Notes, Part 1 – Classes at Fall Workshops, Organic Growers School – Sept. 10, 2016

Part 1 are notes from workshops “Easy Soil Amending” with Mike Weeks, owner of Fifth Season, and “Fermentation Q&A” with Sandor Katz.

Notes Part 2 will be from workshops, “Growing Microgreens with Meredith Alphin, from a southeastern VA nonprofit, and “Planting Before First Frost,” with Randall Pfleger, Grass to Greens/Bountiful Cities.

Easy Soil Amending, Mike Weeks, owner of Fifth Season

Granite dust is available locally. Some are water soluble; others aren’t. No need to dissolve water-soluble kind in water first.

Before deciding what kind of granite dust to put on soil, do soil test. A&L Labs does fast-turn-around soil testing, but is more expensive than others.

Cover crops: Covers and holds soil in place during rest periods for soil, prevents weeds, provides biomass for later turning into earth.

Mike highly recommends (1) Austrian winter peas - nitrogen fixer, edible, stays all winter. Plant by Sept. 15th. Reems Creek Nursery, Fifth Season (Tunnel Road store out now; in next week.). (2) Buckwheat – grows fast (up in a week), gets about 12-18” high, flowers after 6 weeks, super-attraction for beneficial pollinators (desirable in spring & summer), dies back at first frost - falls down onto ground like hair and serves as in-place mulch. Buckwheat removes phosphorous but doesn’t matter when you put it back into ground anyway.

In spring, remove flowers of both before May so these don’t create seeds & reseed themselves where you don’t want them. Don’t use hairy vetch – hard to get rid of later.

Compost tea: Functions like concentrated compost that penetrates everywhere since it’s a liquid. One formula: 1 part earthworm compost (beneficial bacteria), 1 part Black Gold woodlands compost (beneficial fungi). Add some liquid seaweed. Add some molasses, which is food for beneficial bacteria. (Not honey, which is anti microbial – & so kills beneficial bacteria). Put it in a mesh sock in water & keep aerated before using for 24-26 hours with aquarium pump. If you make a large batch for many uses, keep it aerated the whole time with aquarium pump.

(Serenade is brand of an organic blight suppressor for blight from too much humidity on tomato plants.) Biochar: “Like a condominium for beneficial soil organisms.”

Mulch: Wood mulch ties up oxygen as it pulls O2 out of soil to break it down. So don’t use as mulch around plants. Mike Weeks uses his cover crops or leaves as mulch.

Strawbales are full of Roundup! If you leave straw spread out in the sun for awhile it diminishes.

Where to get good sources of wheat/oat straw or hay straw for mulching? Check ASAP’s Local Food Guide to see if some local farms sell straw.

Alfalfa straw makes the best (and safest) mulch.

A gardener in class suggested using spent hops from local breweries. She gets from Pisgah brewery (down the road from her) but doesn't’ want others to get from Pisgah since she’s their main customer. Suggests trying Sierra Nevada Brewery as it’s big. Let alcohol evaporate from bags of spent hops first before putting on ground.

Hemp plants makes good bedding for chickens.

Basic General Soil Amendment: Mike recommends Chuck’s Mix formula (our Chuck) for basic general soil amendment. Four ingredients – Rick Phosphate, Nature’s Nog (Humic Acid), Greensand, & Alfalfa Meal. Any proportions, including roughly 1/4th each.

From an OGS staff member – “Worm condominium” – Make holes in sides of 1 gallon or 5-gallon plastic plant pot and bury in garden bed up to “neck” of plant pot. Put kitchen scraps in there and cover with leaves or shredded paper (worms eat shredded paper too). Worms will come into pot to eat kitchen scraps and paper from holes in bottom and sides. This draws earthworms into the garden bed. Put another same-sized pot on top to protect against rain and snow – some water will go in through holes in second pot but that’s OK. Most inks nowadays are soybased and won’t hurt worms. Used printer paper won’t hurt them either. Get a shredder.

Fermentation Q&A, Sandor Katz

NOT HAVING AIR at top of glass jar of fermenting vegetables is to prevent mold. All air contains mold spores – the more surface area of top of fermenting vegetables the more it can grow. IF mold grows and it’s white (to later become gray and black), just scrape it off. If it’s a color, throw whole thing away – could be toxic.

Surstrumming - fermented fish sauce from Sweden. Swedes take pride in liking to eat it while others can’t stand it. But Sandor now likes it.

Garum (also called Liquamen) - fermented fish sauce from ancient Rome. Google for recipes from afficianados of ancient Roman cuisine – many recipes.

Fermenting fish requires using whole fish, because the microorganisms that ferment it are in the intestines, so use whole fish like anchovies. No water is added; not needed because of intestines. The salt liquefies the whole fish. Ferments for from 6 months to a year.

Make recipe with less salt content if you like it better less salty. Southeast Asian fermented fish has less salt than Roman garum recipes. Garum tastes funkier than Southeast Asian recipes.

Natto, Japanese fermented soy beans, provides the highest amount of Vit. K2 of any other food.

Shitake mushrooms ferment beautifully. Alternate layers of salt and mushrooms.

When fermenting anything, doesn’t matter what kind of salt. But don’t use Morton’s iodized table salt, since iodine reduces the mixture’s ability to ferment.

Pureed fermented butternut squash is delicious, Sandor says; would probably work with other squash, pumpkins.

When making a brine to soak kimchi vegetables, if it’s too salty some recipes say to throw it out and rinse vegetables first before fermenting. But salt brings out the nutrition, minerals, etc. from vegs, so it’s better to use less salt and not rinse.

Vinegar and kombucha are fermented with air – the more surface area the better. Needs something sweet that has simple sugars (not stevia) to ferment. To make vinegar, helps to add 10% of living vinegar.

Sandor’s book Wild Fermentation is best for someone who just wants to do it – has many recipes. His book, The Art of Fermentation is 500 pages and very through re the science of how fermentation works.

He used to ferment 55-gallon wooden barrel of daikon radishes every winter. 1/3rd shredded; 1/3rd cut into many slices with “kraut slicer.” He uses a chain mail glove” to protect his arms, hands, fingers from kraut slicer slicing off a fingertip (which happens sometimes). Chain mail glove to protect against kraut slicer can be purchased from restaurant supply place in Asheville.

The last third of daikons were buried wholein the bottom of the barrel – they were eaten last (longest ferment) and were the most delicious. Kept this outdoors in fall/winter/early spring when temp was under 75 degrees. At 75 degrees or higher, it turns to mush. Now uses large stainless steel containers of about the same size from the wine industry, since the metal of the wooden barrels rusted from the fermentation.

Most important thing for fermenting vegs - that they’re submerged under liquid. Their own veg liquid extracted by pounding, other veg or fruit juice, or water. More intense-tasting is their own veg liquid.

Sally Fallon suggests also adding whey.

Fermented foods make the minerals in the vegetables more bioavailable.