Here is my attempt to recycle and circulate my 20 years of experience with organic agriculture, family farming and permaculture.  The longer I am blessed with the opportunity to dance with the elements to the incredible soundtrack of Mother Nature I am compelled to share my insights, excitement and the wisdom I am so fortunate to be able to pass along.  I see myself as an interpreter for a language that is dangerously close to being lost.  This being the language of the land, sky and the non-human beings who not only inhabit the Earth, but those that literally ARE the Earth.  There was a time when every child over the age 7 could tell you the name of every plant in their environment, and explain their beneficial uses.  They could also identify animal tracks, bird calls, scat and so much more of the story of life that has come before, what goes on without our knowing and what will come.  We are becoming illiterate at the most critical language to our survival.  Time to go back to school!

Reading the Book of Nature

All around us are clues to how the universe functions, patterns to emulate, roadsigns towards the path of least resistance.  I for one am not into doing things the hard way and this blog is my attempt to help others avoid mistakes and thoughtless protracted labor.  I am a farmer and this is very much a side project (one of many).  But, with that said, this is why I got into all of this in the first place…to play with child-like wonder at the edge of a cliff of fantastic beauty, mystery and intrigue….the marvel of creation….what could be cooler?  Let us slip into the abyss…drink of the fountain of youth…and taste the forbidden fruit.  The Earth and the unseen world of elemental beings are begging for us to participate in nature…gardening is a start that leads us into a greater awareness of our place in nature.  Our job is simple:

Pay Attention!

It’s been raining for days here, which is fairly normal for a temperate rainforest in March and there is water everywhere.  The ground squishes and oozes with every step.  Without rubber boots, my feet would be very wet and cold, a notion which instills in me tremendous respect for my ancestors who learned how to go barefoot out of necessity, because wet moccasins suck and are hard to make and wear out quickly when abused.  I’ve lived on the land here at Seven Seeds Farm for 15 years, a chunk of time, but really only a blip in the scope of really learning to read the landscape and be a person of place.  Every winter there is an area in the core of our homestead that is always wet, with water seeping out and flowing over the surface whenever a significant rain occurs and finally it hit me the other day after spreading yet more wood chips on paths to try and raise the footpath above the muck that I was fighting a losing battle.  Lesson: you can’t fight gravity and entropy!  I am beginning to be humble enough to really pay attention.  Now I am in observation of this area trying to determine a more appropriate solution…and oh yeah, I have my ideas that range from re-route the path to resculpt the slope with the tractor to create a seasonal waterway to allow the water to drain to the whimsical notion of a cute little arched bridge with Asian styling.  For now I am content to simply continue paying attention.  This is a good thing to do, as I sometimes notice that we learn more by not doing, rather I am and watching, listening, feeling…

So I hope that you find something of value within the imaginary confines

of this site and that just maybe you’re mind’s eye will slip through the space

between the electrons and into my world, the one I share with countless other beings,

seen and unseen, and share in my joy and delight in the fantastic journey of living as a participant in nature.  I will try and post helpful tips and techniques I have learned for growing food, fiber, medicine, fodder and fuel and more.  If you live in the area this is also a site where you can find information about attending the periodic classes that we offer here on the land.  Please see the menu heading, “Classes” above for a current calender.

May peace and prosperity flourish in your life and in your soul!

Blessed Be,

Don Tipping

Time is short people…the integrity of the fabric of creation is being compromised in ways that have severe consequences.  Yet, while most of us are in agreement that something must be done, very few of have a clue as for what to do.

This is unsettling.

I for one have strong feelings about a number of alarming occurrences happening now from the poisoning of the oceans with crude oil, to deforestation of both tropical and temperate rainforests, cultural genocide, Transgenic manipulation of our food supply, consolidation of the seed industry by multinational chemical companies, climate destabilization and the looming spectre of peak oil.  The list goes on and is certainly frightening enough to drive most sane, feeling people into their shells like so many turtles subsumed by a delirium of  ignorant bliss.  Arrested by apathy as the biosphere suffers.  Well, like it or not, we too are woven into the tapestry of creation here…as our home planet suffers, so do we.

What to do?

Sit and wait for someone to lead the charge of revolution?

I for one feel like I see plenty of leaders standing tall and acting and speaking encouragingly and I am thrilled to co-create the emerging ecotopian culture that will be what remains as the corporate greed culture fails.  I don’t see  much sense in patching holes in the ruptured hull of the Titanic as it sinks.  I’d much rather recycle the materials at hand into more lifeboats so that we can retain some sense of dignity as Babylon crumbles around us.

I propose a peaceful revolution of growing food!

And while we’re at it let us  delight  in the splendor of nature in Edens made manifest from the love and thoughtfulness of our intentions.  Interacting with plants and animals in nature heals us in a way that mends the tears in the fabric of our subconscious biology.  We are in many ways the dream of the plant world put into motion…we are what has sprouted from the seed of oxygen…

let us ponder photosynthesis if you will.

Solar energy from an unfathomably powerfully pulsing thermonuclear reaction 93 million miles away travels 8 minutes to reach leaves outstretched to take in this light food and transform it into cells. The primary fuel for this miracle is carbon dioxide, the lubricant is minerals from the soil and water, and the waste product is Oxygen.  This is nothing short of a miracle!  So when we breath, every cell in our body is being nourished with oxygen that has filtered through the cell of a plant somewhere, mixing with its own unique biochemical signature, swishing with alkaloids, essential oils, phenols and phytonutrients to help our blood and that of all other animals, run red.  Consider this when you take your next breath.  Can you identify the plants responsible for the air you are breathing, without which you would be dead in a matter of minutes.  If you can’t actually see any plants, perhaps a change of scenery is in order!

Recently I was blessed with a poignant reminder of the miracle of air while visiting family in southern California.  A few days in the horrendous smog of the valley had left me feeling congested and one of my boys had a cough, the other a sore throat…so we escaped to the coastal oasis of Crystal Cove State Park near Laguna Beach.  We climbed up a rough trail through coastal scrub to be rewarded with sweeping vistas of the sapphire blue Pacific and hills undulating beneath a cloak of sage, sumac and ceanothus.  I was taking it all in while my 4 and 8 year old boys marveled at the crystaline structures in rocks newly unearthed by heavy rains, taste buds still buzzing from some freshly peeled and eaten fruits of wildcrafted prickly pear cactus; when I was over come with the scent of sagebrush during some deep inhalations and I was flooded with an incredible awareness of the interconnectedness of the plant and animal kingdoms through gas exchange that shook the very pillars of my being.  Although difficult to describe in words as I try and massage them out on this keyboard, I felt as though I was gifted with a complete and instantaneous transmission, a desert download if you will, from those desert plants as to the importance of maintaining a gracious awareness of our inter-relationship through the simple and mostly unconscious act of breathing.

To expand on the saying, “you are what you eat”, in reference to breathing, consider, that “plants are what we exhale”.  Put a little something extra into when you breath out, and go ahead and exhale a little deeper, you really don’t need that CO2 anyways, and try and spin prayers into our own contribution of CO2 going back into the mix as the plant world could certainly use whatever magic that we can muster in these challenging times.  I’m visualizing this potentized exhaust compelling the plant world to bless us all with some extra special oxygen power to inspire us all to behave as though we are indeed another cell in the amazing organism of Gaia!

 

The Chaos We Choose to Love!

Yesterday I was working on juggling chaos and order…decanting 55 gallon vats of fermenting cucumbers and tomatoes to extract their seeds, pouring off the fleshy slop to reveal the beauty of accumulated seeds that settle to the bottom. I’ll paint a visual image if it helps…55 gallons of fruity and cheesy smelling cucumber brew pours into a countoured swale to avoid erosion as ducks quack and dibble ankle deep (do ducks have ankles?) in the muck happily foraging for immature seeds, rollicking soul-jazz pours forth from the barns’ stereo in time with the rhythmic whacking of Amy’s machette as she chops open basketball sized Green Hubbard winter squash, scooping out their seeds into buckets for water processing, the sun’s going down and the late November frost is settling, particularily noticeable on wet hands, and wait, low and behold, at the bottom of one of the seed barrels I am pouring out, LEGO guys emerge from the ooze along with about a dozen rocks…alchemical additions to the cauldron from my 4 year old son, Jasper.
As darkness settles in the flood lights illuminate the work area as the projects near completion (a laughable prospect on a farm, as the next projects eagerly jockey for position to be next in line), buckets of wet tomato, pepper and cucumber seed await being spread onto drying racks, a sticky paste of potentiality that will dry into seed “cookies” that must be crumbled and rubbed through screens to render them plantable in any practical fashion. And then there’s the reality of my limited drying rack space and lack of sunlight for drying sufficiently in the greenhouse….the next project shuffles to the front of the agenda…build a seed drying rack system next to the barn wood stove and get a fire built, fan positioned and screens in place. Ahhhh…momentary completion…it’s 8:45 pm, 27 degrees out and another day on the seed farm comes to a close, as I walk home breathing in the incredible array of starlight streaming into my eyes from millions of light years away as ducks quack awaiting food and shelter from predators and sheep shuffle into the barn for hay and I amble home for wine, cheese and olives! Living the good life, never a dull moment!

This is a letter shared with me recently about a novel organism to science…a MICRO-FUNGUS that results in greatly increased miscarriages in animals that consume GMO corn and soy. Be informed and please don’t eat this crap and then act..we must stop the planting and growing of these GMO monsters.
Don Tipping / Siskiyou Seeds

Dear Secretary Vilsack:

A team of senior plant and animal scientists have recently brought to my attention the discovery of an electron microscopic pathogen that appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals, and probably human beings. Based on a review of the data, it is widespread, very serious, and is in much higher concentrations in Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans and corn—suggesting a link with the RR gene or more likely the presence of Roundup. This organism appears NEW to science!

This is highly sensitive information that could result in a collapse of US soy and corn export markets and significant disruption of domestic food and feed supplies. On the other hand, this new organism may already be responsible for significant harm (see below). My colleagues and I are therefore moving our investigation forward with speed and discretion, and seek assistance from the USDA and other entities to identify the pathogen’s source, prevalence, implications, and remedies.

We are informing the USDA of our findings at this early stage, specifically due to your pending decision regarding approval of RR alfalfa. Naturally, if either the RR gene or Roundup itself is a promoter or co-factor of this pathogen, then such approval could be a calamity. Based on the current evidence, the only reasonable action at this time would be to delay deregulation at least until sufficient data has exonerated the RR system, if it does.

For the past 40 years, I have been a scientist in the professional and military agencies that evaluate and prepare for natural and manmade biological threats, including germ warfare and disease outbreaks. Based on this experience, I believe the threat we are facing from this pathogen is unique and of a high risk status. In layman’s terms, it should be treated as an emergency.

A diverse set of researchers working on this problem have contributed various pieces of the puzzle, which together presents the following disturbing scenario:

Unique Physical Properties

This previously unknown organism is only visible under an electron microscope (36,000X), with an approximate size range equal to a medium size virus. It is able to reproduce and appears to be a micro-fungal-like organism. If so, it would be the first such micro-fungus ever identified. There is strong evidence that this infectious agent promotes diseases of both plants and mammals, which is very rare.

Pathogen Location and Concentration

It is found in high concentrations in Roundup Ready soybean meal and corn, distillers meal, fermentation feed products, pig stomach contents, and pig and cattle placentas.

Linked with Outbreaks of Plant Disease

The organism is prolific in plants infected with two pervasive diseases that are driving down yields and farmer income—sudden death syndrome (SDS) in soy, and Goss’ wilt in corn. The pathogen is also found in the fungal causative agent of SDS (Fusarium solani fsp glycines).

Implicated in Animal Reproductive Failure

Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of this organism in a wide variety of livestock that have experienced spontaneous abortions and infertility. Preliminary results from ongoing research have also been able to reproduce abortions in a clinical setting.

The pathogen may explain the escalating frequency of infertility and spontaneous abortions over the past few years in US cattle, dairy, swine, and horse operations. These include recent reports of infertility rates in dairy heifers of over 20%, and spontaneous abortions in cattle as high as 45%.

For example, 450 of 1,000 pregnant heifers fed wheatlege experienced spontaneous abortions. Over the same period, another 1,000 heifers from the same herd that were raised on hay had no abortions. High concentrations of the pathogen were confirmed on the wheatlege, which likely had been under weed management using glyphosate.

Recommendations

In summary, because of the high titer of this new animal pathogen in Roundup Ready crops, and its association with plant and animal diseases that are reaching epidemic proportions, we request USDA’s participation in a multi-agency investigation, and an immediate moratorium on the deregulation of RR crops until the causal/predisposing relationship with glyphosate and/or RR plants can be ruled out as a threat to crop and animal production and human health.

It is urgent to examine whether the side-effects of glyphosate use may have facilitated the growth of this pathogen, or allowed it to cause greater harm to weakened plant and animal hosts. It is well-documented that glyphosate promotes soil pathogens and is already implicated with the increase of more than 40 plant diseases; it dismantles plant defenses by chelating vital nutrients; and it reduces the bioavailability of nutrients in feed, which in turn can cause animal disorders. To properly evaluate these factors, we request access to the relevant USDA data.

I have studied plant pathogens for more than 50 years. We are now seeing an unprecedented trend of increasing plant and animal diseases and disorders. This pathogen may be instrumental to understanding and solving this problem. It deserves immediate attention with significant resources to avoid a general collapse of our critical agricultural infrastructure.

Sincerely,

COL (Ret.) Don M. Huber
Emeritus Professor, Purdue University
APS Coordinator, USDA National Plant Disease Recovery System (NPDRS)

SQUASH, SUMMER – “Costata Romanesca” Curcibita pepo (55 days) – Delicious Italian heirloom with pale green fruits with distinct ribs. Although it yields lower than hybrid varieties, its flavor is far superior, creamy, nutty and with great texture. Exceptionally large blossoms lend themselves to frying well.

SQUASH, SUMMER – “Dark Star” Zucchini Curcibita pepo (50 days) – A new open pollinated zucchini developed by Eel River, California organic grower, Bill Reynolds that has been bred as an OP market gardener workhorse alternative to hybrids. Spineless stalks prevent damage to fruits while harvesting. Long harvest window is a good trait for farmer and gardener alike. Remarkably vigorous.

SQUASH, SUMMER – “Yellow Crookneck” Curcibita pepo (50 days) – A tried and true variety with exceptional productivity of tender, smooth yellow fruits with an intriguing twist. Bush habit helps to save space in the garden. The flavor of this variety is rich and creamy, delightful steamed and mashed with butter!

Greetings!

As I write this the nights are long, days crisp and short…a great time to reflect on the previous season and fantasize about spring and new potential. The cycles of the Earth bless us with infinite potential for hope, digesting the incredible complexity of seed, soil, sun and water…It all seems so simple, yet we can’t MAKE seeds grow, we must trust that we have done our best preparing the soil, planting at the right time, fending off those who would like to eat our tender seedlings and that the weather will be gentle. Yet somehow, amidst incredible odds, tiny seeds sprout, push through the soil, grow and fruit, blessing us with their efforts. Miraculous, to say the least. Our successes clearly eclipse our failures! Participating in the miracle of growth and creation is what keeps us coming back for more…. to dance with Mother Earth…to honor the elements…. to acknowledge the power of climate, to taste fresh fruits from the vine, sprinkled with dew, birdsong ringing in the trees, splintered sunlight bathing us in warmth, soft soil between our toes and to share the bounty with friends and family!

Here in SW Oregon we had a sobering deluge of rain from March through mid June that challenged pollination in many seed crops, as honeybees don’t like getting their wings wet. However we were blessed with the latest fall frost in the past 15 years (November 16th!), allowing the hot weather crops to mature nicely. As a result we have over 40 new varieties to share with you. Our commitment to building a sustainable seed movement has resulted in new growers joining our established grower network. We welcome Katie and Casey Kula from Oakhill Organics, Taylor and Sarah Starr from White Oak Farm, and Ben Yohai from Wandering Fields. Please look over our list of seed growers and notice the grower code that you will find with most varieties. It requires skillful, dedicated farmers to produce successful seed crops and we feel very fortunate to be working with these exceptional people.

Thank you for supporting this critical
work. We are grateful to you for the
gift you bring of planting seeds and
helping to grow the Earth grow green.
May your gardens flourish beyond
your wildest expectations!