Winter Solstace

Karen removing the remains of the super producing Sun Gold Tomato

 The frost in mid December finished off the Squash, Tomatoes and Basil. Even the Tomato plants we hoped to over winter in the green house died. Now the good news is that we have plenty of greens, Kale, Collards, Mustard and Turnip tops, and the frost has made a huge difference to the flavor. The cold weather has enhanced the taste dramatically and I invite you to try some of these delicious greens. You might try steaming them or sauteing with garlic and/or onions and your favorite oil. The Lettuce came through the frost quite well, the reddish leaved Lettuce is named "Rouge D' Hiver".
There is also Onion leaves and Swiss Chard to harvest.

NEW POSTS ON THE CORNER

Terry drills a 2" hole in the 6' long Redwood log



We have been working on the entrance at the corner of Center Ave. and Flame Drive. The plan is to create two rustic gate posts with an arch to grow beans on.



Kent drives in a length of steel pipe. 20" into the log with 26" to go in the the concrete pier.



   We tried not to use concrete but the consensus was that it was necessary in this case.

Terry's tractor was doing the lifting. All this happened on December 10th 2011

A funny twist to the day was that we dug these holes more than six months ago and covered them with tree rounds. Upon removing the tree rounds we discovered that gophers had used the two empty below ground spaces as repositories for their tunneling activities. Read: the holes were filled in again.

                                      



The scene late in the day with the concrete poured and the posts braced





David attaching the recycled split rail redwood fence one week later.



Kiel tying off mulberry limbs

On New Year's Eve we began constructing the arch behind the posts. Thanks to Kiel, Jennifer and Mike, Ron and Donna for their help. Hopefully we will make it look attractive with runner beans growing on the structure next summer.

IN THREE WEEKS ...

We, the Martinez Permaculture Center,  have been invited to attend the local Golden Gate Chapter California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) Fruit Wood Scion Exchange, their biggest event of the year. They would like the California Rare Fruit Growers community, and the general fruit loving public, to become more acquainted with community food programs and food for justice activities.

More details here

http://www.crfg.org/chapters/golden_gate/scionex.htm

If someone would like to represent us at this event please let me know at davidmudgegardens@yahoo.com

We are also thinking of making this a car pooling Field Trip from CACG. Again if you are interested please let me know.

AT MPC

We lost Sadie our almost 3 year old hen in December. She had stopped laying and appeared under the weather for a couple of weeks. Her laying pattern was erratic with very thin shelled eggs that were most often broken. We feel it was her time. Thank you Sadie. Now we have 7 hens. Laying is naturally diminished in the winter and will step up with the increasing day length. We currently find 2 to 4 eggs per day, always in the nest box. Thank you Girls.
The bees are less active at this time of year. However our strongest hives (those with the greater number of bees) are sending out many foragers in the middle part of the day. The weaker hives need the bodies at home to keep the brood warm. This is a testing time for the weaker colonies. Those with low bee numbers and smaller supplies of honey may not survive the length of winter and the dearth of incoming food supply. We have one such hive that is marginal. We do not use chemical treatments and we try not to feed our bees. One course of action is to combine two colonies. I will take a look inside the hive one of these warmer days and report back.
Not much point in bragging about how much water we have harvested in our rainwater tank during this unusually dry season. But we are still committed to the concept!

Have a bright and joyful celebration of the New Year.