Garden of Eatin'

Mimi vs The Beet

We've been hard at work on our garden, and we're starting to reap the benefits!  There are still a few plots that need to be weeded and seeded, but for the most part, it's planted and producing.  We've got artichokes galore and were even forced to harvest the remainder of our beets from the winter garden - they were so massive they were practically jumping out of the soil!  (Not to mention they were about to seed.)

At the moment and most of our radishes and lettuces are up and ready.  Last night we made an awesome salad with wild arugula, fennel, lettuce, dandelion greens and radishes.  Nothing quite like fresh picked veggies. 

Our Artichokes

David has definitely been the ring leader when it comes to the garden.  He's one of those highly organized types ...  who creates a garden log, maps the garden layout, keeps track of dates, stays up late at night reading about adding bananas and eggshells to tomato plants ... and then experiments with it!  (This is after he made another batch of his killer homemade yogurt.)  I like to call him Super David.  We'd be no where near where we are in the garden if it weren't for him.  He's well on his way to Garden Guru status.

Chamomile

One thing we're particularly proud of this year is that we have started everything from seed!  Yes, even the tomatoes.  Aggressive ... but that's how we roll. 

Some of the other items in our garden:  kale, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, strawberries, lemon cucumbers, blueberries, swiss and rainbow chard, chives, green onions, red onions, potatoes, corn, sweet peas, broccoli, peppers, cherries, apples, eggplant, pepperoncinis, carrots, pears, quince, garlic, basil, oregano, dill yada yada yada the list goes on.  I'm sure I've forgotten at least a few.  (Forgive me David.)  And for those who like medicinal herbs ... we have tulsi, ashwaganda, echinecea, elecampane, burdock, skullcap, chamomile, calendula. valerian, comfrey, feverfew, peppermint and lemon balm!  And of course there's dandelion and yellow dock growing wild (among a million others)... I'm pretty much in heaven.

Our Happy (not so) Little Garden

Stay tuned for more updates on the progress of our garden, the new permaculture practices we're learning about from Eric (who's Eric?! You'll find out shortly ...), our new 3 part composting bin (being built as I blog), and whether or not eggshells and bananas really do make better tomatoes.

Adventures in Beekeeping

Fresh Honeycomb

One of the first activities I participated in as an intern was harvesting honey from the beehive.  There's a hive onsite that was previously managed by the interns of 2010; though, they left 2 seasons ago, so the hive has been untouched for quite a while.  It was time to take a peek and see how the bees were fairing and what kind of honey they produced.

Brandon, David and I were joined by Kirin, a former intern and expert beekeeper, who showed us how to open, handle and clean a hive. To my surprise, we found very few bees inside.  They had all left the hive and what remained was 6 months worth of honey-filled honeycomb.  We harvested the honey and were able to gather almost 10 pounds of it.  Delish!

Cleaning the Hive

We also noticed that some of the honey was unusable; turns out, an "invader" entered the hive and contaminated it, forcing the bees to vacate.  In order to prepare the hive for a new bunch of bees, we had to sterilize it.  To do this, we pulled out all of the individual slots, cleaned them (scrapped 'em and harvested what we could - making sure of course to leave some honey for the bees). We then used a blow torch along the edges of the slots and hive to kill any remaining bacteria or bugs. (This was after I harvested some of the amazing propolis they produced.) Once this was complete, we just had to wait to find a new swarm.  If only it was that easy ...

Bee Swarm

Lucky, it was!  During break from a solar training class, Vaughn happened to see a swarm of bees on a branch of a tree.  He acted fast - as you must in this situation.  When you see a swarm of bees like that, it means they are are homeless and currently looking for a home.  You can turn your back for just a few minutes and find the swarm gone!  So, Vaughn and a few others quickly gathered a box and a scissors.  They carefully placed the box beneith the swarm, clipping the branch and gently lowering the swarm inside.  The box was then transported back to SLI and the new swarm was introduced to the clean hive.  We crossed our fingers hoping they would take. 

Smoking The Bees (keeps them docile)

And take they did.  Just the other day, Brandon grabbed the smoker and David donned the beekeeping gear, and they dared to open the hive to see what was going on.  Everything looked great - here are some pics of their adventure and you can also check out the a video of them opening the hive.

Brandon & David Gearing Up

Bee-utiful!

It Begins.

It's been about 6 weeks now since the Solar Living Institute intern program started.  There are 4 interns living and working on site, with one more joining us next week.  (Running tally of where we're from?  California-4, Maine-1). Our hope in creating this blog is to bring greater insight into the daily life of our community, what a Solar Intern actually does, share some of the cool things we're learning here, and basically document our 6 month adventure in Hopland, CA.

We hope you enjoy the ride.
- Solar Living Institute Interns of 2011

The Men of SLI (from left: David, Vaughn, Brandon)

(Below: Kathryn ... Cassie's pic coming soon!)