Every Day is a School Day

Every day is a school day is a favourite expression of a friend of mine. This last weekend was a case in point.

Our Norwegian friends Sofie and Andreas (paleoterapeuten) are not only keen paleo converts and functional movers, they are also into hunting and growing their own food.

Grateful host and tired guests...

While digging our new vegetable beds, they mentioned that they've used "hugel beds" in their community garden. Hugel stands for hügel, meaning hill in German. You essentially pile up a load of dead wood and cover it with earth, giving your plants a dependable source of moisture and nutrients. We suddenly saw rotting wood with different eyes, ha ha! Lucky for us, we are surrounded by rotten wood.

Although we haven't implemented hugel culture fully (our beds aren't 6 feet high...), we do hope that the incorporation of loads of dead wood will serve our vegetables well in this windy climate and poor soil.

Chick with a death wish