Chowchilla No-Till Vegetable Garden February 2016

Chowchilla Backyard Garden Project

Feb 2016 

In the heart of the Central Valley, with the Sierra Nevada's off in the distance and Fresno just to the south, the town of Chowchilla rests quietly in orchards and fields.  The discerning eye can find poetry in the long rows of almond trees, the dirt alleyways, the slough, and for the rent signs in the shop windows along the main street.  Like an old and dusty hardbound, there is a story here as rich as the soil.  You have to look...hiding in the fog are Giant Sloths and Saber Tooth Cats.  Cowboys and Indians.  Dustbowl migrations.  Schoolchildren held for ransom and high speed rail systems. They all have chapters here in a land that once supported large ecosystems of native species.  Now its' mostly destroyed and caged by human design.  It smells like cow.

Why Chowchilla?  Because we have family here.  Sisters, Grandmas, cousins, nieces, nephews in a tree that is too broad to mention.  And yet another soul has joined us.  A baby boy, a new brother and son, was born this week.  A new chapter begins.

While here I took time to turn prepare a plot in the backyard for the family garden. Measured 23 feet by 11 feet, the space was overgrown with grasses, mallow and other greens that flourished with the recent rains. After knocking "the weeds" down I seeded the area with Rincon Vitova Habitat Seed Mix.  Then I carted sand up from the slough bed for a snake-like pathway that winds it's way through the garden plot.  To do that I used an old trash bin that some hooligans has pushed into the riverbed. 

After the pathway was installed, I had a six-pack of purple kale left over from last winters gardening, and planted those along the walk.  The nights leave light frost on the lawn in the morning, but I think the kale will fair well in the cold.  I put cut grass around them as insulation.

This is the first effort in what I hope will be a yielding veggie garden for the family table.  I will not be here day to day to work it, so the challenge will be to make it grow.  Using permaculture principles will help.  Ventura Coop is gardening in Chowchilla now.  We'll keep you posted.

  

  

Food Security and Water Wise Gardening

The healthiest most sustainable way to gain food security is to augment your food supply with a garden in your yard.  Not only do you and your family gain access to fresh veggies, which are at their best in flavor and nutrition picked immediately before eating, but home gardens help ease our impact on the environment.  Healthy soil retains more water, home grown veggies require less water to process, and a yard garden lowers your carbon footprint.

In our garden we have a steady supply of lima beans, kale, carrots, onions, beets, chard, salad greens and herbs.  There is always some seasonal harvest to add depending on the time of the year. Nothing leaves our yard.  We have three living compost piles, and two worm bins crawling with red wrigglers.  We brew compost tea to sell and use in our gardens.    

We also mulch like crazy and we munch like crazy.  We walk barefoot on the spongy soil and graze like rabbits.  And what we don't eat right away we can or share with our friends and neighbors. 

Mason jars are reusable and fermented veggies are really good for you. "Fermented foods that have been through a process of lactofermentation in which natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food, and creates beneficial enzymes, b-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of probiotics."  -Wellness Mama

Become food secure.  It is a shift in consciousness that empowers you and your family with experience and knowledge.  Being able to feed yourself with food you grew yourself is liberating!

Roughly 49 million people live in food insecure situations in the United States.  Roughly 40% of the food produced and brought to market is wasted. A typical meal of industrial produced food requires 200-700 gallons of water to produce.  By turning that wasteful chemically fed lawn into a organic food forest you help yourself, your neighborhood and the environment all at the same time.

A great book to read regarding  food security and growing your own is Food Not Lawns.  Another go to book is A Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture.  Start there and at the same time visit your local farmer's market, volunteer for Food Forward Gleaning projects, and connect with local community garden projects.

People in my neighborhood are so disconnected from the fresh food supply that kids don't know an eggplant from a sweet potato. We have to show them how to get grounded in the truest sense of the word. -Ron Finley

I saw 'Food, Inc.' last night - it was like a horror movie. I'm definitely thinking about my food supply now and how I want to grow my own. -Lauren Ambrose