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Sailing AUKLET

~ Small sailboat cruising and related thoughts

Sailing AUKLET

Category Archives: Sailing the Farm

Raincatching Revisited

18 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by shemaya in How Does This Work, Sailing the Farm

≈ 4 Comments

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Raincatching arrangements on AUKLET have developed further since the last post on this subject, that went up a couple of years ago (http://sailingauklet.com/2013/06/28/sailing-the-farm-rain-catching/ ). Mainly, the process has become simpler, and in the average but not extreme rainstorm that we had last night and this morning it was very easy to collect about 5 gallons of water for drinking, washing, and plants. Here’s how it went:

A clean sheet of sturdy plastic, originally sold for putting underneath backpacking tents, was tied to the bulwarks in the cockpit, arranged to drain toward a low spot in the edge near the cabin. Sliding plastic tarp clips are really helpful with this – I’ve gotten them from Sailrite and also from a local “job lot” store in Holyoke. (Here’s an example, included for readers’ convenience. As always, I’m not receiving anything for sharing the reference: http://www.sailrite.com/EasyKlip-Midi-Black-Pkg-4#) Without clips, it’s easy enough to scrunch a corner of the plastic around a small something, like a pebble or a bottlecap, and then to tie a loop of string where the plastic gathers.

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Still, the clips are easier if you can get them, especially for adding tension along a side edge.

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Some tarp clips require poking a hole in the tarp and using significant pressure to close the clip, which is then hard to remove. That kind is good for high strain situations, like winter covers for a boat. These others slide closed, requiring no holes, and can be slid open to move or use elsewhere.

The sheet of plastic in this system is about 4′ x 3′. You would think that it would be too small to do much, but in this past storm when the rain really dumped for a little while, the arrangement collected 1/2 gallon of water in about 10 minutes. This piece of plastic was in fact left over from other uses, but it was not dirty, and is now dedicated specifically for raincatching, carefully dried and stored between uses so that it’s clean when needed. Being on the small side has made it a lot easier to manage, especially because it can be pulled taut between the bulwarks.

In setting up the plastic it’s helpful to put a small carabiner on each string that ties off to the bulwarks, so the carabiner attaches to the tarp clip, or to the loop of string tied to a corner. This way the whole business can be set up while everything is still dry, and then part of it can be unclipped for access to the cockpit, without messing up the fussy adjustments that will make the plastic drain correctly. In the spot on this boat where the plastic sets well, the forward end of the mizzen sail would ordinarily overhang and drip into the raincatching project, complete with salt from spray and whatever else is in the sail and all its parts. That would be bad! Fortunately, the position of the sail and its lower reefed bundle is adjustable, so the sail can be shifted back and clear of the water operation. The small size of the plastic sheet also helps with sorting this out.

Originally I had the idea that it would be useful to have a drain fitting in the plastic sheet, which could have tubing attached that could then be led directly into a container or tank. A 1/2 inch plastic mushroom through-hull fitting from one of the boat catalogs worked easily for doing this. However, as it turns out it’s much simpler to just let the water run off the edge of the plastic into a bucket, and then to transfer the water from the bucket into storage containers. One reason for this is that it’s a good thing if the plastic sheet is low, so that it doesn’t catch the wind. Being low also means that tying to the bulwarks works out just fine. In the end, this brings the drain too far down to be convenient for much of anything. Having the drain in the plastic, without any tubing, has been useful for a little bit of weight, and for keeping the plastic oriented over the bucket – but I don’t think I’d put one in just for that!

Another reason for guiding the water into a bucket and then transferring to containers is that there are are inevitably little specks of who knows what that end up in the water. Using a white bucket, it’s easy to see these. They generally settle to the bottom, and it’s possible to dip the water out, or to carefully pour it off. Either way this leaves the specks at the bottom of the bucket, with that last bit of water that gets poured out or saved aside for washing or for watering plants.

I’ve been using square three gallon buckets made of food-grade plastic, found on the Internet. It’s helpful that they are white (for keeping clean), and also that they are square (for easier storage and positioning for water catching), but one could of course use anything, so long as it had not previously been used for chemicals. Tofu buckets from a local tofu maker come to mind as another possibility… It’s helpful that the rain catching container is not too tall, and that it holds a few gallons. One could use a cooking pot, but the tiny pot that I carry on the boat would involve a lot more tending. As it is, I slept through two or three hours of last night’s rain, and during that time the 3 gallon bucket filled to overflowing – I probably lost quite a bit of water, but since I got more than enough as it was, this was not a problem.

Then there’s the issue of getting the water from the bucket into containers. During the night I transferred a half a gallon of water into a gallon jug, and a little while after that completely filled a two liter drinking water bottle, both done by pouring the water out of the bucket, using a plastic funnel to get it into the jugs. Later, snug in my berth and listening to the rain, I was thinking about how to add a drain to the side of a bucket, with a tube for filling containers. This was to avoid lifting the heavy bucket when it was completely full. In the morning, with the overflowing 3 gallons and no such arrangement, it worked to use a small cooking bowl to dip the water out and into the funnel, and it was surprisingly easy to fill each bottle. I’ve now completely discarded the drain and tubing idea, because the simple version with the bowl was so easy and quick.

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It’s been interesting to note the difference between using the plastic sheet, and simply setting out buckets. There are three of these square buckets on the boat, dedicated to rain catching. In an absolute dumping rain that goes on and on, it’s possible to collect about four liters (1 gallon plus) of water just by setting out the three buckets. In the storm that had that kind of haul, it turned out that nearby measurements said that there had been 4 1/2 inches of rain! On the other hand, I’m guessing that this recent storm had something along the lines of a half inch to maybe an inch of rainfall, and with the plastic sheet, not counting the probably substantial overflow that was lost in the night, I ended up with 5 gallons of water. This has convinced me to no longer bother with setting out three buckets, with the fuss of drying and storing them afterwards. From now on I’ll go with the plastic sheet with the one bucket, knowing that it will quickly gather a lot more water.

Following up on the post from a couple of years ago, the outcome of the fabric raincatching sheet, with the special funnel sewn into it, was that it was not practical, at least on this small boat, and in use in the damp north. Hung high enough to stay off the cockpit benches it caught the wind badly, flogging like a sail and needing to be taken down, and it was a production to set up, with a boathook set crossways as a spreader and tied to the mizzen mast. Being larger, the arrangement did collect tremendous amounts of rain – 12 (twelve!) gallons in the big storm where I first used it, and that in the time before the wind made it necessary to stop. The fabric funnel worked beautifully, but it was fussy to keep the attached plastic tubing where it belonged, as the fabric lifted in the wind. In lighter rainfall, a good bit of water went into soaking the fabric, before any was actually collected. In either case, afterwards it was hard to dry the fabric properly, and even once dry, because it was cotton it tended to collect the dampness while stored. In the end, mildew was a problem, and I started working with the plastic sheet.

The other thing I’ve learned in the intervening time has to do with using rainwater for drinking. Basically, rainwater is distilled, with no minerals. Although there are holistic healthcare practitioners who recommend drinking only distilled water, there are also reports that doing this, whether from mechanical distillation and bought at the store, or from rainwater, can lead to health problems. Supposedly these issues mostly involve loss of calcium and other bone and teeth minerals.

The permaculture folks who are raincatching for drinking water suggest that putting crushed oyster shells in the bottom of the water container will take care of this issue, as the water will leach minerals from the shells, rather than later from one’s body. I’m looking toward doing something with shells, but haven’t yet. I’m assuming that broken up clamshells would work just fine, but I’m waiting for the opportunity to collect some from a clean beach. Lately I seem to be spending a tremendous amount of time in areas where the water is working-harbor brown, which has hindered this particular task. Since the boat water supplies alternate between rainwater and wellwater from shore, and I ordinarily take calcium/magnesium supplements, I’m hoping for the best, sans shells. In the meantime, the rainwater tastes great, and definitely feels better than anything from a chlorinated municipal supply.

So that’s the latest on raincatching. This recent effort is the easiest it’s ever been, and it feels like the system is a keeper. It’s a great thing to have the water supplies all in order, without any outside assistance. Now I’m inspired to get back to growing more vegetables…

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[Written about a week ago; now it’s been sunny and hot for days…]

Boat Farm 2014

06 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by shemaya in Sailing the Farm

≈ 3 Comments

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This year was a particularly good one for the cockpit branch of the boat farm. I harvested lots of fresh greens (by boat standards), and had quite a bit of fun while doing it. The cabin side of the farm operation wasn’t quite so exuberant, and alas, I mostly forgot to take pictures of that group. This was because I was so busy focusing on the cockpit activity, since the outdoor plants were the ones I had pretty much forgotten to record in 2013.

Here’s what the cockpit plants looked like when they came aboard about a week after launch: IMGP7184
and a little later: IMGP7254

This is thanks to Suzanne, who had found the baby seedlings at the co-op and put them into these containers. Ordinarily we have focused on lettuce, but being the beginning of September when we started this, there were no organic lettuce plants to be had. Instead there was kale, pak choy, and Chinese cabbage. As it turned out, this was great – they grew like crazy, perfectly content in the cool and sometimes wet fall weather, seemingly having no problem at all with the short days.

One of the most important things for this container gardening arrangement is the soil mix. When you get it right, the plants are both vibrant and productive. This goes on for a surprising amount of time, through substantial harvesting. The soil for this year included potting mix, lots of worm castings, 2 kinds of compost, “moo-do” composted cow manure, dolomite lime (this kind of lime adds minerals without changing the pH), and some powdered organic fertilizer, with special emphasis on the worm castings. Worm castings, like all the rest of the ingredients, came in a bag from the garden store. In past years, with the boat and myself getting on the water in the spring, we took advantage of already planted bowls of lettuce that were available at the co-op. The first year these grew extremely well, and then the next year not so much. I think the varied results were probably also a soil mix issue, as they weren’t treated differently otherwise.

Also worth noting in the picture on the dock are the outer trays that the containers of soil are placed in. These are plastic packages from buying baby greens at the store, top and bottom from one package. Holes are poked in the container that actually has the soil, with the outer tray (the inverted package lid) catching anything that drains after watering. Once moved onto the boat, the outer trays aren’t so helpful as trays, because if it rains outside the plants could be swamped. But here’s the tricky thing: if the containers have just been filled with soil and planted, quite a few soil crumbs are going to come out through those drainage holes, even though the holes aren’t very big. It makes a mess. The outer trays can prevent the dirt in the cockpit, but then there is the soggy over-watering in the rain issue.

It turns out that after the containers have been set up and the soil and plants have settled in for a week or two, dirt no longer falls out of those holes in the bottom, even without a tray. This is great news when it comes to moving the plants around the boat, and everything works out fine. It’s just important to get the plants going in their containers ahead of time, on a surface that allows drainage and has room for the errant soil bits to fall out, before the containers take up residence in the cockpit. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t do it that way – just messy for a while.

On the cockpit sole, we have that stuff called dri-deck (as always, I’m not receiving anything for mentioning this). This is available from boat catalogs, in 12 inch squares. It helps protect the wood, where things like water jugs are left for a while, preventing consistent wet spots. It’s also great for allowing drainage through the plant containers. I usually water the plants while they are on the dri-deck, and don’t even worry about overflow, which takes care of itself by draining down and off the back of the boat, or by drying in place.

The lids for the containers, while not so ideal as outdoor trays, make fantastic covers for the plants when they are still small. This is good for possible frost, and is outstanding for protection from spray while sailing. Of course, then the plants get bigger…

Here’s another view, a couple of weeks after they came on board, where you can see the Chinese cabbage really taking off; it’s the group at the lower left: IMGP7391

The parsley, at the upper right in that same photo, does well in a quart yogurt container, and moves inside to the special plant racks for sailing. The main container has drainage holes, and sets inside a second container with no holes when indoors. Parsley is very sensitive to salt spray, but adapts to the indoor location easily. Lettuce in previous years has also been very sensitive to salt spray, tending to get brown spots from even very fine salt mist, just like the parsley. A wonderful surprise this year has been that both pak choy and Chinese cabbage don’t seem to care much at all about little bits of salt on their leaves, staying green and healthy.

Here’s the parsley, in the indoor location: IMGP7461

That’s buckwheat in the other two containers, which makes a nice treat, picking a number of sprigs every few days. Sunflower sprouts, which in the past have been very successful earlier in the season, declined to do much of anything at all this time around. For the future, here in New England, I’m not going to try sunflower planting after the end of August. Buckwheat, on the other hand, does just fine with the shorter days and cool temperatures. As described in a previous farm post, all of these indoor sprouts are planted in about an inch of soil. At the right season for the particular plant they do quite well, and require a lot less water than regular sprouts rinsed in a jar.

All in all, it was a good year for the boat farm, providing fresh green vegetables long after the ice jug had melted and the cooler was retired for the duration of the trip. It was a treat!

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Aphids and the Boat Farm

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by shemaya in Sailing the Farm

≈ Leave a comment

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Quite a while back, in writing about fungus gnats and the boat farm, I promised to say something about aphids. As these things can go, my mind wandered off… However, finally, here’s the story!

Aphids are tiny insects that make their living by sipping the juice out of plants. If there are very many, the plants don’t look eaten, but they stop growing properly. Leafy vegetables develop a funny, contorted, shrunken look, and eventually they stop growing at all.

Aphids come in a number of varieties, in a size range of something like 1/16 to 1/8 inch long. Sometimes they are gray, like the ones found occasionally on organic broccoli from the store, and sometimes they are an impressive bright orange, and others look almost black. They multiply quickly once they get going, and are hard to remove by hand picking – you can get the ones that are out on the leaves, but they are quite expert at hiding in the tiny crevices of leaves and stems, maintaining enough of a population that the handpicking (at least in my experience) doesn’t do much good. For some reason, the inside-the-cabin plants haven’t developed aphids at all. That’s a blessing – aphids can be a big problem in a regular greenhouse.

In the first year of the boat farm, aphids got going on the lettuce in the cockpit, but I didn’t really understand what I was dealing with. Hoping for a little more growth, and the harvest of a few more leaves, I kept the plants, even though they were looking more and more bedraggled. Finally it dawned on me that there was no growth happening whatsoever, and the curled little remnants of leaves were not at all tasty. Over the side they went…

Last year, I had lettuce and kale going in one rectangular cockpit container. After lots of nice food from those plants, lasting for a month or maybe two, aphids started showing up on the kale. Based on the previous experience, I took that as my cue for a big harvest, and had an abundance of kale to eat for a couple of days all at once. The roots were pulled out and tossed over the side. Ordinarily, plant scraps go in the composting head, but the insect situation meant going for more drastic measures. On the idea that the lettuce did not actually look infested, I left that in the container, though I wasn’t hopeful.

As it turned out, the lettuce was fine! This was a revelation. Apparently the aphids were so fond of kale that they didn’t bother to infest the other plants, which continued on until they bolted from the heat, without any aphid problem at all. Now I’m thinking that this was a good lesson in companion planting – if you start with lettuce and kale, the inevitable aphids will come, but they will be so fond of the kale that by the time they’ve developed enough to be a problem, you will have had both quite a lot of kale to harvest AND the lettuce will be left alone.

This particular companion planting approach is a theory at this stage, but if I can get it to repeat, I’ll be delighted. Any way around, I’m satisfied with the strategy that at the first appearance of significant aphids, this means that it’s time for harvest. More food, no tending of plants that are destined to stop growing, and a sense of understanding what’s happening on the farm. I’m looking forward to the next round of trying this out, and will report findings.

The Boat Farm – Winter Reflections

21 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by shemaya in Sailing the Farm

≈ 4 Comments

Now that it’s incredibly cold and snowy around here, but with the solstice long past, the garden folks are working on seed orders. With that in mind, here are some reflections on how the boat farm went in 2013.

Overall, progress was made. It’s still experimental, and a source of treats, rather than a tremendous amount of food, but that’s mainly because it did not get my full, undivided attention. The next round will be easier, with a specific plan in mind, and a firmer sense of what works.

New planting: sunflower, peas, and buckwheat

New planting: sunflower, peas, and buckwheat

For starters, being diligent about planting every few days would pay off nicely. Sunflower sprouts fill in well, and once they get going one can harvest each day for about a week from one planting, picking the taller individuals in each container, with new ones growing to harvest size by the next day. They feel substantial when you eat them, so a handful of thinned plants actually makes you feel like you’ve had some fresh vegetables. While the weather is warm, and there are many hours of sun each day, they grow quite enthusiastically. Clouds do not seem to be a big problem, but the shortening days in the fall brought about a gradual end to the success of this crop. This stands to reason, considering that they are SUNflowers!

Once the weather got cooler and the days shorter, I started to focus more on buckwheat sprouts, also planted in a thin layer of soil. These grew quite nicely, so long as the buckwheat was fresh. Old buckwheat that had been in my cupboard for a couple of years (how can that happen??) did not sprout well at all, and was better for cooking. But buckwheat with hulls, bought recently in bulk from the natural food store, grew just fine. This is a more delicate plant, with leaves that don’t have a lot to them. The leaves are broad, but tissue paper thin. Still, they are tasty, with a mild, unspicy flavor. With a diligent planting schedule, and being careful to not let them dry out in the sun, they are a worthwhile effort. Nothing beats sunflowers in their favorite season – thick-stemmed, with sturdy leaves, and growing like a shot – but once the season goes by, it’s time for other possibilities. Buckwheat fills the bill.

I also tried peas, in that cooler time, but they seem slow-growing, both to sprout, and then to grow. This might have had to do with my soil – they don’t seem so slow in the regular garden at home, but maybe I haven’t paid proper attention. It could be that they take some time there also. At any rate, it was fun to have a few sprigs, but they seemed like more trouble. Chard seeds came up nicely, but then grew very slowly. I think that this is also a soil issue, producing stunted, slow-growing plants, which is not the norm for chard that is happy in its garden. I wish I was a better gardener, right off the bat! But experiments continue, and I’ll keep reporting…

One approach that was more of a success this year had to do with watering, for all the different plants. Originally I had the idea that when planting the seeds it was good to water the soil directly, making it thoroughly moist though not soaking wet. However, little bits of white mold were a frequent issue in both sunflowers and peas, and eventually I tried simply spritzing the top of the soil after the seeds were in. This was much more successful, and mold stopped being a problem. Who would’ve thought that seeds would sprout without soaking, and with such a light application of water! They were spritzed enough to be moist on top once or sometimes twice a day, but were definitely dry at times also. The soil underneath was barely moist – and yet this worked.

Another success had to do with learning to live with the fungus gnats. Though I was originally hoping for complete eradication, eventually I realized that the issue was more one of balance. Starting with fresh soil in the container with each planting made a big difference with this, and the only time that they became a problem again was when I neglected to harvest the sunflower sprouts that had quit growing in the fall, short of their normal harvest size (I kept hoping that they’d get bigger). Previous to that, the long-term pot of parsley did have a few gnats, but they didn’t go crazy, and they did not start to take over the other containers. I do think that the parsley, because it was in a long-term, deep container of soil, made it impossible for the boat to be fungus gnat free, but that parsley sure was good! One or two gnats every now and then felt like a worthwhile trade-off. Next time I’ll understand that when the sunflower sprouts stop growing, then it’s time to harvest the final crop even if they are only an inch high (rather than the normal 3 to 5), and move on to buckwheat. Fast growth, making for frequent changeover of container soil, pretty much took care of the fungus gnat issue.

Then there is the subject of fertilizing. This is really important for plants that are in containers ongoing, like parsley, and lettuce, and there are knowledgeable sprouters who say that it makes a difference for short-term crops in an inch of soil, also. I’d agree with that, for the sunflowers, and it was obvious with the parsley and lettuce. There is organic fertilizer, and compost, that are fertilizing options, either applied directly to the top of the soil, or soaked for “tea” that is then applied when watering. And I’m going to go out on a limb here and share that there is another source of perfectly healthy, and safe, fertilizer in abundant supply on a boat. This would be pee, which is a fantastic source of nitrogen. It has to be diluted with water at least 10 to 1, which takes care of the odor issue, as well as being important for the plants, so they don’t “burn.” If potted plants such as lettuce and parsley are given a soaking water with this diluted mixture once a week, they grow like crazy.

I have not gotten brave enough to try this on the indoor sprout plants – they seem too close to the ground that is being so watered, and beyond even my admittedly fringy comfort level. But it would probably be fine. Plants in the cockpit, that can drain over the side, do just fine, and it’s so simple!

It’s important to make the distinction between using urine for vegetable garden fertilizer and using humanure compost. Urine is generally sterile, while a much more involved process is required before composted solid waste can safely be considered for food plants, and some folks argue that it should not be considered for food plants at all, due to potential bacteria as well as heavy metals. However, urine is a different story, and can be very successful. Because we are talking about small boats, and self-sufficiency, it has seemed that the discussion of boat-farm fertilizer would be incomplete without mentioning it.

Another thing that I learned in 2013 was just how much very fine salt spray finds its way across the cockpit – and the plants don’t like it. Once I recognized this, I started moving lettuce containers into the cabin for sailing, and they started doing much better. Previously, I had just been covering them with a piece of sunbrella fabric when there was visible spray, and wondering at the little brown flecks on the leaves even when there had been no spray at all. Finally I started paying attention to that bit of mist that I could feel on my skin when sailing, even in very mild conditions, and the puzzle was solved. In the cooler weather it had been unnoticeable, with all the warm clothing, but was more obvious after the weather warmed up. Now, the shuffling of plants is a small chore, but very worthwhile.

Overall, while the boat farm is a work in progress, it is showing more and more signs of being workable. It’s fun to have the fresh greens, and sailing alone it’s rather nice to have the company. The little plants are festive in the cabin, green and growing in their special shelves, and I’m looking forward to expanding. Just think what a real gardener could do with this concept! I’d love to see.

Parsley, chard, buckwheat, and sunflowers

Parsley, chard, buckwheat, and sunflowers

Provisions

11 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by shemaya in How Does This Work, Sailing the Farm

≈ Leave a comment

For this trip, I tried to pack five months worth of food and supplies. Packing this all at once wasn’t strictly necessary for this time around, but if I were setting up to sail to Alaska from Washington state, or something like that, it would be. So I wanted to know if the boat could do it, and I wanted to make a beginning on figuring out how much to bring.

The boat held up well. Fully loaded it was a good bit lower in the water, about a half-inch above the top of the antifouling waterline, which we had already raised by about 3 inches above the designed waterline. But the chines were still out of the water, and I was delighted to find that although the boat was, predictably, not nearly as light on its feet as last year, it was much more comfortable in a variety of conditions. Before, when not loaded so heavily, in a confused, crossing waves situation the boat had a snappy roll, that was uncomfortable and occasionally a little bit hazardous as far as staying in the cockpit. Susanne Altenburger explained this, when we were visiting, as being a product of the hard chines, as the boat would come onto the flats of the bilge panels and bring itself quickly back up. She also pointed out that if the boat had the originally designed taller and heavier mainmast, that this motion would be dampened by having the extra weight up high. That snappy roll is a worthwhile trade-off for this hull shape and the shorter, lighter mainmast that I’ve been using, but even better when it goes away because the boat is so well-loaded! Knowing this, I have completely stopped worrying about carrying extra books…

Here’s the list of what went into the boat:

Food:

We used to have a Food Saver home vacuum packaging machine, which eventually gave out and was replaced with a more sturdy semiprofessional version. This has been incredibly useful for packaging boat supplies. It protects food from all moisture, as well as making it keep longer because of removing the oxygen that contributes to rancidity. I think it’s the most worthwhile equipment we’ve gotten for dealing with trip supplies.

I am in fact coming home after four months. There were not enough cashews (my favorite, staple food) and Suzanne brought more to Belfast, as well as more pistachios, which is my general suppertime food, together with some kind of vegetable. The regular chocolate is running out, and I would bring four bars.

Cashews – raw organic, from Sunfood, in 2.5 pound bags – 12 bags
pistachios – raw organic, unsalted, case bought from the co-op and packaged at home in 12 bags of approximately 2 pounds each
pecans – raw organic from American Harvest, repackaged at home in 2 pound vacuum bags – four bags
macadamia nuts, raw, not in shells – from Raw from the Farm, packaged at home in vacuum bags with about one quarter pound in each, for treats – four bags

freeze-dried peas, organic, unsalted, from the natural food store – 12 packages (because we ordered a case) eight packages would have been plenty
freeze-dried organic blueberries, from the natural food store – six packages
freeze-dried organic raspberries, from the natural food store – two packages
freeze-dried organic blackberries, from the Internet– one package
raw organic kale chips, one package (still haven’t tried these!)
dried string beans, dried carrots, dried broccoli – not organic, from the Internet, mixed and vacuum packaged at home in approximately 2 ounce packs – 12 packs. These make good snacks mixed together with various nuts in an easy container for snacking

Organic unsalted peanut butter from the natural foods store – one jar
organic raw coconut oil – one jar

Fresh carrots – 2 pounds (there’s a story that goes with this)
organic “romaine hearts” — 3-pack lasts 2 weeks in cooler Maine waters, no ice, stored low in the boat
occasional vegetables from kind people — lettuce, zucchini, kale, chard, carrots, string beans, blueberries — and wild things from Reilly!

Organic saltine crackers – two boxes
Bunny crackers – Annie’s, from the natural food store – four boxes
organic pseudo-Oreo cookies (vacuum packed at home in four cookies/pack) so far I haven’t actually eaten these – but it makes me happy knowing that I could!
Organic dark chocolate – 2 1/2 bars
raw cacao paste wafers, from Z Natural Foods – one pound in original bag
organic unsweetened raw coconut flakes from the natural food store, one package
rice — 1 lb
lentils –1/2 lb

organic, pastured, unsalted chicken and broth, homemade and home pressure canned – 40 jars, 12 ounces each, plus some 8 ounce jars with just broth

Organic, grass fed, unsalted homemade beef stew, home pressure canned in 8 ounce jars – 12 jars (more is better!)

tinned sardines, BPA free, relatively low salt – 15 tins
wild Alaskan red salmon, relatively low salt, in room temperature-storage pouches – 15 pouches (these are older than they should have been, by a couple of years, and have still been fine)

Organic oatmeal/powdered coconut mix, oatmeal in bulk from the co-op, coconut from Z Natural Foods, mixed and vacuum packaged at home in approximately 2 pound packs – 8 packages, each package refills the canister for everyday use; each day 1/4 cup goes in Tupperware covered bowl, water added in evening for eating in the morning – no cooking necessary

Organic raw cacao nibs ground at home together with organic raw coconut and vacuum packaged in approximately 8 ounce packs. Nibs from Sunfood, coconut from Z natural foods (we got a 25 pound box of coconut from them, which vastly improved the price) – 6 packs, each pack refills two jars for everyday use

Mangosteen powder, from Z Natural Foods, one pound, kept in original package (food/supplement that I mix in oatmeal)

Sunflower lecithin (food/supplement that I mix in oatmeal) three small jars and most of one large jar that was already open – from Raw Love. This was more than needed – two small jars were extra.

Raw rice protein powder (for mixing in oatmeal) from Internet, four canisters

“Beets and sweets” – vegetable chips from the natural food store – two bags, nice for offering to company.

Supplements

Freeze-dried organic liver capsules – from Dr. Ron’s – four bottles
fermented cod liver oil capsules – from Dr. Ron’s – three bottles
calcium/magnesium tablets (okay, horse pills) – two bottles
Dr. Ron’s Friendly Flora – two bottles
B12 tablets – three bottles
Krill oil capsules – four bottles
Rainbow Light iron complex – two bottles

(Just like always, including company names just to be thorough, but not receiving anything for listing them on the blog)

Wish that I had:
water in bottles to offer to company – I drink out of too many of the containers in general use on the boat
natural food root beer for special occasions and company

Farm supplies

Buckwheat groats for planting – 1/4 pound
sunflower seeds with hulls for planting – two 8 ounce packages
chard seeds for planting – one 1 ounce package
soil for planting –two 1 quart Ziploc bags (because of the fungus gnat issue, this needs to be discarded when planting new crops)
organic fertilizer
lime
worm compost – in the future I would make a mix of fertilizer, lime, and worm compost and have just one container

General Supplies:

Dental care (big issue in my world)
two spare toothbrushes
three packs of interdental tool refills, and one spare handle
two spare “end tuft” toothbrushes
two full dental floss packs
dental mirror and cleaning tools
Sea salt
enamel cup for toothbrushing

Magnesium oil (so-called because it feels oily, but it’s actually a magnesium/water solution) this works as completely fragrance free deodorant that is actually good for you, and is also helpful for rubbing into sore muscles and bruises

Baking soda – this is multipurpose, for toothbrushing, clothes washing, handwashing, cleaning oily dirt – packed approximately 1 pound, needed more, mainly because of clothes washing

toilet paper – packed 20 rolls, received more during shore support. Should have packed two entire bulk 16-packs (used for dish washing as well as head)

Peat moss, for composting head – 20 Ziploc bags, one gallon each – this was more than needed, but one would not want to run out, they are lightweight, and if the bags hold their seal they would provide flotation, rather like kapok.

Lump charcoal for stove – 20 Ziploc bags, one gallon each, repackaged from the 7 pound bags from the natural food store. These are not briquettes, but charcoal made from chunks of actual wood, sold for fancy barbecuing, and used on AUKLET for the charcoal heater stove. Coming home in mid-October after an unusually warm fall, this is more than enough, but I would feel more comfortable with 30 bags, based on last year sailing well into the chilly fall. It’s possible to go through one bag/day when the weather is cold. It takes up a good bit of space, but is lightweight for its volume. AUKLET has more than enough space for storage – the issue in packing is overloading the boat with weight, which happens before the available storage space is filled.

Spare water filter elements – started with none, now have two

Empty gallon jugs – for storing extra rainwater, for managing water filtering process, and for replacing pee jug – started with two spares, added two more plus 2 more half-gallon jugs for replacing the cockpit “day use” jug that eventually develops algae.

Fungus Gnats!

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by shemaya in Sailing the Farm

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IMGP3676 (800x582)

A few weeks ago the farm suffered a setback – fungus gnats! After all that care with the “pathogen free” potting soil and everything. The containers in the cabin all had them, as did the containers with deeper soil that generally stay in the cockpit, at that time with chard and chickweed.

On the bright side, I knew what I was looking at. Over the next two days I had a feast on all the sunflower and broccoli and pea sprouts that were inside the cabin, and the soil went into a sealed plastic bag. The cockpit plants got to keep going, since at least the gnats were outdoors (rather than buzzing my face), and Suzanne and I had a shore-support meeting planned for about a week later. The almost immediate harvest of the indoor plants staved off the annoyance of fungus gnats flying all over the place, since their population had not yet really gotten into gear, and because I knew what I was dealing with I didn’t start any new indoor containers while the cockpit population was still present.

Before the gnats issue surfaced, Suzanne and I had already planned to swap cockpit containers. She was bringing a new one that she had started with lettuce plants a few weeks before, and I would be giving her back the one with the chard, which was having issues with its cockpit location. Since the chickweed was especially infested, when Suzanne came she took that container away also – I was sad to lose it, but have some ideas about how to do this better, collecting seeds from the chickweed plants at home rather than digging up plants and soil. Chickweed – so often weeded out rather than harvested – is incredibly nutritious and quite tasty, as well as being a good laxative, and thrives when the weather gets cool and moist, as it does when one goes up the coast and fall comes around. Suzanne also brought a yogurt container with a lovely, thriving parsley plant. At home I eat a lot of parsley, not really as an herb, but as a leafy green. It’s loaded with things that are good for you, is strengthening for bladder issues, and I’ve developed a real taste for it. It’s been a treat to have such a nice, big plant.

For most of the last couple of weeks since Suzanne’s visit I didn’t do any new indoor planting, allowing a bit of a quarantine period for the new containers with the lettuce and parsley, even though they were originally staying mainly outside. No gnats in sight, so about five days ago, in clean containers, I got to plant some more seeds for the cabin racks. Sunflower, buckwheat, and chard, one container each. No worm compost this time – it’s not labeled as “pathogen free,” and it seems like a possible source for the gnats. It’s also possible that the cockpit chickweed container was the gnat source, and being flying creatures, some of them moved indoors, so the idea is to rule out various possibilities one by one. So far so good.

Lately the parsley seems happier indoors, and I’ve taken to moving the lettuce container inside whenever I am sailing, even when there is no obvious spray. Little brown spots on the leaves have looked like more spray than is apparent is getting to the plants. They go out for the coolness in the night, and for days in harbor, and seem to do well with the rain and fog we’ve been having. The lettuce had been starting to bolt already when it arrived, what with that intense, ongoing hot weather that was all over southern New England in July, but since things have cooled off it does not seem to be shooting right up, so I’m hopeful that I’ll have it for another while. The parsley is growing fast enough to replace the sprigs I’ve been picking every day or two, which is very encouraging, and it makes a pretty kind of house plant here in the window. Still no gnats in sight, even with the deep-soil containers coming indoors.

So now the sunflowers are sprouting, as they do so readily, and I’m happy to say that both the chard and the buckwheat started coming up a few days ago. The buckwheat is particularly energetic, so I guess the reason it wasn’t working before had to do with old seeds. When Suzanne came to South Freeport she brought fresher ones – I’d had the other batch in the cupboard for longer than I should have, probably two or three years. None of these were seeds for planting, just raw buckwheat, from places that sell raw foods. The ones that are doing so well came from Raw from the Farm, an Internet store by that name, but it’s very possible that any bulk buckwheat groats from the natural food store would do just as well. It’s probably good to get the kind that still have their hulls.

So that’s the latest on the farm. I’m really liking how well the yogurt container with the parsley is doing, and am thinking that two or three more yogurt container plants, with more substantial soil than the little sprouts containers, might work out just fine. If the tiny chard sprouts grow well, then in addition to harvesting small leaves, one or two of the plants might work as transplants in yogurt containers, intended to grow larger for picking big leaves.

The broccoli from the previous batch of planting started off with very leggy little plants, so I started putting the container outside for full light when it was convenient, and harvested the really long skinny ones. The next ones that sprouted were behaving better (all before the big gnat-inspired harvest). Some time with outdoor light may be necessary for the chard also. So far the buckwheat, which sprouting resources refer to as “buckwheat lettuce,” seems to be growing properly with the available indoor window light, with broad little lettuce-like leaves, though the plants are still only about an inch tall. The sunflowers always get a bit tall, but they have nice thick stems, and the stems are just as tasty as the leaves, so it feels like a perfectly fine way for them to grow. And they love the heat inside the cabin, so they just get to do their thing in here.

That’s about it for plants excitement. What with lots of recent visiting, folks have been bringing me everything from blueberries, microgreens, and a new supply of romaine lettuce, to garden lettuce, zucchini, and foraged seaside greens and flower petals, which have all been a huge, enormous treat. Thank you, thank you, Patsy, Polly, and Reilly! With the farm still being in development – and then round two of the fungus gnats – it’s been a real treat to have an abundance of vegetables from off the boat!

The Boat Farm

29 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by shemaya in Sailing the Farm

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IMGP2863Sailing the Farm is the title of a book written by Ken Neumeyer in the 1970s. Used copies are sometimes available on Amazon. Details of the book may or may not be perfect, but I find the concept an absolutely outstanding model, and I am working toward putting it into practice. A movable homestead, and a boat undertaking that provides for itself in some of its most pressing needs, from water to fresh vegetables. I’m also very interested in foraging, but that does involve getting to land and all – except for seaweed, which is tasty pulled out of clean water as it floats by!

On the growing front, so far sunflower sprouts have been particularly successful. This in soil in deli containers – a shallow container with holes poked in it for drainage, set in a pint one that catches the drips. This boat has tremendous windows, and we made removable racks (thank you Theo!) with cutouts the right size for holding deli containers, yogurt containers, and the fancy sprout containers made by The Sprout People. Turns out regular sprouts haven’t been so successful, because of wild temperature variation in the cabin, and the enormous amount of fresh water needed to keep them rinsed. However! It also turns out that another way to do some kinds of sprouts is in about a half an inch of soil in a container. This has been much, much more workable. A couple of tablespoons of water and consistent spritzing keep the plants perfectly happy, and the sunflowers grow like crazy. They’re quite tasty, pinched off at three or four inches tall. And simple: half-inch of soil in the container, sunflower seeds from the natural food store (with hulls) spread over the top of the soil so they are just touching one another, water and spritz. In a few days they start growing. As you snip and eat the tall ones, the slower starters get going, so one container produces for many days.

Things that matter for deli container gardens: it seems like it would make sense to use soil from the garden, and it seems like all those garden books that talk about sterile soil are a little over the top. However! Speaking from experience, it’s worth picking up some of that “pathogen free” potting soil. This is because of a little creature called a fungus gnat, that can be just hanging around waiting to get in gear in average garden soil. Out in the garden, it’s not a big deal – they come, they go, they fly away. Indoors, they know exactly where they want to be – moist soil, with plant roots for their larvae to eat. And the only place for that in a boat cabin (or your living room) is all those nice containers with a half-inch of soil, or anything else potted… Besides being really annoying when they fly around, they’re bad for the plants. Which do need their roots intact, after all.

An alternative to buying potting soil is to start with soil gathered from the ground and then heat it – some people use their oven, and I have the idea that spreading it thinly in a clear plastic bag in the sun would do quite nicely. But for now, it’s potting soil. The other thing that can help is to add something that feeds the plants. Worm compost is nice – another thing from the garden store. It’s nutritious, not smelly, easy to store and use, and the plants love it. A couple of teaspoons in the soil in each deli container gives it a little something extra, and is easy to manage. So all in all, the boat farm supplies include a couple of quart bags of potting soil, a yogurt container of worm compost, plastic deli containers, some seeds, and a small spritzer bottle. And the best part, the plants give you somebody to talk to!

I’m still experimenting with different seeds, so far with mixed results. Will report more on that when some of the details are better worked out. But for now, those sunflower sprouts are exceptional, especially in the hot weather. Many thanks to Jules and Helen, for sending me in the direction of sprouts-in-soil, and sunflower sprouts in the hot summer cabin. Funny how all it takes is the right information at the right time, and next thing you know, you have fresh food!

Sailing the Farm – Rain Catching

28 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by shemaya in Sailing the Farm

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IMGP2850This is an experiment. At home with the sewing machine, Suzanne and I made this fabric thing, hemmed on the edges, with loops at the corners, and a funny fabric funnel stitched into a 4 inch hole cut in the fabric, which then ties onto a length of PVC tubing. This is a variation on a suggestion made by Lin and Larry Pardey in their book The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew. I’m using cotton fabric rather than plastic, or waterproofed fabric, on the theory that if this works I will use it for drinking water, and I’d like to have fewer chemicals in the water. Never mind that I’m storing the water in plastic containers… Seriously, the same chemicals that make a plastic sheet flexible enough to not crack are keeping everything soft enough to also come away in the water.

It’s a work in progress – first comes seeing if it’s possible to collect enough water with this small sheet of fabric to be practical. This first water will be for freshwater washing, and for watering plants. Then I get to work on hygienic strategies for drinking water, or resign myself to filtration.

Here’s the good news! Today we had a good soaking rain for about an hour, and at the end of that I had refilled the 2 quart wash water jug, AND the 10 quart plastic bucket. That’s great news on the sheet size. I have a small plastic manual bilge pump dedicated to wash water transfer, so half the bucket got pumped into the freshwater tank (which topped it off) and the rest went for rinsing the salt out of those orange fuzzy rags that are so nice for dealing with stray water where it doesn’t belong.

Still to go is drying the rain catcher cloth, which I didn’t leave set up because the wind was picking up and I was worried about it getting thrashed around. But once dry, it’s easy to store, and stays clean and salt-free. Not to mention free of stray dirt and bird droppings. I believe it’s going to be a workable system, and I’m ecstatic about being able to keep up with water for plants so easily.

With that for inspiration, more planting has gone on in the interior containers that go in racks under the windows. More on that when they’ve grown enough to be a little more photogenic. Meantime, here’s a try at including a picture of the rain catcher in action. Outdoor cockpit plants are slightly visible toward the back left, behind the bucket.

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