Saturday, September 27th at 10:30 a.m.A time to connect with the land and each other through the practical work of the upkeep of the sanctuary. No experience is necessary. You may be weeding a garden bed, carrying wood, cleaning out a chicken coop, or prepping materials for one of our classes. But whatever it is, your contribution will be so appreciated, and will give you a chance to join in community and create a beautiful space for ...
Lily in the wildflower garden Hello friends! I made this video yesterday to give you a little peek at how things are looking here at the Sanctuary right now. And I want to give a big thank you to Alissa for coming out to the work day on Saturday! In the middle of the video you can see an area in the hoophouse that she and I did a lot of cleaning ...
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZBPXjZYfQOY?feature=share July 19th, 9:30 a.m. to noon - refreshments following Hi everyone, we're looking forward to seeing some of you at this Saturday's Work Day! Please let me know if you would like to attend so that we can keep an eye out for you! Come join us in making like these busy bumblebees tending to the bee balm in front of our house... A time to connect with the land and each other through the ...
For our work day last week, we did some clean-up in an area of the woods where the previous owners seemed to have had a dump. Though the Cavanaughs have been pulling trash out of that area continuously since moving to the property, it has been a huge project. And it mainly needs to be done in the early spring, after the snow melts, but before everything gets covered by the understory plant growth. So it was ...
"My work is loving the world.Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird –equal seekers of sweetness.Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let mekeep my mind on what matters,which is my work,which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.The phoebe, the delphinium.The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.Which is mostly rejoicing, since ...
For our Skills and Friendship Day last week, the focus was on clearing around one of our American Hazelnut bushes to give it a bit more space. It had been getting closed in on by False Indigo Bush and Sunchokes, both of which are native perennials which we planted along with the hazelnut, but were beginning to crowd it out a bit too much.Sarenth cutting False Indigo Bush. It is a spreading shrub which has done really ...
Skills and Friendship Days (aka work days), along with an evening of community sharing this past Saturday, have rounded out the the events of the last few weeks nicely. I hope you enjoy the following photo journal to capture the late summer vibe, and a smattering of what's been happening around the farm and sanctuary. The Yew tree Sarenth and Emily clearing grape vines off the Yew tree Sarenth clearing grape vines off the Yew ...
I thought it would be nice to catch you up with some pictures from some of our recent Skills and Friendship Days (previously known as Work Days 😉). So without further ado... here is some of what we've been up to lately. Harvesting garlic scapes Preparing the garlic scapes for pickling Putting the cut scapes into the bag Snipping off the tough parts and the ends, and cutting them to the right size to ...
We have had a couple of our Wednesday work days now and they have gotten off to a great start. A few of us also had an event planning session this past Saturday which was quite productive, but I don't have pictures to share of that. 🤓 (As an aside, I never share pictures of anyone without permission first.) Emily, Blue, and Sarenth (not pictured) clearing last year's dead tomato vines out of the hoophouse - photo ...
wild grape on yew tree 🌼Volunteer Days: Thursday at 10:00 a.m. and Saturday at 2:00 p.m. - weather permitting This week we will be working on clearing the Yew tree of wild grape vines, mulching pathways (especially back by the bridge where the poison ivy likes to hang out) and building a chicken coop. We may also do some more harvesting of Autumn Olive Berries. 🌼Member Walk and Bonfire: Sunday at 2:00 pm. - ...
We had another beautiful time of connecting with the the spirits of the land and each other yesterday. We started with collecting nasturtium and marigold seeds to save for next year. Brennah had already begun collecting them, but having several people doing it was a fun project. (I have labeled the pictures to show the process for those who are interested.) Nasturtium seeds we collected Caitlin collecting nasturtium seeds ...
I am currently recovering from some sort of illness that struck me a couple of days ago. In any case, I feel well enough to make a post, so here goes. The farm produce is flourishing, with the exception of some cabbage moth and slug damage to the brassicas. In the picture are some onions and cress in the hoophouse. The cress is some that reseeded itself, so we let it grow along with the other vegetables ...
It was great to have Alyssa and daughter, Allie come out on Saturday for a work day. They finished harvesting the garlic scapes, weeded a flower bed, and dug and planted a bed of thyme plants which we started from seeds earlier this spring. They also helped me transplant a paw paw tree seedling to a wetter area where it will hopefully be happier. Between chores, we sampled some of my elderflower cordial ...
Along with the Sanctuary land, which includes beautiful woodland and wetland areas with trails, we also operate a permaculture farm and enjoy sharing the farm experience with our members as an added bonus. Today I wanted to give you an update on how the farm is doing with several photos of the annual crops we're growing right now. garlic in the front garden A few of our chickens Basil ...
On Thursdays we have a volunteer work day from about 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm. I wish I had gotten pictures of our trail-blazing crew yesterday, but as sometimes happens, I was caught up in the moment, and I think everyone else was too. We had marked out a trail beforehand, putting stakes in to show the way, and our crew of Caitlin, Sarenth, Brandon, Brennah, and I headed out with a machete, a saw, a couple ...
Amazingly, it's been a couple of years now that Sarenth Odinsson and his family have been volunteering at the Farm and Sanctuary. Time has flown by so quickly. We've formed a wonderful relationship and it was delightful to hear Brandon talking about the yummy leek soup he likes to make, while we were transplanting leeks this week. The leeks are ones that self-seeded from some that were in our very first planting of the hoophouse in 2017. They've ...
It was another good community work day on Thursday. We started with a little walk around the farm... in which I apparently made at least one funny face! The honey berry bushes are blossoming and the lilacs are getting close. Honey berries produce edible, sweet, oblong shaped blue berries. They're in the honeysuckle family and another of our beloved perennials.Next we planted up many seed trays - one of my favorites being nasturtiums. I can't wait to ...
This past Saturday, Dan, Caitlin, and Brennah had a fun time working on making nest boxes for kestrels and screech owls. We've seen these raptors around occasionally and would like to make a place for them to raise their young each year. Not only are they lovely birds in their own right, we're hoping they'll help keep the farm rodent population under control. We have regular work days every Thursday and Saturday (however we haven't had much interest ...
There are many signs of spring currently at the Farm and Sanctuary. garlic sprouts The garlic we planted last fall on one of our work days has sprouted. I planted some peas and cress along the back fence of the same garden this week. planting seeds some of our seed packets garden bed And we did some general clean-up for yesterday's work day ...
Last year at about this time, just before the lockdown, we took one of our workdays to make elderberry syrup together from elderberries harvested at Crossing Hedgerows. It's the kind of thing we'd like to do more of in the future. crushing the elderberries cooking and stirring the elderberries cooking and stirring the elderberries adding the honey straining out the pulp ...