Daily Life At ‘The Living Workshop’
note: Not quite sure what I should be doing here. If my writing should be going to up here or instead down at the bottom below the photos. Oh well- we will figure it out eventually.
Photos down below.
The rain has come here in Maine instead of snow. We are in the thaw as we approach the Spring Equinox. And with that, the feeling moving through us that it is time to get moving on those life giving processes. Getting together a garden plan, setting up some microgreens, and picking up some new chicks to add to the growing flock.
I’m glad I got this website up and built- even if it’s not quite where I would like it to be, and put together using the ‘dreaded’ Ai. But here’s the god honest truth- if it’s between not having a website up for the season and having one up and getting flack for it- I’ll take the flack. Because it’s not something in my wheelhouse. I tend to take my wintertimes and work on learning more about computer-like things, and this was the task for the winter. My hope is to eventually be able to pay someone to go over this and spruce it up, put a more human touch to it, someone whose artistic spirit moves through the digital medium. Mine does not.
Anyways, back to the new life at the Living Workshop.
We have Arugula, Spicy Radish, and Red Beet seeds to try from High Mowing Organic Seeds. My lovely partner Jenn purchased them along with the ProMix for the growing medium. Last season I used Coco Coir- which worked well- and also had the added benefit of being able to double used for the compost worm bedding. But the taste of the microgreens was a bit too bitter, Jenn said, and as she’s the nutrionist, cook and has a palate that doesn’t just go “yum” or “yuck” like mine does. So we’ll go with what she says.
We will still get double use out of the Promix. We can let the chicken peck through and eat all the roots and left overs after harvest. and then just toss it into the garden beds to build up the organic material for the season.
That’s one of the amazing things about building and minicking natural systems. Nothing ever goes to waste. One part just feed another. So simply and elegantly- just like how good ol’ Mother Nature does. She really is the best designer, we’re all just students taking notes.
The chicks are growing up nicely. We keep them inside- actually right below where the microgreens will be growing. We reused an old dog cage we used when Owlsey was a puppy. We got it at the Thrift store in the next town over, it is a thrift store and animal shelter- where the money from the thrift store goes directly to the animal shelter. Makes it easy to ’round up’ on purchases. As well as really feel like one’s spending is going towards a worthwhile cause- not to some corporate overlords sucking the soul and money out of all the communities around. – Excuse me, can’t help myself sometimes with that.
Anyways, we repurposed the dog cage and the gals will hang out here inside with us. We’ll spend time with them and get them used to us. Even Owsley is curious and making friends with them. He has a small yellow squeeky toy called “chicklet” that he presses when he wants to play – and I think he thinks these chicks are more developed forms of chicklet. It’s cute watching him put his head in their cage and come running when he hears one squacking like they are in danger. Most of the time they’ve just fallen out of the cage and can’t find their way back in. Still- Owsley is there to investigate.
Jenn built a stair set/ramp with the extra fire wood from the wood stove for them to hang out on as well. It works really well, as well as keeping all their little poops on there instead of on the floor for cleaning. Then we can just pick up the logs and throw them in the fireplace. Easy. Simple. Effective.
We’ve got more eggs than one family can eat- which is a problem I don’t mind having. I like having excess eggs. It give me the abilty to find people to give them away to. Nice gifts to share with others. A surplus that can’t and shouldn’t be stored. The business minded would tell me that we ‘need to be selling those things’ and “customers would pay a lot for cage free eggs”(especially the way Jenn feeds them, they eat as well as we do) And maybe at some point we will do that. Go to a farmers market and sell them. Yes yes yes. Money money money. I know.
But for now I simply like the act of having something valuable that we can freely give to our friends and neighbors. Something to be able to share- because we simply have too much. It’s a nice feeling to have. Because now they are simply eggs. A nutritious food source that we can freely give away because there will be more coming tomorrow.
They aren’t a product. A money maker. A SKU number. Something to be tracked and priced and taxed and put into a spreadsheet.
They’re just eggs. They come out of a chicken just because that’s what chickens do. And I like to think that we just share them with others- because that’s just what humans do.
Oh right – I took photos of the Reishi sculpture that I’ve been working on (growing? Tending to? This process tends to allude the normal language of classifying- maybe that’s why I like it so much).
The process was this- I 3D printed this grey vase. Then I filled it with MycoMaterials- which is a mix of agricultural waste, hardwood sawdust and Reishi grain spawn- and place it into a container that will hold the moisture as well as allow it to breath as it grows. Then at some point once it the mix has had enough time to properly myceliate and hold together the medium – the 3D printed form is removed which allows the mushroom to fully myceliate the rest of the medium.
Then It starts to create it’s harder skin(it is ganoderma lucidum – ganoderma in Latin meaning ‘shiny skin’) all around where the air meets the soft white mycelium. After that it will begin to fruit- as you can see the orange and white ‘tendrils’ coming out- that’s the fruiting body of the reishi.
I will keep it growing in my makeshift display/ containment vessel I augmented from a doll case until it starts to slow down. Then I will pull it out- place it next to my wood stove and let it dry. Only then will the piece be completed – if such a thing can happen to a living piece of art. The art is the entire process of its growth- that is the real beauty – the growth, the change, the development over weeks as the mycelium grows. And I have very little part of that. I’m simply stewarding the process.
Part of me worries that I should be documenting this whole process- that I should be putting up a time lapse camera and taking all these progress photos so that I put it up on the internet so that everyone can see it. And maybe at some point I will do that. Most likely when I can find someone who can help me with that.
Because I would much prefer it to be somewhere where peoples eyes actually interact with it. Where people get to get up close to it and interact with it. Because very similar to taking a photo of a sunset or the full moon- nature doesn’t seem to like to translate to the 1’s and 0’s world of the digital world. Photos just don’t seem to do these things justice.
There are somethings that can only be properly experienced in person.
In the moment.
In real life.
And I am grateful for that.
Because it shows that there is still mystery in the world. And that there are something that resist encapsulation in the digital world.
But what do I know? I’m just a wyrd guy growing mushroom art in the forest.
Awen
www.the-living-workshop.com
Marginalia