What we're talking about when we talk about talking about gardening in an art context

UNRELATED TO THIS POST BUT KIND OF IMPORTANT: I am pretty sure that I pulled a deer tick off of my shoulder today. Anyone want to refer me to a doctor? I don't see a red ring yet, but just in case. Also: constant vigilance!!

ANYWAY.

I've been reading about Dutch art history a little bit lately. One thing I've been really interested in is an idea put forth by Svetlana Alpers, about the difference between the pictorial modes of areas south of the Alps (Italy) and areas north. The southern mode is one in which one makes sense of what appear to be random occurrences by inventing a higher truth that aligns them in a logical manner. The north, on the other hand, observes the world as it is around us and attempts to comprehend it as accurately and intensely as possible in order to place oneself in the world.

I was thinking about this in relationship to the brief presentation of artists working with gardening or greening spaces--which of these pictorial modes might better suit such efforts? Because certainly, while working in a garden one encounters a lot of interesting allegories to one's lived life or cultural institutions (tangent: can we talk some more sometime about the weird parallels between gardening vernacular and military vernacular?), at the same time the key thing when working in a garden is just doing it, simply toiling at a task and paying attention to the surroundings. I suspect the conversation of viewing it "as art" might be more about viewing it from this southern pictorial space--from this insistence that the gardening "mean something", when in fact the effort itself has an immanent meaning. The consequences, political and personal, are inherently tied to the physical act, to the fact of laboring over a shared resource. While it certainly matters to the participants in Edible Estates that they are part of this larger project, what probably matters more is how the cabbage is doing or if there's a pest problem. And perhaps those facts of living with the work day to day are more important than the nice bow made pulling strands of meaning together to tie up and package the work.

The understanding--and funding--of gardening as art may have more to do with the closed-off tendencies of scientific or political institutions than the openness of cultural institutions. Mel Chin couldn't fund Revival Field through scientific channels, but he could through the Walker Arts Center. Can anyone think of some organization not design or art related that would and could have funded Edible Estates? The "could" I suppose begs the question of how it is that art institutions can afford to fund these projects--because I'm pretty sure that they don't sustain the museums in any way (even when the ICA in Philadelphia had a solar greenhouse installed on their rooftop terrace for Locally Localized Gravity, it was temporary). This strikes me as unusual in that museums are spaces for contemporary practice but also for preservation. How can these be made to sustain the institution?

Reference points: Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Svetlana Alpers, Design 99.

Edible Things

I thought it might be a good idea to put some references of what is edible and what is not edible since we have been eating a lot of new things or a lot of old things in new ways.

MYCOLOGY:

Student's Hand-book of Mushrooms of America: Edible and Poisonous from Google Books

This book seems really useful. Our edible toadstools and mushrooms and how to distinguish them.

WORTHLESS TRADITIONAL TESTS FOR THE DISCRIMINATION OF POISONOUS AND EDIBLE MUSHROOMS FAVORABLE SIGNS
1 Pleasant taste and odor
2 Peeling of the skin of the cap from rim to centre
3 Pink gills turning brown in older specimens
4 The stem easily pulled out of the cap and inserted in it like a parasol handle
5 Solid stems
6 Must be gathered in the morning
7 Any fungus having a pleasant taste and odor being found similarly agreeable after being plainly broiled without the least seasoning is perfectly safe

UNFAVORABLE SIGNS
8 Boiling with a silver spoon the staining of the silver indicating danger
9 Change of color in the fracture of the fresh mushroom
10 Slimy or sticky on the top
11 Having the stems at their sides
12 Growing in clusters
13 Found in dark damp places
14 Growing on wood decayed logs or stumps
15 Growing on or near manure
1 6 Having bright colors
17 Containing milky juice
1 8 Having the gill plates of even length
19 Melting into black fluid
20 Biting the tongue or having a bitter or nauseating taste
21 Changing color by immersion in salt water or upon being dusted with salt

-Edible mushroom stems are cylindrical while poisonous mushroom stems are bulbous.

The mushroom book

EDIBLE PLANT/WEED SOURCES:

A source for books about edible wild plants.

This one is very boring: American weeds and useful plants

The Maryland Native Plant Society

Plants For a Future: Edible, useful, and medicinal plants

SPROUTING AND ANN WIGMORE:

A limited view of the Sprouting Book by Ann Wigmore

Amy Wigmore Natural Health Institute

EDIBLE INSECTS:

food-insects.com

some edible species

Great Kids' Farm

Our visit to Great Kids Farm covered tons of information...

Greg Strella the manager of the farm has a lot of knowledge about a variety of different aspects of farming. Great Kids Farm was started in November 2008 on a 33 acre piece of land owned by the Baltimore City Public Schools.

The school system has owned the land since 1953 when it was sold to the City for $5 by a black abolitionist under the stipulation that the land be used to educate young black men. The city built stone structures using stone quarried from the property to replace the old wooden buildings. After many years of successful use by the city, funding ran out and the property was shut down.

Today there are two full-time paid staff working there with a third person starting work next week. Great Kids Farm has 14 living systems on the farm including chickens (x between white rock and rhode island reds), goats (8 male Alpine/Nubians donated by Groff's Content Farm), wildlife, bees, fruits, and vegetables. Strella's aim is to be able to demonstrate as many things as possible on an urban farm. The goal is to show children and adults all the variety that is possible to accomplish in the city. Not all of the intended lessons will take place at the farm. They will have a mobile chicken coop that will be moved to various schools around the city. In addition, they will be installing greenhouses at some schools, and utilizing farm grown produce at student run cafe's in the city. Great Kids Farm is already selling produce through a CSA and to a couple local restaurants with more intended outlets in the future.

Learning about all that they have accomplished on this farm in only 8 months was impressive. I look forward to seeing how they progress in the future.

an article in the NY Times

an interesting article about produce carts in New York:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/nyregion/11carts.html?hpw

Sprouts

Good seeds for sprouting include: wheat, sunflower, wheat grass, alfalfa, lentils, garbanzo beans

Adam's instructions for sprouting:

1. Soak the seeds, submerged completely in a large container of water, for 8-12 hour (depending on size) intervals, rinsing the seeds and changing the water at the end of each.

2. After 2 days of the rinsing  and soaking process the seeds should have sprouted a tap root,                   this indicates that they are ready to be moved to a soil tray.

3. Sprouted seeds are spread evenly over a tray of topsoil, and covered for a few hours to retain            moisture. 

4. Last the seed trays need to be uncovered and put in sun or under grow lights where they will        take about 1 week to sprout. When harvesting the sprouts it is most nutritious to cut                    them at the lowest point before the root system.

Why Sprouts:

Sprouts have higher concentrations of chlorophyl than larger plants, the chlorophyl oxygenates the blood and breaks down toxins in your body. 

The molecular make-up of wheat grass is very similar to that of an iron rich red blood cell, it has been said that a blood transfusion using wheat grass juice and coconut milk could be possible.

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SPROUT MASTER:

 Ann Wigmore

Herbs

Pursane

Wood Sorrow

Holy Basil

Hamilton Crop Circle is a network of urban farms and community members, who rotate their labor according to which community member's farm is in need of tending. The group has also begun to have regular potluck/meetings, a Tuesday farmer's market, and a "point" based currency system that allows for the trade of labor for fresh produce after the season's crops have been harvested. Most of the members of Hamilton Crop Circle are self and community taught farmers, including Pat and Adam:

Some facts about the space:
-The soil is comprised mostly of heavy clay lome 

-Lead has been an issue due to the heavy traffic in the area when leaded fuel was unregulated, the lead emissions cling to objects like houses and run-off into the ground water with rainfall.

-Raised beds have proved to be a good solution for this problem.