Komohana Research and Extension Center, Hilo, Hawaiʻi · October 1–3, 2015

Natural Farming Symposium 2015

A day of talks and hands-on skill shares in Hilo, a day of panels, then farm tours and a film. 25 recordings: nine talks including Drake Weinert's keynote, six demonstrations on the lawn, eight panels, a short ceremony and hallway interviews. Every one is checked line by line and boiled down to what was made, what was measured and what was only told.

Read what it all adds up to →

Also on the record: Konkuk 2016

Topics microbes soil economics policy health taro culture food pigs scale protectors research biochar fermentation minerals school gardens Clear

2 talks on “medicine”

Kim Chang ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·21 min

Medicine (OHN): Five Herbs, Six Jars, Three Months

Kim Chang shows a crowd on the lawn how she makes Medicine (OHN): angelica, licorice and cinnamon soaked in beer, ginger and garlic packed with brown sugar, each in its own jar, then vodka poured on and poured off every two weeks, five times. She mixes the finished extracts two parts angelica to one part of each of the others and dilutes the mix 1 to 1,000. It takes about three months, and she says six half-gallon jars give a little over six gallons.

Found Dry herbs: one-third of the jar, beer to the half line, 1–2 days

brown sugar dilution fermentation garlic ginger medicine

Drake Weinert ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·86 min

Liquid Wood Chips and the 1:2:2 Maintenance Mix

Drake Weinert, introduced by Vincent Mina, shows how he combines the natural farming solutions into ready-to-use mixes: diluted seawater, a blended-weed "liquid green manure", an IMO-4 field treatment, a 1:2:2 maintenance spray of Medicine (OHN), Food (FPJ) and Cleanser (BRV), and one add-on per growth stage. The second half is a microbe primer built on his own microscope work, then photos from a 2008 or 2009 Korea tour, a downtown Hilo street planting and his Kalanianaʻole school garden. It is also an early public version of his idea to name the solutions by what they are used for.

Found Maintenance spraying: about $175 per acre per year for vegetables, $100 for orchards

cleanser economics food medicine microbes minerals