Mother Nature is neat. She gives and she takes: it comes down to how we choose react to each facet in our open relationship with her that matters. Seems odd to me that we’re becoming more accepting the smoke shows each summer and that the map of BC resembles the Lite-Brite I used to play with as a kid. Yet, there are still folks out there that say climate change isn’t real.
This is only one of the reasons why I feel so strongly about the importance of growing our own food, saving seeds, choosing local and preserving. By teaching people easier ways to manage what they grow we can prepare for any surprises thrown at us, have a taste of summer all winter long and make difference.
We are so lucky to live in a valley rich in good dirt for growing and farmers that know how to use it. Every time I pedal out the meadows for a meander I am in awe of the beautiful fields full of vegetables. The Slow Food Cycle that is hosted here every August come rain, shine or smoke is great for educating us on who grows what and other local goods available. Every year there are new and exciting vendors showing us what’s possible if you experiment a little in your backyard. But it’s in these simple connections where the subconscious is fueled with ideas and relationships are forged.
So buy a big bag of carrots from Helmer’s, buy a bag of pickling cucumbers from Laughing Crow, go to the garlic festival this weekend, fill your growlers up at the breweries, stop at the food stands on the side of the road, heck, why not just join the Pemberton Food and Farm Facebook page to see who has surplus of fruit and veggies and take full advantage. Stock your freezer, stock your pantry and feel good about where your food has come from. You can definitely believe if it’s come from anywhere in this valley it’s grown with love and that my friends will leave the best taste in your mouth.
I am grateful that I love to garden (and seem to be good at it) and have the want to share my knowledge and I am so in love with this community… and, I am very grateful for Hazy IPAs on hazy days.
Pemberton is nicknamed Spud Valley for good reason. Potatoes are the number one crop grown in the valley. The soil here is amazing for growing all kinds of vegetables but potatoes especially love it. The families who immigrated from Ireland and settled here in the early 1900’s saw this and started to grow potatoes. Thus the legend of the Pemberton potato was born.
Fast forward to today. There are 9 farms in the valley growing Elite Seed Potatoes. It takes us 3 or 4 years to get a crop that we will sell and ship off our farm. We grow our potatoes strictly to sell for seed to other potato growers who then may plant them for 1 or 2 more years before they end up in a store and on your plate.
The first year starts with what we call tissue culture plants. These are basically potato plant stem cuttings produced in a plant propagation facility that is co operatively run buy the farmers. Thousands of these plants are produced and planted in the field or in a screen house.
Our operation runs a screen house. This small house will produce enough potatoes to plant 40 or 50 acres in 3 years. These plants are amazing! Whenever I plant them I just can’t believe that these tiny fragile cuttings are going to grow into anything. Watered and cared for all summer long and they do it. They grow into beautiful big potato plants that produce tiny little tubers that will then become the base of our seed crop which we will sell in 4 years.
The potatoes that we harvest from our screen house are called mini tubers. Tiny little potatoes that we harvest, in the fall, by hand and store for the winter, planting them the following spring. They will be harvested and planted 3 more times. And so begins the circle of life for the famous Pemberton Potato.
As Master Gardeners in Training, we are committed to volunteering our time in our local community to educate and answer gardening questions. We use science-based facts and we only share organic garden solutions. Our backgrounds and experience vary, but we all have something in common: the love for plants and gardening. Our title indicates that we are all-knowing… well, some of us are, and the rest of us continue to unearth the facts about all things botanical.
In early June, I was asked by Sarah Jones from Stewardship Pemberton Society if I would speak about collecting vegetable seeds and pollination at one of their free garden seminars at the Pemberton Public Library, the library is home to the Seed Library for Pemberton. Immediately said “Yes!!!” The only caveat was my experience in seed collecting was pretty much, well, non-existent. However, that did not stop my enthusiasm to dig deeper into a topic that I am sure would come up one day at one of our Master Gardener Clinics.
After much research and discovery, my confidence in the subject was better, but what impressed me more, was the significance of collecting seeds. I had no idea the socio-economic impact that seed collection had on creating healthy food systems and people.
Did you know collecting seeds helps to maintain seed health & resilience, better genetic diversity in our gardens, farms & kitchens, and can save you money? It’s no wonder as a child, my grandmother was mortified when she found us playing with her seeds; destroying hours of painstaking work, not to mention affecting her ability to grow the lovely veggies we enjoyed throughout the year.
Photo by Burcu Asvar
Many of us buy seeds from seed catalogues or at our local garden centres. Most seed companies nowadays sell F1 or Hybrid seeds that may produce seeds that are sterile or no seed at all. If they do produce seed they may not produce true to type.
If you can, choose to buy seeds that are open sourced; these are seeds that are not restricted by patents or other intellectual property rights. This keeps our food supply secure for future generations (this is where the socio-economic impact comes into play). Or better yet, take advantage of seed libraries in your community (i.e. Pemberton Seed Library).
Open pollinated seeds are non-hybrid plants which are more genetically diverse, have a greater amount of variation within the plant population, and they allow plants to slowly adapt to local growing conditions & climate year to year.
Collecting seeds requires some good planning as well as understanding the fertilization process. Pollination is key for fertilization, and it’s different depending on the type of plant. Some plants can self-pollinate (i.e. beans), while others depend on insects (honeybees being the most efficient) or by wind (i.e. corn).
Before you start to collect seeds, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
When it comes to Pollination…
Will these plants cross with any others? Is this good or bad? (usually bad)
How does this happen? (wind or insect)
What can I do to control this? Do I need anything?
Do I need a minimum of healthy seed? (do they breed as a group?)
Do they pollinate on their own and self-pollinate (need one only?)
Have I chosen the right plant for the seed?
When it comes to seed extraction and drying….
Do I need to do anything special to the seed?
Is my seed well dried and labelled?
The answers to these questions are different for each vegetable, and my recommendation is to get a good reference book on seed collection that will answer all these questions in greater detail. I have listed a few websites, and a couple of books at the end, that the Pemberton Library has ordered for its book collection.
The process of collecting seeds is easily summed up in the diagram below:
To maintain purity of seeds, they may require isolation through distance to prevent insect or wind contamination, time (being planted in stages so that the first crop sets its seeds and stops shedding pollen), mechanical isolation (i.e. using physical barriers to prevent unwanted pollen, like cloth bagging or caging), and/or hand pollination, which is the most commonly used method to produce pure seed.
Choosing seed comes down to observing the whole plant and not just the fruit, checking for disease & insect resistance, drought resistance, trueness to type, colour & shape of fruit, flavour, etc. Other factors include vigor and population size (saved from the greatest possible number of plants).
The process of removing and cleaning seeds can include washing, drying; and some plants require fermentation first.
Washing seeds (tomatoes) requires placing the collected seeds in a bucket of water, stirred with vigor to help separate viable seeds, strained, and dried on a non-stick surface (glass or ceramic dish, cookie sheet, or screen – not paper towel).
Plants that produce seeds in pods (peas) or husks (corn) are usually harvested dry, threshed to break the seed from the covering, and any chaff or debris is removed by a process called winnowing (wind).
Storing seeds is the final stage of the process. Glass or metal jars, zip lock bags, paper envelopes provide air tight homes, and make sure to keep the seeds away from heat or moisture. Ensure they are clearly labelled and stored in a cool, dark place where there is minimal temperature fluctuation.
I want to thank Sarah Jones (Stewardship Pemberton Society) and Lisa Richardson (Traced Elements) for asking me to share my new-found appreciation and knowledge about seed collection. I have an utmost respect for those gardeners and farmers who have been collecting seeds and who are able to pass down their seed from generation to generation. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, we have lost 75% of our diversity in our agricultural crops since the beginning of the last century. Having a seed library and sharing our seeds within our community plays such a significant role in the health of our food systems, and is good for our mind, body and soul.
The bell rings to start the market day. Relentless and demoralizing rain has been falling since the tents came out of the trailer and we began the set-up, two hours ago. The gutters now strung up between the tents are working well, emitting a steady stream of water into the growing pool along the back curb and the tent side walls keep us relatively rain-free inside the stall. The very air seems wet, however, and little can be done about that. Tough morning at market so far.
I’ve been selling my family farm’s produce at Vancouver farmers’ markets for 20 years, so I know how to sell potatoes in the rain. It’s just like how to do it in the sunshine, except it seems mentally harder. The difficulty lies in keeping the stall in a high state of readiness, even though it might be empty and you would prefer to be warm and dry elsewhere. Every sale matters- especially in the rain, if your farm depends on farmers’ market sales
I squeeze my way past the bins of backstock in the trailer where I have been changing out of sopping wet clothes. I have already traded a few hellos with the neighboring vendors, people I’ve seen every Saturday morning for years, but there’s been no time for more than that. I glance around to make sure all the signs are up and that the display is full: we’ve finished in time. It takes just as long to get set up in the rain as it does otherwise. Longer, of course, if you waste time regretting the situation.
The potatoes look good today, the red Chieftain and yellow Sieglinde sort of glowing in the dim light. My staff, who are making up $5 bags of potatoes and carrots, wisely refrain from discussing the weather. The vast, dripping, emptiness out in the market fairway which would normally be filled with customers eager to start shopping, lining up in advance of the opening bell, is obvious enough.
It is undeniably deserted, and despite the potatoes doing their best to provide sunshine, it feels disheartening. I give my head a shake because I think it’s too early to write this one off.
The first customer materializes- she’s a rain-or-shine regular who gave up on regular grocery stores quite a few years ago. She is followed by another I don’t recognize. A chef splashes his way in. I make sure his 20lb bag weighs at least 25. At the till, we’ll be rounding down more than usual. The customers might not notice but I don’t mind. I am feeling very benevolent towards anyone who turns up this morning.
Before I know it an hour has passed, and I realize that the potato display tables are hidden from view by the backs of customers filling bags. The stack of now empty bins in the back has risen to a level I hardly thought possible when the opening bell rang. It’s going to be a solid day, despite the rain, which might even be easing up a little.
One of my staff has been coming to market ever since she was a baby, and her mom worked for a farm vendor here before that. She’s on the first till, and I jump behind the second one, a line-up having formed of dripping wet customers who thank us for being here today when they get to the front.
It bears repeating: the rain-soaked customers are thanking us and giving us money for potatoes. In fact, now it’s so busy they are lining up to do so.
This, right here, is what makes farmers’ markets tick. People choose shopping in the rain over going to a grocery store. Farmers choose marketing in the rain over selling wholesale.
It’s what leads to the fact that farmers can make a living on an acreage that would otherwise be insufficient because they can get full retail for their produce.
The customers keep coming back for more because…well…I just don’t know. Is it the quality of the product? The contact with an actual farmer? The coffee and crepes? It might be magic. Whatever the cause, it provides me motivation to keep farming, and to keep customer service and marketing standards high. It seems like a practical way of showing the customers that I really appreciate their business.
I love being a part of this special relationship, but I worry that it won’t last. It’s so much work, there is so much to learn, and there is so much competition for customers- and surely, they won’t keep coming? I mean, sometimes they must quietly wonder if it is really all that great? The weather, the effort, the cost. All that cooking.
Customers. We need customers to make markets successful. We need to retain existing ones and win new ones who might also shop in the rain. The good news is that we are only tapping a tiny fraction of the people who buy food, so there are plenty more to be had. The bad news is that the competition out there is absolutely fierce, and nowhere else other than at farmers’ markets are customers asked to go out shopping in all sorts of weather, probably park far away, and spend perhaps a little more than they really meant to.
Farmers’ markets enjoy one major competitive advantage however, and that is something I have begun to call “mutual appreciation”. This is an energy generated at the point of contact between primary producer and end consumer at market, most notably at the transaction stage. I take your money, you take my potatoes. We are both appreciative of the other. The feeling builds each week, from season to season and year to year and really can’t be re-created in other retail environments.
The farmer can do much to cultivate the feeling of mutual appreciation in the stall. It’s about a lot more than saying “thank you”. Developing good customer service and merchandizing skills is of prime importance- pre-market preparation, and of course years of practice help too. In my opinion, it is important to put as much effort into selling the food as you spend growing it. These customers deserve that.
The farmer makes the magic that the people are coming back for. If you can also create this feeling of “mutual appreciation” in your stall, I think you’ll be able to have both tills busy, even in the rain.
Anna Helmer farms in the Pemberton Valley with her family: friends and relations. Her book is called: A Farmer’s Guide to Farmers’ Marketsand is available on amazon.com.
Sounds like a potential math write up but you’re wrong. (I would never do that to you or myself.) I will quickly remind you that I did well in said subject thanks to my dad but generally I don’t care for it… for the most part I’m a pocket calculator gal. So, let’s explore the awesomeness of rotation in a few other ways through a couple quick examples: the wheels on my bike rotate and take me to all sorts of cool places, my car takes me to work so I can afford a bike to take me to all these cool places and well, we all take a trip around the sun every year (whether we want to accept that it results in aging is a whole other conversation).
Regardless on how you define rotation, the point is – it’s good: a chance to roll past the old and explore the new. Now, let’s apply this mentality to our garden.
When I moved into our current location all that existed was a greenhouse for garden space. From what I could tell the only items that had been planted in there were tomatoes, peppers, basil and cucumbers (basically, all the standard greenhouse lovers). However. Over the last couple years I began to realize that the greenhouse location was kind of shady due to the rise of the surrounding cottonwoods and things weren’t thriving as well as they should be.
Then spider mites appeared last year… they even attacked my marigolds. I mean come on: marigolds! They are supposed to be the shit – indestructible. This led me to realize that change was mandatory. So, down came the plastic walls of the greenhouse late-ish last summer and a ton of Sea to Sky Soils compost added in the fall.
Long story short what I’m trying to get across is that planting the same thing time and time again in the same zone is no bueno. Enter the rotation factor here.
There is a simple crop rotation scheme that follows; legumes-greens-roots-fruit. Of course there are tons of don’ts and cans and “rules” that apply to make it not so simple. For instance: potatoes are considered a root and tomatoes are fruit but because they are from the same family they shouldn’t follow each other, they could harbor similar disease and pest problems for the next crop. AND THEN, if you add in the companion planting aspect it can get real strange. Here is a simple plan I came up with for an assignment that demonstrates what a 6 crop rotation could look like.
My “greenhouse” is now the greenest it’s ever been thanks to my decision to open it up and plant a bunch of greens, roots and legumes. But I think the thing to remember is that well, any rotation is better then none and adding organic matter into your beds is a surefire way to add nutrients back in and no future plant is going to disagree to that.
Stay thirsty for garden experimentation my friends!
AKA Mr. Moran, Randal John, Miracs or simply – dad.
My green thumb has been inherited through a long line of amazing gardeners. I am just barely starting to scratch the surface of my mom’s flower power, but I’ve been in deep with my dad’s veggie garden sense for longer then my subconscious knows. Most likely my conception is the root of my problem, this gardening obsession of mine.
RJ, as he’s known to most, is a “retired” teacher: one of the best. His forte is math; a subject I grew up hating, which inevitably led to a few tears at the kitchen table over algebraic equations. Overall I did well at. It’s also not a coincidence that my initials are 3 M’s. He is full of dad jokes, he is an athlete, he is highly involved in the community, he landscapes on Lake of the Woods with his other “retired” friends during the summer and he’s always up for a good time.
When it comes to gardening dad is a full experimenter.
Like father, like daughter.
Since being gifted a pocket calculator or I mean cell phone, RJ’s “we’ll see” experimental attitude has become even more evident and I love it every bit of it. (Small back-story; dad used to drill my brother, our friends and I with math problems because a calculator in our pocket was something we’d never have… so, this is a big HA! told you so moment that I’m taking full advantage of.) Really there is too much awesomeness to share and well… perhaps it’s best we keep some family secrets but allow me to enlighten you with a couple excerpts from text messages complete with photos.
“Trying something new grinding egg shells and coffee grounds putting them in the tomato holes.”
“Also tried some with an egg in the hole. Keeping track of which ones got what.”
“Planted some corn and am experimenting with Epson salts on every second row – again, we’ll see…”
“And finally my parsnips from last year that I leave in all winter – so yummy!!!”
Of course, there are the show-off photos. Dad and I have been firing pictures back and forth of what we’re growing and what’s ready to eat regularly. Rj’s last photo was of what he collected for a TRUE garden salad for dinner, claiming that icicle radishes might be his favourite at the moment but he’d like to try growing the spicy purple daikon variety I‘ve got in my plot. I’ve even been able to share video walkthroughs of my garden. Basically, we each get to live what’s in our respective gardens in a matter of seconds even though we are 2,427km away from each other: technology is very cool.
RJ’s TRUE garden salad
Perhaps the best part of RJ’s massive garden is that it’s always open for foraging to neighbors and friends. Growing more then he and mom can eat really goes to show that when you’re passionate about something and you can share it with others you get the best of both worlds.
I already know that I’ll have a lot of vegetables to share this summer as I have planted more than two of us can eat, but I’m happy to carry on this family tradition out west.
My first interactions with coffee took place on Sunday mornings. My sister and I would fight over who was going to add the sugar and milk to my father’s cup. We’d wait impatiently by the crackling coffee maker only to pull the pot away before it was finished brewing, tiny drops sizzling as they hit the hot plate. I’d sneak spoonfuls of coffee when I thought no one was watching. Always hoping I would enjoy the taste but every time I was sorely disappointed. “It’s an acquired taste” my father would say as I brought him his cup, spilling it along the way.
While finishing school, I took a part time job at a small cafe in my hometown in Quebec. It was, and still is, an adorable two storey house, along the main drag, that was converted into a cafe. There is a lush garden out front, a covered porch for rainy days and the coziest reading nook upstairs. The owner, Cindi, had lived a decade in Vancouver and brought her coffee knowledge and West Coast style back to the shop – passion she later passed along to me. Perhaps it was the environment, perhaps it was Cindi’s deep rooted passion or a likely combination of the two, but serving coffee started to feel like home. There were the regulars who came in each day, like clockwork, each desiring a completely unique rendition of a seemingly simple drink .“Coffee”. You know how some people say dog owners kind of resemble their dogs? Well, this is how I began to feel about people and their coffees.
I appreciated the uniqueness (of both the coffee and people) and began to take pleasure in preparing each customer their individual one-of-a-kind drink. Customers came in groggy and in a rush, and I could see, with that first mindful sip, a calm wave wash over them, almost as though a little light turned on. They’d head out to conquer the day with a little more pep in their step.
When I first moved to Pemberton a little over 6 years ago, my first mission, naturally, was to seek out the best cup of coffee. I had become rather particular over the years in precisely what I was looking for in an espresso. You could say, I had finally acquired the taste. I was delighted when I came across Mount Currie Coffee co. Walking into the shop for the first time, before even tasting the coffee, I just knew it was going to be good. The Synesso espresso machine steamed away and the smell of a finely roasted espresso filled the air. It wasn’t long before I applied for a barista position and became part of the MCCC team, and got to know the amazing Pemberton locals and their drinks of choice.
If you don’t know, coffee is grown in areas within the “coffee belt” or “coffee bean belt” which hovers around the equator, in countries such as Mexico, Columbia, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, etc.
Coffee trees also need an average altitude between 1800-3600 ft to grow to produce a high quality bean.
The bean itself is the seed of a coffee cherry that grows on these trees. The cherries are most often handpicked, processed (a laborious pulping process that removes the flesh of the cherry and dries the bean), transported in large burlap sacks as “green beans”, roasted (which is an art in and of itself), packaged, ground, brewed and finally served to the consumer.
It’s an amazing journey and I’ve always felt privileged to be the last one that gets to put my spin on it before the consumer gets to enjoy it. It’s a lot of responsibility to make sure that bean gets the attention it deserves after such a journey.
A coffee cupping at PalletThe evolution of a coffee bean being roasted
There is a lot to know about coffee and each step in the process seems to be just as important as the next. It’s sort of art meets science meets farming which are all of my favourite things.
I could nerd out and talk about coffee for days and I don’t even know all there is to know about coffee. How could you? There’s just so much to know! Which is why I am so excited to be taking my coffee knowledge and skills to the next level with MCCC.
Pemberton, there are some exciting new things coming your way in the world of coffee!
Get your travel mugs ready and stay tuned — there’s some buzzing coming from the industrial park.
Whew! All this talk about coffee, I’m off to get myself an italiano (8oz double shot americana). Yum!
Oh sure, as you drive up the valley and see all those beautiful farms, crops growing, people happily hoeing, tractors making the rounds, it all seem so peaceful and idyllic.
There is a behind the scenes though.
All that machinery and the tractors that pull it can pose a mechanical nightmare for farmers. They will most likely blow a gasket when you need them the most. Farming is an occupation that consists of a lot of frustration tempered with an equal amount of patience. There are times, I’m sure, when all of us have wanted to burn it all down.(Metaphorically speaking of course).
What can go wrong will go wrong. That seems to be the motto here at Shaw Creek Farms these days. Spring has sprung, summer is almost upon us and we have been faced with one mechanical disaster after another this spring.
First it was the tractor. A behemoth of a machine. Needed for damn near every job on the farm. The doohickey that connects the whatsit to the thingamabob broke. That is about as technical as I get. When my husband talks to me about tractor parts I know I should be paying close attention but all I really hear is the teacher’s voice from Charlie Brown. After numerous calls to the John Deere dealer the doohickey was ordered and picked up, in Kamloops, by my son and me.
The rotavator was the next to go. We had two fields left to till when smoke started pouring out of it. Never a good sign. The parts for this machine are so expensive they will be referred to in this paragraph by $$$$. Another call in to a different dealer followed by emails with photos and the $$$$ was ordered. We have to wait two weeks because, apparently these $$$$ have to come from the ends of the earth.
Next up, the fertilizer spreader. The thingy that wings the fertilizer out onto the ground disintegrated. Need a new one. Call in to John Deere again who then has to call Vicon, maker of said spreader. They then send it to John Deere, who then sends it to us. Thingy picked up and put back on. Spreader winging fertilizer again. But wait… not an hour later and here comes the tractor, backing the spreader into the shop. I know my husband is at the end of his rope because when I ask what’s wrong he silently points to the arm thingy that spins the wingy thingy. Off it comes and into the truck with it he goes. He’s not even calling the dealers now. He’s just heading straight to a neighbour’s farm to see what he’s got. Nope, the one the neighbour has is the wrong one. BUT WAIT. Up on the wall of the neighbour’s shop! There it is, hanging there. The part he needs! Praise be to Thor, God of tractor parts! (It’s got to be him right? He does carry a hammer.)
I really hope our run of bad luck is at an end.( I didn’t even mention the tractor tire that was one lug nut from falling off.) They say bad luck runs in threes. Ours just happen to be multiples of three. We’ll get there, the potatoes will get planted and they will be up out of the ground. Then this ‘springus horriblus’ will be but a memory.
In the meantime… patience.
*Michelle Beks is having a hard time getting anything done with her fingers crossed.
Once upon a time way back in the day, as my made-up legend goes, a farmer tripped and fell returning from the chicken coop, smashing his eggs. A couple of valuable lessons were learned at that moment that still ring true today. Firstly: “Don’t put your eggs all in one basket.” Another adage, assuming the eggs were fertile, is “don’t count your chickens until until your eggs have hatched.”
Now these wise words go well beyond the tragedy of broken eggs with respect to farming. The true moral of the story is life in nature is unpredictable and there are so many variables. Therefore DIVERSITY is your best insurance when raising crops or even livestock. Nothing is guaranteed, until the final transaction.
The rise of monocultures, factory farms and GMOs that treat food as commodities is both foolish and greedy. What was originally designed to provide food security for the masses now appears to be doing the opposite. Mad cow disease, avian Flu, threats to bees, extinction of heirloom gene pools are all human-made problems. Mother Nature always knows best and I think she’s pissed off at our shenanigans.
Seeing huge fields of one variety of apples in Washington state, or whole towns in California boasting they are the __________ growing capital of the world, makes my blood boil. Talk about risky. Take Gilroy, California, for example. For decades the commercial garlic exporter for all North America was hit with an untreatable white rot mould. This has opened the market for an even bigger producer, China, to dump tons of low quality, bleached, and irradiated toxic garlic on the market. Yuk! Or worse, the potato famine in Ireland, growing one variety of a single staple, all destroyed by blight, starving millions and displacing more.What happens today when a pest or disease goes rampant? The answer is almost always more chemical pesticides. What about nutrient depletion? More chemical fertilizers of course. What about weather related? The droughts, hailstorms, floods – the things we read about in the news somewhere in the world daily and exacerbated by climate change? Often its government bailouts and huge insurance claims or bankruptcy. Why are humans so shortsighted and stubborn? We have been cultivating food successfully for thousands of years. Why did we have to change the program?
Biodiversity is the key to every balanced ecosystem and we have to look at our gardens in this light.
At our farm we plant a half dozen different fruit trees every year, not just for variety but more for security. Fruit set often takes a rest after a bumper crop. It’s cyclical like so many things in nature. Pollination is also variable, dependant in temperature, bugs, wind and other factors beyond our control. Remember when we try to control nature it usually backfires. So we have to learn our lessons from our observations, trials and errors taking our clues from nature. Mother knows best.
Traced Elements 