Amy Middleton Loves New York

I’m officially foregoing my attempts to study from the Ecovillage Design Education course. For today, my “organization of matter” focus will be on the 25th annual GrowTogether Conference I attended on Saturday with Ned and Ladd. I almost didn’t know about it–for all of its strengths, GreenThumb is not the best at publicity and communication. But I’m probably to blame for that one since I’m not a member of a GT garden; the place was PACKED with those who are. Excitement for the cause was palpable, due in no small part to:

• the first day of spring (cheers and applause)
• a National Geographic writeup featuring Bronx-based urban farmer Abu Talib and his chickens (screams and applause)
• an NYT article announcing Michelle Obama’s plans to grow a garden on the white house lawn (wild applause and yelling. It gets me all emotional)

Passionate city commissioners and council members addressed us with enthusiasm I’m not used to hearing in NYC. Leda Meredith was the keynote speaker, and she spoke well, though I remembered very little of it even minutes after. She said that “Victory Gardens” is an outdated name, suggesting instead “Gardens of Joyful Defiance.” It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, and I don’t see why “Victory” no longer applies, but whatever branding it takes to get people to want to garden, I’m in favor of.

The day was big, from 9am to 4pm. Long, but with enough time for Ned to get his hero Talib to autograph his NatGeo page. Somehow $5 for late registration covered breakfast, lunch, and two workshop sessions (cruelly, from the dozens of enticing workshops, we were only able to choose two). I attended:

• Improving Your Soil Quality
• Beekeeping Basics (boo-ya)

More on those in upcoming posts.

I am once again inspired by the goodness the city has to offer, overwhelmed at how difficult it is to access, and reminded that the changes needed to make urban communities more accessible start here.

Not long after I decided to learn line upon line everything there is to know about permaculture, I became somewhat disillusioned with permaculture. I am still very much in favor of the concept of simple, sustainable living. But so much of what I’ve read feels like hype, propaganda, and fads to me. Even the “hands on, practical” transfer of information often relies on traveling to a remote location where students pay upwards of $1K for a training course that seems unlikely to be practical for anything other than eventually certifying and teaching the same course to others. Permaculture Design Courses in many ways seem like a hippie’s answer to multi-level marketing.

I read two articles today about sustainable farms (the first one being a poorly executed summary of the second) suggesting that both organic and local farms are “unsustainable,” mainly because neither approach to agriculture is the perfect solution to the world’s food crisis. After detailing the increased costs involved in raising sustainable (grass fed) cattle, the author of the better article asks:

Does that matter? Most Americans could afford to spend more for their food—or could afford to eat less of the resource-intensive foods… But in many other parts of the world, spending more on food or cutting back on meat aren’t practical or ethical options; nor are investing in vertical farms, store-top produce, or many of the other more Earth-friendly but more capital-intensive farming technologies.

This statement brilliantly illustrates perhaps my biggest problem with the permaculture movement, this ridiculous notion that if a responsible choice, scaled globally, does not save the planet, it is actually part of the problem. Such logic brings us gems like “eating locally is bad for the environment” (because it does not inherently answer all the demands of sustainable food) and “livestock is more energy-efficient than grains” (because in hilly pockets of South America, goats are easier to raise than crops).

The very valid argument from the above paragraph–that there is much that Americans can be doing to increase sustainable practices–was presented and instantly negated with the idea that the same practices, applied to other regions with different problems, would not produce the same results. The insistence that we must “broaden our definitions of sustainable practices”– certainly not unique to these articles–serves to undermine the merits of local, working solutions.

Despite how we’d like to see ourselves, we aren’t actually part of a “uni-culture.” What we need are solutions that are relevant to our environment, our culture, and our problems. Innovations and practices that serve an overfed first world nation might NOT be the same as those that benefit impoverished developing countries. And why would then need to be? Being part of a “global solution” doesn’t mean that every positive step will be universally applicable to all of “globe.”

Of course, my concern with how permaculture is sometimes presented does not take into account the many, many benefits that come from individuals and communities working to put into practice and teach to others principles of responsible living. That such a movement exists is a blessing, and were I to reject permaculture because some people occasionally miss the mark, I’d be no better than those who reject the benefits of organic farming on the grounds that it does not allow for judicious application of herbicides.

So where do we go from here? I think for my part, I need to resume my effort to learn about permaculture, with appropriate attention being given to practical and relevant solutions to my specific situation. Yes, I’m a bit reluctant to try to learn how to turn city living into a permaculture success story when everything in me is screaming “get thee to the country.” But, without extinguishing my bigger dreams and pursuits thereof, I’m going to do as my grandma says and bloom where I’m planted. Which, for now, happens to be on the third floor of a Harlem walkup where five varieties of fruits and vegetables fight for window sill sun.

I haven’t conclusively decided what day 6 is going to be about…I don’t imagine blogging a lot about beasts of the land (who knows…)

For today, I’m going to focus on the community aspect of “creature after his kind”: The
Blue Jay Lake Farm. This place looks amazing.

When our dreams were young, we imagined that we would like to become self-sufficient. We would live and work on a farm, and learn how to use the land to supply our needs. Now our dreams have matured, and although we love farming, we no longer have the desire to be self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency is too isolating, and far too much work! Now, we’d like to be community dependent. We’d like to live in community with others, sharing in the work and pleasures of the farm, and be linked into the greater community of Cortes Island.

I’m not sure that it’s in the near future for me, but I love the idea.

Vermiculture
For two months I’d been looking forward to a vermiculture class taught at the Lower East Side Ecology Center:

Learn how to set up and maintain a worm bin in your apartment. Worm condos and worms will be available for purchase for a discounted price.

I’ve been saving my scraps in anticipation. I had arranged to receive a worm condo as a Christmas present, and I was looking forward to attending the class and blogging about my new worm composting knowledge.

Sadly, I was in Belize the day of the workshop. I’m now left with the option of signing up for a new class, or waiting to see if I’ll be moving soon enough to make purchasing a plastic worm container a poor choice. In the mean time, here are many vermiculture articles written by a woman who is clearly knowledgeable in the ways of raising worms.

Learning about solar energy stresses me out a little bit. Here’s why:

• I have no concept of science, kilowatt hours, panel conductors… it all seems so high-tech and beyond my comprehension levels.
• I spend about $30 a month on utilities. I don’t know how much energy I use, only how much I spend. So when I hear things like, “this system is only $6,000, and will save your family $15,000 in energy costs…” it means nothing to me. And $6,000 sounds like a lot.
• I am very reliant on the precision of heating utilities. I trust that when I turn the knob to 375, the temperature inside the oven is 375 degrees. If I can’t create an adequate “warm” temperature in the shower–if there’s no hot water or if it’s too hot–I get cranky. For as efficient a heater as the sun surely is, I don’t like the idea of putting dinner in a reflective cardboard box and hoping there’s enough sunlight to warm it up.

Those are my obstacles, but I do want to overcome them. Honest. I’ve been looking around today at different solar powered systems and products. I don’t even know where to start for this one. But Build It Solar is my favorite resource so far for different projects and ideas.

The last 24 hours haven’t gone the way I would have expected, and while a blog seems like an appropriate forum to explain the day’s events, I’m not going to. Instead, I will tell you a tiny bit about seedling research I did.

The first two leaves a plant produces are not its true leaves. You need to wait until its true leaves appear, and its root system is relatively solid, before replanting.

Growing seeds indoors requires a grow-light. While this isn’t exactly new information, based on the cost and size of the lighting options I found, I am not ready to invest in one right now.

Also, on the subject of vegetation, I discovered worm eggs in my lemon tree soil last night. I dug around today and found many more. I don’t know whether this type of worm is helpful or harmful to my dying attack lemon tree, but I weeded them out anyway.

More about seed starting

I have a lot to learn about water conservation and usage, from in-home recycling systems to swales and keyline planting. Today I chose to study aquaponics which combines aquaculture with hydroponics. The term seems to have different meanings to different communities, but essentially it’s a system that uses the nutrient-rich waste material from fish to feed plants, which in turn act as filters for the fish pond. You can grow leafy plants such as spinach or lettuce relatively easily.

In my grandest visions and schemes for sustainable living, I haven’t yet designated any “aquarium” space- mostly because I don’t eat fish, so it would seem more ornamental than functional. The aquaponic systems that I saw pictures of are rather inspiring, and it seems like a great way to be recycling water. Whether it ends up being an immediate requirement, a long term goal, or just an impressive option that I don’t ever end up implementing, it’s still nice to know about.

Here are a few websites for actual information and examples:
Aquaponics
Backyard Aquaponics
small home-systems

Let’s be honest. I’m not much of a blogger. But every so often I need a place to organize/ publish what I’m working on. Like right now…

I’ve been obsessively researching permaculture as of late and have come to the conclusion that the best way to organize all these links and ideas and web-based rat holes is to look to the bible…. I’m dividing it up into six creative periods. And on the seventh day I rest.

Day One involves the organization of matter. In this case it’s kind of a macro/ holistic look at permaculture and urban landscaping design. The following four Mondays will outline what I’ve learned from the Ecovillage Design Education course I’m studying. Today will just be the overview (I realize it looks like I just copied random sentences but this is really my own-word summary of what I read. Deal.)

Outlines global environmental problems and the need for changes and education.
EDE seeks to educate and facilitate the transition to comprehensive sustainable culture. UVP is the ecovillages- prototypical community models in a standardized template. Curriculum is holographic- distributed through and reconstituted from any of its parts; “the purpose of the whole can be ascertained from any partial participation or exposure.”

Today’s addition to the sustainable living dream: one hive of bees. Pros: honey. Cons: bee stings. Hmm. On the subject of honey, I realize I never posted my pic of my 12 lb jar. Behold its majesty:

I am fascinated by cob homes. The aesthetic, the sustainability, the construction and participation processes are immensely appealing. For the past several months I’ve had a dream of moving to the Pacific Northwest and building a cob house, and I’ve been trying to figure out what I will use as energy sources, water and septic systems, etc. I had been trying to find a good composting toilet solution and all the options I came across started at at least $1000 and weren’t overly compelling.

A few weeks ago I participated in helping a man named John Fox build his cob home, and this furthered my interest in green building. On John’s property there was obviously no real toilet (”the worst thing you can do with a clean bowl of water,” he advised us, “is to go to the bathroom in it. Our current oil crisis does not compare to our future water crisis.”) What he had instead was a 5 gallon bucket with a conventional toilet seat and lid on top. Next to this he had a pile of sawdust, which was used to cover up additions to the bucket and keep it from smelling. The bucket was eventually added to his active compost pile, which after 2 years would be usable for any composting purposes.

Last week I was visiting my family in California and we were wandering past Home Depot’s new “energy-efficient” products. I saw this display for green toilets that use up to 5,000 fewer gallons of water every year (which begs the question, how much DO they use?). Off to the side, for only $4.97, was probably the most efficient and water-saving solution of them all.