Dream Cabbages

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
  “To talk of many things:
 Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax— Of cabbages–and kings–     The Walrus and The Carpenter, by Lewis Carroll

Cabbage is delicious, nutritious, low-calorie, fat-free and likes to grow in cold weather. No where in America is its history as interesting as in the Matanuska Valley of Alaska. Cabbage research began there in the late 1800’s by George W. Palmer and continues today at the Palmer Center for Sustainable Living in Palmer, Alaska.

Palmer was a gold prospector turned entrepreneur after he realized there was a serious market for the high nutrition found in vegetables that could be added to a diet mostly of meat. Working with seeds from the Federal Government, he successfully cultivated cabbage, carrots, radishes, kale, rutabagas, lettuce, parsnips and turnips. Palmer was able to feed his family throughout the winter, sell the produce in his grocery store and share extra harvest of seeds with his Native neighbors who also lived in the valley.

Cabbage is high in vitamin C, Iron, potassium, calcium beta-carotene and ingredients that prevent cancer. Working with the Palmer Center for Sustainable Living, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) recommends the best cabbage varieties for cold climates. For more detailed information about high-nutrition crops visit the links below in Resources. What’s your favorite Brassica oleracea?  Share your comments here and on our new Facebook page. 

Brassica oleracea (Capitata group)

Glory of Enkuizen Golden Acre:    Heirloom, moose favorite; blue/green colors, small tight head, good for sauerkraut. Seeds became available in America in 1903.

January King:   Heirloom, Originating in Victorian England; Pinkish/purple, slightly savoyed, cold hardy; and has many hybrids developed from it.

Savoy Ace:   Excellent raw in salads, very tender with deep green leaves.

Resources:

FREE:  http://processmediainc.com/planting-for-health-shamanic-gardening-excerpt/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ShamanicGardeningBook

UAF: http://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/catalog/anr/HGA-00030.pdf

SEEDS: http://www.victoryseeds.com/cabbage.html

PALMER CENTER: http://www.uaf.edu/snras/afes/palmer-research-extension/

PALMER: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~coleen/gwp.html

Saving Bees

Three important goals for sustainable gardening are to have diversity, grow native plants and  include as many plants as possible to sustain your local wildlife. Let’s consider bees. The honey bee has received so much press lately; we share an almost archetypal image of Winnie the Pooh licking the honey pot. I do love my honey and only buy it from local vendors at the farmer’s market and have been concerned about the loss of huge colonies of honeybees.

Meanwhile there are native bees that in many commercial orchards are doing the job of pollinating very nicely. These wonderful beefolk NEED NATIVE FLOWERS, which we will address this week; but, today let’s just make a bamboo bee house. It is very easily made, the toughest step is cutting the 6”- 8” lengths of bamboo, while keeping intact the sealed off section just below each joint. This provides a cozy nest for the eggs and baby bees and the beemom has only one end to plug up to keep out other critters, rain, snow etc. Another important step is to gently sand the cut edge to remove all tiny splinters, which bee moms don’t like being poked with.

Install the bundled bee house in a southern facing tree branch; set it at a slight downward angle to protect against rain or snow and not more than four to five feet from the ground. I put this one in a wax myrtle tree. To offer some feng shui power to the project, I bundled nine bamboo canes because it is an auspicious number which I felt could offer a nice prayer of abundance for all the bees in the garden.

Here are some links you might enjoy written by bee researchers .  http://www.fnps.org/committees/fnps/pdfs/bee_research_show_benefit_of_native_plants.pdf

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/nest_factsheet1.pdf

www.insectpix.net

Fabulous Find – Solar Garden Lantern

Now that the light of the day is diminishing as we move toward the Winter Solstice on December 22, I wanted to share these beautiful, handcrafted solar lanterns from Allsop Home & Garden. (The photo was taken from their online store, Fab.) The lanterns are LED efficient and can fit perfectly in the sustainable, edible garden, the lanai, on the deck or patio and a sunny room in your home.

Roof Garden – Organic Edibles

Growing your food on the cement floor of a roof is evolving rapidly in the 21st century from the hanging gardens of Babylon.  Mediterranean garden designers of Morocco, Italy and Spain were known for their beautiful garden designs for the roof. These gardens were popular because the architecture included flat terraced patios.

Today, Universities across America are leading the way to installing roof gardens that make an economic impact by reducing the cost of energy to heat or cool their buildings. At the same time, they are providing research for water conservation, sustainable gardening and eco-friendly occupations.

City dwellers are finding that growing their foods in containers that utilize little soil and conserve water is a cost effective, easy and an efficient way to provide food for their families. These micro-gardens demand little space. Because there is very little soil and water involved. They are easy to move in or out of sun’s heat and protect from strong winds. With an outlay of very little cost it is easy to change out the plants to meet new diet demands or a change of season.

Here are two companies that sell garden grow boxes:

Atlantis Corp          Earth Box