Spiritual journeys in tending the living earth, permaculture, and nature-inspired arts
I’ve been making the transition to Pennsylvania and to my new life here (I spoke of this transition in an earlier blog post). Sorry for the delay in a regular weekly post–I’m back on track now, and have many wonderful …
I’ve posted on Dandelion wine before on this blog, and I wanted to follow up on my previous posts on dandelion wine – making the wine and racking/bottling. I’ve also written more generally about the dandelion as a beneficial plant–so …
Once again, the beautiful, purple-blue sweet violets are dotting the landscape. Where I live, they are in full bloom and will remain that way for the next few weeks. Last year I shared a traditional candied violet recipe with egg …
The spring equinox is upon us! This is a wonderful time to begin to engage in Sacred Actions and explore sustainable activities for the spring equinox. This post suggests activities for sustainable and spiritual actions that are appropriate for this …
Everyone, to some extent, is a product of their culture. Our culture’s formal education system teaches a set of skills that are claimed to be beneficial and practical for functioning in present society. Certain sets of skills are privileged, and …
So its the end of the season, a very hard frost is on the horizon for the week and several lighter frosts have already occurred. You look out across your garden with its overflowing abundance. There are still beans, swiss …
About the Autumn Olive Autumn Olive (also called Autumn Berry, Japanese Silverberry, or Spreading Oleaster) is a bush that is native to China and is considered an “invasive” in the USA. In a good part of the 20th century, it …
I’ve had a few people in the last few months ask me about starting a homestead or a small organic farm. A “homestead” or, if you are in the UK “smallholding” refers to a personal or family plot of land …
I remember a sunny day not too long ago in early May when I was visiting my parents in western Pennsylvania. Everywhere we drove, dandelions were growing, their beautiful, bright yellow heads serenading the sun. After one of the coldest …
Early in the spring season (as in, right now), the small, wild purple violets begin popping up everywhere. Where I live, this is usually late April to Mid may. I actually found the first violets here in South East Michigan …
In a recent blog post, I talked about the apple as a sacred tree in that it provides us with bountiful, amazing cider. In this post, I’m going to walk through the art of making and canning applesauce. The applesauce …
A delightful nine or so months ago, I posted about attempts at the first batch of dandelion wine. In today’s post, I’ll talk about what has happened since that first post and the process that we went through to finish …
I’ve been meaning to write a series of posts on the apple tree for quite a while, and here in the depths of winter, I have finally found time to do so! And while my timing is off-season, I think …
I’ve been working hard to build my food preservation knowledge this year. I’ve talked a good deal about canning on this blog already, but I want to spend a bit more time in the realm of fermentation, specifically, on making …
I’ve not been blogging as much as I did a few months ago for a simple reason–the harvest is upon us. Starting with the black raspberries in June to seeking out wild mushrooms the start of apple and autumn olive …