Craig Schaaf

Over the years I have taken time to study and think very seriously about bartering. For those of us that live here in the United States, we have a form of currency that is referred to as fiat. That is a currency that is not backed by a precious metal like silver or gold. A fiat currency works just as long as the population is comfortable exchanging basically a piece of fancy paper in exchange for goods and services they create or perform. If we are confident that we can take that piece of paper from someone and go use it to get what we need then everyone is generally fine with the arrangement. You have to understand the history of what happens to these kinds of currencies though to appreciate what could happen in the future at some point.

There are many historical examples you can study to understand the basic principles that play out when people lose confidence. During a time when prices begins to inflate rapidly people will often give up on trying to keep up with it and look for what I call a “mental anchor”.  This is a coping mechanism that is very natural as people want to feel like they can gain control again of something that has totally gone out of control. In Germany after the war it was a carton, pack, and individual cigarettes. In Brazil I’m told in many areas it was a gallon of milk. A mental exercise you can do now, is take several important needs and compare them. Let’s say a gallon of raw milk from the local dairy farmer, a face cord of oak firewood and the average wage. Now before anyone gets bent out of shape on the figures I’m going to attach. I realize these things are quite varied depending on where you live. So here is my community. Milk $5.00 Gallon, Face cord of oak firewood $60.00, and average wage $15.00 hour. Now these are anchor points to relate to. So you could also say it another way Oak firewood is the same as 12 Gallons of milk, or four hours of labor. Now none of that can be set in stone. Milk may be so much in demand that people are willing to exchange for it differently. This is a place to start mentally.

The next most important concept you need to understand is how btu’s & calories come into play. When a crisis situation develops people become focused on important needs. If your belly needed food would you barter your precious resources or time for lettuce or potatoes? Potatoes because #1 they have calories that fill you up and #2 the main reason your body needs lettuce is the minerals. You can obtain those minerals very easily by eating wild greens and many garden “weeds”. Most of which have ten times the amount of minerals anyway. 😊 Understanding btu’s is important because not all energy sources are the same. Pine firewood has way less btu’s than oak. Black locust has more than oak. If you’re going to expend energy to gather firewood you will want to gather as many btu’s as possible. So I hope you’re starting to follow me. Try to develop skills that created btu’s or calories because this is what people will need when you decide you want to exchange with them for something you need.

The home that I dwell in, is in a forested part of our homestead. I really enjoy living in the forest. It is much cooler in the summer, and changes in so many ways throughout the seasons. Because I do a lot of foraging, I am able to step outside my door and pick a salad, especially in the spring. The forest in the spring is totally different, than it is during the summer. In the spring, there are many species of wild flowers, and other understory plants, that live their perennial life cycle for the most part, before the large deciduous trees are fully leafed out. This sequential transition, has always stuck out to me. The forest is very self sustaining, getting better with each season. No one goes there and fertilizes these plants, yet they are all healthy and strong. In fact most wild edibles are more mineral dense than the majority of the plants growing in your garden. No one is rotating their positions, no they grow in the same place, season after season, and no pest and diseases end up wiping them out.

I have thought much about this natural fertility cycle over the years. But this sequential transition from understory growth thriving, then going dormant as the larger trees begin to leaf out, has been of special interest. When those understory plants are photosynthesizing, they are feeding extra root exudates to the soil biology. As the understory plants begin to go dormant, and their leaves and extra roots are shed, the biology begins to consume them, and turn them into humus. As this is happening, the larger deciduous trees are beginning to leaf out, and start to feed the soil life with their root exudates. But the biology is making important minerals available to the trees, as they work on decomposing the understory plants shed parts. So this sequential cycle, is an important part of the fertility cycle of the forest.

My garden is certainly not a forest, I realize that. But is there a way that I could use a similar approach in the garden, to keep my fertility cycle humming steady, supplying what the biology needs and the plants? I think there is, and I have been happy with the results, I have been seeing in the garden.

I have my Quilt Garden laid out so that half of the squares will be cover crop each season. Half of those cover crop plots will be spring cover crop, the other half will be summer cover crop. I have it laid out so that it is in a checker board type pattern. All of my perennial and annual crop plots will be in very close proximity to both a spring and summer cover crop plot. In May I will sow all the spring cover crop plots. Come summer, I begin to crimp down and mulch over the spring plots, and sow seed in the summer plots. Just as the spring plots are starting to decompose, the summer plots are beginning to grow lush. This transition, is providing a great diversity of substances, to the soil food web that is symbiotically relating to the crops in my garden. Next year my annual crops will shift to those cover crop plots, and cover crops will shift to their locations.

I will do another post soon discussing some of the special things I do when I crimp and mulch my lush cover crops to feed what I refer to as my "soil livestock" (microbes).

Nynke Muller wrote:Dear Graig,
Thank you for your view on this. I am trying such things myself. I love the picture of your rock mulch. I am trying something like that with bricks, because we have no rocks around here.
Can you share something about the red glass jars in the last picture please?
They make me very curious. Maybe I urgendly need to do something similar...
Kind regards, Nynke

Yes I will do a post here soon sharing many of the ways I use my gallon glass jars for season extension. I will post it in this forum. Thank you for commenting.

Mycelial networks that flourish throughout a fertile garden, will transport what is needed from one place to another. They will transport minerals, other life forms, even communications. I likened it to being a microbial superhighway and fiber optic system. Each kind of plant relates to the system in unique ways. Certain microbes, will symbiotically relate, to only certain plants. Each kind of plant is mining a unique mineral makeup, and has root exudates, that are unique as well. This is why the more diverse your garden is the more resilient it is. There is more complexity available to share back and forth as needs arise.

Now I want you to look at my Quilt Garden pictures for a moment. I want you to pretend that each of those 6’x6’ squares, of different crops, are unique "nations" of different people groups. We understand that Japan, Ireland and Brazil are all very different. The people that live in those countries have been uniquely shaped by the land and the resources that are there. To the extent that a certain group of people can learn to utilize their particular resource base, in a productive way, is very important. Each country has certain needs they have to trade for, from regions that have that particular resource in abundance. We understand how this works, between countries and different people groups. Great systems of communication and transportation have been developed in order to facilitate this important trade.

Now as I design my garden, I am in a sense creating a whole world. In one teaspoon of well made compost, there can be six billion microbes. So from a microbial standpoint, that 6’x6’ area is enormous. But if I am savvy with the plants I use, and the different mulches and soil amendments I incorporate, I can create very unique “nations” that have a good resource base in which to be productive, and have enough of their “unique resource” so they can trade with other nearby “nations” that need what they have. And vise versa. Just as our world had to develop the proper communication and transportation networks to facilitate world wide trade, so must you in order for this to work in the “world” you are attempting to make. But if this mycelial network, that facilitates the trade and communication is vital to all of these “nations” being able to trade with one another, then it is critical that you understand how to feed that network, so it can thrive and be fully functional.

One of the favorite foods for the beneficial mushroom mycelia that our plants relate to is wood chips. But there is something you need to understand about wood chips. Depending on where they come from the tree, makes a huge difference on how successful you will be in your mycelial garden development plans. Chips that are made from the trunk wood, like the kind of wood we make furniture out of, will have a carbon: nitrogen (C:N) ratio of around 700:1. That is why we make furniture from it. Very strong carbon chains, that would require a huge amount of nitrogen to break them down. If you mix wood chips made from this wood into your soil, your plants will struggle for years. Those chips will always be stealing the extra nitrogen that will be present in order to decompose them.

The chips that you want, that are like prime rib to white rot fungus, are from the fine branches. The C:N ratio of a branch that is 2 3/4” and smaller is around 40:1. To those of you that are experienced with making compost, 40:1 is an ideal ratio to shoot for to get a good active pile. So what this means, is that when you make chips out of the smaller branches, you are basically spreading compost on your soil. It isn’t going to steal from your soil, but be giving tremendously. Deciduous tree branches are very mineral dense. The very best deciduous species to harvest are ones that have a lot of understory growth of other species. Maple, oak, cherry, beech are among my favorites for our area.  

Something you need to understand though, is that there is a prime time to harvest them. In the fall, when the trees have dropped their leaves, most of the minerals have been transferred from the leaves back to the branches. Stored there until the following spring, when new leaves begin to develop. You want to harvest these Ramial branches, (the name the researchers gave to these specific branches at the University of Laval, in Quebec), when the trees are dormant. During this period they are the best fungal food. If you harvest the branches when they still have green leaves on them, they will be predominately consumed by bacteria. Bacteria are super easy to produce. Mycelial networks are not. By using the branches when they are dormant, you give the mycelia an advantage to colonize them first. Especially if you apply them in the fall, and give the mushrooms a chance to work on them while the bacteria are more dormant during the winter. Mushrooms will stay active, at much lower temperatures than most bacteria.

When you make these chips though, you need to make sure you chip them as fine as you can. A chipper, shredder unit that has hammers, will usually do the best job. Reducing them down to about 1/4” and smaller. The size will be determined, by the size holes that the screen has at the shoot that the chips are forced through. The smaller the holes on that screen, the longer they will stay in the hammers, to be broken up into even smaller pieces that are able to exit the unit. The smaller size is critical, because you are increasing the surface area, that the fungus will have to work on, making their job much more efficient.

So there are two kinds of chips I use in my garden. Larger chips made from deciduous tree “tops”. These are not true Ramial, because the branches were much larger. I use these chips on my service pathways. I have 4’ wide paths that go throughout my garden, where I can bring my garden cart to facilitate bringing in and out heavy loads. These chips are just spread on the surface. The true Ramial chips, I will use as a soil amendment, and stir right into the soil surface, as I am getting ready to transplant something.

So I have my 4’ wide paths, that are hundreds of feet long, all inter connected, that are just filled with mycelia. I have had mushrooms fruit over the whole pathway system at the same time. All interconnected and working together. The 4’ paths are the interstate highways, to transport goods and services throughout my garden. If your garden is small, you could create a zone around your garden, like a border, that had a wood chip mulch covering it. That would help facilitate these mycelial networks.

Someone might say to me, “why don’t you just cover your whole garden in wood chips?” Because it won’t be diverse enough, for the kind of “world”, I want to develop. You will see a picture at the end of this article, that shows my sweet potato Quilt plot mulched with rocks. Wood chip mulch, tends to cool the soil, which can be beneficial for many things, but not sweet potatoes, growing in Michigan. I also use hay from my pastures to mulch certain plants that prefer bacterial dominant soil. Others I mulch with dark compost to increase the warming effect from the sun. Catering mulches to plant "nation" preferences.

There is so much more I want to share with you, that is going to have to wait. But I do want to plant one more thought in your brain, to chew on. If you were going to transplant a group of Japanese citizen to a new location, would you send them to Greenland, with seed to grow corn? Of course not. You would transplant them to a location where they can continue to use their knowledge base and the resources they are accustomed to, to survive. Artic cold and corn, is not the resource base they are accustom too. As you look at every species of plant you want to have in your garden, you have to learn all you can about their preferences, and the things that hinder them. Wild blueberries in Michigan grow in an ecosystem of oaks, pines, bracken fern, moss to name a few. A mixture of these items would make an excellent mulch for a blueberry "nation". Especially if it was inoculated with leaf mold from a wild blueberry patch.

One of the pictures below shows a very unique “nation” I created, with a tropical plant, here in Michigan. Sweet potatoes desire a 85 degree soil temperature. That is not Michigan! So I mulched the full 6’x6’ area with small rocks. I had a soil thermometer there to check the soil, and it was often over 90 degrees. I had a wonderful harvest, with some rather large potatoes that came from that experiment. I will definitely do it again.

If you would like to do some further study on Ramial Chipped Wood this is the best article I have found.
https://www.dirtdoctor.com/organic-research-page/Regenerating-Soils-with-Ramial-Chipped-Wood_vq4462.htm

Eino Kenttä wrote:Where my mother's from (the border between Sweden and Finland), they say that mare's tails are a sign that the wind will pick up in the next 12 hours... I guess a lot of these weather signs depend on where you are.

Yes they can depend on where you are, especially if you are in the mountains. I have seen the skies filled with mare's tails many times, when the mackerel line did not appear.  Of course they both need to happen at the right timing to make an accurate prediction. When the timing is right I have predicted within a few minutes several times. Thank you for sharing.

Years ago when I was in my twenty’s I use to take groups of fathers & sons on remote camping trips into northern Ontario.

One winter in preparation for future trips I went to the Michigan State Library and studied some of the old books in their collection.  

One book I found was written back in the 1940’s. This was of course before modern day weather forecasting as we know it. Back in the day people were more dependent on being able to read signs that were in the clouds.

In this book the author described one of the things he looks for to predict rain. He went on to tell if you see the sky full of “mairs tails” make a mental note of the time and 12 hours from then if the sky is filled with “mackerel lines” then you will know it’s going to rain 12 hours later. At the time I thought well that’s interesting.

That summer I had a group of campers and we were in our canoes fishing early in the morning around 6:00. I realized that the sky was literally filled with “mairs tails”. I remembered what I had read and I told my friend, that was helping me, what I had learned so we were on the lookout for “mackerel lines” at 6:00 pm.

Sure enough that evening the sky was full on these “mackerel lines”. I told my friend to just keep it to himself about what we had discussed.

That evening as everyone was crawling into their sleeping bags I announced that everyone would want to bring all their gear into their tents because it was going to start raining at 6:00 in the morning. Some laughed, most just ignored me.

Sure enough within a few minutes of 6:00 am the next morning the sky opened up and the campers were scrambling! This was a memorable moment. 😁

The younger campers were asking their fathers “how did he know that”. I laid in my tent with a huge smile on my face thinking “Wow they are going to hang on my every word now. In fact I may become a legend in the north woods”... Not!

I have used this several times to accurately predict rain over the years. The sky has to be full of them though, at the appropriate times.

I wanted to take a moment and share some thoughts with you about growing really high quality parsnips and carrots. Now not everyone is going to be able to mimic what I am doing here. Someone with a heavy clay soil is going to struggle to grow long root crops. That is one of the reasons I feel very fortunate to have this Michigan sand. I have learned over the years how to build its fertility quickly after taking the time to double dig and loosen the soil deeply.

Just before I get ready to seed I am going to use my broadfork that has 18” deep tines and loosen the soil. I’m doing this on bed space that was previously double dug down to 24”. I would never try to broadfork this deeply if the bed had not been previously double dug.

After my soil has been loosened I will spread my compost and whatever other amendments I feel I will need over the surface. Then I will take my hand and mix the amendments shallowly into the surface, if it is just a small planting. Now I will take my rake and make the surface smooth and flat. The rake is not digging down in moving lots of soil. Only shallowly making things more even. This is important because you want to keep whatever mineral amendments you spread where you placed them.

Then I add my pvc tine markers to my rake at the spacing I desire for seeding. The rake I am using has tines that are 1 1/2" apart.  For parsnips I will often space rows 6” apart. For carrots I commonly use 4.5”. When I put seed into these small trenches I will put quite a bit more than I need. I am always happy to come back and thin to the very strongest plants if the germination is good. If the germination is poor I may end up with enough plants. Seed is inexpensive. Especially the parsnip seed for me because I have so much from saving my own each season. What final spacing you choose in the rows will depend on soil fertility and the size roots you desire. You will have to play with it a bit to see what works best for you.

After I put my seed in the trenches I will take my fingers and lightly flick the sides of the trench and cover the seeds with a small amount of soil. After they are covered then I will take my hand and gently pat the whole soil surface and make sure it is flat again. This is important so that the seed has good contact with the soil for soaking up the necessary moisture. Having this surface flat is really important so you get very even water penetration over the whole area. If you have low and high spots the water will go to the low spots and the high spots will be dry.

I will water the surface with a gentle spray two to three times a day, depending on how hot it is outside. I want that surface to remain moist. When I water I also give it enough that the whole soil down to 18”-24” is going to remain moist. This is where that moisture meter you keep hearing me talk about it really important. This is something that each of you will have to learn on your specific soil. I am convinced that when these roots germinate they immediately send down their tap root as deep as it will quickly go. At this early stage it sets the quality for the rest of the process. If your tap root hits hard pan at 9”. You will have 9” carrots that will develop. We have had 24” carrots and parsnips that have gone as long as 41”. When your root crops can put on that kind of length your yields per square foot begin to explode.

Parsnips and carrots are notorious for being very slow to germinate. Often taking twenty some days to show themselves. Too many people give up and are not patient enough.

After the seeds have germinated I continue to water late morning and again in the evening. Remember I am in sand. If you have a heavy soil you may drown them with the amount of water I am applying. I keep such a moist atmosphere in my carrot patch that I have had leopard frogs take up residence. Until the crops are fully harvested I will keep up this watering unless it rains. People have said that carrots and parsnips this size are going to be tough and woody. They are not. In fact the chef that I grow for has used them several times at very important events during competitions because the quality is so high.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:I have that book too. I got a bit discouraged when my favas failed. Three times. Seems my place is only good for killing them. Had another biomass crop failure and I set the book aside for a while.

But this year I have a lot of winter cover crops growing, with sunhemp seed waiting for spring!

What grow zone are you growing in? I look forward to seeing your methods as the seasons change. Now, where did I shelve that book...

My grow zone varies greatly because of being eight miles from Lake Michigan. I have seen temps drop to -44 degrees when the lake has been frozen. We are listed somewhere between 5 and 6.  Last winter was probably more like a 7. I have just learned to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised if it is warmer.

In our area of the north country (Michigan) there are lakes scattered here and there that are a mystery to many fishermen. They know that there are big Bluegill present. But so many fishermen have failed to unlock their secrets.

What I’m about to share with you is not original to me. I know of a few other anglers that have pieced this puzzle together as well.  They may not be too happy that I’m sharing it with you, but my goal is to make you a better fishermen.

If you hear fishermen, especially ice fishermen, talking about these particular lakes one of the things they will mention is how the fish only bite for a short period in the evening. One thing many fishermen haven’t learned is that in the evening light doesn’t decrease as gradually under water as it does where we are. Because of the way light penetrates the water it actually is darker sooner.

This triggers something special in these lakes. The Midge pupae start their accent to the surface of the lake in order to hatch once this darkness sets in. Of course in the winter the pupae are hindered because of the ice. but at first ice, when the fishing can be some of the best, these midges can still be active.

Most fishermen don’t know what a Midge is. If they saw one they would probably mistake it for a mosquito. Midges can’t bite you and their wings are shorter than their abdomen. There are many thousands of species.

When these pupae reach the surface of the water, spring through fall, they have a mighty task ahead for them. They have to break the surface film and push or emerge their way onto the surface so they can fly away. During this time of emergence they are extremely vulnerable. This is why the big fish key in on such a small item. They are trapped for a moment, so the fish has to expend very little energy to collect them. They can hatch in such great numbers that whole schools of fish will just cruse just under the surface. Sometimes you will even see fins come through the surface. I call this "sharking". This often occurs over very deep water, like around 30 to 40 feet deep. Many times seeing 5 or 6 rise forms coming and going almost continuously.

You have to present your fly ahead of the group of fish so they come to it. If you just drop it on top of them this will spook the larger fish. They are expecting their food to come up, not down. This also keeps the flash of your line and leader away from the fish as well. We are often using leaders 12’ long or more. With tippets going as small as 1 pound line. This is finesse fishing! The nice thing is often your over deep enough water that with these light tippets you don’t have to worry about the fish tangling you up on something.

We make the fly pattern to match the color and size of the naturals. They can range from size #10 all the way down to #28. Most are in the #14 range.

Now you can take and substitute the word Trout wherever I said Bluegill and you have another very accurate article. Enjoy your time out on the water!

Timothy Norton wrote:You know, I never considered how small land masses dealt with overpopulation outside of "It just regulates itself". Of course it is part of a bigger network of nature.

I think I need to start paying attention to what the fish are naturally eating before selecting my bait...

Do you still fish? I'm just getting into the 'hobby' and hope to have stories to tell in the future like this.

Yes I do still fish. When I was in my twenties I was a professional fisherman. Now I see it more as one of the ways that I forage.

90% of the fish are in 10% of the lake. Generally what has attracted the fish to that 10% is food source. All effective fisherman will learn to understand the many food sources in a body of water, and when they become relevant during the season to the fish. I am highly analytical so I really enjoy the challenge. Keep at it. It is such a great way to spend time outdoors!