You may have already heard that 2015 will be the Chinese Year of the Sheep …
Photo by Rob via Wikimedia Commons
But did you know that it’s also been declared by the UN as the International Year of Soils?
International Year of Soils 2015: Healthy Soils for a Healthy Life courtesy of FAO
There would be no sheep without soil. In fact, there would be no life as we know it without the unsung substrate we so often dismiss as “just” dirt.
Okay, wait—why is soil THAT big of deal? Inquiring minds want to know …
Allow me to tickle your sense of wonder in the next two minutes by sharing this:
Boring?
Not for a moment.
Symphony of the Soil is a riveting drama complete with joy and tragedy, passion and triumph, wisdom and hope. It’s a story we all share.
“Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, Symphony of the Soil is an artistic exploration of the miraculous substance, soil. By understanding the elaborate relationships and mutuality between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants, and animals, we come to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource,” explains the film’s website. “Filmed on four continents, featuring esteemed scientists and working farmers and ranchers, Symphony of the Soil is an intriguing presentation that highlights possibilities of healthy soil creating healthy plants creating healthy humans living on a healthy planet.”
Image courtesy of Symphony of Soil via Civil Eats
To celebrate the International Year of Soils, the Symphony of the Soil website will be streaming the full feature film for FREE through December 12, 2014. Watch Symphony of the Soil here.
Now, this is where the spirit of giving kicks in …
This is a movie everyone should see. Perhaps most importantly, school kids with fertile minds need to know what’s going on beneath their feet, behind their food. That’s why classrooms need to have access to Symphony of the Soils in the coming year. But educational funds are in perpetual drought throughout many parts of the nation, and not every school can afford the Educational Collection, which is licensed for use in schools, universities, libraries, and educational organizations.
So Lily Films has created an Educational Gift Program that allows us to purchase or contribute to the purchase of the Educational Collection (which consists of Symphony of the Soil and two DVDs of short films called Sonatas of the Soil Volume I and II) for a community that may not have the resources to purchase it.
Visit the Educational Gift Collection site to make a donation that will help sow appreciation for our vital soil in the growing generation.
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,129 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,751 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
For this week’s Make It Easy/Light the Way Expert Level Merit Badge, I rolled up my flannel sleeves, channeled my inner lumberjack, sharpened my ax (Yes, I have an ax! Farmgirl here, dontcha know?) and got to chopping. Yes, I know, mid-winter isn’t exactly the time of year to be thinking of this chore, but to be honest, I underestimated how much lumber I would need and, truthfully, I can only store so much at one time, right? I mean, I need room on my back porch for craft projects, too. Like my Automatic Needle Threading Machine 3000 (it takes a lot of space).
But now, I’m about to break my own Wood Chopping and Stacking record, all in the name of Merit Badges! And a little in the name of Warm Toes, if we’re honest. Just like Honest Abe.
The Railsplitter. Abraham Lincoln here despicted as a young man chopping wood, 1909, via Wikimedia Commons.
First—since I’m not a young whippersnapper anymore—I stretched. Yes siree, I recommend a good loosening up of the ol’ pectorals, biceps, triceps, and uh … elbowceps? Is there a badge for learning anatomy?
After my short but sweet warm-up session, I did a quick jog around the house a few times to keep my adrenaline pumping and my metabolism working. And by “a quick jog around the house a few times,” I naturally mean, a quick tour of the fridge and the contents therein. Nourishment found and hunger abated, I resolved to get started for real this time.
After a quick cuppa tea.
A girl needs her strength, okay?
Okay, seriously now, I’m down to two pieces of kindling and a demolished chair someone left out by their curb. I really need some firewood, stat.
Stop distracting me, already!
I settled into my chopping with reckless abandon. (That’s just a literary term. Don’t chop wood with reckless abandon, peeps—that would be … well, reckless).
Photo by Kreuzschnabel via Wikimedia Commons
After laying down a good foundation, I started getting fancy with my stacking skillz. That’s right, folks, you’re looking at a Lincoln Log Queen, so don’t think I’m just going to stack the regular way. Leave that to the amateurs! I won’t settle for anything less than a high-quality, awe-inspiring, Taj Mahal of pine. The Eiffel Tower of ponderosa. The Buckingham Palace of fir.
Buckingham Palace? Now I need a tea break.
Isidore Verheyden – Afternoon Tea, 1905 via Wikimedia Commons
*several hours later*
It’s starting to shape up. My pectoids and my trapezius cuffs (??) are burning, but my masterpiece is looking aMAYzing. A little crooked, but that’s alright. Esthetics aren’t everything in this art form. There’s also form, shape, size, weight, imagination, and creativity. And the little dance you do when you get too much bark in your socks. Or when a rogue squirrel flies outta nowhere.
I wasn’t going to stop, by golly, until a neighbor wandered over to say the magical words. You fellow choppers know the ones I’m talking about:
Nice stack you got there, Jane.
Photo by Feci1024 via Wikimedia Commons
Any time now. They’re coming. I can feel it.
Any time.
Squirrel!
Here’s a fun one for you: weed dating.
“How will I ever meet someone in this concrete jungle?” laments the lonely plantain …
Photo of broadleaf plantain by Ernst Schütte via Wikimedia Commons
Just kidding. Weed dating is not a service for unloved plants (or any other recently legalized vegetation).
It’s a newfangled way for earthy singles to meet and mingle within their comfort zone …
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Krieglsteins _posing_as_American_Gothic.jpg
… the farm, of course!
“Weed dating is the gardener’s version of speed dating, where singles meet over a vegetable bed and dig together for a few minutes before moving onto the next person, some even learning about the plants they are tending,” reports NBC News.
A woman wistfully awaits her weed date …
Photo by Jack Delano via Wikimedia Commons
(where is he?)
as she dares to dream of what could be …
Tee-hee!
All giggles aside, though, weed dating is turning out to be a wonderful way for people to connect in person rather than online (ick) in a wholesome environment rather than, say, a bar (double ick).
How cute is this?
And, who knows? Weed daters might just sow a match made to last!
American Gothic by Grant Wood, 1930, via Wikimedia Commons
Want to host a Weed Dating event at your farm this year? Check out the way they do it at Earth Dance Farm.
Three cheers for this lovely teen trio from County Cork, Ireland!
Photo courtesy of Google Science Fair
Émer Hickey, Ciara Judge, and Sophie Healy-Thow recently won the Grand Prize in the 15-16 age group of the 2014 Google Science Fair.
To be sure, that’s pretty cool in and of itself, but it’s the particulars of their project that really take this farmgirl’s cake …
Reportedly inspired by Émer’s observations within her family’s backyard garden, the trio set out to study the effects of beneficial bacteria on the growth of cereal grain crops (and to think, we’ve just been picking and eating our veggies all this time).
“Émer and her mom were gardening, and she noticed nodules on one of their pea plants,” Sophie told National Geographic. “She brought that into school, and our teacher told us it was bacteria.”
As it happened, the girls’ class was in the midst of a lesson on the world food crisis, and they learned that the knobby nodules on plant rhizomes hold beneficial bacteria that boost growth. For visual reference, here are “Rhizobia nodules” attached to roots of a cowpea plant:
Photo by Stdout via Wikimedia Commons
“We became really interested in what this bacteria can do and what people haven’t done with it so far,” said Sophie.
Atta girl!
People—lots of people—apparently told the girls that the bacteria wouldn’t have an impact on cereal crops, but they shrugged off the naysayers and decided to test their hypothesis on barley.
Photo by Daniel Schwen via Wikimedia Commons
According to Scientific American, the team has tested the effects of beneficial bacteria on some 13,000 seeds over the course of three years. “We did a lot of experimental work in Ciara’s house,” Émer told RTE radio after their win. “First, we took over the spare room, then expanded into the kitchen, sitting room, conservatory, and the garden … It was quite a lot of work, but it has really been worth it.”
They found (naysayers be darned) that the microbes increased seed germination rates by 50 percent! What’s more, harvest yields increased by as much as 70 percent. The girls currently have a controlled field site planted with 3,600 seeds in their hometown. Émer says that further benefit may be seen in the reduced need for fertilizers and that improved germination speed is of particular interest to farmers in places like Ireland, where seeds can rot in the damp soil before sprouting.
For more details, listen to the girls explain their awe-inspiring research in their own words:
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Linda Van Ausdell!!!
Linda Van Ausdell (#4347) has received a certificate of achievement in Farm Kitchen for earning an Intermediate Level Recipes Merit Badge!
“After I gathered up recipes with my mom, I put them in the computer and created a recipe book. I love the way it turned out. I’m glad it’s on the computer—I think I will get requests for the recipe book from other relatives.”
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
