Not long before the birdsong marked first light the sky was dark enough to see the waning shape of Grandmother Moon, Mahina in her La'au Pau dress. No longer full, she was nonetheless big enough to see clearly through the upright lengths of Trees. Later in the morning, today, Sunday, is Farmers' Market Day at South Whidbey TILTH. We left the woods early to help set-up the tables, canopies and sound system for today's entertainment, Sommer Harris. Pacing my outings as the pollen season was quickly followed by high temperatures and lean breezes, it was nice to see that makani (wind) was present ... pleasant.
I was open to conversations and connections with people at TILTH today. I needed to ask one of the vendors a favor. We had amiable conversation about repositioning her herbal(scented) soap stall when we pitch our storytelling tent a week from today. There were personal invitations I wanted to extend to other TILTH members, reminding them of the HO'OMOKU Open House and Potluck. "We'd love to include you in the chant welcoming the Ancestors." "I'll bring the chips," our friend J.C. May said. I was counting of that. He always brings the chips.
Another friend and African foods vendor and farmer, Dorcas Young is a very busy woman. She has another Farmers' Market to set up on the day of the Open House. But. She knows we will have ceremony for blessing the land, and the Ancestors and will try to make it for part of the HO'OMOKU Opening.
Marc Wilson is also a vendor at TILTH, and has a special connection with Hawaii as well. His parents lived in the Islands (Hawaii), and many of those years were spent in the valley of my childhood, Kuli'ou'ou on the island of O'ahu. We talked about the upcoming HO'OMOKU Opening, and the stories were good for both of us. "As much as anything, the teachings and practices will include the fullness and the limits that are real for me (us)," I said. Marc nodded and said he'd have to keep that in mind.
Before the official opening hour of sales for today's market, I sat at the tables that will be the same tables we use for our HO'OMOKU gatherings. Another of the TILTH vendors was sitting with a scone, enjoying a sit-down before sales. "Frank, " I said easily, "Can you tell me a little about how to plant garlic here (on Whidbey) for the first time?" One of the goals Pete and I have for HO'OMOKU is to collaborate with the Whidbey Veterans Service Corps (WVSC), a project of the Whidbey Island Veterans Resource Center (VRC). The Veterans have a pea patch garden on the TILTH campus, and our hope is to prepare a section of their pea patch for garlic come November 1st.
A bounty of hand-written notes from Frank, with timely injections from the kitchen as Ed chimed in with additions, questions and visual hand-directions made that conversation a wonderful example of harvesting healing plant medicine information. There is time for harvesting wisdom from those who do the practice ... Frank does grow great garlic! He was not shy to point out that I could buy his book and get all this information. I said, "I thought I'd come to the horse instead." Ed added, "... to the horse's mouth, hah." Exactly!
My notes tell me key things:
Planting
Aim for Nov 1st to plant
Plant garlic you know grows well here
Garlic need rich, well-fertilized loose soil
plant 2 inches deep
8 inches apart (garlic has a deep root system)
don't take the bulbs you're planting apart before planting
Water a lot during the greening; not so much as it bulbs(usually through June)
Fertilize again in mid-February w/ a balanced organic side-dressing (this is when Ed stepped from the kitchen and showed me what a 1-2 inch deep side-dressing trench looks like); don't go too deep you'll disturb the roots
Harvesting
better to harvest early than late; garlic continues to grow when you harvest and hang them
'read' the plant for harvest readiness
* Frank gave me the names of a few garlic varieties that grow well on Whidbey. I told him I'd be back to talk with him (and probably buy the bulbs from him,too).
Before we left the market more conversations including one with the day's entertainment, Sommer Harris and her parents rounding out a full morning of harvesting healing medicine stories. Back in the woods to pour out the distillation of a Sunday Farmers' Market morning, I am grateful and filled with enough. More than enough. Thank you. Now our minds are one.*
* From the Onondaga language, The Thanksgiving Address or the Words That Come Before All Else. Thanks to the writing of Robin Well Kimmerer, and her book Braiding Sweetgrass.
I was open to conversations and connections with people at TILTH today. I needed to ask one of the vendors a favor. We had amiable conversation about repositioning her herbal(scented) soap stall when we pitch our storytelling tent a week from today. There were personal invitations I wanted to extend to other TILTH members, reminding them of the HO'OMOKU Open House and Potluck. "We'd love to include you in the chant welcoming the Ancestors." "I'll bring the chips," our friend J.C. May said. I was counting of that. He always brings the chips.
Another friend and African foods vendor and farmer, Dorcas Young is a very busy woman. She has another Farmers' Market to set up on the day of the Open House. But. She knows we will have ceremony for blessing the land, and the Ancestors and will try to make it for part of the HO'OMOKU Opening.
Marc Wilson is also a vendor at TILTH, and has a special connection with Hawaii as well. His parents lived in the Islands (Hawaii), and many of those years were spent in the valley of my childhood, Kuli'ou'ou on the island of O'ahu. We talked about the upcoming HO'OMOKU Opening, and the stories were good for both of us. "As much as anything, the teachings and practices will include the fullness and the limits that are real for me (us)," I said. Marc nodded and said he'd have to keep that in mind.
Before the official opening hour of sales for today's market, I sat at the tables that will be the same tables we use for our HO'OMOKU gatherings. Another of the TILTH vendors was sitting with a scone, enjoying a sit-down before sales. "Frank, " I said easily, "Can you tell me a little about how to plant garlic here (on Whidbey) for the first time?" One of the goals Pete and I have for HO'OMOKU is to collaborate with the Whidbey Veterans Service Corps (WVSC), a project of the Whidbey Island Veterans Resource Center (VRC). The Veterans have a pea patch garden on the TILTH campus, and our hope is to prepare a section of their pea patch for garlic come November 1st.
A bounty of hand-written notes from Frank, with timely injections from the kitchen as Ed chimed in with additions, questions and visual hand-directions made that conversation a wonderful example of harvesting healing plant medicine information. There is time for harvesting wisdom from those who do the practice ... Frank does grow great garlic! He was not shy to point out that I could buy his book and get all this information. I said, "I thought I'd come to the horse instead." Ed added, "... to the horse's mouth, hah." Exactly!
My notes tell me key things:
Planting
Aim for Nov 1st to plant
Plant garlic you know grows well here
Garlic need rich, well-fertilized loose soil
plant 2 inches deep
8 inches apart (garlic has a deep root system)
don't take the bulbs you're planting apart before planting
Water a lot during the greening; not so much as it bulbs(usually through June)
Fertilize again in mid-February w/ a balanced organic side-dressing (this is when Ed stepped from the kitchen and showed me what a 1-2 inch deep side-dressing trench looks like); don't go too deep you'll disturb the roots
Harvesting
better to harvest early than late; garlic continues to grow when you harvest and hang them
'read' the plant for harvest readiness
* Frank gave me the names of a few garlic varieties that grow well on Whidbey. I told him I'd be back to talk with him (and probably buy the bulbs from him,too).
Before we left the market more conversations including one with the day's entertainment, Sommer Harris and her parents rounding out a full morning of harvesting healing medicine stories. Back in the woods to pour out the distillation of a Sunday Farmers' Market morning, I am grateful and filled with enough. More than enough. Thank you. Now our minds are one.*
* From the Onondaga language, The Thanksgiving Address or the Words That Come Before All Else. Thanks to the writing of Robin Well Kimmerer, and her book Braiding Sweetgrass.
