Hello from Yunnan Province, China

[ppp]

please post those photo's, particularly the wheat threshing! I grew up in a wheat + sheep area, but am trying to find ideas for low tech threshing of grains particularly pigeon pea.

[bob]

Is there a reason I can't upload any more photos on my file manager? It says "2.79 MB of 976.6 KB Used"

cheers bob

[pebble]

http://forums.permaculture.org.au/sh...2-Picture-help

[bob]

hi ppp,

have finally got some photos up on flickr so I made a special album for you on threshing around Bai Sha. Its a very productive time of the year, with the first summer rains falling (planting corn, potatoes, and sunflowers) and also the time to crop all the wheat (cut by hand, put into stokes, then threshed either at home or by the side of the road). If you want to me to find out or phot anything in particular let me know.

The flickr address for the photos is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49747206@N05/

Bai Sha is very quiet, only three customers today, but had a great clean up of the kitchen which will probably last till the end of the week! I think its been a long time.

bai sha bob

[wenshidi]

Dear Bob, Sorry for the delay in replying but I have been away travelling on a couple of consultancy projects since my last reply. I am glad to hear that things are going well for you and that you are making some steady progress. I am hoping to be back up in Yunann later in the summer to do some seed collecting. Perhaps you will be able to give me the lowdown on which are the best orchards between Bai Sha and La Shi Hai, and maybe even beyond to Wen Hai...... In the meantime, I am out on the industrial coast so if you need any big city supplies, let me know and I can try mailing them to you.
Chris

[ppp]

fantastic photos, seriously, thanks for sharing! Innovation at it's best! I might just try that for getting pigeon pea out of the pods! (though I might use a hand-pulled roller for starters!)

I look forward to more photo's!

[bob]

hi I thought I might give an update on the garden. The rain has been falling nearly every day. As this is a sub-tropical monsoonal region the rain summer is the wet season. Also because we are at 2300 metres and near Snow Dragon Mountain (Yulong Shan) the weather is cool in summer and mild in winter, perfect! Well, definitely better than Bangkok or Beijing.

As the wheat has just been harvested and threshed I decided to use threshings from the wheat leftover on the side of the road as mulch. I bought a Naxi basket (see photo of local Naxi woman using one) and hopped an my bike and rode to edge od Bai Sha. After I collected the mulch and rode back through town all the old Naxi women yelled in unison "What are you going to do with that, where are you taking it!" they thought it was hilarious.

It is perfect mulch (photo) but I found has one drawback, a week later hundred of wheat shoots come up! This is ok though as it is a small garden and I turned over all the mulch by hand to weed it. I have continued to get seedling in the market at Lijiang so now am growing chilli eggplant, spinach, basil, parsley, cabbage, tomato and beans which cropped up naturally from a previous crop that someone had planted. I cut down some bamboo and made a trellis using local cross-hatch design (photo), which looks good.

I have never really gardened before, let alone in china, so I am learning. A friend from Yunnan came and saw the garden and started yelling, "everything is too close!" The next day I thinned everything down a bit.

I am also learning how to make fruit wines. Well, they are not exactly wines. They have a base of locally made bei giu which is made out of wheat and is very strong, from 40% to 65% alcohol. Oh my god! or Oh my Lady Gaga! as they say here. See photos of local bai jiu factory in Lijiang (photos). So you buy a five litre glass jar for $5, five litres of bai jiu for $6 an then add you favourite fruit of berries, in this case 200 gms of bright red wolfberries (gou), a handful of rock sugar and maybe some dried plums for extra flavour (photos). Leave and store in bottle for at least three months. If you can wait a year is a lot better.

Next, trying to make apricot jam. Any suggestions welcome!

Today we have had two customers at the cafe so far, yesterday twenty!

the writing for the novel is going well.

cheers

Bai Sha Bob

all photos for this blog post can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/49747206@N05/sets/

[eco4560]

You've accidentally discovered green manure crops Bob!

[kelvinator3000]

Hello bob. Im coming to yunnan to look at places to start a permaculture project with my wife. We are coming at around the 15th of july and will stay in yun nan around 20 days. Is it possible to come meet you in naxi and have a look around? It seems we have a similar goal and we are still planning our trip so should be able to add a trip to your part of the woods.

My thread is CHINA-choosing my paradise to be. Permaculture in China. Asia

Kelvin

[bob]

hi kelvin,

It would be great to see you. I will be up in shanghai and south korea till around end of july - but definitely in the last week of your trip come and visit me and have a good talk. I also have a great contact for you, Keith Lyons, a NZ guy who has been here for 14 years. He knows everything and about everything and is into the same permaculture philosophy. He also has a couch-surfing place to stay in Lijiang.

Please contact me if you need anymore info.

cheers

Bai Sha Bob