SEEDS, SOUND & NUTRIENTS . . . PUEBLO
PROGRAM
The key is the seed – and
the sound. And so when the sun set on the demonstration plot operated by Gabriel
Howearth at some 60 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, San Juan Pueblo, the
young gardener-farmer plays marimba music to herbs planted in a multi-crop
circle.
Howearth was working in a
California greenhouse when he first started experimenting with sound. Then he
read about it in The Secret of Life of Plants. As he worked in different
parts of the greenhouse, he went about his business with music as a background.
He tried rock music, country music, folk music, and 13 string sitar, an
instrument from India.
"Rock music killed some
plants," Howearth now recalls. "Funky country music did about the
same." Plants seemed to do average on folk music. But music from the
sitar seemed to mellow the life-style of all the greenhouse plants, and they
recited their thanks by growing better than ever. That was about ten
years ago. And Howearth forgot about it until Dan Carlson came along with his
program of sound and nutrients.
But that is getting well ahead
of the story.
Gabriel Howearth believes in
native seeds, and for the past several years he had made himself a one-man army
hard on the hunt for the generic materials available in the survivors. Seeds
from Indian pots have been carbon dated to be 800 years old, and still some 80%
of them have germinated. In fact there are records of seeds thousands of years
old that have germinated.
Gabriel Howearth came by his
zeal and ability quite naturally. He assembled some of his expertise while
working and learning with Indians in Central and South America. Shortly before
he came to the beautiful Rio Grande bottoms on the San Juan Pueblo of northern
New Mexico, he managed a 600-acre biological farm in Oregon, often rubbing
shoulders with Richard Alan Miller, the herb specialist and author of The
Potential of Herbs as a Cash Crop. In fact herbs are never far out of mind
at San Juan. Planted in rows or on the pattern of the Zia medicine wheel are no
less than 140 kinds of herbs. This is fitting, for the Zia wheel – a sort of
circle gardening – is the symbol of New Mexico, an embodies the central pivot
concept.
The San Juan Pueblo
Agricultural Project was started a year ago last summer with a modest grant. In
turn, the Pueblo hired Howearth who in turn grew a small demonstration garden of
35 varieties of chili and sweet pepper. Pueblo leaders were impressed. This year
Howearth expanded the operation to about three acres, and handled a biological
farming class through Talavaya Institute in Santa Fe on the side.
There was a time when Pueblo
her-based Indians planted their
corn and apples, bartered for other necessities, and rarely saw money. Then came
WWI and jobs off the reservation. The 2,000 acres of excellent farm land, with a
superb water supply available, soon ceased being farmed. A year ago, hardly 50
acres of land were being tilled. It may be a bit more this year, but weeds and
scrub brush are more common than neatly handled row crops. Old timers who once
kept the seed strains alive have passed from the scene, albeit not without the
attention of Howearth. Whenever possible, he obtains an ear of corn grown 40
years ago, and kept in the family, his aim being propagation of seeds that rate
well above hybrids, even better than surviving open pollinated varieties still
being marketed by individual farmers. Indian corns have 17 to 18% protein and
deliver as much as 185 bushel per acre under ideal conditions.
Of course, these ancient corns
seldom grow under ideal conditions. They usually endure drought, extreme heat
and the rigors of the desert – and still they produce. Howearth has made it
his job to bring the red corn back, to cause the richest of the multi-colors to
survive. Mandan red sweet will produce an average of five ears off one seed,
sometimes more. Using sound and nutrients, Howearth was able to get one such
plant to deliver 14 ears of corn.
In addition to the spices, the
demonstration plots viewed by Acres U.S.A. last month featured several
types of amaranth, quinoa, corn, beans, squash, melons, peppers, tomatoes,
cucumbers, carrots, beets, onions, radishes, potatoes, Chinese vegetables,
celery, Jerusalem artichokes, cover crops, fava beans, buckwheat, vetch, peas,
and more. Fruits grow well on the Pueblo acres, and during recent months the
come-lately farmers have been bringing old fruit trees into production.
The soil is usually as a sandy
loam (adobe loam would be more correct), low in nitrogen, calcium, phosphates,
magnesium, and organic matter. Baked by the summer sun, it takes on the
character of paving stone. pH is usually 7.8 or higher. Howearth has answered
these deficits with compost, sulfur soil, humates, seaweed extracts, and cover
crops turned in for green manure. Gentled with such kindness, the soil has
unlocked nutrients heretofore believed missing, and has delivered crops that
seem almost unbelievable to the untrained eye.
Amaranth, for instance, does
well on its own in almost any climate. At San Juan, it surpasses the unexpected.
Gabriel Howearth keeps one of Dan Carlson’s sound pulsators operative most of
the time, especially when foliar nutrients are misted across the pint-sized
farm. Fava beans 6 feet tall are commonplace, and amaranth plants – brilliant
in the golden New Mexico sun – fix heads that seem to answer a growing world
hunger problem.
The amaranth plant produces a
small seed. This seed is sprouted, used whole, ground into flour for bread or
tortillas, and all the while it retains a stable nutrient quality. It is the
most backpacked food in the world because of its short weight and payload. It
has been computed that no more than 6,000 acres could produce all the amaranth
seed needed to seed the tillable hectares needed to feed Africa. A few acres of
amaranth were treated at San Juan this year. One acre remained untreated.
Francose Wemelsfelder, a student from Holland, was busily recording the
production records from all plots when Acres U.S.A. came by. Data will
become available later on.
In regular trade channels, the
handlers and the law have ruled that many crops from the scene, usually with
shipping and grading regulations. Therefore crops like amaranth and quinoa seem
to never pass the curiosity stage. Quinoa in Latin is Chenopodium quinoa,
the mother of grains to natives in the Andean altiplano. It is an annual of the
goosefoot family and is related to amaranth and lambs quarter or pigweed in North
America. Usually it grows at 7,000 to 16,000 feet in altitude, and reputedly has
25,000 varieties. It grows in various ecological niches, even in highly alkaline
soils short on calcium, or brick-hard clays that are difficult to till. It has
five essential amino acids. It pops, sprouts, and makes excellent flour for
bread and tortillas. Grown in an environment of sound and nutrition, production
doubles and even surpasses a doubled record at times.
War on Monoculture
The spectacle of Indian corn
ears doubling in size, much like other exotic plants, had caught the attention
of Indian leaders. Heavy unemployment among Indian youth suggests a renewed
interest in farming.
Walter Dasheno, a planner with
Planning and Economic Development, Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, has
hopes for an agricultural comeback. Indians are taking renewed pride in their
culture and in the potential of land and water within their reach. At the same
time the lure of the city is turning to dross.
An early trainee, Chester
Aguino, was four years unemployed before he took on a job at the demonstration
farm. There his exposure has been to more than production toil. Sound economics
has figured. His mentor has provided the insight.
Gabriel Howearth views Indian
agriculture as having potential on two fronts. First, each Pueblo can propagate
new crops that have potential for feeding a hungry world, the trades
notwithstanding. Second, seeds and herbs can provide maximum profit from small
acreages. War on monoculture, Howearth believes, can hold the answer. And seeds
are the trump card.
The instances are too many to
be included here.
Still, for instance, it
is a fact that melons yield about $15,000 worth of seeds an acre, this compared
to a more $3,000 from the fruit itself. An "ecologically grown"
designation ups the price. Ancient seeds propagated at a time when giant
corporations are trying to gain a corner on seeds via hybridization, merger, and
high-dollar acquisitions, may help absolve mankind for a crime future
generations are not likely to forgive – the annihilation of germ plasma.
Matchless weather, soil that
can be rehabilitated and balanced, and plenty of water are being seen as hole
cards in the fight to recapture some of the old values. And there is the matter
of the music.
Not many farmers can identify
with the concept of opening the stomata of a leaf with the music of India, but
seeing is rapidly becoming believing. Mike Mizokami, president of Mizokami of
Arizona, a large vegetable marketing firm, came by the demonstration plot to see
if Indian lands can answer some of his firm’s fantastic demand for
ecologically produced food. Mizokami believes in the basics, and he sees the
basics falling into place – and the potential great. Humates are readily
available in northern New Mexico, and even a substandard injection of that
carbon source has turned adobe into mellow soil. Howearth figures more of the
same is indicated in seasons to come.
In the meantime the sound
machine chirps much "as if we were in an Amazonian jungle," Howearth
says. The plants set records, either by producing added bins and bushels, or by
growing in a setting where they are said not to grow. Use of Dan Carlson’s
Sonic Bloom nutrients is being credited with reclaiming seeds that might not
otherwise germinate. This is important to Howearth and the Project. For word has
already come out of high level scientific arenas that species of plants are
disappearing from the earth much faster than scientists can collect and study
them. The consequences could be devastating. It is being calculated that without
preventive measures, 20,000 of the 250,000 known species of plants will
disappear by the year 2050. Moreover, the steady march to hybrids for control of
seeds is setting the stage for world famine.
-- Acres U.S.A.,
November 1985
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