Last weekend’s Wolf Moon marked the turning point in the season. No more dormant trees and frosted over lettuce leaves. The days are lengthening and the temperature increasing. I am seeing more bird species in my yard and I recently saw a swarm of ladybugs (above pic).

It therefore seems a perfect time to start germination. Each year I try to be in rhythm with nature when I cultivate. Seeds and starts seem stronger and nature does a load the work. With that, I have thrown myself into the outdoor work in an attempt to catch up with Spring in all her glory. The results:

Major “landscape remediation” project to the front yard. After a summer of significant home remodeling, the front lawn was destroyed. I never loved it anyway. So I decided to attempt a more natural landscape of “no mow” fine fescue seeds with spatterings of wildflower seeds. I may have gone nuts with the Crimson Clover on one section. I’ll find out in a month or so.

Virgil cooling his, uh..heels.

I began my rabbit breeding program. I was waiting for the colder months to pass before starting. In preparation I read about how to prepare and what to expect. There is a simple but helpful series online called the Better Farming Series. I was expecting the pair to be shy and reserved for a few minutes, at least. Apparently the timing was right, no introductions, no delays. A successful connection was made and I expect to have a litter in 28-31 days.

I am also raising two pullets (young hens) to swap out two older hens from my flock that seem to have slowed, or entirely stopped, laying.

I will place the shallow honey frames I removed from the hive for the winter back on. I’ve had the bagged frames sitting in my chest freezer to kill off any moths or other bugs that may have inhabited the honeycomb.

Now I am running off to work on the very unglamorous chore of pulling weeds, lots and lots of weeds. Sources of inspiration: 1) Oakland Public Library’s audiobooks on mp3. I am now listening to my first Ivan Turgenev novel. 2) El at Fast Grow the Weeds and Stefani at Sicilian Sisters Grow Some Food.

With the holidays passed and the new year, it is time for farm planning. January may be the only month where the garden and animals are slow and quiet. It is this one calm month that I have to sharpen my tools, separate and select seeds, prep fruit trees and clean beds emptied of their early winter crops. Now is the time to plan which crops will be my main crops for spring and summer, as well as what livestock I plan on keeping. This year livestock may be pretty exciting…time will tell.

I learned a few lessons this year with livestock- namely to acquire my turkey before it is too old so that it can “bond” with me. This makes it much easier to approach to feed and also to pick up. The last turkey I had was to fearful and aggressive because it was not a chick. I also learned that if I want roast goose for Christmas, I need to raise my own. Inspired by the goose preparations I assisted with before Christmas, I decided I wanted to cook a goose. I had seen young geese at Berkeley Bowl. However, it turned out they are $72 for one frozen bird. No thanks. With my level of commitment and degree of knowledge at this point, I can raise several geese for the price of $72.

To help me with some of my tasks I will be attending upcoming classes and meetings. Namely, Berkeley Horticulture offers free classes on pruning rose bushes and fruit trees each Saturday of January. Also, I am going to attempt to graft other fruits onto my trees again this year. Last year, I tried a Pippin Apple to my Fuji but they did not take (thanks for the scions Abby!). This year, I am going to the 2010 Golden Gate Chapter Scion Exchange to see what delicious fruits I might find.

I also have to freeze the shallows I removed from my hive in November in preparation for February. Freezng them should remove any Wax Moth larvae and other critters that have settled in the empty frames. I pray to be on top of my beekeeping this year and have removed any queen cells and expanded the hive before another devastating spring swarm.

Well I guess January is not so quiet after all.

This year the family was a bit spread out for the holidays. However, I was determined to make a gingerbread something for Christmas. In the past we had gingerbread  house competitions but it ended in tears for some. Since it was my non-baking brothers coming over for the holiday, we tried our hands at a group project. This led to the creation of a Gingerbread Guillotine. Morbid as it is, it was quite a cheery project.

Sure, down covered work boots are not what first comes to mind when one thinks of Christmas Goose. No, I instantly think of a fragrant pine wreath on the door, a glass of spicey wine in the hand and a well set table in the middle of which rests a well cooked crispy skinned goose. However, even the most gorgeous goose dinners start with the ritual of sacrifice. According to Nectar and Ambrosia: An Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology,

“Feasting on geese has long been a tradition in the Old World, as is clear from ancient mythology. The prevalence of goose gods in numerous cultures attests to the ritual importance of geese and to the fact that these rituals date back to antiquity…The goose feast that came to characterize holiday celebrations in later times arise as a modern-day derivative of these ancient rites and sacrifices. People in Europe, Central Asia, North America, and North Africa customarily sacrified geese, particularly at the turn of the seasons. Like other migratory fowl, geese appeared and disappeared at crucial times in the yearly cycle, so eating them customarily accompanied ceremonial events in the solar and agricultural year…After the goose was ceremonially killed, participants in the sacrifice feasted on its flesh in a ritual that they believed would ensure the regeneration of the Earth…Goose was served at the Celtic Samhain, or Halloween; the Germanic Yule, originally the first day of the new year; and Michaelmas, the ritual feast of the winter solstice.”

To this end, I recently joined a Petaluma farmer in preparing winter geese. The day started early in sharp 40° weather (go ahead laugh you Midwesterners). I met the knowledgeable crew while they were setting up a mobile station consisting of a gas fueled scalder, an automated plucker, hangers for plucking and killing cones mounted on the outside.

The most experienced, Lupe, began dispatching birds as the scalder heated.

Then the birds would go into a scalder with water heated to 150°. The goose would be rotated on a perforated platform for nearly a minute. This is much longer than the brief swish of a chicken in hot water. Apparently, the hot water needs time to penetrate the deep layers of goose down (about 1.5 inch thick).

We initially tried placing the soaked bird into an automatic plucker but the feathers were too slick with water repelling oils for the machine to grip them. So instead we hung the goose. Three people plucked it in only a few minutes. This is a startling contrast to the 15-20 minutes it takes me to pluck one duck.

Once only stubborn bits of downy feathers remained, we’d placed the goose in the plucker to finish. I helped with plucking as I appreciated the lesson I received to improve my method. I also enjoyed burying my freezing hands in the gush of hot water that would come from the feathers after scalding.

After plucking, the goose would go to the cleaning table where others would remove, clean, and separate the fat and offal for culinary use.

In the end, thirty-five geese had been prepared for the many upcoming winter feasts of the holiday season.

The farmer who was so gracious as to let me participate in this annual ritual of theirs told me it is important that the recipients of the geese see the head and feet intact. He feels it is important that the goose been seen as, not just a seasonal poultry dish, but a whole animal. One that was once alive and one they are now left to honor in its preparation.

I had the great fortune of participating in a video project this past spring regarding school lunch programs. The resulting video “Lunch is the Lesson” is very well done and worth the 12 minutes to view it.

Well done Michael Hamm, Greg Knowles, Deborah Gallegos and Akyya Mayberry!!

Lunch Is The Lesson from Michael Hamm on Vimeo.

I’ve been initiated into the glorious world of mushroom hunting. I have always reveled at the diversity and beauty of fungus. I am often the slowest hiker oohing and ahhing at the crazy colorful formations pushing out of a wet layer of humus. Only on rare occasion did I think I seen an edible variety- Trumpets of Death and Morels. I have now been shown how to spot delicious Golden Chanterelles in nearly my own backyard. A generous friend, Lauren, decided to share the wealth. She blindfolded me and drove in circles to confuse the location before we arrived at a seemingly average hiking spot. Apparently, there is no aura of heavenly light where edible mushrooms are to be found.

The mushrooms don’t sit pertly on top of the ground. They lay buried with only an odd mound of leafy looking orange peaking out.

I thought maybe Lauren had x-ray vision but it turns out that once you had a sighting and plucked your first bouquet of meaty funnel shaped fungus, you are on high alert for more. It was thrilling and even more amazing is that I have significant poundage to cook with for my Thanksgiving feast (I already ate some so I know my family is safe). Hopefully I won’t be itching at a poison oak rash over dinner.

The week is speeding by but before it is slips away, I must mention the food systems work happening in Oakland. A new report is out called Cultivating The Commons: An Assessment for the Potential of Urban Agriculture on Oakland’s Public Lands, by Nathan McClintock and Jenny Cooper. The report presents the amount of public land potentially available for urban agricultural use. By using aerial photos, geographic information systems (GIS), and site visits the authors identified 1,200 acres of open space, most of which are within 1/4 mile of public transportation. They believe with this land available for urban agriculture, the Oakland community could produce between 5%-10% of the city’s vegetable needs.

The report offers a helpful discussion on food deserts and excellent graphics to illustrate how potential sites might be used. It is worth the read. If you want to get deeper information on Oakland’s urban political ecology, check out Nathan’s paper on From Industrial Garden to Food Desert: Unearthing the Root Structure of Urban Agriculture in Oakland.

Perhaps dovetailing with this effort is the recent news that Kellogg Foundation has selected Oakland school district as one of the nine school districts nationally to receive a collective sum of $32, 450,00 over a three year period to increase access to healthy food and physical activity for vulnerable children and their families.

I took the leap…I made the jump…I…ok ok. The rabbits are here. Vienna Blue Rabbits, which came to be known as American Rabbits (or was that Freedom Rabbits?) after WWII. The buck was named Virgl and the doe, my small friend Neehal just named Lisa. Why Neehal? Why “Lisa?” Why not something like Franziska? Either way, I now welcome Virgl and Lisa to the farm. These bunnies are already a year old so I won’t be cooking ‘em up. They will help me start off a breeding program.

A very cool detail in acquiring the rabbits, the breeder, Shayne (a 4H leader in Alameda), asked to barter an urban farm basket worth the cost of $40/rabbit. So I got to go through and price out a basket of farmed goods. A few key items such as Lauren’s membrillo, and persimmons from her yard, and our tomatoes, organic Meyer lemons, and backyard honey brought the basket to $80 in the blink of an eye. I threw in some Vin de Noix as a sign of my gratitude to Shayne for being so cool as to barter.

So now I begin the adventure of rabbit keeping.

The last week has been filled with people I adore. There was garlic planting and discussion with Stefani and Eric, tea and rabbit talk with Lauren and Violet, and brunch with the fabulous Marcel. It seemed only a perfect end to the week by having an unexpected dinner with Danny Glover. I am not good at celebrity gossip and know very little about most people in the limelight. So when discussion ensued and Mr. Glover was on fire about civil rights, economics and community development, I was shocked and delighted. I have met a few prominent individuals from the film industry and never had the opportunity to be so engaged in a lively discussion on current affairs and practical approaches to create better communities. It appears Mr. Glover studied economics and community development at San Francisco State University (my own undergraduate alma mater). He has been an active advocate for decades and his knowledge of history, economic systems, environmental practices, and community is deeply admirable.

Mr. Glover believes that our current economic condition is not the fault of any one person, or even a handful of people, but rather it is the system we all buy into, literally. He outlined urban economic development as problematic but pointed out that it has only been in practice for the last two hundred years. He encouraged knowing one’s history and understanding the system of capitalism. He also asserted that the only way to shift paradigms is by getting off your comfy seat and working as a community toward change. The deeper questions are what change do we need to see? Is there a best approach? Can we “reverse” damage done at this point? He then turned to me and asked me what I thought could be done.

My answer is that we can only do our part. Meaning, paradigm shift happens one person at a time. If we change our own “systems” and habits and then bring those changes to the community, we are working toward the change we want to see. I gave the example of the food system. It is possible to use a “food lens” to understand the overlapping and urgent problems of global warming, energy crisis, food security and economic downturn. As food is essential in our daily lives, it is also a central and natural force to organize communities. By applying the food lens to urban systems that account for flow of resources, capital, community wellbeing and the corresponding ecosystem it is possible to develop a food system that sustainably contributes to quality and livable neighborhoods, meet the health and nutrition needs of residents, and promote economic vitality, social justice, local self-reliance, and environmental sustainability. To my great surprise Mr. Glover was fully aware of urban farming and garden education and the immense impact it has, particularly on youth. He told a vibrant story of the Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit.

The 13-year-old academy, is a school for pregnant and parenting teens. Named after Catherine Ferguson, a slave whose freedom was purchased before she founded the first home for unwed mothers in New York, the school offers a program that helps its students learn about agriculture. Paul Weertz, a science teacher at the Academy is an urban farmer. On his farm, over 10 acres in seven locations around the city, he harvests hay, alfalfa, honey, eggs, and goat’s milk. With the support of the school’s administration, he developed an agriscience class, which works like any standard science class. But, in addition to tests and lab work, the students also learn animal husbandry and how to grow food. The school reports that nearly 100 percent of the students at the Academy are placed in post-secondary college programs. And that the school has sharply reduced the likelihood the girls will have another baby while still in their teens –by more than half of the national average (1/4 of adolescent mothers will have a second child within 24 months of the first).

Though garden based education is not solely responsible for these changes, it has played a significant part in the overall approach of the school. That was the point Mr. Glover was making, garden based education, community gardens, and urban farming play an important role. He noted that garden based education has shifted the development of these teens. Sound familiar? Sounds like the work of Urban Sprouts in San Francisco (coincidentally my husband was wearing his Urban Sprouts shirt which gave me an opportunity to mention their work).

Though I understand appropriate food systems is not an issue everyone wants to take up, my point which seemed to be shared with Mr. Glover, is that we need to change our understanding of community, our place in it and our consumptive habits, all of which starts right now in your own household. Because as Mr. Glover so aptly put it, whatever it takes “this shit has got to change.”

I’ve decided to expand my livestock to rabbits. I have been slowly gearing up for this and finally completed the housing this weekend. I still had some remaining old deck pieces and other random wood from the current remodel. I used the back of a rotting park bench as the doors. I’m a little concerned as I also used hardware cloth which many sources said to use. However, I just read in my Country Wisdom book not to use it. Apparently it does not hold up over time. I’m not sure what that will look like but the structure was made with lots of reclaimed old wood so I suspect it won’t last 100 years anyway.

With housing complete I turned to acquiring the animals. I think this is the first time I did things in order- housing and then animals. I realized that though there are sources for rabbits all over the place, I’d like to be particular about the breed I acquire. So I started my search at the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy website which lists livestock breeds that are threatened to be lost. I’ve chosen to go with American Rabbits. Recognized in 1918, they were developed for their meat and fur. They are hardy, docile, and the does are good mothers. They are also easily kept on wire bottom hutches. Sounds like a good breed for my set up.

In searching for local sources of a doe and buck, I also happened to find it listed in Slow Foods Ark of Taste. Luckily, I found a yahoo group specific for American Rabbits and found local people but it will apparently take a couple of weeks to get the rabbits as breeders are busy preparing for an upcoming national exodus to the American Rabbit Breeder Convention in San Diego. In the mean time I will continue to read about rabbit health, feeding, breeding, and of course cooking (Marcel, please teach me the culinary way of the rabbit).