Belated Departure

For those devoted readers who have almost given up hope, we have some explaining to do!

Margo and I finished our time as field-coordinators at the Golden Rule Garden in mid-December of 2009 to travel back to the midwest, have Christmas with the family (for the first time in years) and figure out where we would start our own farm. As successful graduates of Ecology Action's three-year apprenticeship program, and having spent another year working closely with EA interns and apprentices there, we have been looking gratefully toward the time when we could found our own place. It's an opportunity to support EA's work in a different climate, pass on the knowledge we have gained, and, most importantly, do our own thing and make lots of mistakes.
We have settled on a site, partnering with my Mom on her land. For more information on the process, check out our new blog (as of March 2010), Circle of the Sun at royermillers.blogspot.com. But don't look too soon, cause we don't have content up yet!
All this is to say, you can look forward to many wonderfully informative, insightful, and humuserous posts by Garden Manager Ellen, who will be officiating the Golden Rule Garden blog now.

3DW 11/09

That's our shorthand for the November 2009 Three Day Workshop. We hold two every year, one in early March and one in early November. They are frequent enough and the number of characters is cumbersome enough that it's easier simply to abbreviate excessively. Each one is unique, though, and each one is important to us. The months, weeks, and days preceding each are filled with thoughts of preparation, ideas of possible changes to format, and anticipation of the great people we will be exposed to. Despite the work that goes into each, you cannot imagine the injection of inspiration such a workshop creates for us: twice a year we gather with 30 to 40 new faces, each of which come full of ideas from past experience and future hopes. There are school teachers, farmers, homesteaders, college students, retirees looking at new directions, community garden organizers, rocket scientists, folks from inside the DC beltway wanting out, Americorp volunteers, activists and agronomists from other countries, musicians, and many others. This workshop we had participants from Washington (state of) to Maryland. While they come for knowledge from John Jeavons and other Ecology Action staff, they also give us a great deal. We spend the whole time in awareness of the energy and ideas percolating throughout the group, and the potential the participants have for change in their own areas (not to mention the possibilities in networking).
While we were at a new venue this workshop (hosted by Christ's Church of the Golden Rule) the biggest difference between this and past 3-Day Workshops was the absence of Carol Cox, former Garden Manager at the Ecology Action research garden. While Margo and I picked up the classes she taught (and did so nicely, I must say) her presence was missed. Great thanks go to her for giving us some teaching tips right before the weekend.
There are some great activities going on that some of the participants are involved in, and as I crunch the bio's for websites I will put them in this post or another.
Also, I made a promise that I would post the recipe I use for sourdough bread, so that will come in the following post.
All this is to say, it was a great workshop and we look forward to hearing what participants go on to do in the world of healthy, sustainably-grown food!

Preaching the Good Word

That would be "grains".

September has brought with it two things of note. First, that crisp, cool, beautiful weather I connect with Autumn. Second, the beginning of our Fall spate of teaching.

We kicked it off last Saturday at Common Ground, the garden supply store and education center in Palo Alto. As a part of their outreach, Common Ground offers all kinds of great classes on the basic theme of gardening. Because of their relationship with Ecology Action, a number of these classes are related to Grow Biointensive, and because of our work with Ecology Action we teach some of the classes. This is all to say that we presented two segments on grains to a wonderful group of enthusiastic gardeners on Saturday.
In two weeks we will go back down to present an Introduction to Grow Biointensive class and a class on composting. The following Monday I will give a presentation to the Ukiah Garden Club on seed saving, and the Sunday following that I will give a similar class at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. Two weeks after that we will be back at Common Ground to present on the Master Charts in How to Grow More Vegetables and on seed saving once more. Then, in early November, we will assist in Ecology Action's 3-Day Workshop. Lots of teaching!
Which leads to another fascinating realization: we know things that other people don't. As a dutiful product of a traditional public education, I still carry with me the idea that adults know everything and I have no meaningful knowledge whatsoever. Even though I have been an adult for a while now.
But this is all beside the point, which is that we had a wonderful time teaching on Saturday. Fifteen established or budding grain enthusiasts came and participated, hearing all we had to say and sharing some of their own wisdom on the topic. We talked about anatomy, characteristics, and how to grow, harvest, thresh, clean and cook common (and many uncommon) grains.
And the icing on the cake was that Margo and I spent about 5 hours the day before that grinding and making into biscuits wheat, rye, barley, triticale, oats, amaranth, corn, millet, quinoa, rice, sorghum, teff and buckwheat. We wanted everyone to get a feel for the distinctive taste of each grain. And we realized, as we were tasting them in class, that 13 biscuits are a lot to eat all in a little span of time. (We had a good bit left over).
What follows is one of the recipes that folks in the class were really interested in. More will probably come in subsequent posts...

Creeping Crust Cobbler (from Margo's mom)
Melt in 10' baking dish:

• ¼ c butter

Mix:

• 1 c barley flour (or whole wheat)
• ½ c sugar (can be reduced)
• 1 T baking powder

Mix in and then spoon over melted butter:

• ½ c milk or buttermilk

Heat and pour over dough:

• 3 c raspberries (or fruit of choice)
• ½ c or less sugar (or ¼ c honey)

Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F

One Big Week, part II

All the while during the week we had three classes looming for further preparation. Two of them involved the Common Ground Garden Supply and Education Center in Palo Alto, CA. A project of Ecology Action, Common Ground sells garden supplies and also has a series of Saturday classes on everything from composting to beekeeping. John Jeavons, Carol the EA Garden Manager, Margo and I all take turns teaching the Grow Biointensive classes. For two years or so Margo and I have been teaching the Intro to Grow Biointensive, composting, seed propagation, and bed preparation classes. There is nothing like teaching to get a better grasp of what you think you know. Anyway, this past weekend I taught a new class of my own design: "Amaranth to Wheat, and All Points Between" about small-scale grain cultivation. It went very well, and many comments alluded to a desire for a longer class including more information. Now Margo and I are plotting one that will include processing and cooking.

Margo's class was on composting, and was also successful. Here she is at Common Ground's demo garden, preaching to the masses about layering and mature material (in the plant sense).

The third class of the weekend was also a new experience. A friend of ours who has attended Ecology Action's 3-Day Workshop, 5-Day Teachers Workshop and 6-month internship (hmmm... can we talk her into the 3-Year Apprenticeship next?) worked with some other very motivated individuals to create the Pacifica Gardens project in Pacifica, CA. The work they've done since breaking ground in April is astounding, and speaks volumes about the drive their volunteers bring. One of these volunteers got the inspiration to ask for a class on seed saving, which our friend then came to ask us about. So here I am presenting part of a two-hour lecture and hands-on class based on the principles of saving seed on a small scale. Pacifica blessed us with warm sun for the first time in three or four visits, turnout was great, and we all had a good time. It is inspiring to us to see the projects that so many communities have going on, and the constructive energy those projects involve.