Inoculants

I've been stalling on the purchase of an inoculant for our legumes the past week. For no particular reason, just not wanting to pay another round of shipping fees to Fedco or Johnny's, and wanting to get the story on the whole thing.

After talking to a nice man at Fedco Friday, I think we should get some, if only to maintain the pattern of dotting our ps and crossing our qs. But now I udnerstand more about what this inoculation is - just adding a bacterial boost to the root area of the peas and beans, which will help nitrogen uptake and/or download into the soil.

The word INOCULATE has been kind of perplexing to me since last year, when I learned of the MUSHROOM MAN of Sag Harbor selling inoculated logs. I always had associated processes of sterilization with "inoculation," due to my learning the work through vaccination-speak, which always had meant making you unable to get sick frmo certain things.

I mean, I understood/stand the process of vaccination, getting a little bit of the thing so you build up an immunity to it - but that's not how it's sold to people, really. I mean, if it were, wouldn't homeopathy be more popular? I think when we think of "getting your vaccinations," we think of it as a pharmaceutical barrier against smallpox, etc, rather than what it is - actually introducing ourselves voluntarily to smallpox.

This is all rather pedestrian. More recently, I've been thinking of how inoculated I tend to get by/to PEOPLE by way of the kinds of interactions/transactions I'm subsumed in while serving food to them. I have this immunity to them building up, which is sort of disturbing, but which is basically my involuntary response to so much exposure. I'M INOCULTED! perhaps better able to deal in the long run, but pretty mechanical and dull in the day to day workings...

promised pics of boodha

This was going to be the post:

This is what happens when you've got many brother and sister lawyers, the dogs have to get equal time on the blog, so, without further ado, Rachel's brother Bryan and still newlywedded wife Liz's dog boodha, (no need for pics of them i guess)

but whether its bitmaps or ben and jerrys computers, no picture of boodha is forthcoming at this moment. Hopefully Bryan's wrath is not too strong!

declaration?

I feel like it has been forever since I have posted and I have a lot to say but we shall see:

First, I don't mind you, rachel, talking about lenny bruce or boodha the dog or anything. It might be nice if we all thought of / or at least accepted the possibility, of people with lots of different interests, and even capacities. For instance, not to pick on you rachel, but you happen to grow nice plants, write interesting things, and watch alot of sopranos with vigor. . . . I could go on. So I don't mind you mentioning all that even if I have tended to stick to the farmy. Which is because of

Secondly, and interconnectedly with the firstly, I view the blog as pretty public, and in my mind haven't prioritized our posts over the comments; if you look back you (and this is the big you out there) will see i'm always hoping to launch this into the more interactive. Also of course open to blog settings that would allow that. Like perhaps your membership would include the ability to post (if comments are truly a bit more marginal than I imagine).

Thirdly, all the farmy news fit to print (with reserved rights of further presentation of non-related bits), in between ice-cream bites rachel planted alot of onions, what we are hoping with be 1200 onions, of which we have two varieties, red long of tropea, which we grew last year and really liked, and a yellow called copra which is recommended for this area and for storage. Rachel also bought a grow-light for the aforementioned onions, as they can have no greenhouse home for another week or so, which is fine considering the cost of heating that would be involved. One of the things that I did was order trays from Johnny's. But I've opened them and they are the wrong size: I like to have at least one continuing saga.

More exact info was given to us by Leigh O'Donnell, the owner and soapmaker of Adirondack Soaps about what the full shares and 1/2 shares will be. Check it out:

1/2 Share ($30) that would be 5 soaps and a lotion, the soaps are about 5 ounces each, bigger than the ones on my website. The lotion is 8 ounces.
Full Share ($60) that would be 10 soaps and 1 lotion and 2 lip balms.

We have also got the brochure together. Rather than post it, if you would like one comment with your mailing address or write to openheartfarm@yahoo.com, whichever.