Persimmon Season
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writings & media
Articles, photography, video, and writings sourced from our work in and beyond the field. Our “from the field” series features projects, daily life, and reflections inspired by our work at home on our two farm sites in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Our “beyond the field” series features, projects, collaborations, and partnerships we are engaged in with our broader community.
Popular subjects include permaculture, forest gardening, regenerative agriculture, plant medicine, ecological restoration, earth based spirituality, and other diverse musings on agroecology topics.
From the Field: Spring in the forest garden
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Photos and reflections of the farm in spring; * Our “From the Field” Series features projects, production, and reflections derived from our work at home on our two farm sites in near Frenchtown, New Jersey.* Earth day arrives just as I’m beginning to feel love drunk on a new spring. A few days ago, standing under an old pear tree, alive and buzzing, radiant in sun gold full bloom, I abandoned my farm chores…
Read MoreFrom the Field: Forest Garden "Greenhouse" Season Extension
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This is a late season snap shot of our unheated high tunnel, which is planted with perennial species that benefit from the heat gain and wind protection that the house provides in our zone 6. Figs, trifoliate orange, and passionflower grow into the vertical space, while a diverse understory of primarily mediterranean herbs clump and crawl across the understory (rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme, lavender, hyssop, lemon verbena). There is also a population of self seeding annuals (kale, mustard, lettuce, leeks, cilantro) that grow and flourish from late fall to early spring, when the warm season perennials are in dormancy.
Read MoreFrom the Field: The multitudes that surround us
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This season is shaping up to be a season of revision and revelation both on the farm, and in the wider world that surrounds us. There have been no markets here this year, no events, no classes, and barely a visitor on the farm to speak of. And in the silence and stillness, an opportunity for deeper listening has risen into focus. In the absence of rote imposition, the natural world rings out loud with its secrets - not really secrets at all, just intelligence that can go unheard in the heavy to-do of the day to day…
Read MoreFrom the Field: Nature always has a good idea
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Five years ago I planted a patch of yellow and black raspberry in a location I felt well suited this native. They survived, fruited, but never started to crawl, nor readily expand, nor thrive the way I might have hoped…
Read MoreFrom the field: Plants enjoy good company
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Plants, like most people, enjoy good company. Everywhere in the wild they can be caught gathering and mingling about together, and on our farm it’s no different. This wild approach to farming is based in biomicry, and is wholly dependent upon strategic collaboration with the plant world…
Read MoreFrom the Field: The Overlap Between Productive and Wild Spaces
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There is often the opportunity for overlap between productive and wild spaces. The best designs are guided by observations we can make about the way the world around us behaves.
