Seeds

Last weekend I went out to see my friends Sarah and Andrew. We met when I was an undergrad at Humboldt and now they are farmers. They just started leasing a new farm and have a name, a plan, and all kinds of exciting stories about how they learned to grow open pollinated heirloom vegetables. Here's their seed project website: seed ambassadors

They gave a talk about seed saving. My favorite part was when their two ducks happened to waddle around next to Andrew just in time for him to explain how hybridization works and why it isn't good for seed savers. The cats were lurking in the audience thinking about how unfortunate it was that the ducks were just slightly too large to eat.

After the talk we unrolled two layers of plastic to put over their new greenhouse. The greenhouse is about 12 feet wide and 80 feet long. We got the plastic up just in time before it started pouring buckets.

Another time I was helping with chores, Sarah and I were hacking away at some invasive himalaya berry roots with the rusted old machetes in a giant mud hole in an attempt to clear out some space for the new fence and start to sort out a drainage problem in the old barn. She said that just as she began to get discouraged about the amount of work it would take to get her farm functional she thought about how I just started a five year long PhD program. She felt better. We both benefit from this analogy.

I can't say I've ever really committed to something for five years, even something I was really sure of. I can honestly say that when I decided to come to Oregon for school, I knew about as much about what my life would be like as a farmer might know about the future of a plant from just looking at a tiny seed.

Thankfully, so far this has been a good growing season for Ph.D students.

Speaking of seeds, here's my best guess at how I made tasty granola for my housemates. It's suspiciously nut free because one of my housemates can't eat nuts. If I were going to add nuts, I would add almonds, walnuts, and sesame seeds.

Rolled Oats
Dry Quinoa
Flax seeds
Brown Rice Flour
Goji berries
Raisins
Vanilla
Honey
Salt
Earth Balance (un-butter)
Nutmeg
Cinnamon

Let it be known that granola is more like a slightly nutritious carby dessert than a meal. That said, I can't emphasize enough how much butter or earth balance all these dry grains really want to soak up. So, put liberal quantities of honey and earth balance in a measuring cup and heat them in the microwave. Then mix them into the quinoa and oats. As for the flax, it is not digestible whole. I threw it into a food processor with the rice flour and then put all of that in with the other stuff. Mix it all together and make sure it's moist enough that the grains are sticking together in some places. Add the vanilla, nutmeg, salt and cinnamon to taste. Go ahead and add more earth balance and honey. It takes more than you think. Carby dessert.

*Don't throw the poor raisins and goji berries into an oven! They are already humiliated grapes, in the words of my friend Jeff. Add them later.

Then, cook the granola spread thinly on sheet pans on about 300 until it's brown and crunchy. Take it out a little before you think it's done and let it coast for a while on the pans while it cools. It goes from perfect to overcooked quickly.