Mongolian Permaculture: Day 26 - Food Culture and Solar Ovens

SHOWING OFF COMPLETED SOLAR OVEN DESIGN

Ankle is swollen to the size of a tennis ball.

Two more treatments of salty tea compress and I am able to hobble around by afternoon on a walking stick Moko cut up for me from an orange painted ger pole.

Spent the morning simmering tomato chutney in the outdoor kitchen for Kat’s Food Culture class; creating value-added products such as chutneys, pickles and preserves that can be processed over winter can create higher proit margins, and extend the co-operatives productivity into the cold winter months.

1kg of cucmbers = 500MNT.
1kg of pickled cucumbers = 1500MNT.

There is 2-3 times more labour involved, and the additional cost of bottling materials, but the long winter season is currently an unproductive time, and proximity to local markets could also give them an edge against inferior goods imported from UB and beyond.

Chimgee plays her Mongolian hip-hop mixed in with Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce while we cook, and we have become friends through our conversations in very basic, very broken Mongolian-English-and-Mime… she has been tending to my wound as if she was my little sister. I am surprised to find out that she is 23 years old, as I had picked her for 16 or maybe 17.

Tsurren, one of the women I spent an afternoon digging irrigation trenches with, gives my ankle a very painful massage and laughs with the others at my howls of anguish.

In fact, the entire kitchen staff and co-operative workers and I are becoming friends through our very basic, very broken Mongolian-English-and-Mime – I love this, making friends across language, cultural and distance barriers…

The Solar Oven Construction group-workshop after lunch is a hit, with 4-and-a-half working ovens being made [vs. the planned 2] from waste cardboard, reflective foil bought in Tosontsengel, waste plastic, rocks, a woolen blanket, and even a washbasin we picked up. This is could be a highly appropriate and replicable technology for the area, given the scarcity of fuelwood and long daylight hours [in summer].

Some boys show up at the gates of the hasha again this afternoon with a fresh catch, and Rick is able to haggle them down to 8500MNT, about $8AUS for 18 pan-sized Mongolian trout…delicious.

Tetch and I buterfly fillet the lot of them, lightly salt and dust with flour, and fry to a crsip in the wok-pan for a late dinner. There is enough for Bek,The Program Director, Rick and I to eat our fill, and feed the remaining kitchen staff.

I can almost feel my ankle healing minute-by-minute as I sit here typing the daily log listening to my iTunes. There is an almost-full moon out tonight, wispy clouds glowing in the Mongolian night sky casting a dark outline of the surrounding hills. The dogs of Tosontsengel are quiet(er) tonight, and the buddhist temples on the hill glow with a pale white light.

Students are buzzing with activity, are showing no signs of slowing down, and the clock is ticking over to 11:30pm. Tomorrow they will present their final designs for the task Rick has set.

Mongolia’s first-ever Permaculture Design Course will soon draw to a close.

Tasmania: Day 5 - In Search of Sushi

Theme Songs of the Day:

1. “Fire Coming Down the Mountain”, by The Gorillaz, live in Harlem with Dennis Hoper
   
2. “El Manana”, by The Gorrilaz

TAWNY FROGMOUTH AT NIGHT

Who’s bright idea was it to go spotlighting on the back of the ute for wildlife at midnight on a 3 dog night [as in degrees Centigrade!]?!?

…oh yeah, I was the Ideas-Man last night… the wildlife around these parts is very intelligent; smart enough to stay in on a cold night, anyways… we only spot three wallabies, nothing like the abundant wildlife scattering from our headlights experienced on the way in.

The morning is balmy compared to the windchill of midnight on he truck bed with the midnight wind screaming in my hair, spotlight turned up to the tree canopy searching for glimpse of the elusive, rare, and very rare species of Drop-Bear and Hoop-Snake that are rumoured to be active in these parts.

I spend it with a steaming cup of tea in one hand, and a slimy tennis ball in the other, exploring the luxury campgrounds again while Maximus leaps and bounds alongside me like an oversized, muscular Mexican Jumping Bean [another rare species fumored to be active in these parts].

Today’s mission is to head back into Ulverstone in search of sushi supplies. Aoba’s arrival has sparked my culinary imagination, and I’ve offered to gather the necessary ingredients to make okonomyaki, a delicious sort of Japanese savory pancake made with shredded cabbage, batter, minced beef or pork, Japanese mayonaise, bonito flakes, and a special okonomyaki sauce that is like a mild teriyaki.

Ulverstone by daylight has quite a different character; it is Sunday so the main street is empty and the church’s parking lot is full. We find a morning latte at Smiley’s café, where we meet none other than Mr. Smiley himself, who amuses himself by attempting to welcome us with his best Caadian accent. “Hau wood yoo like yore coafeeee then, ay, young laydeeee?” he drawls, then laughs heartily at his own joke. Aussies love Canadians…

The supermarket doesn’t carry the Japanese batter mix and other special ingredients for us to make okonomyaki – I forget that we are in rural Tasmania. We are surprised to learn that nobody in town sells fresh fish, and so head down the road to Penguin in search of good sushi.

The road to Penguin follows an old railway track along coast, just a few feet from the rocky beaches, and as the sun glints and sparkles off the blue water I feel like I am driving through the opening scene in a roadtrip movie. The town of Penguin is nestled into a small nook in the coast and has the feel of a lazy coastal holiday town. There are winged tuxedos everywhere on the main street, cute and kitschy, all grinning and winking, and one in particular is very happy to see The Canadian.

There is no fresh fish to be found here either, so we press on to the port of Burnie, which is said to have a deep water harbor to rival Devonport and Hobart. This is a logging, woodchipping, and papermill town, and the first thing to be spotted as we round the corner and approach the town are three massive piles of woodchip sitting on the docks, each at least 5 stories high.

Peter tells us later that he has seen miles and miles of woodchip piles twice as large sitting idle deep in the forests around his property. The effects of the Global Finanical Crisis [known in Oz as "GFC" - sounds like a really bad fast food restaurant chain...] are felt even in the wilderness of Tasmania, just waiting for a stray spark to send them up like piles of gunpowder in a Loony Toons cartoon gone tragically wrong.

The stark contrast of the pristeen wilderness we have come down from, to the huge industrial machines and belching smokestacks that are in and around this town is disconcerting. It sparks an inner dialogue questioning how economic and environmental sustainability can ever reconcile each other when we live in a system that places financial profitability and growth above all else.

The road back is full of questions, and as I enjoy fresh sushi with new friends this night, I am thankful for being with good people surrounded by wilderness.

Suddenly, it has become much easier to see why Peter made the decision to come build a self-sufficient life for his family, “luxury camping” in the bush.

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BUSH TUCKER: SUSHI!


MAXIMUS DECIMUS MERIDIUS




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Green Worms

WORM POOP ANYONE?

When I first met Glen Martinez at the IHS Rooftop Aquaponics Garden meeting on Friday, I liked him immediately.  He was wearing a funny paper-boy/golfer's cap, offering me chocolate-caramel cookies, and he was constantly being "reigned in" by the meeting's moderator each time he launched into a passionate description of an aspect of their green roof project, his blue eyes twinkling brightly.  

My brother James and I have had Glen's name come up in several unrelated, seemingly random conversations over the last few months, so meeting him so unexpectedly was a pleasantly karmic surprise.

James is an architecture student at UH-Manoa, with a passion for urban garden and permaculture initiatives.  He is finishing his studies soon, and is planning to conduct his thesis on "resource positive" buildings - buildings which go beyond producing their own energy.  The grin that creeps on his face as he pulls up (fashionably late, in true Lynch-style) says it all: "I'm home."

Now that we've spent 4 hours touring Olomana Gardens, in Glen's words: "an informal, old-style, Hawaiian, tropical garden that is a model for modern, sustainable agriculture", I like him even more. 

Most tourists pass right through Waimanalo in the blink of an eye on their way to Bellows Beach camping Grounds, Makapu'u Beach, or Sea Life Park, and never guess that they are passing through Hawaiian Homestead and agricultural lands.

Glen is only the 4th landowner of record; the parcel under his stewardship is a kuleana lot that has been passed along directly from the Hawaiian Royal Throne.  The property is nestled in the back of Waimanalo Valley, so close to the foot of the Ko'olau mountain range that the sun was disappearing behind the towering peaks as I drove up at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

Fed by the Waikupanaha spring, the valley used to be filled with breadfruit, mountain apples, kukuinut and coconut trees, sweet potato, sugar cane, and taro patches with banks covered in ti and wauke plants.  Today, the valley is home to Native Hawaiian Homesteaders, military folk living off-base, a handful of small family farm and nursery operations, and the only horse polo field on the Winward Side of the island.  

Olomana Gardens is "a production and demonstration, organic market garden including organic, biointensively-produced vegetables, and selected fruits, herbs and ornamental plants; exotic chickens, geese, turkeys and ducks, naturally-raised eggs (no antibiotics, no hormones)" [from their website].  

Papaya and calamungai trees (makes the best chicken soup ever - just ask any Filipino!), ti leaf, sweet potatoes, taro, lettuce, a variety of herbs, we even spotted a cacao (chocolate) tree....all of it doesn't grow in the topsoil, instead they are happily and healthily growing in worm castings (aka worm poop).  This is created by thousands of composting worms which munch their way through organic greenwaste and animal manures to produce a natural, nutrient-rich fertilizer that looks like topsoil, tastes like topsoil....but ain't topsoil!  

Despite the recent heavy rains, the "soil" the plants grew in was still quite loamy, soft, and easy to break apart.  Glen keeps diving into patches of dirt with both hands to eagerly give us a sniff and feel of the stuff - it smells like sweet mother earth, with notes of rain and a hint of fresh mountain air, the stuff that life is made of. 

We walk into the horse stables and were invited to sniff the air - guess what?  No smell!  The worms were doing their thing in here too, breaking down the horse's wastes into loamy-sweet plant food.  Same thing in the chicken pens, and where the ducks roost.  Amazing...I'm starting to really like these little wriggly guys.

...and boy does Glen love his worms - the Indian Blue Worms and Alabama Jumpers get all the credit for munching through all that poop, though there are countless other millipedes, bugs, and other critters that help them break down all that waste material.  He shows us one of his "secret weapons" hiding in a bucket behind his converted classic 70s-model diesel Mercedes [which he is currently running on turky fryer oil - runs great except the a/c don't work]...the 6 - 12 inch Brazillian Bulldozer, a elusive, non-composting beast of a worm that nobody has figured out how to breed effectively in captivity.  These monsters can till their way through hard-packed adobe clay and riddle it so full of wormholes that it looks and feels like an adobe clay version of volcanic pumice.

Glen is most excited about the aquaponics system being installed.  A recent blackout caused filters to failand wiped out over 2,500 fish at a neighbor's fishfarm...they had to use a tractor to bury them all....and with fertilizer costs steadily increasing, using aquaponics to minimize costs and maximize efficiency takes Olomama Gardens a step closer to creating a completelly self-sustaining ecosystem on the farm.  

In an aquaponics system, the fish eat the worms and black soldier fly larvae that are munching through the green and organic waste created by the farm, and then poop in the water.  The water is recirculated through cinder growbeds, where the plants grow very quickly by drawing the rich nutrients (fish poop) out of the water, thereby filtering the water so that it can be recirculated back to the fish as clean, healthy water for them to eat and poop in.  

The Aussies are the world leaders in developing these systems, and so Glen is heading off this week to visit Brisbane, Australia; spending thousands of dollars to attend "aquaponics bootcamp" with the world's foremost expert on the matter, Dr James Rakocy.

We meet some of the interns who live and work on the farm, in exchange for the learning opporunity - there is a landscaping contractor, a master's student, and a full-time dolphin instructor hanging out and drinking hot tea under the tents of the communal kitchen....an ecclectic, and very intelligent group of people.

As introductions are made and short bios given, it dawns on me that this sustainability thing is no longer the realm of leftover hippies and crazed tree-hugging environmentalists.  There are some very smart, forward-thinking, highly conscious, outward-focussed individuals that are really embracing this philosophy....and the striking genius of it all lies in its simplicity.  Fish poops, dirties its water.  Plant eats the poop, cleans the water.  And the cycle starts again.  Simple.  Beautiful.

At what point did we in the western world decide that life had to be so complicated, so layered in its intricacies?  Did we inadvertently seduce ourselves into complacency through our indulgence in the creature comforts of progress?  Farmers throughout the world have been farming the same plots of land for thousands of years, and in two generations the western world has poisoned and leeched many of our farmlands in the mindless pursuit of profit.

Thankfully, ventures such as Olomana Gardens show us that we are poised on the brink of a new level of collective consciousness.  The pain that lies ahead for so many of us as we weather the global downturn that shall be upon us for the next few years will no doubt prove to the masses that unconscious capitalism simply does not work.  Conscious capitalism, in which a "triple bottom line" of profitability encompasses social, environmental, and economic sustainability will be the way for businesses and organizations to innovate and prosper.  Imagine a big business where the more money it makes, the more our environment and societies benefit - does such an animal even exist?

My brother James and I are so impressed with Glen's passion and knowledge, and with the tranquil setting of Waimanalo Valley, that we stay and chat with this man until well after dark.  We have long been interested in creating a sustainable development of our own and used to sit out on our patio in Kailua, the next neighborhood over, and dream about what ours would look like: kalo (taro) patches, organic vegies and herbs, courtyards in the main house, a horse stable for our old roomate, yurt or hale [pronounced hah-lei] structures where healing arts could be practised, a workshed to build stuff with our Dad, high-performance technology center for communications with global projects ... the list goes on....  Think feudal-era-rural-Japanese-farming-compund-meets-James-Bond-villan-lair and you get the general idea.

When we learn that there will be a vacany opening up at Olomana Gardens soon, we catch each other's eyes across the tent and reach an unspoken agreement: "We'll be moving in soon."

WAIKUPANAHA STREAM

HAPPY KOI

KALO PATCH

ABOUT OLOMANA GARDENS:  Olomana Gardens is dedicated to serving the local community as an informal, old-style, Hawaiian, tropical garden that is a model for modern, sustainable agriculture.  Organic fruits and vegetables, composting and tiller worms, worm compost, organic plants, and organic pallet gardens are available for purchase.  Agriculture workshops and tours are a regular feature.  Learn more at:http://www.olomanagardens.com.