Our farm is nestled in the Sierra Mountains full of life from our plants to our animals. It has always been an importance to creating a beautiful tandem relationship amongst our land, people and animals. I love being able to wake up every morning to feed the fury and feathery creatures, it was a dream of mine to life this lifestyle away from the heavy hustle and bustle of the city. I love even more to create a circle of life from our livestock through various measures such as utilizing our leftover chicken eggshells. 12 feathery gorgeous hens reside on our six acres laying between 1-2 eggs daily. On their downtime of laying they provide us with manure for our garden beds, tilling from scratching the beds, weed and bug removal. 12-24 eggs is more than we personally need daily, so aside from gifting our neighbors with organic free range eggs we typically eat 2-4 eggs daily ourselves with 3 additional eggs for each of our dogs daily balanced meals.
So now what do we do with all of our eggshells? I save them of course in a quart sized mason jar on the counter. Once I have at least a dozen eggshells saved it is time for me to make Water Soluble Calcium or WCA. Our practice is shaped from KNF or Korean Natural Farming, new age known as JADAM which focuses on regenerative native growing practices with a heavy emphasis on reusing and repurposing your farms plants and waste. As someone who loves to cook and bake, creating Fermented Plant Juices was something that I definitely had to try to implement at our farmstead. For this specific calcium recipe our intended goal was to create an organic calcium rich nutrient from our eggshells through fermentation. Calcium a perfect building block for promoting your plant wall cells and healthy soil.
Creating WCA is just simply fun, matter of fact creating any FPJ is hella fun and one more way to connect with your plants. Whether you have your own chickens or using the eggshells from store bought there is not absolute way. Often we can connect with local businesses to have them saved their eggshells so that we can repurpose them. Using your WCA you can apply to your preferred method whether it is using as a plant drench aka mixing into your water and feeding or you can use this as a foliar feed. Foliar feeding is a great way to clean your plants off allowing their cells to be open to receiving and processing light and removing any dirt/grime buildup. The biggest thing I would like to emphasize is that we all have our own different but similar lives, using what we have on hand or what we can access will vary household to household. If you do not have organic eggshells or organic apple cider vinegar it is TOTALLY OKAY to use non-organic for your recipe.
Recipe For Water Soluble Calcium
Usage: Plant Drench or Foliar Feed
Estimated Time: 30 Minutes
Ratio: 1 Part Eggshell - 10 Part Apple Cider Vinegar
Storing Time: 5-11 Days
What you will need:
Organic 12 Eggshells Minimum
Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
Quart Sized Mason Jar
Skillet or Cast Iron Pan
Rubber Band
Cheesecloth, Paper Towel or Hand Cloth
Steps:
1) Crush up your eggshells, you can use a baggie and lightly press the bag to crush them down to centimeter or less sized pieces to ensure an even charring.
2) On medium heat, place your skillet or cast iron on the stove top, spreading your eggshells evenly.
3) With a spatula keep your eggshells moving, giving way to a light brown toast, avoid burning.
4) After 5 minutes your eggshells should be charred, remove from heat and lay out evenly to come to a complete cool down.
5) Once cooled put your eggshells into your quart sized mason jar.
6) Slowly add in your apple cider vinegar, you may consider stopping half way through to avoid fizzling up.
7) Once your apple cider vinegar reaches the first brim line you should see carbonation taking place with your eggshells rising and falling to the bottom and top, place your cheesecloth, hand rag, or paper towel over the top and secure with your rubber band.
8) Store for at minimum five days before using as an application.
Application For WCA Foliar Feed
Rate: Applying your mixture 1 teaspoon per 1 gallon of water
What You Will Need:
Petra Tool Sprayer
Measuring Teaspoon or Cup
Water
WCA
Steps:
1) Measure out your WCA and Water
2) Mix thoroughly
3) Wait until your lights are off, it is best to wait until right after your lights go off to start a foliar spray. If you are spraying in your home or outside wait until it is dusk to start spraying. Never spray in the daylight or above 95 degree F
4) Adjust your spraying so that it creates an umbrella like output, to evenly coat your plants.
5) You will start with the plants furthest back in your room or garden, working your way to the front.
6) Spraying across the plant from side to side as well as spraying inside the plant and underneath the leaves.
7) You want some excess dripping, but there is no need to go ham and over do it.
Application For WCA Plant Drench Method
Rate: Applying your mixture 1 teaspoon per 1 gallon of water
What You Will Need:
Measuring Teaspoon or Cup
Water
WCA
Clean Bucket
Steps:
1) Measure out your WCA and Water
2) Mix thoroughly
3) When you are ready to feed your plants you will water directly into the soil around the base of the plant.
4) Ideally we like to see a 10% runoff, if any water is excess on the ground wipe it up to avoid conditions that promote Powdery Mildew aka PM.