Sadly, Christina and I must sell our homestead in Dade City. We will definitely miss the place. Most of the year the weather is amazingly pleasant and the year round subtropical growing season is a huge plus. Many features of the property were designed with permaculture principles in mind. Although we just began a few years ago, it is a good starting base and has much more potential. I would be happy to walk the property and point these out upon request. Highlights include:
- 1 year old food forest with passively-irrigating swale on contour and overflow pond.
- Regency F2400 75,000 BTU woodstove with cook top and 2.3 cu. ft. firebox.
- Kitchen greywater system with valve to feed septic tank or irrigate sunken garden bed on contour.
- Approximately 1000 sq. ft. of raised garden beds with numerous perennials and self-seeding annuals. Drip irrigation installed in approximately half the beds.
Thanks to Leon and Nataly from Alexandra Lake Farm, who I met through this website (yea!), for leading me to Wendel's Farm and Nursery. I was surprised to find a developed and active permaculture homestead right here in central Florida, tucked away north of us in Sumter county.
Wendel's very knowledge, friendly, and humble--a rare combination. He also has some very affordable useful plants, fruit trees, and organic fertizer. His brilliant wife designed their passive solar house. Definitely recommend the trip there to check it out. Christina took some good pics of the place and put them up on her blog.
Featuring some cool cats: http://dancingwithdemeter.com/
Saturday May 28 at 5pm, Christina and I are hosting a potluck at our place in east Dade City. Please RSVP at http://www.wcpermaculture.org/contact with what you are bringing and how many people are coming with. I will respond with directions. Also feel free to bring any extra seeds you have. We will have pigeon pea, calendula, seminole pumpkin, cowpeas and coriander seeds for the taking.
I had some eggplant that needed eating and came across an interesting "Greek-style" stuffed eggplant recipe. Here is my twist using seasonal veggies we had that turned out plate-scraping delicious:
Getting the timing down of when to plant what is a crucial part of growing food that new gardeners often struggle with. This is further complicated by our unique seasons in Florida, which differ from the traditional temperate climates usually mentioned in gardening literature. However, if timed right in addition to building good soil, we can be blessed with year round harvests from annual crops in Florida, especially if incorporating tropical annuals during our sweltering summer season.
Hungry? Just take a walk outside. Nature is a grocery store! It's actually better because it's free and foraging requires no energy inputs (except for the minimal energy expending walking around and preparing the food). I have identified around 30 edible plants within a 20 minute walk from my house and posted pictures, parts edible, season and habitat.
| Picture | Name | Part edible | Habitat | Season |
 |
Smilax | vegetative shoot | woods | spring, summer |
“In thinking of ways in which soil life assists us to produce crops, it itself becomes a crop.” –Bill Mollison
As many gardeners are aware, fungi is extremely import for soil life since it cycles organic matter, makes nutrients available for plants, and helps give soil its crumbly structure (tilth) to bind those nutrients. Fungi is an integral part of our ecosystem that we live in and are apart of. While popular culture often focuses on negative interactions with fungi (mushroom poisoning, mold in dwellings, pathogens, etc.) many species of fungi are directly useful to us as food, medicine, dyes, fermentation and bioremediation.
I thought it would be a good idea to share what we've been up to at our (Rob & Christina's) place. I'd like to make these updates regular so we can at the very least keep a log of our progression implementing our permaculture design. When we actually went outside and started implementation we ended up changing many aspects of the deisgn. I still need to re-draw the pictures to reflect the changes but this version here is mostly current to what our plan is.
Sprouting seeds for food involves germinating them by first soaking them, then putting them in a moist, warm environment for a few days, rinsing them at least twice a day. Over the years, sprouting has been mentioned to us as a beneficial and easy method of increasing the nutrition of cereal and legume seeds. We have wondered about the actual benefit of sprouting. Does it change the nutrient content of seeds significantly?