A Love Letter to Corn and other things

    

 Out of all the things I am growing this year, the three dry corn varieties are probably my favorite. Corn is a pretty spectacular plant if you really think about it. It is grass, elevated, exalted. There are hundreds of varieties grown around the world, there is a type for every growing condition and to top it all off are wonderful at sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

     And unfortunately, have been reduced to genetically modified animal fodder and wasteful ethanol.
    
     I grow three varieties, choses for use, flavor, and appearance. I'll make no lie, I do factor aesthetics into my farming to an extent. As a painter and al-around creative type, I want beauty and lovely things in my life (not that I only chose for appearance though, varieties need some substance if they're to be chosen to be grown here).
   
     Mandan Red Clay is a parching/ meal/ flour corn which dries to a beautiful ochre-red. Due to an experiment I did regarding seeding, the plants are a bit stressed now as adults, and I don't think living up to their fullest potential. Some of the pollen tops from the side shoots grow kernels as well and right now they're a lovely mix of pinks and red.

     Hopi Pink, a flour corn was direct seeded, and suffered some crow-nomming but the plants that survived had space to really spread and are now MASSIVE. I have never seen corn so large. Each has 2-4 side shoots I can barely touch my thumb and index finger when gripping it. It's not tall, less than six feet, but wide with leaves that dwarf any others in the field. They've only just started sending out pollen stalks, so I really hope they ear-up and dry in time.

     The largest section of corn is Roys Calais. This variety I have grown before in California and loved for its vibrant red and orange and yellow ears and magnificent taste in corn bread and polenta. These plants are tall,  most between seven and eight feet height with massive ears and plenty of side shoots. They are the happiest of my corn and I can't wait to see what the harvest is like!

    

    After a period in June/July where I had absolutely no energy despite eating enough food and getting enough rest (I would crawl right into my hammock or bed after getting off work, and never got out on Sundays or Tuesdays, my days off), I've since changed my farming habits to make time to take care of myself properly and try not to stress about everything so much.
    
     Since then I have noticed quite a difference and feel much more resilient and energetic, even if sometimes I still have no energy. I have restarted my youtube channel again and am posting every Sunday or Tuesday, and plan on sharing about farming here more frequently as well. There are plenty of plans in the works for creative projects, new herbal products as well as starting a formal website and online shop.

Remember to be kind to each other, Sabrina



Coming up:
- Self care for farmers
- Herbal product spotlights
- Favorite herbs




Fun Finds:
- A Witches Resistance and Action List
-The magic of La Abejas medicines
-Album "The Code of Flowers" by Ayla Nereo

    

Love of Work

2016 has passed up by in what I’m not sure for me can be called anything less than a clusterfuck. Excuse my French. In the last year I’ve moved three times, started a business, worked full time (up to 80 hours a week in the summer), perfected a bipedal irrigation system- never again, travelled, hiked and rediscovered by love of painting and writing. All this in the shadow of a dismal election; callous abuse of native peoples; destruction of lives and whole cities; barely a month without some act of horror be it a bombing or shooting, and gearing up for the year ahead in the hopes that we as a people can come together for love.

I am tired. This past year has been long and at times- more than I’d like to admit- it was a challenge just to trudge through the day of a job I grew to hate for the promise of some sweet weekend to more often than not was sleep away. I was more tired at the end of December than I have ever been in my whole life, including my sophomore year of college when a bout of insomnia gave me little more than three hours a night for seven months.

            It’s hard to get anything done like that so just before Christmas I quit my job and decided to dive into farming full time again. Barely a week back into regular outdoors work and I feel like a normal human. Still can’t watch the news, still trying to decide how I’m best going to approach the next four years (indefinite future more likely) from an activist standpoint and still dreaming of all the plants sitting as dormant seeds.

            Farming is my hearts-work, for lack of a better term. I come home tired, sore, covered in soil and sweat and I am happy. The world seems manageable again. Political representatives can be called, donations can be made, communities can come together, and pen put to paper for nothing else than joy again. Tending for plants, whether it be a tea-cupped cactus or field of potatoes is grounding work. It connects us immediately to another being, but also to the network that crisscrosses our planet; connecting trees, herbs and interacting with humans and other animal species in ways we don’t yet understand. A relationship with the planet is crucial I think for creating larger communities, where we understand the importance of reaching out to lend a helping hand instead of jerking back in fear.

            In this spirit I am ready to jump into this new year with fervor. Seed orders are starting, and I’ve begun the process of creating a farm calendar for this year. I am excited to put together methods from farms I have studied and read about, so many creative, hard-working people have shared in book form their methods and I am eternally grateful. This year I intend to adopt what biodynamic habits I can, and incorporate interplanting and a diverse cast of crops to maximize output in a way that does not take too much from the soil.

            Returning are my tender green and red heads of lettuce that grew a small following at the market this year, more radishes and beets, and of course herbs to make salves and oils. New crops will include dry corn and beans, as well as fresh beans for hulling, a small selection of Asian bunching greens, edible flowers, and possibly dried flower bouquets and wreaths. I also plan on expanding my herbal product line to include bulk dried herbs, serums, tinctures and flower essences.

            A passionate believer in the “work hard, play harder” ethos, I will also be spending February and March travelling across Europe and visiting family. A time to relax from a year working too much, and a pre-cation for a year where I will likely work too much again, but in a much more agreeable fashion.

            At some point after that there may be a dog adoption and a small road trip with my younger brother and who knows what else. It’s good to keep life spontaneous and fun.

            As there is much to take care of these next three weeks here I leave you again, although hopefully for a shorter duration. One of my main goals this year is to share more frequently in this space, and on the other side of my big adventure I have a list of possible subjects I’d like to tackle this year.

All the best, Sabrina

 

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings."

The Real Work, Wendell Berry

Mid-Summer

 There is something nostalgic and a little sad about particularly cool August mornings. For a moment it feels like it's suddenly September or October and luckily gives one a moment before it warms up to reflect on what needs to be done before the season's over and the days run short.

   I haven't canned enough. An early morning car retrival sent me into a brief panic over the blackberries drying on the cane. So far I've only made 2/3rds of a jar of fridge jam and its half gone already; and while blackberries are a summer treat, there's little nicer than a thick goop of spiced goodness on a piece of fresh toast on a rainy winter day.
     Green bricks of zuchini and green beans sit in my fridge. I've promised I'd freeze than (Edit: green beans have been frozen!) or remember to buy chocolate chips at the store for zucchini bread but I've been to busy and tired to follow through. I've pinky sworn to take care of them all this weekend. For one person and everyone I can pawn them off on, two zucchini plants are too many.

 While visiting a friend I've realized I don't even know where my swim suit is. It was packed up after a dreamy summer in the Sierra foothills with evening and weekends spent in the bubbling, crystal clear waters of the American River. And now, almost a year later still sit there, tucked away and never unpacked. Luckily the azure waters of Lake Crescent are about at the warmest so there is time yet for to soak for a time yet.

  Despite all that I'm lagging behind in (why did I think I could have an online shop opened by now?), and working 60-70 hours a week I have managed to snag some summer days and go out adventuring. Proud and still sore I hiked almost 10 miles round trip this past weekend to Tull Canyon- up, up, up past Tubal Cain Trail, the mine and past the hollowed and scavenged remains of a B-17 from the last century into hillsides of wild flowers, scree and stunted trees standing proud under a cloudless sky. There was a bear sighting on Hurricane Ridge while my parents visited after a rainy night camped out on Second beach. There have been day trips to Seattle and Port Townsend and in a few short weeks I'll be spending the weekend in San Francisco/ Meadow Vista for some much needed R&R.
 

     Summer has gone by fast and I"ve struggled to keep up with my plants-- there's been no lettuce at the farmers market for me the last two weeks, and won't be for another few weeks. Lesson learned. Next year I will certainly be laying down drip irrigation- I can't afford to have a whole succession bolt on me because I missed a watering. But the winter crops have been seeded and planted-- a mixed succession of gold and red beets as well as cold hardy radicchio who I have been spoiling with water every day. I've saved seeds from calendula, tulsi and moldavian balm and have plans for next year for better yields. The tulsi and balm were both amazingly tasty, but didn't produce quite enough for me to share. 

      Last week I bottled two new oils-- St. John's Wort (who will be featured in a future post- it is one of my favorites) and the second a blend of SJW, yarrow, sagewort, calendula, lavender, mint, comfrey and more for general pains, sprains, bumps and bruises. It's been helping my neck tension a lot and I'm glad to finally have it at market.

      I'll be at the Bainbridge Island Farmers Market tomorrow, with salves, lip balms, and oils. Fingers crossed for lettuce in the next couple of weeks, and a restocking of mint salves and new calendula-clover oil. Later I'll be vending at the Friends of the Friends Harvest Fair, with even more new goodies and possibly a small farm poetry zine.

   

 

Marsh mallow

Evening primrose

Midnight whispers and

Will o’ the whisp murmers.

Ankle deep in chilled grey waters

Meandering the sodden cattails

And iris stems.

2014