Lessons This Week

Following Guy’s last post, Santa Cruz hit 106 degrees on Tuesday! A rarity relished by the sunflowers, tomatoes, and eggplants, but dreaded by the strawberries, lettuces, and willows. Similar reactions were elicited by the apprentices from the Southwest, Midwest, and East Coast versus the native Californians. We are back to normal this weekend.

This week we had some incredible classes on farm business planning and plant pathogens. In all the excitement of learning, I do experience periods of sheer panic when I try to wrap my mind around how unrelentingly complex this field really is. Sure, we tout sustainable agriculture and homesteading as “getting back to basics,” to “our roots,” to “the land.” But really, navigating and mimicking the complexities of natural ecosystems to yield enough food to distribute equally amongst the members of our local economies AND make a decent living? That’s tough, man. The more I learn the more complicated it all gets. In many ways, this career lifestyle that we are all pursuing here is more difficult than quantum mechanics.

At the same time, with each passing day I feel more confident that I can do it. I practically learn something invaluable every thirty minutes! On Monday I learned how to grow hops. On Wednesday I realized that I hate cabbage. HATE it. So I’ll cross that off of my crop plan. Better not grow something you don’t like! On Thursday I mastered the differences between the most obvious signs of plant disease caused by bacteria vs. viruses vs. fungi (vs. oomycetes, a subgroup of fungi that spreads primarily through water). Yesterday I finished an herbal tincture to address my allergies. Today I have learned how to make yellow and red food colorings out of marigolds and beets.

Seven weeks to go. More lessons as they develop.

Mer