Hanh mitakuyapi. Hello my relatives.
I amaze myself every so often, and that's both fun & magical. Then again, sometimes things happen that amaze me, and I have few complaints there, either. This last happened recently again, to me.
I am in the midst of renovating an old building that was essentially abandoned for nearly 20 years. The landlord/mortgage-holder and I go around annually - he's mainly concerned with whether the grass is cut & the front looks like a pool table than with innovation and creativity that result in betterment of the planet. I'm of the opinion that: (a) there are 360 degrees in a circle, so if people don't like the looks of the yard, no on forces them to look at it; (b) they are driving at 60 mph so they should be watching the road & traffic, no lollygagging at 'yards' they pass by; (c) it's in the country, if that makes any difference, and (d) experimentation results in improved conditions, while mindlessly doing the same thing repeatedly is stagnation, & stagnation equals death - of a lot of things.
This year, the front is 'overrun' with a plant that is regarded as "a weed", although it is planted in its native Asia as a forage plant. This plant caused my latest episode of amazement.
When I transplant, I water with "manure tea" rather than plain water, to minimize transplanting shock & to encourage a fast growth start for the plant. Needless to say, the manure tea bucket smells pretty unique, & I've never been able to get it to smell "passable" after even 1 day of making manure tea. Until a few weeks ago..
I was pulling said "weed" out of the 'yard' preparatory to planting buffalo grass. Buffalo grass is pretty drought-tolerant, makes a dense mat of fine-leaved rosettes, and doesn't grow more than maybe 4" - 5" tall. I will never waste time and fuel mowing again, once this project is finished. I was putting the pulled "weeds" into the manure tea bucket when the phone rang. I set the lid lightly on the bucket, and answered the phone. When I came back a few minutes later, the manure tea bucket smelled sweet! Fresh! Like new! Duwahleh! This is noteworthy! A-maz-ing! And my business-oriented brain pounced on the concept that this could be a whole new use for this "weed", called "a product". As in "yields income, improves the environment, and decreases pesticide use". I'm an organic farmer/gardener since childhood. It's a Traditional thing, after all, that we do not poison our Holy Mother the Earth, and then ask her to feed & clothe us.
I tested this "weed" both fresh & dried with the same odor-eating results. I made some sachets of it & put them in sneakers & had good-smelling sneakers in less than an hour. I was almost bouncing off the walls from excitement. Magic does that to me, even after dona hey years. Hope I never lose that....
So now I'm really fired up to get a web site up & running (any angels out there who would like to help us with this?? Let's talk!). And in the meantime, I've gone to a couple of friends who farm thousands of acres about this and was told, "If you want this stuff, we'd be happy to go out with the corn chopper and fill a chopper wagon with it for you." I wonder how many gadjillion yards of fabric we'll need to put this out as sneaker-sweeteners, cab fresheners, and so on.. You get the picture. Comments?
