Food Jungle Chat thread - 1st Brasil nut, great crop promise, bull<deleted> what a picky plant... and more to talk about

[Reginald Prewster]

Hi all,

 

there is a guy from Dubai posting on Facebook, selling Brasil Nut Trees for 1500 baht a go (Bertholletia excelsa) and is telling the blue from the sky about many nuts, good value..

 

Partial true:

Rare Tree, royal size and a show for everyone who has the space to grow one...

 

But I assume that's the end of the story. 

I have been due to my (42 years) work in 57 countries of the world and when the lads went out for a proper p*ss up I often kept it by one day, hired a local and went on jungle trips because one day I wanted a food jungle as retirement project and the time has come.

 

I have meanwhile a good collection of trees which can stand the Thai climate, which aren't invasive and so on... 

 

Under these I also have the Brasil Nut, even knowing it most likely will not getting fruits (it can take up to 20 years even in South America)

I have this tree because of the impressive and beautiful canopy.

 

Pollination:

We have not the kind of bees here which must be on steroids to lift the lid of the flower and pollinate them.

My last hope are the local Thai carpenter bees but I doubt they can do the job... 

 

Till now all Brasil Nuts are even in South America in the wild harvested in undisturbed jungles for another reason. 

The male Bee needs to find a special orchid to pollinate and as side effect, it parfumes itself for the ladies.

No smell no Bum Bum, no Bum Bum no next generation of solitary bees.. Simple isn't it?

 

If anyone has interest I would start and extend herewith this tread and maintain it for all who like to chat about food trees from all around the world, food jungles and Permaculture, or has trees to swap or searching desperately for a tree... 

 

Feel free but please use the botanical and local names to make it for everyone easy what tree we are talking about..

 

By the way, last week a brasil chick wrote to me, she was welder in the ship yard and she sends me a pack with 40 nuts again in swap for a set of welding gloves .

I guess I'll give it a try again, stubborn huh? That's me a notorious plant collector..

 

Below a picture: Our 17 rai, started this winter with a lake, an island, an artificial river, a desert hill, wetlands, savannah...

and it seems it is done right, the trees grew right after planting despite the dry season... There is more room for more trees...  

    

[drtreelove]

Interesting about the Brazil nuts.  Great food, high in selenium, hard to farm so most of the Brazil nuts we can get are foraged from natural, high nutrient density growing conditions. 

 

Your young plantings have promise, but the photo screams of bare ground and mulch or cover crop deficiency.  

 

 

 

[Reginald Prewster]

11 hours ago, drtreelove said:

Your young plantings have promise, but the photo screams of bare ground and mulch or cover crop deficiency.  

This were rice fields until end of November.

The lake and river has been dug and the resulting soil was great, about 2-3 meters loam and another 3-4 meters clay. The latter I used only for certain parts (Road. where the houses are placed and a few spots where trees demanding clay) the rest was given away.

 

Cover crops are just starting through, I spent a fortune in Arachis Pintoi (Pinto peanuts, as ground cover with nitrogen fixing abilities) and started now with the rain season banging Asparagus & all kind of other perennials in. 

They start nicely... 

 

5th month and first life is returning

 

Rice straw bales "suddenly" increased to 80 baht per bale (1400 needed), so I denied to pay the price and rented about 10 rai of the surroundings for 10000 Baht per year.

Beside rice we planted lots of climbing beans and other legumes (also a few Cucumbers) which is for the family but all cut straw will eventually this winter build up the first mulch layer ???? in the food forest.

 

Lucky me, some students of the University in Khon Kaen found out about my Idea and checked my dirt and well water.

They recommended about 8-15 inch of rice straw because it has lots of silica and the water has drinking water quality, which I expected because there are wells about 6 Kilometer away where some ice factories settled down. 

Edited May 30, 2023 by Reginald Prewster
add

[Reginald Prewster]

Interesting Post @drtreelove

 

especially your mulch piles making me jealours.

Within a couple of years the prices for mulch did explode in Khon Kaen area, pity.

But as above stated, my family is happy with a little extra income and I get the cut straw.

 

 I crossbred some chickens

Brahma, opposite what people say, was not heat tolerant in my opinion so I got my ladies one of my dad in law's best and biggest fighting rooster. 

Without knowing if they are compartible the hen got broody and gave us some nice chicks.. 

They are looking like tall Brahmas and are very tough, playing around in the midday sun and develop great.

 

They shall be the workers and fertilizing machines, as soon my 12 paddocks are fenced so I can move them around under a holistic management system (Allan Savoy, Geoff Lawton, Sepp Holzer, David Holmgren but also Joel Salatin give good inputs (just to Name a few) 

 

I will ask my wife to make a few more clear pictures of all our trees to post here.

Many she takes are in front of other trees, hence have you ever seen a Bakerman in a snow storm?

I told her she should move her nice a** a bit to catch the trees with a blue sky background LOL. 

 

Maybe some other people join in here... 

[Reginald Prewster]

At least she has made a little effort to show me in clear pictures how the trees a doing.

I was quite surprised and getting a little more optimistic.

 

Failure:

I though it is good to plant nitrogen fixer around the trees when they get planted.

Arachis Pintoi was the choice,

Chickens, Geese, Goats all love the greens and as harder the Pinto peanut gets grazed, as better it will cover the ground in its resting times...

Result: The pinto peanuts stunted the growth of my new planted trees.

As soon they were relocated the trees were shooting up.

 

Good;

Arachis Pintoi (pinto peanut) has proven that it is a great fodder plant, grows in deepest shade but also in the sun and starts covering slowly the bare soil...

 

Despite planting about 380 trees in the dry season (lucky our well has great water) only 3 trees died immediately after planting, so I can say I did my homework before I started...

 

Also the idea of the artificial river instead of swales pays out now.

 

A few of the trees increased twice their size in just 6 month...

 

Jacaratia Mexicana (Bonete) was just knee height as I planted it..

 

Adansonia digitata (Baobab) grew his trunk from 1.5 inch to 3 inch at his foot (pipe is 2 1/2 inch)

 

Moringa drouhardii with his common Name Bottle tree was a thumb size trunk as he left the pot and did just what we expected to do.. 

 

and in general some other specimens from around the world which I not expected to grow in the Isaan just do fine... 

 

one thing sets me up is, that I had every tree from the date of seeding, pot numbered and listed, then I put a label with name, date and place of origin on the trees, before we relocated them from Pattaya to Isaan.

 

As they were planted, our farm gang decided to take the ugly yellow plastic things off, because "Lung"

(Uncle) said we have a zero plastic policy on our farm... 

 

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG!

I have to calm down, it's my fault my wife said, because I was swearing like a Broommaker when a blown away Som Tum bag crossed my path..

And when she said so, then it is so... 

 

I hope one day I meet some fellow here who helps me to rename all these trees.. 

 

BBQ on the island and a fridge full of beer will be a promise..

That is one of my next winter tasks, because my island is a (my) sacred place for BBQ, Pizza Oven, Hut and Fridge..

And if not there: "Gone fishing"

 

 

 

[huuwi]

On 6/2/2023 at 9:27 AM, Reginald Prewster said:

At least she has made a little effort to show me in clear pictures how the trees a doing.

I was quite surprised and getting a little more optimistic.

 

Failure:

I though it is good to plant nitrogen fixer around the trees when they get planted.

Arachis Pintoi was the choice,

Chickens, Geese, Goats all love the greens and as harder the Pinto peanut gets grazed, as better it will cover the ground in its resting times...

Result: The pinto peanuts stunted the growth of my new planted trees.

As soon they were relocated the trees were shooting up.

 

Good;

Arachis Pintoi (pinto peanut) has proven that it is a great fodder plant, grows in deepest shade but also in the sun and starts covering slowly the bare soil...

 

Despite planting about 380 trees in the dry season (lucky our well has great water) only 3 trees died immediately after planting, so I can say I did my homework before I started...

 

Also the idea of the artificial river instead of swales pays out now.

 

A few of the trees increased twice their size in just 6 month...

 

Jacaratia Mexicana (Bonete) was just knee height as I planted it..

 

Adansonia digitata (Baobab) grew his trunk from 1.5 inch to 3 inch at his foot (pipe is 2 1/2 inch)

 

Moringa drouhardii with his common Name Bottle tree was a thumb size trunk as he left the pot and did just what we expected to do.. 

 

and in general some other specimens from around the world which I not expected to grow in the Isaan just do fine... 

 

one thing sets me up is, that I had every tree from the date of seeding, pot numbered and listed, then I put a label with name, date and place of origin on the trees, before we relocated them from Pattaya to Isaan.

 

As they were planted, our farm gang decided to take the ugly yellow plastic things off, because "Lung"

(Uncle) said we have a zero plastic policy on our farm... 

 

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG!

I have to calm down, it's my fault my wife said, because I was swearing like a Broommaker when a blown away Som Tum bag crossed my path..

And when she said so, then it is so... 

 

I hope one day I meet some fellow here who helps me to rename all these trees.. 

 

BBQ on the island and a fridge full of beer will be a promise..

That is one of my next winter tasks, because my island is a (my) sacred place for BBQ, Pizza Oven, Hut and Fridge..

And if not there: "Gone fishing"

 

 

 

great idea with your beer island, if it was me, i had a entrance build like the old castle's.....up the bridge.

[Reginald Prewster]

2 hours ago, huuwi said:

great idea with your beer island, if it was me, i had a entrance build like the old castle's.....up the bridge.

I had set some budget and requirements calculated as I usually would do in my Offshore jobs, when I was working for the insurance side:

The bridge had to have a static which can carry a schoolclass and a safety factor of 30% extra.

2500Kg SWL (safe working load) plus 750 Kg safety factor..

The budget was set at 250.000 Baht and the Castle Bridge would have been with these requirement three times the price,

But, me, drunk with blurred view I might miss the bridge anyway and falling into the water which needs no aesthetics..????

 

But I can add an update here too as the island is a part of this story:

 

I need to go back to the 10th of December last year.

The connection of the new lake and the old existing pond was in the final stage.

All what was left, was a dam and a little tiny mount, where some Leucaena Trees were growing.

 

The next day already the lake and pond were joined and made the wanted lake of 5500 squaremeter was completed..

My wife (the little dot on the island) was over the moon, the main miliestone of our food jungle, her biggest dream was done...

 

Not much later the story was (of course) over a ghost on the Land.

An old lady walking around the lake and as well uncle and auntie (70+ Years) as also out Housemaid (35 years) confirmed that she is there...

 

I am not so into this stuff and have more the mind: If I would go tomorrow for a life sentence into prison I would have the night before the same good sleep as always..

BUT, as a foreigner choosen Thailand to live, I always respect the traditions, because I have seen how the old traditions got kicked with feet in Europe and how the hate and racism is building up there.

 

So I told my wife to get a monk on the land and sort it out.

Last Monday, my wife and the Farm Gang (3 Generations Thais and since decades best friends) went to a Wat about 10 Miles away from the Land (which is in the middle of nowhere)

The Monk there is quite young for his rank, but he came to the wat as he was a child and never left again and so he has built some reputation...

 

Well, surprisingly he knew the group would come and he knew already that we disturbed the piece of the spirits on the land by removing a mount, that was there for many generations.

The mount was beside a hut which was built as shelter used by the farmers before, right beside a small lake..

OOPS Bullseye! (my thoughts, just that)

If you look at the picture, yep, on the spot.. Here a 2nd picture where the poles of the hut and the mount are still there.

 

Two days later after we donated for the temple, the Monk came.

I am still working in Taiwan, so I had to "participate" from our site office via WhatsApp Video call..

 

The Monk, my Wife and our "Farm Gang" started the celebration by collecting some earth in two buckets (one from the Monk and one from us), some rice seed and water in the others. 

This had to be blessed, because it might be dirt and water, but it was the "home from the former owners" and it will be "our new home"...

What the sword had to do I could not understand but somehow it should keep the evil away and open the door or give enlightenment to ask the spirits for receivement of the Merit to be the new owners...

 

After the items were blessed all went to the location where the mount has been before and a little hole was dug out.

In this hole they put some gifts from everyone and we had to close the hole with the blessed earth, while the Monk spread the water in the surrounding and chanted his prayers..

 

The monk then walked over the entire land and obviously recommended my island to the spirits..

(I was in tears, my sacred island, where I was seeing myself already in front of a well stocked fridge with Leo, a Pizza oven and BBQ, a little cosy hut, singing dirty songs... You all know: the real man's world thing...)

 

But after the ceremony was completed and the monk was gone back, my wife told me that made me thinking:

Hey, As young boy in Germany, the Punk Parties in the Village Cemetery was actually not disturbing the peace of the dead...

 

Because she said, the island was chosen for the reason, that it will be in future a place of happyness, many laughing people will gather there and the spirits will be happly joining.

We only have to put the usual bowl of rice, some lao khao or fizz drink and some scent sticks in one place, before the party starts to invite the spirits to join us... 

 

Well, and there is our Housemaid...

She has given her Talisman with her lucky Lottery Numbers... 

If the numbers are not coming this month, there is no refund and not return, this little brick stays in the ground forever... I not want to see the "old Lady" roaming restless around searching for her little brick in the night....

???????????? 

 

Fair enough and worth it I guess. How do you think? 

[huuwi]

20 hours ago, Reginald Prewster said:

I had set some budget and requirements calculated as I usually would do in my Offshore jobs, when I was working for the insurance side:

The bridge had to have a static which can carry a schoolclass and a safety factor of 30% extra.

2500Kg SWL (safe working load) plus 750 Kg safety factor..

The budget was set at 250.000 Baht and the Castle Bridge would have been with these requirement three times the price,

But, me, drunk with blurred view I might miss the bridge anyway and falling into the water which needs no aesthetics..????

 

But I can add an update here too as the island is a part of this story:

 

I need to go back to the 10th of December last year.

The connection of the new lake and the old existing pond was in the final stage.

All what was left, was a dam and a little tiny mount, where some Leucaena Trees were growing.

 

The next day already the lake and pond were joined and made the wanted lake of 5500 squaremeter was completed..

My wife (the little dot on the island) was over the moon, the main miliestone of our food jungle, her biggest dream was done...

 

Not much later the story was (of course) over a ghost on the Land.

An old lady walking around the lake and as well uncle and auntie (70+ Years) as also out Housemaid (35 years) confirmed that she is there...

 

I am not so into this stuff and have more the mind: If I would go tomorrow for a life sentence into prison I would have the night before the same good sleep as always..

BUT, as a foreigner choosen Thailand to live, I always respect the traditions, because I have seen how the old traditions got kicked with feet in Europe and how the hate and racism is building up there.

 

So I told my wife to get a monk on the land and sort it out.

Last Monday, my wife and the Farm Gang (3 Generations Thais and since decades best friends) went to a Wat about 10 Miles away from the Land (which is in the middle of nowhere)

The Monk there is quite young for his rank, but he came to the wat as he was a child and never left again and so he has built some reputation...

 

Well, surprisingly he knew the group would come and he knew already that we disturbed the piece of the spirits on the land by removing a mount, that was there for many generations.

The mount was beside a hut which was built as shelter used by the farmers before, right beside a small lake..

OOPS Bullseye! (my thoughts, just that)

If you look at the picture, yep, on the spot.. Here a 2nd picture where the poles of the hut and the mount are still there.

 

Two days later after we donated for the temple, the Monk came.

I am still working in Taiwan, so I had to "participate" from our site office via WhatsApp Video call..

 

The Monk, my Wife and our "Farm Gang" started the celebration by collecting some earth in two buckets (one from the Monk and one from us), some rice seed and water in the others. 

This had to be blessed, because it might be dirt and water, but it was the "home from the former owners" and it will be "our new home"...

What the sword had to do I could not understand but somehow it should keep the evil away and open the door or give enlightenment to ask the spirits for receivement of the Merit to be the new owners...

 

After the items were blessed all went to the location where the mount has been before and a little hole was dug out.

In this hole they put some gifts from everyone and we had to close the hole with the blessed earth, while the Monk spread the water in the surrounding and chanted his prayers..

 

The monk then walked over the entire land and obviously recommended my island to the spirits..

(I was in tears, my sacred island, where I was seeing myself already in front of a well stocked fridge with Leo, a Pizza oven and BBQ, a little cosy hut, singing dirty songs... You all know: the real man's world thing...)

 

But after the ceremony was completed and the monk was gone back, my wife told me that made me thinking:

Hey, As young boy in Germany, the Punk Parties in the Village Cemetery was actually not disturbing the peace of the dead...

 

Because she said, the island was chosen for the reason, that it will be in future a place of happyness, many laughing people will gather there and the spirits will be happly joining.

We only have to put the usual bowl of rice, some lao khao or fizz drink and some scent sticks in one place, before the party starts to invite the spirits to join us... 

 

Well, and there is our Housemaid...

She has given her Talisman with her lucky Lottery Numbers... 

If the numbers are not coming this month, there is no refund and not return, this little brick stays in the ground forever... I not want to see the "old Lady" roaming restless around searching for her little brick in the night....

???????????? 

 

Fair enough and worth it I guess. How do you think? 

I can see you have done a lot of work there. Realy nice, hopefully you will have always enough water in your pond and lots of fish. On the other hand, as you mentioned your safety standarts, forget the bridge do the portcullis.......hahaha. I have to much time here on Phuket, have to go back to the farm.

Edited June 10, 2023 by huuwi

[Reginald Prewster]

The rainseason gets things growing and the 1st cut has been made..

The first cut with chop and drop is the mulch layer in progress, hopefully more to come.

 

The coverage from January till now is quite nice to have, slowly mother nature takes back the bare soil patches.

Delightening to see.

What for one the weeds and grasses is for the other pure fertilizer and new developing soil..

 

 

 

[Reginald Prewster]

Before we bought our Land and made it a Permaculture Food Forest, I have been going through a lot of infos about people like Geoff Lawton, Bill Morrison, Sepp Holzer, Masanobu Fukuoka and many others.

There is one guy caught my eye: Dr Allan Savoy.. 

He made giant mistakes regarding deserfication.

He recommended to shoot down more than 20000 Elephants to stop the desert expanding and it worked the opposite.

 

His experience brought me on the path to use animals to avoid deserfication by his holistic management system. 

There are lots of videos of him if you want to know more why animals are so important and how they can return deserts into fertile lush green landscapes...

 

So the first step is getting chicken. I mixed a Thai fighting chicken from my father in law with a Brahma and had the first chick... 

Now my wife got hands on 14 Plymouth Rocks which will be added to the existing little flock... 

Nothing wrong with to use chicken as starter..

 

Goats were also planned in about 5 years

...mistake:

 

Since the Thai company, who was building my bridge to the island, did an exeptional good job, I told them that the BBQ after the bridge is completed, will be thrown in by me.

They just should tell my wife what they want to eat, I pay for...

They wanted Goat on the spit, so I told my wife to get two goats on the spit...

 

Well:

The meat was delivered and eventually all were eating Lab moo, Som Tum as they called me to say thank you...

 

I asked my wife why she not bought goat meat as agreed...

After a bit up and down, she told me that the meat delivered was pretty much alive and nobody wanted to kill these two goats.. 

 

Nothing more to say as they are way too early on our farm, but now we got them. 

My wife and our people promised that the tree collection will be unharmed and they promised to take the goats out on a lead into the neighbring fields and forest like walking the dogs...

 

Here "Super" a Boer Billy Goat, nice stinker, able to piss all over himself to have a good smell for his Lady..

 

and his Lady "Boonrod" (Survivor) and already pregnant, congrats.. 

 

so we came to our first goats and if I see only one leaf missing in my fruit tree collection, I posted further above where I will build my BBQ place..... 

 

If you like the thread I will continue posting what else is going on on our Farm and further ideas we have.

 

Cheers, Reginald

Edited June 21, 2023 by Reginald Prewster
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