Carrboro Wild Food & Herb Market

Monday Nov 4 2013

We had our final market in Carrboro NC and met lots of great folks and sold some plants, seeds and used books. The weather was fantastic: cool and sunny. Thanks to all who visited with us!

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Sunday November 3rd, 1-4pm in Carrboro NC is the final Wild Food and Herb Market of the season. check us out on facebook.

We will be selling our herb plants and used books. Come and visit us. We will have free samples of a hot herbal tea and plenty of good advice on growing herbs.

seedling bumping up

march 21 2013 

its been a little while since I've posted the progress of things. some of the seedlings have been bumped up to the 2 1/2" blocks. all of them are outside in the cold frame with remay fabric over top at night. during the day I take the remay off and prop the windows for some air and to keep the cold frame from getting too hot.

hyssop getting bumped up to 2" blocks

I was able to set the smaller tray on top of the larger tray to transfer the mini-blocks into the larger blocks.

I made these tongs but they weren't very useful, cute but not efficient.

I found that this little flat serrated knife was very good for picking up the blocks and moving them off the tray. Eliot Coleman recommends an artists pallet knife. I picked up this knife at Habitat ReStore for 25 cents.

april 14 2013

small seeded plants such as yarrow and st. john's wort are sown in micro-blocks. once they germinate and develop some roots, they need to be "bumped up" into the 2" blocks. 

yarrow (achillea millefolium) were getting lots of roots and outgrowing the micro-blocks. you can see how long the yarrow roots were getting in the photo below. I trimmed the roots just below the soil so that when I set them into the larger blocks, the roots would not get compacted. the roots will regrow where they were cut.

I found this knife at Habitat ReStore for 50 cents. I am not sure what the knife is for. it has 3 different edges. it works great to slide under the blocks and loosen the roots from the tray.

yarrow is best known as a vulnerary (stops bleeding). however it is a versatile healing herb with many properties. it improves circulation of the blood, moving stagnant blood and clearing blood clots, lowering high blood pressure and it can slow or stop bleeding.  yarrow gently stimulates the kidneys, liver, stomach and gallbladder, improves appetite and reduces flatulence.

yarrow is an attractive garden plant, and pollinator plant. it can be a vigorous grower and may get out of control in smaller gardens and overwhelm nearby plants. 

yarrow flowers growing along a trail in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

seed sowing

february 14 2013. 

seed sowing

the seeds are sown. most were very tiny seeds. all purchased from Horizon Herbs in oregon. great company, I highly recommend. I wanted to use a local seed supplier (southeast usa) but I couldn't find a company that had the selection of certified organic seed. for my own use non-organic seed is fine, but since I intend to sell to the public I want to follow organic practices so that I can become organic certified.

trays set out and ready for sowing.

 you can see how tiny the yarrow seeds are. I use a sharpened wood dowel that is moistened by dipping in water to grab the seeds. nice little trick due to the adhesion property of water.

then you simply touch the seed to the soil block and it (usually)  drops  off. sometimes you have to give it a little nudge against the soil.

the sowing goes pretty fast with this method. you can use old chopsticks or a sharpened twig.

finished trays with labels and vermiculite sprinkled over top. vermiculite on the surface helps prevent damping-off - a disease you don't want your seeds to contract. over-watering, too moist conditions and poor air circulation create favorable damping-off conditions.

                                                                                                                                                                

I hope they stay warm enough tonight. I left a space heater on in the shed and a pan of water on the bottom shelf so it would stay nice and humid in the germination chamber. I bought an inexpensive humidity/temp monitor, with the daily high and low's recorded. at night, without any heat, the temps were going into the 40's - a bit too cold for seed germination. 

I've seen folks put large, deep crock pots filled with water and set to low to provide warm, moist air. I have a small one that I will try.

I made this seed starter rack/germination chamber from scrap lumber I had on hand. it is 5.5' tall, 2' deep and 48' wide. I used one 4x8' sheet insulation (left over from a friend's house), on 3 sides and the bottom. I used 6 mil plastic to cover the front. it rolls up for access the shelves.

view without the plastic. I  used plans from  Black & Decker's The Complete Guide to Greenhouses & Garden Projects that I borrowed from my local library. I had to make it shorter than the plans specified as my ceiling in the shed is low. the shelves are tall enough that you can hang grow lights and allow room for the plants to grow in height.

february 13 2013. soil mixing

first batch of seeds will be sown tomorrow, valentine's day. I will infuse them with lots of love to grow strong and healthy.

I mixed up the soil and made all the soil blocks a day ahead. I borrowed the soil blockers from the student farm so saved some money. Johnny's Selected Seeds sells them. Johnny's also sells cowpots - containers made from cow manure! yes. great idea.

I took the recipe from Eliot Coleman's New Organic Grower book and modified it a bit. I don't want to use peat moss as that is mined from peat bogs and it takes hundreds to thousands of years to form and even though some say that it's sustainable since it regrows, not in our lifetime it won't. and I am a huge fan of any sort of bog, swamp or wetland and it makes me really sad to see them destroyed. read more about it here.

so I am substituting coir for the peat moss. coir (pronounced like koy ir), is derived from coconut husks. not long ago it was considered waste, but smart creatures we are, and somebody figured out it made a good growing medium. 'course coconuts grow in tropical climates (though I do find some on the NC coast now and then), sooo getting it to the usa does involve large vessels and fuels. and lots of water is used to process it.

so, which is a better, or a more sustainable product? I'm choosing to use coir. some coir is produced in mexico, at least that is the same continent. ideally, I'd like to figure out what materials I can gather myself and use that. vermicompost for one, maybe ground up leaves for another component...anyways, back to the present.

here is my recipe for a mini-block soil mix: 

3.5 gallons coir
1.5 gallon fine compost (vermicompost or mushroom compost work well)
28 ounces vermiculite
1/2 cup greensand
1/2 cup calphos (colloidal phosphate)

I added the vermiculite for aeration and to help retain moisture. I used less greensand and calphos since coir has a higher pH and has more nutrients than peat moss.

this is an experimental soil mix. I wish I had time to send it off to ncda soil labs to analyze it. let's hope my seeds germinate and grow up big and strong.

here is Eliot Coleman's original mini-block recipe:

4 gallons peat
1 gallon compost
1 cup greensand
1 cup calphos

For the larger soil blocks, I am using soil conditioner and coir. soil conditioner is often pine bark fines, by-product waste from pulp industry. the brand I bought, enrich, was a little too chunky to use for the mini-blocks.

the recipe for the larger soil blocks will look something like this:

4 gallons soil conditioner
2 gallons coir
2 gallons compost (or 1.5 gallons compost and 0.5 gallons vermiculite)
1 cup greensand
1 cup calphos
1 cup bloodmeal


first experiment with soil mix. this recipe was pretty good but I used soil conditioner and it had some chunks in it that didn't fit into the blocker. this mix would be fine for the larger blocks so I dumped all the little blocks back into the wheelbarow and will reuse the soil.

I enjoyed making the blocks. its pretty easy. you need to really pack the soil in the blocker.

I want to avoid plastic as much as possible in the herb production. I followed the practices of organic farmer Eliot Coleman (his books are great resources), and built wooden trays out of scrap lumber to seed my herbs. The seeds will be sown into mini-blocks of soil. No plastic trays no plastic containers. The mini-blocks can be set into larger blocks.

this is the mini-block tray with plant labels and tongs made from wood scraps. the mini-block tray inside dimensions need to be 18 3/4" x 4" x 3/4" and will hold 120 blocks. 

Sassafras

saturday april 13 2013

spring is busting out in NC. the trees are finally leafing out, the dogwoods bloomed last week and the pollen rain has begun.

sassafras was in full bloom last week on my property. sassafras has long been used as food and medicine and considered a great tonic.

this is the largest of the sassafras trees on my land. this spring is the most impressive bloom I have seen yet. my cell phone didn't do it justice.

I copied the following info about sassafras from mountain rose herbs website:

Also known as

Sassafras albidum

Introduction

Sassafras is a sturdy tree found in the bayous of Louisiana. When the tree is young, its leaves are shaped like "mittens," sometimes with two "thumbs." As the tree matures, sometimes reaching a height of 100 feet (30 meters) and a trunk diameter of up to 6 feet (200 cm), the leaves grow more rounded, free of indentation. Cajun cuisine uses sassafras leaf to make file (FEE-lay), the seasoning and thickening agent for gumbo. The early Cajuns learned to use file' from the Choctaw Indians of the Gulf coast, who evidently used it to thicken soups.

Constituents

Alpha-pinene, anethole, apiole, asarone, beta-sitosterol, boldine, caryophyllene, elemicin, eugenol, mucilage, myristicin, reticule, safrene, safrole, tannins, thujone.

Parts Used

Leaf.

Typical Preparations

The leaf is primarily used to thicken and to season. It should be simmered gently, and never boiled. For convenience it may be used as a tea.

Summary

Sassafras leaf is traditionally used as a thickening and flavoring agent in Gumbo, as well as other Cajun sauces and soups. The leaves have a lightly spicy and a pleasant aromatic scent and flavor. The fresh young leaves are used in salads.

Precautions

The actual analysis of the leaf found as little as 0.09 mg of safrole per cup of sassafras tea, or 99.95% less than reports have found. Later research reported by Dr. Jim Duke found that if all the safrole in the leaf leached into a cup of tea, it would yield about 3 milligrams of safrole, or, 95% less than the recommended maximum. Sassafras should not be used while pregnant and it should not be used for extended periods of time. Its moderate to liberal use in soup and sauces is fine.

This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The root is also used and the plant's range extends beyond the bayous of Louisiana. root beer was formerly made from the roots but safrole (the oil extracted from sassafras), but was banned in the 1960s after it was force-fed in enormous quantities to lab rats and found to be carcinogenic. Steven Foster and James A. Duke in their book "Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants", state that, "the safrole in a 12-ounce can of old-fashioned root beer is not as carcinogenic as the alcohol (ethanol) in a can of beer."

Personally I have dug up small trees, cut the root into small pieces and made teas and drank it, enjoying every delicious sip. 

the root-bark tea is used as a blood purifier, remedy for stomach aches, gout, arthritis, high blood pressure, rheumatism, kidney ailments, colds, fevers and skin eruptions. 

watch this you tube vid of a man in louisiana grinding file powder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uafm_V1tj_w

when you go out to collect wild plants always remember be respectful and to give thanks to the spirits and make an offering. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4EBgVyML1M

Hyssop

little hyssop seedlings :)

Hyssop Hyssopus officinalis (Mint family)
Native to northern Mediterranean coast and western Turkey. Aromatic, semi evergreen woody, shrubby perennial. Height 18" - 24" tall by 12" - 18" wide. Blooms purple-blue, flowering in June to September. Grows in full sun to part shade, dry to medium water. Attracts butterflies and bees. Tolerates drought once established.
Propagate by division of roots in spring or from cuttings in late summer or seed collected in fall.
Flowers, leaves and plant oils long used for culinary and medicinal purposes. Leaves used for flavoring soups, sauces, salads and stews. Leaves can be dried and used in potpourris.

I have seen a caution to be avoided by epileptics. the following is for informational and educational purposes only. if you wish to use herbs for medicine, consult an herbalist.

Hyssop is good for many things including:

• increases appetite and digestion 
• stimulates circulation, causes sweating, reduces fevers 
• relieves anxiety, tension, exhaustion, depression 
• decongestant, expectorant 
• relieves sinus problems, hay fever, asthma 
• enhances immune system 
• infusion for colds and flu, digestive upsets and nervous stomachs. 
• tincture for bronchitis and coughs 
• essential oil for a chest rub for colds and flu and bronchitis, bruises, sprains, wounds, aching muscles and joints 
• essential oil in a vaporizer to purify the area, dispel infections, calm nerves and enhance clarity and concentration 
• essential oil added to bath water for nervous exhaustion, depression and grief 

Specific medicinal actions and properties: astringent, carminative, emmenagogue, expectorant, circulatory stimulant, digestive tonic, diaphoretic.

Yarrow

Achillea millefolium (Yarrow)

Asteraceae Family. Traditionally used to treat wounds, and as a styptic to stop bleeding. Now valued for its cold and flu fighting properties, and beneficial effects on the circulatory, digestive and urinary systems. Yarrow has a high concentration of volatile oils that stimulate blood flow to the skin’s surface and aid in elimination of toxins through the pores. Native to Europe and Asia.

Medicinal Properties & Uses
Actions: amphoretic, vulnerary, hemostatic, astringent, febrifuge, digestive stimulant, diaphoretic, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergenic, anti-spasmodic.

Flowers: contain anti-allergenic and anti-inflammatory compounds.

Applications:

·      Essential Oil: massage oil for inflamed joints, chest rub for colds and flu

·      Infusion: upper respiratory phlegm

·      Inhalation: hay fever and mild asthma

·      Wash: eczema

Leaves: blood clotting, may relieve migraines

Applications:

·      Fresh: insert in nostril for nosebleeds, migraines

·      Poultice: fresh leaves applied to cuts to stop bleeding

Aerial parts: expectorant, digestive bitter tonic, diuretic, blood tonic, stimulate circulation, high blood pressure, induce sweating for fevers, menstrual disorders

Applications:

·      Infusion: fever reducer, digestive tonic

·      Tincture: uterine tension, menstrual cramps, delayed or absent menstrual cycles, cardiovascular discomfort

·      Compress: infusion soaked pad or diluted tincture for varicose veins

Cultivation

Description: Herbaceous perennial. Up to 3’ tall with fern-like feathery leaves and clusters of compound (ray and disk) white flowers on terminal heads. Flowers June through September. Found in various habitats; fields, roadsides and waste places. Good beneficial bug and pollinator attractant. Dynamic accumulator of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potash (K) and copper (Cu) and can be added to compost, compost tea and mulch.

Growing: In the southern United States it is a vigorous grower, forming dense mats and it can overtake other plants. Yarrow can have fungal diseases such as powdery mildew, rust and stem rot. Do not harvest leaves with signs of mold or mildew.

·      Full sun to light shade.

·      Prefers well-drained soils, but will grown in most soil types. pH 6.1.

·      Can be grown as a lawn alternative and mowed.

Propagation

Seed: easy germination from seed. Sow in flats or direct seed. Germination in approximately 8 days. Thin to or transplant 18” apart.

Division: divide rhizomes in spring or fall.

Harvesting & Processing

Harvest flowers during summer and fall. If leaves remain evergreen, they can be collected year round. Collect flowers, leaves and stems on a dry sunny morning after the dew has evaporated. If all aerial parts are desired, bundle 8-10 stems and hang upside down in a dry, ventilated, warm room out of direct light until stems snap and leaves are brittle. If drying parts individually, separate flowers and leaves and dry in paper bags set in a greenhouse or car dashboard, or use a solar dryer. Break into smaller pieces and store in clean, dry jars in a dark place until needed. Label jar with plant name, date and any other desired information (organic, where harvested, etc.).

Azure Sage, Blue Sage

Azure Sage, Blue Sage Salvia azurea (Mint family)

Native to central and southeastern North America. Seed is edible and is a traditional food of First Nations People and Native Americans. Seed is ground into a flour. Good pollinator plant for native bees and bumblebees. Hummingbird plant.
Perennial 3-5’ tall. Blooms September  to November. Blue or white flowers.
Grows well in hot dry sunny microclimates. Native to prairies, meadows, pastures, woodland edges. Plant 1 foot apart. Full sun to light shade. Well-drained soil, does not tolerate wet soils in winter.

Ready for market

I will be selling some plants this Sunday at Carrboro's Wild Food + Herb Market. This market is the first in the nation (US) of its kind.

I am excited to be selling for the first time. My inventory is short and simple. I want to get myself out there and gain some experience and network with other like-minded herb and wild foods folks.

My plants look great and my display will be lovely. Everything I have for the display was purchased from thrift stores or repurposed. The only new items purchased for the market are paper cups for herbal tea samples. We have to use new, clean cups for sampling. I might start collecting small tea cups just for this purpose.

here is the link for the market:

http://theabundancefoundation.org/wild-food-herb-market

what you will find at my booth:

plants:
Blue Sage
Blue Vervain
Boneset
Butterfly Weed
Comfrey
False Indigo
Hyssop
Motherwort
Mountain Mint
Peppermint
Red Cedar
Spilanthes
St. John's Wort
Valerian
Yarrow

seeds:
Butterfly Weed
Spanish Needle, Yucca

books: 
lightly used books on herbs, organic gardening and wildlife gardening

soil block mixes, seed treatment and sowing

july 31 2013

update on my soil mix experiment: I don't like it as my plants don't seem to like it. they germinate ok but then stay tiny and don't show much growth. some of them had good root growth but not much leafy growth.

the photo below shows yarrow seedlings sown at the same time, same soil mix for germination. when I bumped them up to 2 blocks I expected them to jump but they just sat there and did nothing.

so I did a simple experiment and used my soil mix recipe with coir, soil conditioner and compost and then mixed up some commercial organic potting soil and compost. both soil mixes had fertilizer (azomite, greensand and calphos) added. I potted them up the same day and all conditions are the same: light, water, air.

the yarrow plants on the right are in the coir mix. the yarrow plants on the left are in the potting soil compost mix. huge difference. now I have to repot all the other plants I put into my soil mix and hope they rejuvenate themselves.

I plan on sending in the coir and soil conditioner to be tested before I use it again in a mix. I could send in a sample of my mix but I won't be able to tell which ingredient is causing problems. if I send all the components in separately, I will be able to tell the effects of each one.

the compost I used came with a complete nutrient analysis so I will not need to send that in. I may also be able to find the nutrient analysis from the companies that made the coir and soil conditioner.

I found this analysis of coir for agrococo. it looks great and in fact I think I saw this article before I decided to use coir. I may have to leave out the fertilizer since it is higher in macro and micro nutrients.


february 20 2013

some seeds need pre-treatment before planting. stratification and scarification are 2 terms you may come across when researching seed starting methods.  

cold-moist stratification. some of the seeds I purchased (echinacea, ascelpias, vervain, comfrey) needed a cold-moist stratification. I took unbleached coffee filters and let them soak in warm water for 10 minutes or so. then I squeezed the excess water out, split it in half and placed the seeds on the filter. then I rolled it up and put it into a ziplock bag and placed the bag in a jar and put the jar into the fridge. I made sure to put plant info, length of time for stratification and date with each seed bag. I checked the seed after 1 week and all were fine. 2 weeks later I sowed the seeds that needed a 2-week period. the rest are still in the fridge for 2 or more weeks.

butterfly weed seeds on a moistened paper towl

warm-moist stratification. other seeds (calamus and black cohosh) needed a warm-moist period. I used the coffee filter method for them as well, but a day or so later I thought that they might get moldy. so I took them off of the coffee filters and put them into a commercial seed starting soil. I think that vermiculite would work as well. I checked them after 1 and 2 weeks and they are fine.

rolled up and put into a ziplock bag (re-used)

and then placed in a sealed jar and put in to the fridge

february 13 2013

first batch of seeds will be sown tomorrow, valentine's day. I will infuse them with lots of love to grow strong and healthy.

I mixed up the soil and made all the soil blocks a day ahead. I borrowed the soil blockers from the student farm so saved some money. Johnny's Selected Seeds sells them. Johnny's also sells cowpots - containers made from cow manure! yes. great idea.

I took the recipe from Eliot Coleman's New Organic Grower book and modified it a bit. I don't want to use peat moss as that is mined from peat bogs and it takes hundreds to thousands of years to form and even though some say that it's sustainable since it regrows, not in our lifetime it won't. and I am a huge fan of any sort of bog, swamp or wetland and it makes me really sad to see them destroyed. read more about it here.

so I am substituting coir for the peat moss. coir (pronounced like koy ir), is derived from coconut husks. not long ago it was considered waste, but smart creatures we are, and somebody figured out it made a good growing medium. 'course coconuts grow in tropical climates (though I do find some on the NC coast now and then), sooo getting it to the usa does involve large vessels and fuels. and lots of water is used to process it.

so, which is a better, or a more sustainable product? I'm choosing to use coir. some coir is produced in mexico, at least that is the same continent. ideally, I'd like to figure out what materials I can gather myself and use that. vermicompost for one, maybe ground up leaves for another component...anyways, back to the present.

here is my recipe for a mini-block soil mix: 

3.5 gallons coir
1.5 gallon fine compost (vermicompost or mushroom compost work well)
28 ounces vermiculite
1/2 cup greensand
1/2 cup calphos (colloidal phosphate)

I added the vermiculite for aeration and to help retain moisture. I used less greensand and calphos since coir has a higher pH and has more nutrients than peat moss.

this is an experimental soil mix. I wish I had time to send it off to ncda soil labs to analyze it. let's hope my seeds germinate and grow up big and strong.

here is Eliot Coleman's original mini-block recipe:

4 gallons peat
1 gallon compost
1 cup greensand
1 cup calphos

For the larger soil blocks, I am using soil conditioner and coir. soil conditioner is often pine bark fines, by-product waste from pulp industry. the brand I bought, enrich, was a little too chunky to use for the mini-blocks.

the recipe for the larger soil blocks will look something like this: (july 2013 update - plants did not do well in this mix)

4 gallons soil conditioner
2 gallons coir
2 gallons compost (or 1.5 gallons compost and 0.5 gallons vermiculite)
1 cup greensand
1 cup calphos
1 cup bloodmeal

first experiment with soil mix. this recipe was pretty good but I used soil conditioner and it had some chunks in it that didn't fit into the blocker. this mix would be fine for the larger blocks so I dumped all the little blocks back into the wheelbarow and will reuse the soil.

I enjoyed making the blocks. its pretty easy. you need to really pack the soil in the blocker.

I want to avoid plastic as much as possible in the herb production. I followed the practices of organic farmer Eliot Coleman (his books are great resources), and built wooden trays out of scrap lumber to seed my herbs. The seeds will be sown into mini-blocks of soil. No plastic trays no plastic containers. The mini-blocks can be set into larger blocks.

this is the mini-block tray with plant labels and tongs made from wood scraps. the mini-block tray inside dimensions need to be 18 3/4" x 4" x 3/4" and will hold 120 blocks. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 weeks ago I gathered some finished compost from my bins to add to the soil mix.

I also made some regular sized trays that will hold the 2" soil blocks. regular trays measure inside dimension  18 3/4" x 8" x 2" and will hold 36 blocks.

undersides of the soil blocks with dimples which leave indents on the surface of the blocks and where the seeds sit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

feb 23 2013

the shed is too darn cold for germination and so I made the decision today to move the trays into the house where they will be warmer. the shed is large and poorly insulated and trying to heat the space would use and waste a lot of energy.

I thought of putting them in the house before I set everything up in the shed but I've had problems with starting seedlings in the house - not enough light or space, trying to keep cats and mice from getting into the trays.

I have a spare bathroom I don't use, no natural light, little space, but it is warm and I do have grow lights. this whole project is an experiment and now I know that the shed is not suitable for late winter/early spring seeding. I'll need to lower the lights a few inches above the trays to prevent long-legged seedlings.

ideally I'd like to have a solar greenhouse. I just need to get the materials together to build one. the saw mill down the road (or over the big hill, as my neighbors say), has lots of free scrap lumber I can go and scavenge. if it ever stops raining, I will take the truck down there and get some cedar. there's tons of free materials out there, you just gotta go ask. I find nice 5 gallon food-grade buckets and jugs for free in the trash area behind restaurants. you may want to ask if you can take them first.

I don't have the advantage of putting a lean-to style greenhouse against my house as the south-facing side of my house doesn't get enough daylight hours. the idea with these greenhouses is that the sun will heat the south wall of the house, and since the house is heated, provide lots of warmth day and night.


2/ 20/2013
so far, no germination but I was out of town for 4 days and not able to provide any heat to the shed while I was away and the temps were getting low at night. I was concerned about leaving a space heater on without any supervision. the low temp last night in the shed was 37F, outside low temp was 28F. I've been recording the temps for a few weeks now and basically the germination chamber is 10 degrees higher than the outside temp.

it needs to stay warmer in the shed to get any germination. I put a crock pot filled with water on low and placed it on the bottom shelf this morning. 

I checked it tonight, the outside temp is 35F and the germination temp is a cozy 55F. that's a whole 20 degrees warmer! way better than a space heater that uses more energy. I don't have a soil thermometer but I'm guessing that the soil blocks are within a few degrees of the air temp.

much warmer tonight with the crock-pot "heater" top number is humidity, lower number is temp.