the amazing Wangari Maathi passed away a few days ago. she started the green belt movement and empowered women to make a living and make a change by planting trees. for her work and her vision, maathi was the first african woman to be awarded the nobel peace prize. a true inspiration.

we harvested the rest of our winter squash today-carnival, sunshine, confection, bon-bon (aka bon-bon barnacle bubble butt). we mowed down the corn, the summer squash, the cucumbers!!! the tomatoes are looking wimpy and all of the beautiful flowers are gonners soon too. birchville is becoming a field of flat again. it’s all coming full circle. seems not long ago that we were plopping all of those seeds in the ground to grow.
it's not all doom and gloom though. our scallions and spinach are coming up and the showy fennel flows in the breeze. the dragonflies are everywhere, making the sky busy and beautiful along with the bees. the fragrant citrus of turkey mullein fills the air and praying mantis cocoons abound.
fall. new moon in libra. balancing act.

happy mabon

the fall equinox is a good time to bring harmony and balance into your life. as the days become shorter and the nights longer until the winter sostice in december, celebrate, harvest and save seed for the dark, cold days ahead.
we have so many yummy things to eat on the farm right now like pears and corn, raspberries and winter squash. i've been collecting herbs like mugwort to dry and saving seeds from popppy's to dill. as things wind down think about what you can lay to rest and look forward to change.

today was pretty awesome. after a quick and easy harvest for the CSA (carrots, cabbage, eggplant, corn, basil, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, and melons!) we got to extract honey from our hives! it’s a once a year deal so i felt pretty fortunate to be a part of the whole process from sweeping the bees off the frames to uncapping the comb with a hot knife to holding down the huge extractor with the jumble of the spin. i ended up getting stung on the arm which made me kind of excited. i never hold a fear for that and even as the bees were swarming around us as we took their honey filled frames from their hives, i only got stung inside the shed, away from the hives as we uncapped the comb, totally random. so great though. it’s good to get stung and so damn good to eat fresh, sweet, raw, unfiltered honey- comb and all.
another highlight of the day was hearing a strange crunch noise in the distance and realizing an hour later that the pigs had gotten out. 5 big fat boys running around in our huge broccoli patch! it was such a wonderful scene. i’ve been taking care of them for the past week and have grown to adore them. i was happy they got a chance to run around free for a bit today. i think they had fun! wrangling them back into the pen was really easy too. they’re so smart and sweet.
oh and the cherry on top of the 11 hour work day of mostly fun was dinner! we made raviolis filled with zucchini, thyme and cheese with a browned butter and thyme flower sauce, yum! i’m pretty proud of my new recipe. soooo glamorous! i sleep now like the pigs, fat and happy. and thinking of my honey

today we found a baby rattlesnake in the weeds we were pulling up. tiny little rattle, slither away under the shade. moved to the creek side. then found a dead one to match. a different snake crushed flat by the tractor.
we chased a gopher out of the potato bed and then found a dead one decapitated by the tractor. we save. we kill. sometimes on purpose sometimes on accident.
praying mantis were everywhere sending their wishes i guess.