Have you ever sown seed, say for a
lawn (heavens forbid*), pasture or cover crop by tossing seed onto the ground only to have birds and rodents eat them up, or a drying trend cut into your germination rate? Would you like to learn how to get a crop started, even a food crop, without needing to do extensive, soil-damaging tillage?
There is a way. It’s called “seed pelletizing.” This is an ancient method that was revived in the last half of the 20th Century by the revolutionary Japanese natural farmer and early Permaculturist Masanobu
Fukuoka (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka).
Here’s the concept: You take your seeds (they can be a single variety or a mixture of seeds) and mix them with clay,
compost and soil to make a dough-like conglomerate. Then push the dough through a screen to form pellets that encase and protect the seed. The pellets, since they have a high clay content, also absorb and hold moisture well. When conditions inside the pellet are right, the seeds can sprout and get some initial nourishment from the pellet until the
roots reach the ground and the plants take off.
We’re going to be making a bunch of mixed seed pellets at the Pine Meadow Farm Center in preparation for renovating one of our goat pasture paddocks. Seems like a great opportunity to share the learning
experience with other interested growers, whether backyard-variety growers or small-scale farmers.
Why not come out and join us, learn a new skill, enjoy our beautiful farm, meet the goats and go home inspired? The
workshop will be
led by our Farm Manager, Chrys Ostrander, a Certified
Permaculture Designer.
Cost: $15 per person (children 15 and under, accompanied by an adult, are $5). No one is turned away for lack of funds. We take cash, checks made out to Pine Meadow Farm Center, VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.
Please contact us soon to let us know you will be coming.
Phone: 509-448-3066, 509-217-2687 (cell)
Email:
zone1@pinemeadowfarm.org
Time: Saturday, April 6th from 1pm to 4pm.
Join us for a potluck lunch at noon if you want. Bring food to share and table settings for you and/or your group.
Place: The Pine Meadow Farm Center
10425 S. Andrus Rd.
Cheney, WA 99004
See our website, pinemeadowfarm.org, for directions to the farm by car, bike and bus.
You can see a map to the farm here:
http://pinemeadowfarm.org/civicrm/event/info?id=10&reset=1
* We favor growing food over growing lawns. See:
http://www.foodnotlawns.com/