Had my first Wonderberry today. Not dead yet, nor has it affected me in the negative way that the black nightshade berries did, by putting me in a ferocious mood. It had way less taste than a black nightshade berry, though. In fact, it was kind of like eating warm water with seeds and a chewy skin. Like a virtual or dream food. For a second it hinted vaguely that it was some kind of berry, and then it was gone. Some people have written that it really comes into its own as a preserve or pie filling, but the thing is, pretty much anything tastes like pie or preserves when you add sugar and lemon and cook it a bunch.
Collecting Dew in Mutus Liber
Something interesting re the Sun card I got the other day–Luther Burbank, developer (or discoverer or promoter, take your pick) of the Wonderberry, named it the Sunberry. A black sun. Also, the sunflowers I planted? Black ones. One conception of the black sun is that there is a double of the golden sun that is always directly opposite from it. This might apply to the actual physical sun and some kind of nemesis sun in the Sun’s orbit, but more interestingly, it can be about spirituality vs. matter or perhaps, materialism. But the black sun is also equal to the black crow, the Nigredo in the Great Work. Putrefaction, without which no growth can occur. Still, I’d like to think that after all these years I’d gotten past the Nigredo.
OTOH, there is nice sort of resonance with Nigredo and putrefaction and compost (and Saturn). I’m not just being silly–Armand Barbault, a modern practical alchemist (“Scientist or witch?”), considered that the Prima Materia was precisely good rich dirt. This is what he started with to make his alchemical medicines–that, and dew, and plant materials. I have been meaning to read his book, Gold of a Thousand Mornings, for a long time.
Barbault & friend collecting dew
He very much based his work on Mutus Liber (the most famous illustration from that book shown here) on the one hand and intution on the other–and his partnership with his wife, like Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel.
A vegan agiculture newsletter from the UK that I signed up for a few months ago asked if I wanted to write an article about my garden this year, since I am trying to use no animal inputs (this is my second year not using any). I said yes and that I was experimenting with black nightshade as a food plant (they are seriously into food plants). That evoked some hesitation, but they are still game. It should be fun. I got interested in stock-free growing after I began reading about the use of green manures (talk about your Nigredo). That’s an old method that was tossed aside when synthetic fertilizers came in. It’s basically the rotation of a field with soil building plants like legumes and grasses and then the harvested crop. I was attracted to this method for a number of reasons. Partly it’s the lack of necessity for animal manure, which cuts one ball of complexity out of the planting loop. Another is that it is closer to a closed loop–it’s possible to grow the seeds of your green manure crops. I haven’t gotten anywhere near that point, but it’s out there. Talk about sustainability. It does still mean tilling, and tilling means gasoline or electricity. Still, I have been having good luck using white clover in this way and would like to do more of it. In the UK, they are way ahead of us in terms of green manuring. There is a certification a food producer can get to be stock-free, sort of like certified organic. They have a book outlining this type of growing called Growing Green: Animal-Free Organic Techniques. It is UK focused and a bit on the dry side, but it gave me plenty to think about.
Serious food for thought here…
Compost definitely makes the world go round. Because of that I’d doubt there’s any getting past the Nigredo, but I am still new to such things.
Off to see if I can find a translation of Barbault. I’ve heard of this book a couple times previously and sort of pushed it to a backburner in that half-assed “Well, I’ll just have to learn French in order to really really get it” way, when we all know my chances of learning French right now are running neck and neck with my chances of learning calculus and quantum chemistry.
As far as the wonderberries go, ferment ‘em. The pigments in the skins are probably a source of nuance and flavors, and sugar might be the catalyst for that. It’ll take awhile to collect a sufficient quantity, but I am sure you can reverse engineer a quart recipe from a gallon recipe of something.
Black Sunberry Wine sounds fascinating. You could probably get away with a pound of berries for a quart of wine.
And not to let the theme of black go unwasted here…
Would you venture to say the black nightshade put you in a black mood for a time? That there was a little black storm cloud over your head? And no real black humor to be found in it, either.
Well, I can sorta kinda hack my way through French and I bought the French paperback of the book, but I still have it on my bookshelf, uncracked. The translation like the original is out of print, and I doubt it is ever going to be reprinted. It’s available used for $380 last time I looked. For that reason I did something I would never normally do, and that I downloaded a pdf of the book, since neither the writer nor the writer’s estate nor the publisher nor the translator is every going to get another cent for this book. I’d be happy to send it to you. It’s pretty short. I am determined to make time to read it now that I have violated my own taboo to get it.
I like the idea of fermenting the Wonderberries. Actually, I like the idea of fermenting the black nightshades that are still growing in the yard in the shade patch. Even if the black nightshade weren’t drinkable, it would make a great magical ink.
The black nightshade definitely put me in a black mood and yes, there was a black cloud over my head too, esp. when I went out there and ripped those suckers out. You know that there are four humours, no? My black bile was up, that’s for sure. Blackie knows all about that black day. I believe it was on that day I was reading about making black bitters–bitters being my new alcohol project, since they don’t involve sugar and I do like bitter stuff.
I would violate that particular taboo as well, on the pdf of the book. If you don’t mind forwarding me an attachment I’d be most appreciative.
That’s right! Black bile… I’d forgotten the humours.
I wonder if the nightshade didn’t have ink in mind all this time. Tricksy little imp of a pesky plant. Thanks for suggesting that. My plant is loaded all over with berries and when I look at it I just sort of cringe. Here’s the wild thing… I smell freesia and boronia when I walk by it. Which is a load of hooey of course. Nothing in the yard should be smelling like that. Not even passively with great dilution and diffusion. Little punk is trying to tempt me near.
Ya know, I’m of a mind to make a small batch of nightshade wine and just wear gloves and run a fan when I do it. Pfffffft.
One pdf coming up!
Boronia and freesia? Damn! Mine kind of smell bad. Well, they smell a little bit like datura, to be exact–the leaves, not the flowers. I noticed the black nightshade flowers being pollinated by a yellow jacket. How appropriate.
I think you should definitely make some black nighthsade wine if you have enough berries. It’s just asking for it. And it suits. Let the smart-aleck plant experience Nigredo first hand.
i have a question…what do you do with your potting soil after 2-3 years of growing? do you amend it? grow compost crops? are there any plants that would ‘detox’ it? someone told me yesterday that i’d have to get rid of all the potting soil after one season. the horror! thats something i never considered before..gah!
Just empty your pots of ‘spent’ soil into a wheelbarrow, breaking up all the rooty bits, etc, and mix in some compost and coop litter from your chicken-rearing friends. Let it age a few months before you start planting with it. Much like you would do amending planted patches or raised beds in your yard. If it is really clayish and compacted you could add a bit of sand I suppose. We mix up batches like this, just with those 3 cu. ft. bags of Growmulch, setting aside the bags for reuse. After the dood mixes up a mountain of this in the wheelbarrow, into the bags it goes for storage.
I guess for extra credit you could clean the pots between uses, but I have to admit I have never bothered with that.
I’ve never heard of potting soil needing to be hucked, but it does get kinda tired after awhile. Even if you put the pots on top of garden soil so the worms can slip up into the pots. If there’s nothing for the worms to eat in the potting soil, they won’t stick around long. If the plants in pots quit growing for no good reason, and they’re not pot-bound, I’ll add straw from the chicken run, just sprinkling that on top around the plant stalk or stem, and it’ll usually perk back up after a few days.
I do something similar to what sara recommends re potting soil. I put it in a wheelbarrow and break it up. I usually pull out the big root sections and toss them on the brush pile. I put the soil back in the pots, filling about 2/3s, and then use new potting soil for the top. Either that or I top-dress it with something. In the past I have used composted manure. I never clean a pot either. I read recently that cleaning pots is not necessary. Since I have never done it anyhow, I felt gratified.:)
If the potting soil seems really exhausted, I throw it into the garden.
phew…good to know. i have way too many pots and was gobsmacked by the suggestion that i get rid of the all that soil. i wish i can find a solution for my somewhat challenged soil on the ground and grow stuff off the ground. its not that bad really, but i am impatient this year…next year, that’ll be my project..soil improvement!
Well, there’s always clover and legumes for working over poor quality top soil. I am experimenting with that around the fenced off corner w/ the corn and squashes. I direct-sowed scarlet runner beans in one portion and just kept them damp-ish until they sprouted. In another section, a long row along the fence where nothing was growing, I have pink swan beans, which are growing fairly well. They’re sheltered by the Roundups’ plum and grapes so watering is minimal. And then behind some okra and sunflowers I have rocdor beans tucked in, and they’re doing well also. Favas were good soil fixer as well. Beans will grow in just about anything. The only issue, potentially, will be iron. But that’s easily dealt with… You’ll know they’re iron-deficient if the leaves turn yellow but the ribs are still green. You can do a couple things… here’s what I do w/ my citruses: sprinkle spent coffee grounds around the stalks and that’ll be worked in as you water.
If the coffee doesn’t work, just get some chelated iron and follow the dilution instructions. This will require spraying, and if I am not mistaken you can use a bit of this to prevent blossom end rot on tomatoes, too. I noticed the predominant compound in my tomato treatment is iron, last year (and this year two plants are presenting with this, and I am so annoyed…)
A couple evenings ago we direct-sowed mammoth red clover in front of the chicken run, figuring it’ll revitalize the dirt there and provide the girls with salad once it is growing like crazy. If that works I am going to seed the paths between the raised beds with it. I figure if I can get alllll the dirt and soil activated in the yard I won’t have to water as much. I am hoping that a few treatments with mycorrhizae will help also. Bountiful sells like a lifetime supply of that if you want to play with it. I did notice however that growing favas coaxed this beneficial spore into action in a couple sections of soil. It makes for better and more even water retention and it is one of the things one works to avoid disturbing where possible. But when you’re rehabilitating soil, tilling is very necessary for the first few years, and the spore will make it through just fine. Remember that a lot of people don’t even have this in their plots and they grow stuff just fine, too.
lots of information! i must plan better in the coming months to prepare for next growing season. thanks!
what if there were plants with some kind of fungus/infection type? that would have contaminated the soil too no? are there any ‘detox’ plants i can grow?
If you have plants which are moldy or fungusy, I’d hesitate to compost them. Try removing the moldy sections, and just trash those, and see how the plants get on. If the problem returns you might consult the Sunset Western Garden book. Detoxing isn’t really an issue unless one has heavy metals in the soil. In that instance it is a matter of growing cover crop that’ll draw up the materials gradually for a few seasons, but you cannot compost this at all, lest you recontaminate. Something a lot of gardeners are finding in West Oakland, for example, is that while the soil may be full of lead, using raised beds will keep it out of the crops, and then it tends to be drawn up into the foliage rather than the fruit.
But if something’s moldy I will not compost it. Spores are resilient little bastards.