In just a few short days we will be at the Spring Equinox! Sunday, March 20th marks the first day of spring here in the northern hemisphere. You wouldn’t know it if you looked out our windows now, with more than 6 inches of snow still on the ground from a BIG storm that cam through our region on Saturday and nothing budding yet. The biggest indicator is the arrival of the robins to our little valley. With no access to food on the ground, they have opted to nibble on apples we left on one of our orchard trees. It is so heartening to see them all over the tree with their beautiful red breasts puffed out to stay warm. Fortunately, warmer temps in the 40s and 50s already has the snow melting quickly.
The Wildmoon Women’s Gardening Apprenticeship is more than half full and there is still time to save money by registering by April 1st!
Here are all the great benefits of this program:
- A copy of How To Grow More Vegetables… by John Jeavons
- A WIldmoon Homesteading notebook filled with handouts and your notes to refer to for years to come
- A handmade larch planting flat started with heirloom seeds
- Organic dinners, desserts, breakfasts and snacks
- Herbal medicine to take home, totaling 6+ quarts of tincture and a quart of fire cider.
- Canned foods, vinegars & meads we make and take home
- Fresh, organic garden veggies (and fruit when available) to take home every weekend
- A private Facebook group to ask questions and share information ongoing
- All craft supplies
- Tools to build and store personal power
- Knowledge to grow food, make medicine, and preserve to build on for a life time
I ask that you please share this with women you think might be interested, as well as on your FB & Instagram feed. As a small business, your help makes a big impact!
Now is the time to plant the seeds we’ve ben germinating!
I’ve been spending this late winter listening to some delicious podcasts from my favorite sources; Emergence Magazine Podcasts and The Splendid Table. I am often blown away by the depth and intensity of the stories and information shared, and so thankful for their sharing. They help reconnect me to the magic in seeds, gardening and what I love. Two gems that specifically resonated with me are about seeds and diversity. The recognition of the importance of diversity in all life forms is becoming more and more evident, as we lose species of plants, animals, languages, peoples we lose genetic resiliency in all of us. Give a listen to this first one that is only 16 minutes long, by author and poet Camille T. Dungy; From Dirt
“Camille reflects on the journey of seeds, how much of what we plant in our gardens was brought to our soils during the slave trade, and the legacy of trauma and triumph that lies within our food. Planting food, she contends, even in contaminated soils, becomes both an acknowledgment of grief and a celebration of the beauty of growing.”
This next one from The Splendid Table is 50 minutes: Saving Rare Foods with Dan Saladino and M. Karlos Baca;
“BBC food journalist, Dan Saladino joins us to talk about his latest fascinating book, Eating to Extinction, The World’s Rarest Foods, and Why We Need to Save Them. It’s a treasure trove of stories about dozens of foods, plants, animals, and culinary traditions, that are on the verge of being lost. Then, we talk to Karlos Baca, teacher, food activist, and the lead writer of A Gathering Basket, a cookbook of indigenous foods about his work saving a specific wild food here in the American West, bear root.”
These are such beautiful reminders to buy rare and heirloom seeds, to plant the seeds shared by friends and family, and to save the seeds from your plants that do well. I have linked Baker Creek Rare Seeds as a source, but another amazing source is Seed Savers Exchange where you’ll find thousands of seeds saved by gardeners and farmers with stories of where they come from. I’ve been sourcing seeds from smaller, family owned companies like Pine Tree Seeds and Fruition Seeds, that also carry many heirloom varieties. I always read their mission statements to help decide if I want to buy from them. It’s not too late to buy your seeds, as they stocked up since the out-of-stocks the past two years.
I hope this finds you germinating with ideas and inspiration for the coming year. Write them down in notebook! Sure, some of them may sound unattainable now, but who knows what the future will bring. Once it’s on paper it’s out there in the universe to germinate and grow. As the sun shines longer and the snow melts, I feel just like all those seeds waiting underground to sprout; my brain goes on overdrive with ideas and I’m ready to create!
Happy Spring!
Love,
Suzanne
