This one time, at ayahuasca camp, I was doing some of dat shaolin tumbling, gasping for air after a set, and I hear a THUD. Hey, look at that! It's an avocado! I hadn't noticed, I am under a large avocado tree, and there's fruit scattered throughout its canopy. I ask the retreat owner later, how long does the season last? "Oh, they seem to drop somewhat regularly year round." Regular avocados...for free?
Later, also at ayahuasca camp, we are digging some holes to plant 3 new trees. One is a palm looking tree that puts out weird fruit with scales that are at least 1/2 large
seed pit by volume, and you scrap the orange flesh off of the seed with your teethe. It's not all that tasty, but they tell me it's very nutricious. The other two were coconuts.
The new trees are a number of years old, many kilo root balls in big burlap sacks, so we were digging some sizable holes for them. The dirt is real soft and fluffy, but digging is still slow because we are repeatedly hitting and having do dig around hunks of wood and these flat rocks and then remove them by hand. They are like gently curved sheets that look smooth but feel rough, almost black in color, never more than an inch thick. I've never seen such a collection of rocks in dirt before.
Que son estas piedras?
Hay un tipo? I ask as I'm turning over one that would almost work as the top of a small end table.
No son piedras. Son
de ceramica.
It took about 10 minutes of broken conversation for me to get it, because my spanish wasn't great. The whole place as on a section of man-made soil.
La gente lo puesto alli!
Que quiere decir, fecundo? At least I knew the word, Hueso, when it was pointed out to me. Can't get them all...
I always liked growing things, though I had only toyed around with cannabis before, and my interest was piqued. Later that day, I found out, the soil is many centuries, in some cases an eon or more old. Put their by a civilization that otherwise isn't known to have left a trace. Then I was very interested.
Thus I was introduced to the concept of building soil. I am attracted to trying psychedelics that have a history as psychological medicine/shamanism, and because of this, I ended up digging in Terra Preta.
Drugs are bad, mmmKay?
I like making things, I
should try making some of that, some time...
It was very amusing, I could study some ancient creation that is in a way more valuable than all the megaliths on the globe. Like Indiana Jones, but with dirt instead of artifacts. Not as glamorous as golden idols and massive stone temples, but it will do. Not that I've given up on stumbling into another lost civilization...
I'd settle for digging up some of this dirt, and measuring all the pieces of stuff I found in it, because I majored in math and always fancied myself an experimental scientist, and had never really had the chance to be one in a way that was interesting.
Unfortunately I knew very little about soil, and my brief bit of reading before taking the measurement did not prime me to differentiate between charcoal and wood. I counted it all as wood/duff/organic matter. I remember some of the pieces were much heavier than others, there was definitely charcoal in the mix. In any case, all the 'wood products' were just about black.
I spent about 20 hours picking through 50 kg of dirt for this measurement. It was then dissolved in batches in 5 gallon buckets after I picked out and organized every component I could identify larger than a pebble. I'm sure there is significant variance in different Terra Preta sites in any case. This bit was off the Terra Preta charts with the bone.
5 years later, I am google searching "clay soil amendment" doing a bit more research before I actually started toying with the soil project that would happen in clay suitable for the likes of
dandelions and making ceramics. It didn't take too many google search returns before I was on the Permie website forums earlier this year. Over the next 6 months, I watched a few dozen hours of related videos.
Sepp Holtzer mountain farm...good god, that's how it's done. I've always been into those steep grades. Falling water junky.
World domination gardening, enlisted. I make these to pay bills in the meantime...http://www.tubewringer.com/ Silly little tool.
Currently seeing how much food I can coax out of my parent's mostly hardpan anaerobic clay hillside for now, for immediate nutrition and practice with soil. The corn hardly put out, but I got 52 lbs of butternut squash from 4 plants, planted in areas covered by english Ivy before I started messing with it! CHeers! The 3 delicata squash plants simply up and died soon after barely growing and putting out a flower or 2 : ( The Brassicas thrived, more cabbage and kale than an individualwants to eat. There's going to be quite a preserving project when the ice comes. Brad's Crunchy Kale ftw.
Any Oregonian stewards here know the Yinyang platform up Susan creek on the North Umpqua? I'm pretty sure my place is in the area! LOL.
So much great information on this website. Hope to add! Glad to be!