Bullocks Permaculture Homestead 2012 (part 4) The Pit Roast

Always nice to start off with some fruits!

Second flush of red raspberries.

mmmmm tasty.

Now to the scene of the crime.

Respectful Animal Harvesting, Traditional Pit Roast & Primitive Fire-making

Two day workshop with Gabriel Kelly, Saturday & Sunday, August 25 & 26 in Deer Harbor. Topics include Animal Harvesting: our culture’s relationship with life and death; Tactics on field dressing and basic skinning and uses of skin; Gutting the animal and exploring anatomy and organs; Different meat cuts, styles and uses; Curing, storage and cooking; Different uses of all parts of the animal’s body; Traditional underground roasting Primitive fire-making: Cost: Full 2-days, Suggested Donation: $150. Daily:Animal Harvesting: Saturday, Aug. 25, Suggested Donation: $100 Fire-making & Pit Roast: Sunday, Aug. 26, Suggested Donation: $65 including fire kit.

I didn't attend the workshops but there were rave reviews about the animal harvesting workshop. I heard that the sheep died very peacefully and Gabriel facilitated the process with humility and ease. Gabriel is quite the human and has extraordinary stories. He does primitive-skills workshops here and there, so check him out.

There is just too much tempting things going on at the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead, around Orcas, and on the various surrounding islands. So, I missed the workshops but I did attend the pit roast.

By the way, the evolution of my food identity.

Omnivore -> vegetarian/pescatarian -> localvore -> flexitarian

Something like that.

Anyways, off to the pit roast!

a foot

from the day before

The pit

The uncovering

Nothing like being an adult chillin' in the background while watching kids labor

Kids, ain't no free meals in this world

It makes me excited to see young ones learning these primitive skills.

We need less school and more living! - says the grad student

Pit roasting is quite an art with lots of different variables:

meat size, type of stone, size of fire, the plants used to cover the food, time, etc.

Gabriel seemed quite pleased with this experiment.

After removing the coals and dirt,

a layer of abundant and invasive local reed canary grass peaks out.

In the tropics banana leafs are commonly used.

The food is wrapped in a wet sheet in order to keep the dirt out and moisture in.

With banana leaves this would not be needed.

A large basket made of chicken wire makes it easy to pull the main event out.

Boom!

Large old cabbage leafs surround the tender meat and vegetables that have been cooking for several hours. 

Beautiful.

It's quite empowering to learn how to do things without fossil fuels.

Good food and good fun without centralized energy.

To be primitive or civilized.

We were posed a question about whether we needed silverwear and plates...

...and we went for it.

The sensual experience of eating the food with your fingers is really magical.

I've recently realize how unnatural it is for me to be intimate with my food,

yet I enjoy it so much.

A beautiful assortment of earth roasted nutrients.

Creamy garlic and leek, delightfully sweet beet, carrot and parsinip accompanying

juicy and tender sheep, rabbit, and venison,

on a cabbage leaf plate.

I think this is 100% from the island.

Life on Orcas

The man with the beard is Walter who is an amazing wood carver.

He teaches free woodcarving workshops to anybody interested.

A very special being.

The night concluded with a fire, some guitar,

and then a family string-band jam.

food, art, music, permaculture

Bullocks 2012 part 3

写真でなんとなく分かるかな？

Part 3 of my pictures from Bullocks.

The Friday morning meeting extraveganza!!!

This is an all-purpose meeting, full of business, the weeks visitor info, jokes, stories,

detailed conversation about nut and bolt size, and more.

An interesting lens into the Bullocks' process.

Cuddling, massage, eating, stretching, and yoga also happen during meetings.

I've recently enjoyed eating straight from the source.

The ultimate fresh and local.

Blackberry and brassica flowers are my favorites.

It's also energy efficient and economical.

Visitors cleaning the fridge that smelt like death.

Some creature blood seemed to have been spilt inside.

Communal farm fridges can be scary sometimes.

A good way to discourage use of energy intensive appliances.

Red washington

The tree was littered with beautiful deep red plums

Yuriko catching the plums as I picked them

Always fun to work together

Chai chai plum shot

Drying plums

The plums were dumping fruit and the fruit enthusiasts couldn't eat them fast enough.

That's when drying, canning, wine-making, and other preservation methods become important.

Processing is also good when you have a variety of fruit that is not so exciting fresh.

The fridge food dehydrator.

The heat from the fridge is channeled into a food dehydrating box.

Looks easy to make and you can get consistent heat 24/7.

Keets slowly exploring around the homestead

Gravensteins apples

Great for cooking

Yuriko herding keets with palm frans.

Cute

Shiro plums

Golden sacks of delicately sweet plum nectar

A real summer treat

They drip with juice as you bite in

Dahlia

An explosion of beauty

The money plant

Really neat looking seed pods

The Bullocks crew doing what they do.

Being free, Having fun

The representatives of Japan.

Japanese are so weird!

And now.......harvesting duck we live with.

I pretty much only eat meat when I'm with farmers.

I trust conscious farmers.

Death can be beautiful

Charlie dunking the duck in hot water to open the feather pores

Pulling off the feathers together

Laughing in the face of death

Life, death, and laughter in-between

Thats the way to enjoy life

This duck, Bob, was then transformed into Peking duck.

Thanks bob.

Back at the Bullocks 2012 part 2

ここ数日のブロックス・パーマカルチャー生活。

日本語休憩中。

ソーリー

Another few amazing days at the Bullocks.

The Bullocks crew making earthen plaster. A mix of clay subsoil, sand, horse manure, chopped straw, wheat paste, and fresh cow manure. What a fantastic material! All ingredients are biodegradable, cheap and easy to access here. Its also a fun non-toxic process that kids can join in. Plus, it's a great work out, especially for your legs and hips during the stomp-mixing process. Best to have pumping music (live band if possible), fresh fruits, water, and sun.

Sam and skill-builder Charlie examining a leaking kitchen faucet. 

It's important to investigate problems and figure out how to fix it.

Learn how to be the expert by doing.

The duck enclosure. 

This area is a duck, pear, mint, rhubarb guild.

Umbrellas for shade and a pond-like area is provided to keep our ducks comfortable.

Bullocks talk about how ducks have helped keep the slug population low in the garden.

They also lay very tasty eggs and are awesome creatures to observe.

Four of them were recently harvested and we had delicious Peking duck and slow cooked roasted duck.

Wine making with champaign yeast and fruits from the property.

They recently got a champaign corker to make some serious champaign.

No messing around

Afternoon light shining on the root and fruit celler.

The structure is made with ferro-cement, and the frame for the roof is made from two metal satellite dishes.

The structure is shaded with edible plants to keep temperature low.

Not only is this a space for storage, it is also a productive space.

 Permaculture principles: obtain a yield, small-scale intensive systems, staking functions, 

use biological resources, energy planning

Charlie putting flashing on the boat shed.

He's a great one to have around.

Electrician, builder, scavenger, magic card enthusiast. 

Very important permaculture qualities.

Yuriko creating a sub-saharan Africa themed coop for the keets.

Madrona branches sets the scene and serves as a roosting branches.

Cuuuuute!

In Japanese we say kawaiiiiiiiii (very common phrase)

The amazing green house.

Made from many scavenged materials, this is a great element for learning about energy,

staking functions, and redundancy.

In addition to sun and humans, heat is also generated by the wood-stove shower and sauna.

We made dehydration racks, for herbs and fruits, that are used in the sauna.

During harvest time, the Fall, the sun sets earlier, the day becomes cooler, and solar dehydration becomes more difficult.

But, as it cools, we take more saunas, so there is extra heat to use for dehydration.

Connecting needs and yields.

Marsh weeds have been used more extensively on the garden beds as mulch.

Fresh grass clippings are also popular, as it is said to add nitrogen to the soil, discourage snails and slugs, and decompose quickly. We also produce quick a bit of it.

Using onsite resources.

Onions drying next to the ping pong table,

with the aloha lodge in the background.

The alders dominate this area but they will be replaced by chestnuts (succession).

Freshly harvested onions drying in the sunset.

Tonga sneaking out of the bushes with hunting eyes.

He was carrying a vole in his mouth garnished with an oregano flower.

All creatures at the Bullocks seem to be foodies.

Now for the weekly family dinner!

We begin with various beautiful farm salads, 2~3 days young pickles, and pasta.

Behind is a blueberry plant wrapped to keep birds and maybe kids away.

Reminds me of Christo (below)

(downloaded from www.fotopedia.com)

eat your veggies

Zucchini (aka corgette), eggplant (aka aubergene), and shiitake from logs.

veggie love!

I think we grilled lamb too.

We also enjoyed this beautiful corn called hookers blue. 

While the kernals are white-yellow it is very juicy and sweet,

then as it turns purple it becomes more starchy.

This one was a delightful cocktail of both flavors.

The skill-builders like to eat it raw.

Spending the evening together around a fire.

Story time.