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Uncovered History

These are two pieces of ceramics I came across in the last month.  It’s funny, I don’t think I’ve ever come across old ceramics here in the ground, so twice in one month is all that much more unusual.

On the top is by far the most special find.  This was found by the contractor working on my house foundation, and it’s a 300+ year old piece of Makkumer tile, made by the oldest still operating business in the country, Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum. It’s also still a family business, passed on from one generation to the next.  This will be the last generation however, because the current generation of children have other interests.

The piece of ceramic below, I don’t know much about other than it appears to be part of a lid to something, because underneath is a lip to hold it in place.  I doubt it’s more than 100 years old, but I don’t know.  I found it while digging in my community garden.  The previous gardener had built a foundation for a greenhouse by driving fence posts deep into the ground, and in the course of removing them I had to dig a very deep hole.  I found this piece of ceramic about one meter deep.

It’s really quite a vivid blue color for being so old, and it makes me wonder a bit what kind of very toxic chemicals may be in the glaze.  Anyone have any idea?  Cobolt maybe?  We were just discussing this kind of thing here.

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EmmaCooper.org

Within hours of me announcing my new domain, fellow blogger Emma Cooper in the UK also announced her new domain, EmmaCooper.org.  Emma is a blogger, podcaster, writer, gardener, chicken raiser and who knows what else.  She and her partner Pete have been working hard the last days and weeks preparing a new website, where you can read more about her and what she does.

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Stumped

One of the advantages of having a garden with lots of water in the ground is stump removal!

Over the last few years I’ve taken on a total of three plots at the community garden, and ended up with a lot of fruit trees.  At one point I had five plum trees, three of them full sized, and I just needed to get rid of a few.  The plum tree that used to be part of this stump was also too close to the greenhouse, and its roots had worked their way into the greenhouse and were sucking all the nutrients out of the ground.  One of the previous gardeners also planted a number of trees too close to each other, and so some of these needed to be removed.

Anyway, I’m done cutting down trees for the moment, and on to stump removal.

The picture above is the second full sized plum tree stump I’ve removed.  I learned a lot from the first tree.  Most importantly is plum trees, and I hope the other fruit trees I have stumps for too, don’t appear to like their roots to be sitting in water.

Here’s a close up of the stump.  Do you see how all the roots go outwards, and are at about the same level?  None of the roots go down into the water table.

All I had to do was go around with a pruning shears (secateurs) for the smaller roots and a saw for the larger ones, and cut them off.

Then I could just roll the stump out of the hole.  The picture above is the loose stump just sitting on the ground.

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Brussels Action 17-18 April 2011 — Food, Wine and Song

One of the fantastic things about getting a group of people like this together, was all the great food!

The evening before, when most people coming from out of town were arriving, they held a potluck dinner.  Can you imagine, seed savers coming from all over Europe, bringing with them things from their own gardens or local markets?  Since people were arriving over the course of the evening, dishes kept getting added to the buffet, so it was possible to go back every hour or so for more…  Many people brought local breads and cheeses.  A number of farmers were present, and some meats were on offer that looked very home made.

The day of the seed swap vegetarian meals were provided by „popular kitchen” of the „collectif du 123”.  It was really nice!

When the seed swap and workshops were over, day turned to evening and the music started.  The organic drinks came out, and the celebration began.  This band played salsa and world music:

On the day of the demonstration itself, great sandwiches were served for lunch and during the march we had a little impromptu music…

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Brussels Action 17-18 April 2011 — The GMO Garden

The conclusion of the events was the planting of a mock GMO garden in the center traffic circle of the EU Parliament complex.  They grew square tomatoes and lime green pears.  They sprayed everything with chemicals.

Everything was carefully managed by their foreman.

shown here with his assistant at his side.

At the end they appropriately decorated the statue.  The blue-green flag belongs to Via Campesina, the organization who called on this and other demonstrations around the world on the same days.