November 2015 – Barb's True Stories

A Short History of Progress wass written by Ronald Wright in 2004. The book comprises the 2004 Massey Lectures. You can listen to the series on-line as well. While the the book was published over a decade ago, the messages within could have published this morning for they apply, perhaps even more so, today. The lessons Wright draws from history are very relevant as the Paris climate summit begins this week.

The book isn’t about climate change per se. The author is a “historical philosopher” shows how our modern predicaments are as old as civilizations. He traces our species from our beginnings to the present. We read about the successes and failures of civilizations throughout our history. He asks and analyzes why many (most?) civilizations in the past became extinct and he draws a picture of where we are today and the need to pay heed to the past in our actions today and in the future.

One phrase he uses more than once is “every time history repeats itself, the price goes up”. As you read you wonder why mankind continues to act in certain ways, much of which would make you want to belong to kinder species. In asking why we continue to do some things, Wright uses computers as an analogy. He says if man were a computer then we would be hardware running on software that hasn’t had an upgrade in 25,000 years. Wright notes if you don’t believe that, just listen to the news.

It’s not possible to make light of Wright’s take on things. For the ordinary citizen we can urge leaders to make a difference (as we hope the world leaders in Paris will do this week) and we can take action in ways to make the world a better place.

To use the analogy that mankind is akin to computer technology. I would hope that despite mankind’s ancient hardware we can find a workaround that keeps us from repeating history and helps sustain our future. What are your thoughts?

Yesterday there were marches all over the globe in support of the Paris climate summit. Here are some pictures of the 100% Possible march in Ottawa. And a few more:

Protest sign using recycled Green Party sign. Fitting. — Protest sign using recycled Green Party sign. Seems apt.

Ben & Jerry's ice cream getting involved — Ben & Jerry’s ice cream getting involved

Community/allotment gardening year five:

I have certainly thought about blogging about gardening during the past season but that’s as far as it got. Thinking about it. Don Marquis, an American poet and journalist said “procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday” . And while it didn’t happen yesterday, here’s the story of our experience with a brand new crop this year. Sweet potatoes.

Our growing/hardiness zone is 4B in Ottawa, ON. We had talked about growing sweet potatoes in previous years before but had concluded we weren’t in the right zone. That changed when we learned that a local organic seed distributor sold sweet potato slips. They aren’t available until June here. You plant them only after the risk of frost had passed.

We had intended on buying enough slips to fill an entire 20 foot row but when I learned about the steps you have to take after harvest, I bought enough for a half row as a first try. Here’s the dirt on growing sweet potatoes this past season:

Tilled and mounded a 10 foot row. Laid a wide strip of black plastic over the row (sweet potatoes like warm soil) and secured it at the edges .
Make a slit in the plastic every 2 feet and plant a slip.
Freshly planted sweet potato slips
That’s it till harvest. How easy is that! Water and sunshine throughout the growing season and the vines grew and spread until you could no longer see the plastic. We were all very interested to see what, if any harvest would await us when the time came.
The vines begin to spread
Harvesting must occur after the first frost when the vines turn black. Here’s where we started to wonder if sweet potatoes were all that darling or if they were just plain finicky.
Digging sweet potatoes is not that easy. We learned they grow vertically and try to find their way to the other side of the world. Down into the clay they went (some of them were 18-20 inches long). They bruise and break easily when bringing them out of the ground. There was a bit of exasperation when we started and found we had to scratch around a great deal with hand trowels to see if the potatoes had traveled hither and yon. We got better at digging with the garden fork after a hill or two. If the soil isn’t nice and loose the potatoes break. There were cheers when we removed potatoes in tact.
Success!
We harvested 30-35 pounds of sweet potatoes from 5 slips. Not bad. But the story doesn’t end there. Sweet potatoes need to be cured. I looked for advice on how to cure then and found there were as many ‘recipes’ as there were advisors. Basically the potatoes must be kept in a place that is very warm (25-29C) and humid (85-90%) for 3 days or 7 days or maybe 21 days. What?? One consistent message was curing must occur-conversion of sugars and making it so they will keep longer. Avoid scaring or bruising the potatoes lest they start to spoil. I layered the potatoes between sheets of newspaper and put them in 3 containers in our downstairs bathroom. I covered each container with a garbage bag (thinking it would help with humidity) and then a blanket/quilt. A little heater helped keep the temperature up, as did having the lights on day and night. Once in a while I would turn on the shower to up the humidity. Such finicky darlings, sweet potatoes. I checked them regularly. The humidity never got as high as recommended (had a little temp/humidity gauge in the room). After 3 weeks we reclaimed the bathroom, wrapped the tubers individually in newspaper, storing them in a cool dark place and now hoping to have sweet potatoes for the next several months.
We haven’t decided if we will grow them again next year. By spring the effort of harvest and curing this fall will be mostly forgotten and we will be enthusiastically entertaining thoughts of garden bounty.