REPORT FROM A SMALL FARM IN BOONVILLE
Still Winter
L. is weed whacking the lower field and the scent of grass cuttings permeates the air. S. is in shorts and t-shirt weeding the garlic row. N. is grappling Thornless blackberry vines out of the D'Anjou pear tree and onto the trellis. T. and P. are in the kitchen canning strawberry jam and labeling previously canned jars while breathing the sweet smell of cooking strawberries. C. and S. are up the driveway sheet rocking a cargo container to keep the cool in.
It's a hot 90+ degrees. Nearly everything is in bloom and the air is buzzing with bees and bugs, chattering birds, and fresh with jasmine perfume putting us all in a daze.
Idyllic, no? What's wrong with this picture? It's perfect and we love it, BUT it's still winter. True, spring is days away, but here it's already summer. All the cool season crops are heading to flower and those just planted are dying of heat exhaustion. Beautiful and scary.
There's another month and a half until the traditional last frost date. The rain season is nearly at an end and there's been slightly more than half the usual amount. The flies, wasps, yellow jackets, and snakes are already out of hibernation. It's wonderful and unnerving, but nature will prevail. We're hopeful that we will too.
Happy Spring everyone….
Nikki Auschnitt and Steve Krieg
SARAH SONGBIRD
Our first garden planted in our new home
Audrey Hepburn said, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Many of you might know that being in the garden is one of my happiest places. I owned a retail plant nursery called ‘Goodness Grows’ for five years, and worked there for six years before that. I sold the business so that I could move on to making music full-time, but those years were very formative for me.
Having my hands in the Earth, and investing my time and energy in health and beauty and nutrition is incredibly important to me. It uplifts my spirit while it strengthens my body. Those of you that know me, know that I’ve worked really hard to be able to get back to being able to get out and do this work with relative physical ease. At this time when so much feels uncertain and heavy, putting down roots is something that feels sane and positive and necessary. As Lukas Nelson says, in his beautiful song ‘turn off the news and build a garden.’
A garden is a perfect expression of the cycle of life. A seed gets planted. It sprouts and grows. You water it and weed it and tend it while it rises into its fullest potential. Then comes the delicious harvest. Then it wanes - and rots; becomes compost and goes dormant. It sits and waits for the next season, until the cycle begins again.
We all live in this cycle. It can’t be more more more bigger and better all the time. We need to listen to that cycle and allow ourselves to be a part of it.
Yesterday, I really felt that cycle in the garden again.
Thanks to Imwalle Gardens, the loveliest farm stand in Santa Rosa. It’s a family farm that’s been in operation since the 1880s, and they sell beautiful produce and veggie and herb and flower start and garden amendments. It felt really nourishing to walk into that place. I am grateful for all the work that they did to help make it easier for me to start over here in our new home.
I am also so grateful to Jon for being part of this vision of home and garden and health and happiness. I couldn’t do without you, Sweetie, and it’s so much more delicious together.
Happy Equinox everyone.
Green Blessings
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