to develop skills and gain insight into the world of permaculture and sustainable food production.
Learning to propagate and compost and grow things with efficient wonder is really exciting to me right now and feels like a good place to put my energy. Grounding myself by literally spending time in dirt and developing more practical skills is ideal yet definately challenging for someone that loves ideas and literature.
I'm really keen to keep developing this idea of food as my art practice and to incorporate more live growing plants in all my projects of the future. I would also be very happy to exist on plants grown in my garden.

Things I learnt today:
* Soil is amazing
* Seeds rot if the soil is too wet and not aerated enough or the soil is too rich in nutrients.
* Rock - pebble - sand - silt - clay (size order of particles)
* Plant leaves go yellow when the soil is low in nitrogen, and if there is too much nitrogen you will get lots of green leaves and no fruit (which is sad if you are trying to grow tomatoes but I wonder if it's okay when you are happy with an abundance of greens? Oh but I think the point was more about the importance of achieving some wholesome balance in the soil, and either extreme creates problems)
* Seeds are always breathing, they like a warm, moist, oxygenated environment in which to germinate.
* When growing beans you should water the soil first, plant your bean and then not water it again until it has germinated and the shoot sprung to the surface.
* A natural rooting hormone, if making cuttings, is honey

There was lots more, I liked planting seeds the best and seeing other baby vegetables growing in the Ceres hothouses, there was an incredible orange and purple curly kale, I think it was Russian something... I planted a whole tray of different things including lebanese cucumbers, coriander, tatsoi, basil and eggplants. They are going to hang out in the hothouse for awhile and then i'll bring them home and grow them up big.