A piece of land

This is the piece of land getting my energy right now. Its in College Park Md behind a catering business. You can't tell that is has been tilled twice and needs to be tilled again. It is a modest 1/4 acre, which I wonder if it is capable of growing anything. We can only hope.

this is Eric. He came to work with his mother for take your child to work day and spent it with us. What a hard worker. Here is is holding down the tarp on our leaf compost.

He said, "what a perfect way to spend Earth Day" I didn't even know it was earth day.

Teresa and Eric, fabulous helpers.

A day of work done. 2 beds were dug. and leaf compost and manure were spread. It seems like so little but we will continue.

Bees

Bee Facts:

1. Honey Bees are not native to the US. Europeans brought them with them to fertilize their crops.

2. 30% of all food we eat needs to be fertilized by the Honey Bee.

3. Honey contains every vitamin and mineral our body needs.

4. If you buy honey in large grocery stores it has none of these vitamins and minerals because it has been heated to 120 degrees to keep it from crystalizing on the shelf.

5. Honey will cure wounds and burns.

6. Honey is twice as sweet as honey but contains the same calories...and all the added nutrients, if you buy from a small honey producer.

7. Bees are Amazing!

Honey At The Table

It fills you with the soft
essence of vanished flowers, it becomes
a trickle sharp as a hair that you follow
from the honey pot over the table

and out the door and over the ground,
and all the while it thickens,

grows deeper and wilder, edged
with pine boughs and wet boulders,
pawprints of bobcat and bear, until

deep in the forest you
shuffle up some tree, you rip the bark,

you float into and swallow the dripping combs,
bits of the tree, crushed bees - - - a taste
composed of everything lost, in which everything lost is found.

~ Mary Oliver~

Maximum Capacity

The Industrial Age revisited

Tractors. Machines. All things with loud motors I do not like. Oh I definately use my car with pleasure. And I do love getting on an airplane and trains are one of the most fabulous ways to get about. And they all have loud motors. But somehow they do not bother me the way weed wackers , rototillers, tractors and other annoying motors do. But yesterday I had a change of heart.

Yesterday I began working on tilling a piece of land in College Park Md. I am going to be growing tomatoes and basil for a catering company there. It is a small piece of land, just a 1/4 acre in a suburban neighborhood. But I am excited about trying out my knowledge. So step one, till the land. Turn in the sod. Allow the grass and roots to decompose so we can plant in this little piece of earth. So we got a Rototiller. A big one and it was horrible. After 4 hours of tilling only 1/8 of the land was done...and my body hurt like it has never hurt before. I dreamed of the tractor. How a tractor in about 10 mins could have tilled up that soil. I thought of how it doesn't hurt your body at all. It doesn't shake and pull and make your forearms feel like they are going to explode. You just get on and drive.

Suddenly I got it. I get why people love tractors. I get why they are so wonderful. Basically because rototillers are not.

In the end we got a walk behind tractor. Also fabulous.

I have enter a new age and discovered that it was only because of my ignorance that I hated tractors. A horse and a plow would be best but the tractor isn't as bad as I once thought.

Sustainability in the city

I love Baltimore but as the air warms and flowers bloom I hear the call to be growing. so I am attempting...in the small ways I can. My living room/kitchen space has now turned into a "growing room" too. Accept on warm days when the plants reach up to the sky...finding a sunny spot on my roof. I am learning that where there is a will there is a way. The plants need light...so I must find it. But living sustainably came very easily on the farm. Here in the city I must try a bit harder. So this is what I have done. Slowly I will find a life here. And in the meantime my plants are sprouting and there is the promise of tomatoes and peppers and all other delightful vegetables.

The Wonder Wash. My new favorite toy washes my clothes with just a little arm power.

My community garden plot. Beginning to be planted with potatoes and onions and greens.

the onions are coming up! (see the little purple)

Worms. My composting friends.