Organic Gardening & Grandpa Garrett

I have slowly started a "kitchen garden" plot and yesterday, dug up a clump of dirt on the other side of the property next to the stream to see what the smell and texture was like.

I asked if I could "till the land" for a larger garden.  I was ruminating about organic onions, artichokes, and trying to think of something practical for this area and my mother thought of raspberries.  I had been mentioning berries, how they're grown well in this area, but there are larger competing farmers and then she said raspberries when I said, "I don't know, what do you think?"   It's a good idea actually and then, as I was talking about onions (a root veg in the ground) and raspberries, my Dad later mentioned my Grandpa Garrett had had a huge raspberry patch once.  I said, "What did he do with it?"  My Dad said, "Child slave labor.  We had to work out there every summer and when the raspberries were gone we were picking huckleberries in the woods."  We sort of laughed at that.  I guess he made a lot of jam and gave it as gifts.  I said, "Did he have anything besides raspberries?" and my Dad said, "Yeah, potatoes." 

I said, "That's kind of weird because now I'm thinking of raspberries and then I was talking about onions in the ground, sort of like potatoes, because I was thinking you just put them in and plow them up." 

I asked my Dad if they were organic or if he sprayed anything and he said no, he didn't spray them.  I said, "I would think they'd be organic, knowing him."  He even used organic toothpaste.

Anyway.

I had been thinking, maybe raspberries and then onions too.  One on top of the soil and one under.
I pretty much stuck to the idea of raspberries and then I like the idea of maybe artichokes.  And, I really want an avocado tree.  They're too big and it's too cold in Oregon, but you can keep one pruned that bears fruit in a greenhouse.

I personally love strawberries, but I was thinkking with strawberries, you have to bend over to pick them and raspberries are more upright, and for marketable purposes, raspberries cost more, partly, I guess, because they don't keep well being shipped as much, or it's harder.

I guess raspberries and raspberry jam then.  Actually, I like raspberries, but if I have to choose between strawberry and raspberry jam, I like strawberry preseves.  Maybe because raspberries have a lot of seeds.  I thought of artichokes, because they cost a little more, on market, and I really like them too.

Right now for my kitchen garden I only have black-seeded Simpson lettuce, and a tomato plant I need to plant, my basil, and I have some flowers in pots.  I started my basil in a Hershey's natural unsweetened cocoa box but I forgot to poke holes in the bottom so it's been a little water logged.  There are green leaves showing but I don't know if it's basil yet, or a small weed.  I almost bought oregano and think I'll go back for that.  I did get french marigolds for pest control.

I got marigolds for bug and slug control and then I was told to put up a fence to keep deer out and thought to find plants that repel them.  I had bachelor buttons come to mind and tall airy plants and flowers.  So I looked it up and I guess bachelor buttons are a deer repellant but the best ones are lavendar, sage, oregano, and herbs. 

I haven't done this before, but I put a very small pinch of salt in my garden after I broke up some of the ground and removed things.  Just a little less than a pinch.  I felt it might clean it somehow.  It was non-iodized salt and I read most farmers try to get rid of salt so I only put a tiny pinch.  I put a tiny pinch of salt and some coffee grounds. 

And I've started my compost bucket too (with a good lid).

This morning I made a big batch of steel cut oatmeal and I'm saving the water they're cooked in, for my bath.  I haven't bought a big bottle of shampoo and conditioner because I keep thinking I want to make my own (not to sell, just for me).  Shampoo and conditioner technology is so advanced, I think there is lots available but I like thinking of ideas of how to use different parts of things.

We split wood yesterday and every single time we split cherry wood, I think about medicinal uses of cherry bark and to look it up again because I once read there is some property that's used.  On that note, of medicine and things, my mother was getting rid of some kitchen things and knives and I took them all and there were a ton of knives.  One said surgical on it.  So I had my laptop with me and I had it cracked open, not fully shut.  I was laying down one knife at a time into my laptop to hold them and my Dad said, "What are you doing?" and I said, "I'm putting the knives in my laptop so I can carry them.  So I laid one and another, and one at a time, setting them inside and then I joked on the way out, "If there's a internal hidden camera in my laptop, that'll freak 'em out."  (joking of course).

I have already looked up the Department of Labor & Industry about farming.  The medical and legal fields are still growing while farming is taking a nosedive.  However, I think farming is important for this country, and that small farmers are very important and would feel good being involved in some small way, even if it's not most lucrative.  It wouldn't be my primary income.