Heavy rain and dry soil

we got 5 inches of rain in a day and a half.  It was raining so hard that water was spilling over gutter.  From previous storm experience, when this hard rain happens, series of runoff water ponds fill up and bottom pond which has about 100 plants of taro are planted will fill up 2-3 feet deep.

Even though it was raining so hard and some rows of tea and vegetables are getting puddled, there are always some spots in the field that never get any standing water.  and more surprisingly, it feels so dry to touch.

Generally the dry spot in heavy rain has such high level of biological activity.  I am not talking about worms.  When I find worms, typically the soil does not have this dry texture.  Most time it is mycelium, actinomycetes and high level of carbon based organic matter that keeps soil from compaction.

Raw wood chips or lightly composted wood chips mixed in the soil in aerobic condition can create hospitable environment for those organisms and keep the soil clean, but a huge pile of wood chips makes the soil anaerobic and causes the soil to compact and has bad permeability.

Good organic gardeners work hard to make good compost, but it is such a waste of resources!  Only if we can use the raw ingredients to feed the microorganisms in the soil, it creates good permeability naturally.  when rain dumps, the soil stays amazingly dry and no erosion.  It's the active colony of microbes grabbing the soil particles together and won't let go.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Green tea infused sake and avocado sashimi

Image
My favorite green tea and avocado combo is premium green tea infused sake and avocado sashimi.  Avocado is rich and creamy, and texture reminds me of toro, or fatty tuna and uni, or sea urchin. Mauna Kea Premium green tea is cold infused at room temperature for 5 hours in Kikusui junmai ginjo sake.  1 tablespoon (0.25oz) of green tea to 1/2 cup of this sake is a bit more than what I would use for brewing in hot water. I first got the idea of infusing green tea in alcohol from chemical analysis done at University of Hawaii, Hilo (UH Hilo).  They extracted and measured EGCg, Theanine and caffeine contents of green tea with boiling water, but what struck me was that their baseline concentrations of EGCg, Theanine and caffeine were extracted with methanol for 1/2 hour. MK premium Green extraction Theanine % Caffeine % EGCg % Boiling water 0.45% 0.35% 0.83% Methanol 0.11% 0.28% 1.73% High level of EGCg makes alcohol extraction bitter? Methanol extraction showed high level of
Read more

Red Bean Bread - anko remix

Image
I was going to make anko from azuki red beans and honey or cane sugar, but I didn't cook beans long enough so that it was still crunchy. Generally it gets soft all the way much like re-fried bean. Anyway, instead of using this red bean chunky mush as anko, or red bean filling in a bun, I mixed it in a dough. Here is the recipe. 4 cups flour (3:1 ratio of white and whole wheat) 1 1/2 cups water 1/2 tablespoon commercial yeast or use your own yeast culture 2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup olive oil 1 cup chunky red bean paste 1 teaspoon ginger powder black sesami seeds note that there is no sugar added to yeast to rise. Instead of adding sugar, I use 1 cup flour, salt, ginger powder, olive oil and yeast mixed in 1 1/2 cup water and let it rise at 90 - 100F in an oven for 60 - 90 min. Once it gets a little bubbly, add the remaining flour to the mix and keep kneading. Also mix in the red bean paste once the dough starts to get more maneuverable without sticking to your hands too much. Make
Read more

How we decide to be tea farmer

It's a long and complicated story.  Knowing my background might give some understanding too. Natural farming and tea are not two separate things.  In my mind, natural farming provides a raw ingredient, tea leaves of natural purity, and tea processing helps to bring out that natural purity in a more visible and detectable form.  Tea is one way of showing what nature can do.  It could have been any crops, but the world of tea allows me to look deeper into differences in quality and there are people who actively seek the true quality and subtle details.   I never have been a believer of destiny, but I do believe that the universe designs things to work for us in some mysterious way and it sends energy to take our dreams to reality.  But, just like that, the idea of organic farming came into the reality of my life at the right time.  When my wife and I got to the big island, the land we were going to farm was surprisingly suitable for tea cultivation.  Nursery stock was available f
Read more