Kiwi on trellis over compost bin

Kiwi is king of all the fruits. Over the years I’ve compared all the fruits with each other and the kiwi always comes out supreme. Even so, fruit has no where near the overall nutritional value of veggies. Mostly, I see fruit as a healthy candy. Although, it’s true that each variety usually wins high honors in a few nutrient categories. The amazing thing about kiwi is how it even surpasses many a veggie on this score(1).

Watch out though, least you plan to eat scores of them daily. The kiwi contains a lot of papain or something similar that really tenderizes your mouth meat (i.e., papain, an enzyme present in papaya, breaks down the tough meat fibers; it is sold as a component in powdered meat tenderizer).

The kiwi has a few other wonders up its fuzzy sleeve as well. I’ve grown them for twenty plus years and never found an insects or disease on them. Must be the papain? I never water them, which in California means 6 months without rain. They are on river bottom soil here which may explain that somewhat.  They produce copiously, and are ready to pick around Christmas here. The only other fruit that’s ripe and ready here in winter are oranges and lemons. Finally, their vines provide great shade in summer and shed leaves in the fall to let the light in. I have my kiwi on a trellis over the compost area which keeps it shady in summer (a good thing), and beautifies that space as well – not that compost isn’t beautiful mind you.

Hmm, I should apply for a job at a kiwi promotional company. It would be a lot easier to promote than Taoism.

(1) This table first shows the nutrients in 3.5 oz of kiwi, next the nutrients in 7 lbs. of kiwi which is the amount you would need to eat to get the necessary (more or less) 2000 calories per day. The surpluses here are based on the 7 lbs. of kiwi. Not that you’d want to eat only kiwi for all your calorie needs of course. Comparing nutrients as though you were just going to eat 2000 calories worth is the best way I’ve found to get the nutritional ‘big picture’.

A bed of my winter kale

Jesus said ‘man shall not live by bread alone’. Still, as this blog chews mostly on ‘non bread’ matters, I thought I’d put in a good word for food today…

I just harvested my first bed of kale recently. As far as I know, this is the most nutritious vegi on the planet. Of course, kale just boiled and served can soon get old. Chinese stir fry is better. I’m experimenting with ways to eat more of it between meals as a snack. Chopped up with added spices (chili, soy, tahini, lemon, garlec) and semi dried works well. So well in fact I’ll plant even more this month and next.

Examine the nutrient chart below to see just how perfect kale is. RDA is the USDA’s ‘recommended daily amount’. If you only ate kale, you’d have to eat 8 pounds of it to give you the 2000 calories you need daily. But just look at the incredible surplus of essential minerals and vitamins you’d get. Even if you only ate a fraction of that 8lbs. you’d doing far better nutrition wise than before.

Kale is extremely cold hardy which made it one of the choice staples in Siberia (and they needed all the nutritional help they could get). Kale is also remarkably insect and disease resistant.

So, if you have a plot of land do your biology a favor and plant kale. It is easy to grow, and if you let some go to seed, little kale sprouts will pop up here, there and everywhere. To optimize this, all you need do is pluck the seedlings out and replant them with enough space between.

Well, that’s all for now from farmer carl (actually, Carl means ‘farmer’ in Swedish as I recall… or was it ’strong man’?).

Who is doing the better yoga?

Compare this photo of son Kyle and I doing a forward bend. My bend is the result of decades of bending, while Kyle’s represents more the beginning stages of a forward bend. In truth though, we are at the same stage; we are both beginners. Any activity you do fully always places you at a virtual beginning. In this case, doing yoga fully means I thrust forward to the point where I am at my limit. Kyle is doing the same. We are both at our limit, we are both beginners.

This is not the way we usually see things. When judging ‘the book by its cover’ it appears that Kyle is the beginner and I am the master, far beyond his stage. Seeing it this way is false, as well as unfortunate. One easily comes away with the view, “I can’t do that”, thinking that the goal is to bend forward a certain degree. Again, the only goal in yoga is to do the task at hand fully and honestly. And this applies to all action: giving yourself to the task at hand is ‘consecrated action‘ as the Bhagavad-Gita puts it. When one does that, one is always a beginner, regardless of how it appears to the outside world.

If one is always a beginner why bother showing images of what appears to be advanced? That just sets up false goals or false limits, i.e., “I’ve got to do that” or “I can’t do that”. This is somewhat unavoidable for we are innately driven to compare and compete. Even so, this is an essential stage in its own right. If we are inspired by a ‘book’s cover’ we’ll look inside. We need competition and comparison along with role models and ideals to help us begin.

Alas, we’re unable to appreciate being a beginner in the beginning. We want to get better! So we struggle on to the next stage. Chapter 36 sums up all this perfectly: If you would have a thing weakened, you must first strengthen it. Once those competitive, comparative and idealistic aspects are weakened, we’re able to return to the beginning. Patience though, it took me decades of yoga to return here – and I’m still arriving.

I suppose you could say we begin at the end and travel back to the beginning. From a correlations point of view that makes total sense, i.e., time stays backward, energy move forward. Odd.

Tai Chi at the beach

Anyone having trouble with Tai Chi? I have just uploaded a video that shows the form in both mirrored and frontal image which may help. My wife has managed to learn the basic movements by just watching the video. When used along with Cheng’s book I reckon it should be even more effective. Go ahead, try it out!