"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the
changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
-Maya Angelou
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Its been awhile since Ive written, almost six months actually. Life has been both cruel and kind in its lessons. As an open hearted participant I can truly say I am always learning and growing, give thanks for evolution! Much has transpired here on the farm since the last post in August. The turkeys matured and went to their new abode in the freezer (weighing in between a whopping 30-40lbs each!). Our Wild Feast Thanksgiving was amazing. We successfully cooked our first enormous home grown turkey in the cob oven with an abundance of sage and rosemary. The bird fed almost thirty people and the chef received many happy compliments. (Thank you beautiful birds for nourishing our family!) We will definitely be raising turkeys again this year.
There is also a fairly new addition to the family. Cinnamon (aka 2G) is our new jersey cow who we bought last August from an organic dairy up north. We recently did pregnancy tests on both Cinnamon and Ginger and its looking like both girls are pregnant and due in late spring. Pretty exciting for us! The milk has been slowing down as we get ready to dry them off for a break before calving.
As the weather warms up, the bees are active and buzzing everywhere while the hillside has become lush and green. The garden is getting more productive with peas, favas, cover crops and perennial kale, collards, chard, lettuce, garlic, onions and artichokes bursting. Time to plant potatoes and start the summer squash and tomatoes in the greenhouse.
We have a ton of chayote starts this year and are excited to line all the fences with these versatile squash. Ive also ordered more perennials bushes for the food forest...aronia, seaberry, gooseberry, along with more fruit trees including mulberry, hawthorn, and Asian pear. This time of year it is hard to contain myself from ordering everything, its like having planting fever.
Classes and tours have also been going extremely well. We have been blessed with so many wonderful students and great interest in what we are creating here.
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And so as we continually work on externally developing this land we are stewarding and internally developing our character, we experience the sweet and steady; the effort and the rewards. We look forward in 2015 to implementing many new ideas, creativity, fun, travel, friendship, health and balance. Many Blessings!
