I have had too much good coffee this morning- what better way to find the headroom for blogging?
Making the transition to the Berry's, moving our little boxes and trying not to think too much about the sadness of leaving Mountain Gardens. My home has been this beautiful little garden in which I've had the opportunity to play out my beautiful green fantasies, been willing to be open more to everything, have had room to love my incredible co-working rock star community pardners. I've fallen in love six times this season, a few times for the second or third round. It's amazing how green will do that to you. We spent our last week at Joe's cooking beautiful lunches for his Peace Corps reunion/yurt workshop with Bill Coperthwaite. I am now in love with Bill, and I'm trying to think of reasons to go to Maine and hike the hour through the woods to his house after getting there by canoe. Anyway, it's a beautiful little round wooden structure with a big skylight circle in the ceiling, cedar shingles and windows all the way round. I whittled the top shingles with Bill's really good knife, and they fit perfectly, I hear. Mike did a lot of work on shingling and putting the boards inside the walls, and I hammered so much! I also sawed singles (which is nothing) and contributed significantly to the meals. I am beginning to realize how great it is to make delicious, nutritious food for folks and have them compliment and appreciate it. You don't get that so much with room-mates.
To report on recently practiced foodways, I've got almost a half gallon of blueberry jam preserves made with a little bit of raw wildflower honey stocked up now, as well as a half gallon of watermelon rind pickle preserves, a pint of pickled purslane, half gallons of dried red clover, a mix of red beebalm flowers and dried mountain mint, dried raspberry leaves, a gallon of mountain mind mead, 3 of red clover/lemonbalm/borage mead, and I spent all day running the still over the fire on the deck yesterday for nearly 2 gallons of 92% alcohol for tincturing. I guess this runs over into medicine, but if I've learned nothing from Susun Weed it is that medicine and food necessarily blend. I suppose I've also picked that up a little more strongly watching and tasting Jesse's beer brewing- I've never had "Wood Tea" Chinese tonic cider before this season. In any case, this season I've made tinctures of black haw, motherwort, goji/schizandra/licorice, borage and mimosa flowers. With the alcohol we made I'm planning to tincture siberian motherwort, california poppy, maybe more mimosa flower, holy basil (if possible), more borage, and more I have not yet decided. The fact that I have so much alcohol hadn't hit me until the still finished running yesterday. I'm still a little in shock.
Plans for the future! Me and the boy are going on back up to the midwest for October for wedding, birthday, end of the harvest, working, etc. I think from there we may head to this fella in Tennessee's abode, a kind older man with an orchard and berry production. Joe Hollis thinks highly of him, as the Hidden Springs nursery he began specialized in unusual varieties. I'm actually pretty excited to meet him and his wife, to spend time with them- we'll most likely be stopping to meet them on the way up to Illinois. I'm putting my eggs a little bit in that basket, as I'm not so keen to experience the North Wind through these great big mountains this winter. Perhaps we'll leave the country to visit central America beginning of next year, perhaps I'll make some money and somehow arrange to go to the Chestnut herb school in Asheville next season, maybe we'll work in the piedmont biofarm/biofuel coop for a bit, maybe we'll stay with the Berry's a bit this winter, maybe next spring. This world is our little oyster clammy.
I miss my friend Katie. Worth mentioning. She is in southern France enjoying the Mediterranean and doing it with her long-haired Frenchie boyfriend. :D Maybe she'll come back to go to herb school with me, then stash me in her luggage to go to Nova Scotia. O! We'll meet Jesse there in his little yurt mushroom paradise. Also! We can go to Bill's place and look at his incredible yurt in the quiet forest and check out the fjords. I think I just made a life plan.
To finish this up and shoot off this little missive, we went to the Permaculture Gathering drum circle/ritual/Goddess dance party last night, and it was nice to see folks I've taken workshops with and from, as well as conference folks, and a few neat people I met last year at the gathering. This year was much less intense for me- for one thing a middle-aged couple didn't smoke me up with herb too good for me this year. We stuck around 'til the end, the boys explored their inner depths with some sort of fungi, I held the stray puppy Mahra found and hung out with a little girl who walked her around a lot, and we made fun of the white people dancing all funny. It was pleasing. The after party was fun, too, but I was too tired to repeat details accurately, and for the protection of certain fellows I won't attempt to recall.
Good day, and be well, friends.
Making the transition to the Berry's, moving our little boxes and trying not to think too much about the sadness of leaving Mountain Gardens. My home has been this beautiful little garden in which I've had the opportunity to play out my beautiful green fantasies, been willing to be open more to everything, have had room to love my incredible co-working rock star community pardners. I've fallen in love six times this season, a few times for the second or third round. It's amazing how green will do that to you. We spent our last week at Joe's cooking beautiful lunches for his Peace Corps reunion/yurt workshop with Bill Coperthwaite. I am now in love with Bill, and I'm trying to think of reasons to go to Maine and hike the hour through the woods to his house after getting there by canoe. Anyway, it's a beautiful little round wooden structure with a big skylight circle in the ceiling, cedar shingles and windows all the way round. I whittled the top shingles with Bill's really good knife, and they fit perfectly, I hear. Mike did a lot of work on shingling and putting the boards inside the walls, and I hammered so much! I also sawed singles (which is nothing) and contributed significantly to the meals. I am beginning to realize how great it is to make delicious, nutritious food for folks and have them compliment and appreciate it. You don't get that so much with room-mates.
To report on recently practiced foodways, I've got almost a half gallon of blueberry jam preserves made with a little bit of raw wildflower honey stocked up now, as well as a half gallon of watermelon rind pickle preserves, a pint of pickled purslane, half gallons of dried red clover, a mix of red beebalm flowers and dried mountain mint, dried raspberry leaves, a gallon of mountain mind mead, 3 of red clover/lemonbalm/borage mead, and I spent all day running the still over the fire on the deck yesterday for nearly 2 gallons of 92% alcohol for tincturing. I guess this runs over into medicine, but if I've learned nothing from Susun Weed it is that medicine and food necessarily blend. I suppose I've also picked that up a little more strongly watching and tasting Jesse's beer brewing- I've never had "Wood Tea" Chinese tonic cider before this season. In any case, this season I've made tinctures of black haw, motherwort, goji/schizandra/licorice, borage and mimosa flowers. With the alcohol we made I'm planning to tincture siberian motherwort, california poppy, maybe more mimosa flower, holy basil (if possible), more borage, and more I have not yet decided. The fact that I have so much alcohol hadn't hit me until the still finished running yesterday. I'm still a little in shock.
Plans for the future! Me and the boy are going on back up to the midwest for October for wedding, birthday, end of the harvest, working, etc. I think from there we may head to this fella in Tennessee's abode, a kind older man with an orchard and berry production. Joe Hollis thinks highly of him, as the Hidden Springs nursery he began specialized in unusual varieties. I'm actually pretty excited to meet him and his wife, to spend time with them- we'll most likely be stopping to meet them on the way up to Illinois. I'm putting my eggs a little bit in that basket, as I'm not so keen to experience the North Wind through these great big mountains this winter. Perhaps we'll leave the country to visit central America beginning of next year, perhaps I'll make some money and somehow arrange to go to the Chestnut herb school in Asheville next season, maybe we'll work in the piedmont biofarm/biofuel coop for a bit, maybe we'll stay with the Berry's a bit this winter, maybe next spring. This world is our little oyster clammy.
I miss my friend Katie. Worth mentioning. She is in southern France enjoying the Mediterranean and doing it with her long-haired Frenchie boyfriend. :D Maybe she'll come back to go to herb school with me, then stash me in her luggage to go to Nova Scotia. O! We'll meet Jesse there in his little yurt mushroom paradise. Also! We can go to Bill's place and look at his incredible yurt in the quiet forest and check out the fjords. I think I just made a life plan.
To finish this up and shoot off this little missive, we went to the Permaculture Gathering drum circle/ritual/Goddess dance party last night, and it was nice to see folks I've taken workshops with and from, as well as conference folks, and a few neat people I met last year at the gathering. This year was much less intense for me- for one thing a middle-aged couple didn't smoke me up with herb too good for me this year. We stuck around 'til the end, the boys explored their inner depths with some sort of fungi, I held the stray puppy Mahra found and hung out with a little girl who walked her around a lot, and we made fun of the white people dancing all funny. It was pleasing. The after party was fun, too, but I was too tired to repeat details accurately, and for the protection of certain fellows I won't attempt to recall.
Good day, and be well, friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment