Farm Fresh September 2020: Black History Matters, Kambucha, Raspberries

Farm Fresh News - August 2020

In this issue:

Black History Matters
Kambucha
Rasberries in the fall!

A slave cemetery, about 10 miles from The Farm.

Black History Matters

When The Farm Caravan of buses landed in Tennessee, the draw was inexpensive land, with a fantastic growing season and lush forests. There was some trepidation about moving to the South. The movie Easy Rider had left a lasting impression.

However, folks soon discovered the friendliness of the people in the south, otherwise known as southern hospitality. My wife and I were born and raised in Kentucky, so moving to Tennessee didn’t feel that different to us. Although we hippies were bit strange looking, especially with our long hair, the locals accepted us. Then again, for the most part, we were white.

The Farm is located on a high plateau above the vast fertile farmlands of the Nashville Basin. This area was the heartland of the Old South, and Antebellum Mansions of former plantations dot the landscape. These plantations were built and farmed by hundreds of slaves. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in a small town about 30 miles east of us.

Like the rest of the country, over the last many decades, race relations have improved, but Confederate flags are everywhere, along with Trump bumper stickers.

At the same time, we are the home state of Al Gore (who did not win Tennessee), Democratic Governors have regularly occupied the State House, and the larger cities often have Democratic mayors.

Rippavilla

Over the last couple of months, I have been involved in a new project, documenting the history of the African American/Black community of the county next door. I've been visiting and photographing many of the slave cemeteries that still exist. I've done interviews with a family who lost an uncle (he was 17 at the time) to the last social lynching there in the late 1930s. I've become immersed in learning what the Black community has been through and gaining a deeper understanding of why racism still lingers and has such a strong hold in our country today.

We all owe a debt to the Native Americans whose land we are on, and the African Americans whose ancestors built this nation, sacrificed their lives for its wealth, and still feel the oppression of a society stacked against them. One place we can all start is to learn more about our history.

“History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be relived.” Maya Angelou

“History will record the greatest tragedy of this period of social injustice not with the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” Martin Luther King jr

Will, was born 1802, died Jan. 26, 1862
The paternalistic attitude of slave owners was mainly expressed on servants in the "Big House."
They were more likely to be buried in a cemetery with a headstone. Giving him only a first name reflected the disregard of African American family ties.

Some places to start:

The African Americans 2013 Watch it on PBS, Amazon Prime, YouTube
This six-part series provides an in depth examination of the African-American experience across five centuries, from origins of slavery and the New World to the Jim Crow and Civil Rights Era, until present day affairs.

13th 2016 Watch it on Netflix
This feature length documentary explores the loophole in the 13th amendment ending slavery, except for the punishment of a crime, leading to the mass incarceration of African-Americans and the for-profit prison system.

peace,

Douglas

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More Life in the Garden - Raspberries!

These plants are 10 feet tall and loaded with berries.

We decided to grow raspberries again last year and started with about 16 plants which we purchased from a mail order nursery. They arrived in the spring as dead looking sticks about foot long, with a few hairy roots at one end. By the end of the summer, a few had died, but most had put out leaves and grown a few feet in length.

This variety of raspberry is capable of putting out two crops per year, one in June and the second in the fall. We did not prune these at the end of the season but left them to be the "floricanes," the ones that produce an early crop in their second year. Once they have born fruit, these vines die, turning dark brown and woody. So at the end of June, we cut these old canes and removed them from the patch, leaving the new first year growth or "primacanes."

The primacanes that came up from the roots of our planting last year virtually exploded from the ground. There were so many, we transplanted some into a second row. Those primacanes are now 10 feet or more tall, with huge heads filled with berries, and often there are several heads on one plant. The canes get so tall they require support with posts and wire trellising. The fruit on the heads is very heavy requiring support as well or they may break.

We had trouble in June and for a couple weeks in the fall with raccoons climbing into the patch and breaking canes with their weight as they went after the berries. We caught three in the have-a-heart trap, along with a possum, and have not noticed any more disturbance since relocating them about 5-7 miles away.

I am currently picking over a quart a day of raspberries! Our favorite way to consume them is with a bowl of chocolate "ice bean"!
Whatever we don't eat each day goes into the freezer for winter.

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Planting a community kale patch

To help my friends in the community have some healthy greens to eat this fall and winter, I am dedicating a portion of my garden to a community kale patch. I tilled the ground a couple times to kill off the weeds after the last crop in this area, and then we marked off rows with string. We put down some organic fertilizer and green sand, a soil amendment, and used a hoe to mix it in. Next some volunteers planted the seeds. I am in the back pulling out any leftover weeds, putting them in the bucket. As you can see we are all socially distanced and wearing masks. Note the bee hives in the back from 2 swarms I caught this summer.

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Time for Kambucha!

My wife Deborah started making Kombucha 20 some years ago, before it became such a big thing. It's one of those projects that requires regular attention and maintenance, so she stopped, but we recently drank some a friend had made, and it was so delicious, we had to get some going again!

Drinking Kombucha ties into the current greater awareness about the benefits of eating fermented foods, delivering lots of beneficial flora to your gut. Typically you brew 14 cups of black tea and then add some sugar and 2 cups of your starter inoculant (fermented tea from your last batch), along with something called a SCOBY (Symbiotic Bacteria and Yeast), the white stuff floating at the top.

After a few days, you transfer the fermented tea to smaller bottles with a tight lid. This is when you flavor your Kombucha. We like putting in chunks of fresh or candied ginger, but our favorite is to add about a tablespoon of fresh raspberries! After a few days, the sugar in the raspberries have fermented to produce a delightful fizzy drink.

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Peace,

Douglas

Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com