Book Review: Build Your Own Earth Oven

Build Your Own Earth Oven

Ever since I had by first taste of naan (an Indian flat bread baked on the wall of an earthen oven called a Tandoor), I have wanted an earth oven. From foods more familiar to those in the U.S., like 2-minute flat crust pizzas and sourdough breads, to more ethnic foods that I love, like chicken tikka and earth oven-baked lamb, some food should only be cooked or baked in an earthen oven.

A sampling of wood-fired, earth-oven pizzas!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AVCGf2CqyLM/S9soBDePuCI/AAAAAAAADBg/Moub4-lBJpE/s1600/DSC_2687.JPG

I have been leisurely reading about ways to make earth ovens for the last few years, but this book provides everything all in one place. From initial design and foundations to bricks and earth mixes to chimneys and firing, this book has it all. I am really excited giving this a try. When I do, I'll post about it.

Fresh naan... a little piece of heaven on earth!

http://www.vegetariansrecipes.org/pictures/Naan-Susheel.JPG

From the Publisher:

Kiko Denzer and Hannah Field, maker and baker, invite you into the artisan tradition. First, build a masonry oven out of mud. Then mix flour and water for real bread "better than anything you can buy." Total cost? Hardly more than a baking stone - and it can cook everything else, from 2-minute pizza to holiday fowl, or a week's meals.

Clear, abundant drawings and photos clarify every step of the process, from making "oven mud," to fire, and to bread. Informative text puts it all into context with artisan traditions of many ages & cultures. Beautifully sculpted ovens (by the author and readers) will inspire the artist in anyone. And the simple, 4 step recipe (based on professional and homestead experience) promises authentic hearth loaves for anyone, on any schedule.

From weekend gardeners to "simple living," back-to-the-landers; Peace Corps volunteers to neighborhood community-builders; third-graders to earth-artists of all ages, this book feeds many hungers!

Chicken Tikka... a classic Indian dish.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9WhQAZ4zyVA/Tc4B8s5cLKI/AAAAAAAAABw/jliKsiuEZ5I/s1600/ChickenTikka.jpg

Agama Spotting... and other Turkish animals.

The Starred Agama (a.k.a. Stellion or Star Lizard), Laudakia stellio.

http://www.american-buddha.com/photo.speybroeck.85.jpg

This morning, my family was taking a walk to the park. My two boys were on their big-wheel-type bikes. Isaac, now four years old, was at the front of our procession when he suddenly skidded to a stop. He froze with one arm pointing to a tree a few feet from the sidewalk we were walking, reminding me of a bird dog who had spotted a hidden pheasant.

For a second or two we tried to figure out at what it was he was pointing, but we were obviously too slow in identifying it. Isaac hopped off the bike and ran to the base of the tree, running with his arm fully extended and finger still pointing. This sudden direct charge on its hiding place was too much for the well camouflaged, foot-long lizard.

I can't help but wonder what that lizard was thinking... There I was, sitting in the sun, soaking up the heat, relaxing all morning. It was a great spot. I was blending in perfectly with the roots at the bottom of my favorite tree. I had seen dozens of those gangly, two-legged animals walk right past me. They make so much noise all the time. But as long as I don't move, they keep right on going. Then, out of the blue, one of them stops and stares right at me. He's one of the small ones. They usually aren't that smart. Is he looking at me? Did I lose my camouflage? No. He can't see me. I just have to stay still. Hold my breath. He'll keep on going any second now... Oh, crap! He's running right at me... don't move... don't breathe... ahHH! Forget this! I'm outta here!

These guys can scale a tree in seconds!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Laudakia_stellio_002.jpg

The lizard, whose proper name is the Speckled Agama, bolted up the tree. Only, poor thing, it climbed a tree that had a sparrow's nest in it. The male sparrow started to dive bomb it. It hopped from limb to limb dodging the bird until we started to walk away. Then it quickly scurried back down the tree and then hid in a pile of rocks. I am sure it was hyperventilating, saying a prayer of thanks for not getting eaten by that scary animal that charged him out of the blue.

Not a minute later and Isaac spotted another Agama. The scene replayed itself, only without the sparrow attack. After a few minutes of watching the lizard climb in the tree above, we moved on. Now I have studied animals for a long time. I understand their behavior. There are obviously many people who are better than I, but after years of trying to spot and observe wildlife, I can humbly say that I am really good at it. But I think my skill is a learned craft. It is pretty amazing to see a four year old come at it with such ease. It is going to be fun to see how this develops.

Long-Eared Hedgehog (Hemiechinus auritus)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jhW52aMy8UU/TQbKAfyyiRI/AAAAAAAAB5o/B5dGWAevcG8/s1600/turkish_living.1269379097.long-eared-hedgehog.png

This just reminded me of how living in Turkey has allowed us to experience a completely new range of flora and fauna. Whether it is the scorpions on my running path, the hedgehogs digging holes in the yard at night, the hooded crows sitting on the fence waiting for my boys to drop some food, or the Hoopoe I wrote about a short while ago, it has been a lot of fun to see the amazing diversity of God's creation.

Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix)

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/files/imagecache/photo_940/pictures/Crow-0326.jpg

Indian Crested Porcupine (Hystrix indica)

Well, we actually only found a few quills on one of our hikes.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3042/2653583753_06dc0a915d_z.jpg

Hold the chemicals... see what happens!

My small-scale monocrop of Kale.

I was speaking to a new friend today about my garden. He is an avid gardener himself and produces a decent amount of food for himself and his family. I was explaining to him about how in Permaculture, we truly strive to be chemical free in all of our gardening and growing efforts. He seemed shocked. I had just told him about all the plants I have grown in my rather small garden... how could I produce all that with no chemicals? I explained to him how there are many methods I use, but the two main concepts are to keep the plants as healthy as possible (which really keeps pests away) and avoiding monocropping - even on a small scale.

When gardeners plant all of one crop right next to each other (tomatoes, squash, lettuce, etc.), I call that small-scale monocropping. This give pests a prime target. The plants are hard to miss; there are so many of them. Once one plant is consumed, the pests will easily move a few inches or feet next door to the next victum. In general, pests don't have to work hard to do a lot of damage in a short time. Avoiding planting the same types of plants next to each other makes the pests have to work a lot harder. This has kept me almost pest free for two years.

Until this year.

Quite by accident, I created a small-scale monocrop of kale. I had planted a number of portable, window-box-type planters with a wide variety of lettuces. These few planters kept us in fresh salad greens throughout the mild Turkish Winter... and that lettuce thrived. Then Spring hit, and with it came the scortching heat during the day that most people in Temperate Climates feel only in the height of Summer. That lush lettuce didn't stand a chance.

Well, after the planters were full of bolted, flowered lettuce plants, I decided to clean out the planters. I flipped the planters on their sides, and I easily slid out the block of soil, tangled roots, and tufts of bolting lettuces. The flowers were small, but rather pretty, so I decided to just stack all the remains from the planters along the fence, right side up, and I tucked them in with some mulch. As expected, the lettuces died, but then an interesting thing happened. The Kale, which I thought was a goner as well, suddenly sprang back to life. In fact, it took off like it hadn't ever before. I am not sure if it was the sudden room for its roots to grow now free from the planters or if the weather was now perfect for them to thrive, but thrive they did.

Now, without planning, I had a mini hedge of Kale growing along the fence.

Then about a month ago, I noticed that the Kale was covered in caterpillars. And I really mean covered. Almost every leaf had at least one, but usually three or four, caterpillars happily chewing away the leaves. My first thought was to try and figure a way to get rid of them all... pick them all off by hand (my boys love to do that), spray them off with a hose and make them work to get back to their food over and over again, or spray them with a soapy mix. I didn't really consider using a pesticide. I don't even own any in the first place.

But then I noticed two of the Kale plants had no caterpillars on them at all. One was right in the middle of the feeding frenzy, and one was at the end. I thought the one at the end just hadn't been found yet, but the one in the middle... there must be something more going on here. Maybe those Kale had a different flavor to the caterpillars? Maybe they had a different compound in them that kept the caterpillars away? I still have no good explanation since all these Kale plants grew from the same seed pack.

I decided I would do nothing. I had violated one of my own rules. I had planted a small-scale monocrop. I deserved to pay the consequences. I was also interested in the Kale that no caterpillars ate. Would they be the next victims after the other plants were consumed?

As it turns out, doing nothing was a great idea. In less than a week, the caterpillars had eaten their fill. They left me with skeletons of Kale along my fence line... and two healthy Kale plants rising about them. However, within about three weeks, the beaten down Kale surged back to life. The photo at the top of this article shows the Kale patch just a few weeks after the infestation. It seems as if almost nothing happened.

I still plan to save the seed from those two Kale plants that survived the caterpillar onslaught unscathed. Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe I now have some resistant Kale plants. It will be fun to find out.

This small garden event makes me think. I wonder how much improvement in garden breeding is lost when gardeners immediately turn to chemicals to kill their pests. I wonder how many "plagues" in the garden would only result in minor set backs and quick recoveries if we didn't intervene so quickly and so often. I wonder how much man-made chemicals would not be taken into our bodies or pollute our water if we would just wait to see how nature would handle the "problems" we see.

My accidental monocrop of Kale just reinforced my commitment to avoid any and all chemicals in my gardening.

The Beauty of Pollination

The following video is an amazing look at some of the most common plant pollinators (bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, flies, and bats). Stunning slow-motion videography with a peaceful soundtrack combines to make a breathtaking video. I highly recommend you take 4 minutes to watch this. About three-quarters through, there is a bat that is flying, eating, and nursing its pup... all at the same time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQiszdkOwuU

 

Modern Composting Toilets (Humanure Part 3)

Ed Begley, Jr. with a waterless composting toilet by Envirolet.

http://www.compostingtoilet.org/news/

A few weeks ago, my beloved wife decided that she would take a straw poll over the course of a few days to find out which of our friends would be willing to have a composting toilet in their homes. I believe she did this for a few reasons. First, I think she really was interested to see what our friends thought of the idea. Second, I think she thought it was fun to point out what she perceives as one of my eccentricities (i.e., my vehemence against wasting water). Third, with her mind already made up about the topic - "this is not going to happen in my house" - I think she wanted moral support to make a stand against this idea.

The vast majority of our friends, not surprisingly, thought I was a bit off my rocker and quickly, and vehemently in some cases, sided with my wife. The only issue, well there were quite a few, but the one I am going to address here today, is that almost all negative opinions were coming from the people who thought that to use a composting toilet one needs to poop in a bucket while trying not to faint from the gawd-awful stench with flies buzzing around your head. I think most had the idea of a nasty porta-potty jammed into the corner of their bedroom in mind while answering my wife's poll question.

So today I want to dispell at one myth. Yes, there are some systems of composting toilets that use 5-gallon buckets. No, they do not smell at all - well, they smell like sawdust. If there is a smell, you are doing something wrong. If there are flies, you are doing something wrong. However, there are many other systems that are slightly more to vastly more automatic and "hands off" than the 5-gallon bucket method.

Let me show you a few of these systems...

A schematic of one type of modern composting toilet system.

This design has a large composting chamber in the basement.

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/composting-toilet1.htm

Another modern composting toilet system.

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/sancor/ms10-300-2.jpg

This is a great video highlighting Envirolet Toilet Systems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ZU4KCmYFQ

Permaculture Research Institute Cold Climate

http://www.pricoldclimate.org/

I just came upon this website this morning. PRI Cold Climate appears to be a permaculture organization based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their mission is to be a resource for permaculture in cold temperate climates. It looks like they are a relatively organization. They have a blog that is infrequently updated, but they do have a fairly regular class schedule. I am very interested to see what they will develop. Check it out if you have an interest, especially if you are in the MN area.

Permaculture Plants: Hollyhock

My Hollyhocks grow to over 8 feet tall!

That's my Abigail...

She literally cries if I bring her inside, but will stop as soon as we go outside again!

Common Name: Hollyhock

Scientific Name: Alcea rosea

Family: Malvaceae (the Mallow family)

Just one small sample of the flower colors available.

http://media.americanmeadows.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/317x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/P/r/Prod_Alcea_rosea1_2.jpg

Description:

The Hollyhock is a stunning, flowering plant that towers over the garden and comes in a wide variety of colors. Shooting to over 9 feet (2.7 meters) tall, this self-seeding, short-lived perennial (in cold climates, it seems to act more like a biennial) is beautiful, attract bees and other beneficial insects, has a deep taproot that pulls up nutrients and minerals for higher quality mulch at the end of the season, and is edible as well... the flowers are rather bland, but provide amazing color to a salad, and the leaves have a fuzzy texture and grassy flavor that while edible are nothing to get excited about.

Alcea rosea - Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Alcea_rosea_-_K%C3%B6hler%E2%80%93s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-009.jpg

History:

• Likely originating from Asia and southeast Europe.
• The modern Alcea rosea was likely developed in England.
• Grown exclusively for its flowers, but it has retained it edibility.

Trivia:

Years ago, in certain locations in the U.S. the hollyhock was only planted near the outhouse. The towering spires of flowers could be seen from quite a distance, and this gave the "refined" ladies of the time the ability to find the outhouse without having to ask for it.

The young leaves, flower buds, flowers, and roots of the Hollyhock are all edible.

Yeah, that's my 9-month-old daughter's chubby hand!

USING THIS PLANT

Primary Uses:

• Decorative - tall, stunning, towers of flowers! 
• Leaves - young leaves are best, either fresh or cooked. They do have a fuzzy texture that gets more course as the leaves mature. The flavor is rather bland with a hint of grassiness... in my experience, it is not that great, but would do in a pinch. I like to add just a few, finely chopped, to salads. I know that the deep taproots are pulling up nutrients not usually found in my garden, so I really only eat them for health reasons... not the flavor.
• Flowers - eaten fresh. Great color addition to salads. Almost no flavor. Buds are said to be edible, but I have not tried it... I love the beauty of the flowers too much to sacrifice the buds! Tea can be made from the flowers as well.

Secondary Uses:

• General insect (especially bees) nectar and pollen plant. There is not a single day that I do not see bees on the flowers.
• Roots can be an edible starch source.
• Paper from the stem fiber - although this seems to be fairly labor intensive.
• Dye from the petals.
• Traditional medicinal uses are varied.

Yield: No reliable information on this

Harvesting: Leaves - when young. Flowers - when present. 

Storage: Used fresh

Hollyhocks are tall plants that reseed easily, so plan well.

DESIGNING WITH THIS PLANT

USDA Hardiness Zone: 4

AHS Heat Zone: No reliable information available.

Chill Requirement: Likely as this is a flowering plant, but no reliable information available.

Plant Type: Short-lived Perennial Herbaceous Plant

Leaf Type: Deciduous

Forest Garden Use: Herbaceous Layer 

Cultivars/Varieties: Many varieties available.

Pollination: Self-Pollinating/Self-Fertile

Flowering: May-September... really depending on the USDA Zone where it is planted

Life Span:

Years to Flowering: 1-2 years (earlier if in warmer climates)

Years of Useful Life: 3-5 years, but as it reseeds so easily, it can be treated almost like a long lived perennial. I like to help out the self seeding process by scattering seeds where I want them and lightly covering with soil/mulch.

Honeybees really seem to like Hollyhocks.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS PLANT

Size: Up to 9 feet (2.7 meters) tall and almost as wide

Roots: Deep taproot

Growth Rate: If in mild temerature regions, the plant will stay green and small until the Spring when it shoots up tall seemingly overnight. In cold regions, where it acts as a biennial, it is a fast growing Spring flowering plant.

 

Hollyhocks' beauty is enough reason to plant them, but they have many other attributes.

GROWING CONDITIONS FOR THIS PLANT

Light: Full sun

Shade: Does not do well in any shade

Moisture: Medium, but can handle fairly dry soils

pH: can handle a wide range of soils

Special Considerations for Growing:

• Every year I grow Hollyhocks, the towering stalks of flowers seem to topple over, and these plants are not exposed to much wind. Fortunately, my Hollyhocks have been planted on a fence line. I just tie them back up with a few strands of twine, and they do just fine. Maybe I have a weak-stemmed variety, or maybe this is normal for the species. Consider growing this plant close to something that can support it if need be.
• Tolerates juglone (natural growth inhibitor produced by Black Walnut and its relatives). Consider planting Hollyhocks as a buffer between your walnuts and other plantings.

Propagation: Easily from seed. The flowers produce quite large seeds that easily germinate. Root cutting is possible, but I have not tried it.

Maintenance:

Minimal.  See "Special Considerations" above. Some varieties (and regions and planting location) are more susceptible to rust. Toward the end of the flowering season, my plants are routinely attacked. After seeding, I cut back the plants and add them to the compost bin. I've not had any issues otherwise.

Concerns:

Can reseed fairly easily, so can be seen as "invasive" or "spreading" by some. I'm all for it.

The stunning Black Hollyhock (Alcea rosea nigra).

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/medias/sys_tandm/8796388065310.jpg