Cider Press Prototype

The Cider Press prototype is done -- we took it up to Mother Earth Fair this weekend. Many, many hours of work went into making this all-steel version, with electric grinder. There are still some refinements ahead but we are very close to a share-able, sell-able version.

The grinder represents a breakthrough in design; modeled after industrial versions but scaled way down --

Bob and Paul worked on it all last week. We are excited & exhausted!

Production Team

We have a whole awesome production team now: Bob, Paul, Jared, Ryan, and Rhody.

They make the broadforks and soon the cider press. & then a chicken plucker? grain mill? anti-gravity engine? watch this space.

Portland for Easter Weekend

We visited Portland last week to deliver broadforks to Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply and take a break, and got a preview of summer with warm, sunny weather all weekend. Naomi's bustles with activity, plants, and baby chicks.

We were thrilled to meet Binga (pictured) and Oona the goats, who help out in the store and go home with Naomi at night.

We brought more forks for the energetic gardeners of Portland. 

We bought Eric Toensmeier’s new book Paradise Lot, a delightful introduction to permaculture  through the down-to-earth story of building a diverse garden ecosystem in the backyard of his shared house in Holyoke, Mass. (It got a great review in the NY Times, with a cute slideshow of Eric and his gardening partner, their families, and the amazing garden they built.)

I totally dug staying at the Kennedy School. Especially the art.

 

Portage Bay Grange

We were happy and excited to get a call from Kevin at Portage Bay Grange offering to be our retail partner in Seattle. Now you can buy a Meadow Creature broadfork in the U District, just north of the University Bridge. It also gave me a great excuse to visit Portage Bay Grange.

PBG specializes in feed and supplies for urban farm animals, and they have a beautiful array of books and tools aimed at urban farmers, along with some nice soaps, home items, and treats. This would be a fun place to visit just to check out the possibilities or buy a gift for someone who is doing urban gardening. 

The rabbit was feeling shy that day, but the chicks were chipper. From the signage in the chick room, it looks like they get a lot of visitors in to meet the baby chicks. A good winter-day outing for anyone and especially for kids.

Olympia Artesian Well

When I first moved to Olympia in 1981, there were several artesian wells in town, and learning about them helped me tune into the local environment. 

The Olympia brewery in Tumwater was running an advertising campaign that ascribed the beer’s quality to “the artesians,” portrayed as helpful gnomes or devas.

One artesian well was in front of the old Mark & Pak grocery store; it was paved over when the store was remodeled for BayView. The drinking fountain at the corner of 4th and Washington was artesian, and may be still. The Spar advertised its pure artesian drinking water. 

But the pipe that jutted from the asphalt in the middle of the parking lot near 4th and Jefferson was the best one to catch drinking water. With several gallon or five-gallon jugs, you could get a day’s supply for a communal household in a few minutes.

The access in the parking lot was contested for years; water advocates wanted to see the whole site made into a park, while the owners had no interest in parting with a valuable piece of real estate. Urged on by advocates, the city eventually came to a deal with the parking lot owners and acquired a portion of the lot for the Olympia Artesian Well. 

  

This beautiful mosaic art was added recently. The water flows at 10 gallons a minute, and it’s free. When I stopped by to take pictures on a brilliant, cold January day, the dude filling his jar saw me with my camera and asked, “Have you TASTED it?”  

It’s delicious. 

The Problem Is The Solution

 Permaculture could be described as a design philosophy that mimics nature in using the inter-relationships of many parts to create whole systems. A way of creating harmony and balance in the relationship between human beings and our environment. Perhaps a way of designing our way out of the Peak Everything crisis we  designed our way into.

These notes from Toby Hemenway’s permaculture class, sponsored by Seattle Tilth, serve as aphorisms and practices that could be applied to gardening, to art-making, to teaching, and to many other disciplines.

While the Problems Remain Complex, the Solutions are Remarkably Simple. 

We are creating models of creative regenerative systems…

Whatever the problem is, life has run into it before…

         Add organic matter!

 

  

We make sacred the things that nourish us.

Local Food - Chimacum

On our cider tour two weeks ago we were amazed & delighted by the local food culture center that has sprung up at the crossroads of Chimacum, Washington.

The first thing we found was the Farm's Reach Cafe -- diner style food made with local ingredients: beautiful soup, salad, sandwiches, and pastries. I don't think the chocolate was a local product, but most of the menu is.

The next day we found the Chimacum Corner Farmstand, which is full of lovely local stuff, and enough from beyond the immediate area to make dinner (pasta, wine, dessert). We wanted to try everything and bought a bunch of multi-color carrots in white, orange, and purple. 

The burgeoning local food movement shows the creative, determined, and optimistic ways that people -- especially young people -- are responding to our food-energy-climate crisis. Growing your own and eating local provide fresh and nourishing food. And support the local economy. And take money away from the industrial food system. And establish bonds between people and their land. And reduce the amount of toxins used on our food -- assuming that a lot of this gardening and farming is organic or no-spray. And help people learn about food, science, nature, botany, biochemistry, nutrition, and cooking. And encourage creativity in the kitchen! and create beauty in the landscape. Done right, with permaculture techniques, growing food can sequester carbon in the soil, addressing the problem of global warming.

And of course Broadforks are really helpful if you want to grow food without plowing or tilling.