August's Monday Melodies

by Laura

August 29, 2016

Tao Te Ching Chapter 10

translation by Stephen Mitchell

Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind
and thus understand all things? 

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.

Produce Update:

Basil - now is a perfect time to make pesto (before the basil succumbs to disease or frost)! In food processor, process: 2 cups packed basil leaves; 2 peeled garlic cloves (roasted in a dry frying pan, in skins, until softened and browned, ~5 minutes); 1/2 teaspoon salt; 3/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, pine nuts, or almonds; 1/2 cup olive oil; Parmesan cheese (optional)

Flowers - this week's bouquets feature poppy and nigella seed pods, baptisia leaves, and majestic fuchsia cockscomb celosia

Aster 8.29.2016

Prairie at sunset 8.28.2016

A bountiful summer meal 8.27.2016

The "hot house!" - our small hoop house, filled with six kinds of hot peppers 8.26.2016

Chickens settling into the coop for their nightly sleep 8.25.2016

Phlox 8.24.2016

Ready to go to the city for the first farmers' market of the season! 8.23.2016

Late August Winds
August 22, 2016

Papers are blowing around the house today. Dry autumn airs have begun their gradual entrance, reminding us of the dramatic cyclical changes that come, almost by surprise, every year. Today is the beginning of the last of our summer programming, a 5-day junior high apprenticeship, as we make the annual movement into another new school year, another season of leaves falling to the ground and corn rustling in the fields, another time of sleeping fields and deepening darkness. We began this Monday morning with a circle, an opportunity to listen to one another, to ask and answer a few questions:

By what sound have you been intrigued this summer?

What is something towards which your being has a natural inclination?

How would you answer the question that you would hope to be asked? 

 

 

8.22.2016

Our farmyard friends 8.21.2016

Another beautiful evening sky 8.20.2016

A bouquet of perfect August zinnias 8.19.2016

The achievement of a 2016 Garden Goal: plant many many sunflowers! 8.18.2016

Jewel Weed 8.17.2016

Aster 8.16.2016

A love for foliage, flowers, and for choosing stillness

August 15, 2016

  

A sun hat is almost like wearing a personal forest canopy of shade. 

Is there anything more beautiful than a leaf made transparent by the sun?

We will never tire of the beauty of flowers. 
What are they saying that they are hoping we will hear? 

Stillness. 
Choosing each day amidst the busyness of life to remember and return to the restoration of stillness. 

One of the activities into which I always enjoy inviting students is a simple experience we refer to as 'magic spot'. We spend much of our time as people engaged in the dimension of human conversation: listening to others, formulating our own thoughts, telling stories, sharing exclamations as we experience the world. There is infinite value in these practices of human communication and expression, and yet if we spend all of our time within that space, there is something (indeed much) we neglect to notice, something by which we neglect to let ourselves be fully affected. 'Magic Spot' is an opportunity we give students to enter into their own space of silence, stillness, and sensitivity.  

We entered into the pine trees and each found a soft needled place to sit down. Nobody spoke, nobody seemed even inclined to speak. We all dropped into our own way of receptivity from and attentiveness to our surroundings. Layers of voices emerged all around us: choruses of insects, the chattering of birds, the sound of the wind breathing through the high branches of the white pines. We noticed our questions: who is that singing? Who all lives in these woods? What are these trees beneath which we are lying? I called for the group to return, and as we approached each other after this period of our silence, I felt that there had been a palpable shift. I sensed a peacefulness, a wonder for having noticed something,

 a deepened sense of gratitude for our place in this world. 

Produce Update:

The first sweet corn and watermelons of the season are almost ready for harvest! A full harvest tote of purple beans was picked today, many of which will end up in the freezer for wintertime eating. The flowers are eagerly blooming and will surely make for some gorgeous bouquets for next week's market: Tuesday, August 23, 4-6pm, in the Lake Country parking lot. 

Tuesday's Community Workday, August 15:

The time has come to harvest this year's crop of onions and shallots, and to move them into the greenhouse for the curing process. The are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these big beautiful bulbs to bring in from the fields. 

Baptisia leaves: a love for foliage 8.15.2016

The clouds of late have been displaying their full summer grandeur 8.14.2016

Plum season has arrived once more! 8.13.2016

Tomatoes, packed into their winter homes 8.11.2016

The grape vines, transplanted from the old arbor, received their relocation well 8.10.2016

New rose hollyhocks by the farmhouse: a love for flowers... 8.9.2016

August 8, 2016

many carrots this week from the weeds we did free

fernly green leaves now so lovely to see

our soils need rain so the sprinklers are swirling
fulfilling the needs of each leaf who's unfurling

the market begins in just two week's time

the tomatoes are eager and continue to climb

a summertime cold has descended on me

a pool of thick energy from which to give thee

this news from the farm, where the humming of flowers

is the honey of bees who are filled with great powers

Tuesday's Community Workday, August 8:

The Long Barn is receiving a fresh coat of white paint, requiring that the many plants who grow along its sides be pruned or relocated. Tuesday morning will find us transplanting monarda and rudbeckia as part of this project. In the afternoon, garden work may include some of the following: breaking onion stems (which will allow them to begin drying and curing in the field in preparation for this year's big harvest), hand-weeding potatoes, or hoeing beds up in the Farmstead garden. 

 

Allis Chalmers Model G tractor, used for cultivating crops in the "Big Field" 8.8.2016

8.7.2016

Thistle in the prairie, sending forth vital seed! 8.6.2016

8.5.2016

The Grain Bin 8.4.2016

Our resident spider in the peppermint patch 8.3.2016

Chamomile and Echinacea, drying on screens 8.2.2016

Keeping it Simple, Abundant, and Desirable
August 1, 2016

April: spring peepers. robins. the constant drone of the propane greenhouse heater. remembering the immensity of the seed's magic. 

May: rediscovering the feeling of digging a shovel into warmly scented soft soil. 

June: plant. sleep. repeat.

July: 'weeds are simply the exquisite expression of the wild fecundity of the earth.' but where did the carrots go?

August: tomatoes! basil! tasseling sweet corn! little striped watermelons whispering sweet promise! 

August has come. The fruits are ripening and the flowers are blossoming. "Transplant" and "seed" have been fading off of each week's to-do list, as "harvest" and "preserve" have inversely begun to grow, calling forth a new flavor of creativity from the strategizing prioritizing mind. The drying racks are layered in herbs, the freezers are beginning to fill, the canner who has been asleep on the shelf knows it is soon time to awaken. This cyclically familiar and generous time of year has returned once again, and with it a new bit of clarity in my ambitious mind: keep it simple, abundant, and desirable. Food is a central piece of almost every student's Land School experience, an experience that encompassed the planting of the first seeds in the soil, the harvesting of hundreds of pounds of tomatoes, the sharing of beautifully prepared feasts at our familiar and storied tables, and so much more. As a Land School staff, we strive to preserve as much of the year's harvest as possible, not only for the ecological and economic benefits of eating our own home grown food, but also because through eating the fruits of this land all throughout the year, we literally never stop becoming this land, this land from whom we are learning and in whom we are finding home. And we do it because, whatever else the many-layered reasons may be, it simply brings a lot of joy. It is a joy to open the freezer on the coldest day in January and to find there the memory of August's garden still alive. Here is the beginning of a list of what we hope to preserve this year:

Brassicas:

Broccoli (frozen)

Brussels Sprouts (frozen) 

Cabbage (sauerkraut [fermented, refrigerated]; root cellar)

Cauliflower (frozen)

Kale (frozen)

Corn:

Flint, Flour and Dent Corns (Floriani Red Flint; Hopi Blue Flour; Painted Mountain Flour; Great River Yellow Dent [dried])

Popcorn (dried)

Sweet Corn (frozen)

Fruit:

Applesauce (canned)

Blueberries (frozen)

Raspberries (frozen)

Herbs:

Basil (pesto, frozen; dried)

Echinacea (dried)

Peppermint (dried)

Oregano (dried)

Thyme (dried)

Tulsi (dried)

Nightshades:

Eggplant (for Baba ghanouj: roasted, pureed [frozen])

Sweet Peppers (frozen)

Hot Peppers (fermented hot sauce; whole frozen)

Potatoes (root cellar)

Tomatoes (salsa [frozen]; ketchup [canned]; pizza sauce [canned]; oven-dried oil-packed herb-infused; whole canned)

Other:

Carrots (root cellar)

Daikon Radish (root cellar)

Dry Beans (Black, Honduran Red; Brown; Lima)

Hakurei Turnips (root cellar)

Garlic

Green Beans (frozen; canned; fermented)

Onions

Shallots

Winter Squash

 

Tuesdays' Community Workdays:

An invitation is extended to everyone in the Lake Country community to come out to the Land School on any (or every!) Tuesday throughout the growing and harvest season (June-October). As I have done below, I will give a general sense each week of what the Tuesday work may be. While I will have ideas and direction to offer, work is responsive to people's needs and desires. Please call or email ahead if you would like to come, and please feel free to call or email if you have any questions: landschool@lakecountryschool.org. 715.265.4608. We would love to have you join us!

Tuesday's Community Workday, August 2:

With a forecast of rain, ripe tomatoes, and abundant basil, much of tomorrow will be spent in the kitchen: making fresh salsa (to freeze) and pesto.

Produce Available:

While the Land School market does not begin until Tuesday, August 23, there is the possibility of certain produce being available now upon request. The past two years have found our basil succumbing to fungus just as the market was beginning; the zucchini are starting to pile up; with an especially warm summer, the tomatoes have already begun to ripen in earnest. While we will be working diligently to get as much of this ripe produce put up for our student programming, there is only so much we can achieve! It would be delightful to be able to get some of this produce that is at the height of its beauty into hands that could receive it well. I am thinking larger quantities here, as logistically it could be a bit complex making the exchange happen! (It may be that you would have to come to the Land School to pick up the produce.) Please be in touch if interested. Potentially available produce: tomatoes, basil, eggplant, kale, fennel... and the list grows.

Echinacea paradoxa in Homestead Prairie 8.1.2016

Silphium, commonly known as 'Cup Flower' 7.31.2016

Comfrey leaves, growing beneath the Farmstead plum tree 7.30.2016

Echinacea purpurea, harvested to dry and save for use in tea 7.29.2016

Papaver laciniatum, Peony Poppies 7.28.2016

Hyssop 7.27.2016

Kapoor Tulsi 7.26.2016

July's Monday Melodies

by Laura

Monday Melodies

July 25, 2016

I will write to you on Mondays
to give to you a window 
for I want you to remember
the beauty of this place
a place for us to fall in love
a place where we are fed
a place who remembers all that we
have forgotten as our core.

I will show you so that I may see 
a depth of life to share
for I want you to remember
that this land holds you with care. 

She sings, this land, to your sweet children, 
daring children, eager children. 
She asks them questions with her leaves,
her fruit, her flowers, living stories.
 
Please join me here on Mondays
to receive the view I offer.
Take the news of each week's harvest 
to give us hands to which to give. 
As my words ask for your eyes to see
your heart to feel
your mind to light 
see past the window I have woven
to know this place as home. 

3 Sisters Garden: Scarlet Runner Beans, Guatemalan Blue Squash, and New Mexico Corn 7.25.2016

Junior High Apprenticeship; June 26 - 30, 2016

by Sage

The apprenticeship can be many things. It can be fun and satisfying.   It can be challenging and frustrating.  Over the week we all felt just that.  Waking up at 7 in the morning was not a highlight, neither was the exhaustion I felt growing in me as the hours passed.  What was fun was the satisfaction of weeding a field for several hours to see what you had accomplished. It was tiring and satisfying.  I struggled with an allergy attack during the clean of the chicken coup.  I would not count that as an highlight, neither cleaning out the llama pen.  It smelt like rotten eggs and I felt like I could barely breath.  But then later on we got to go to the lake and all was okay.  There were many other high and low lights, but over all those were the ones that stood out the most.   

by Grant

I think that this apprenticeship has really done a lot for me, I gained various skills and knowledge from this including an experience to remember for a while. I learned how to make a brick wall with mortar including how to make mortar, and clean the bricks with muriatic acid. It was very fun to make the brick wall around the chimney of the pizza oven; now we just have to paint flames on it. I also had the opportunity off helping make the deer fence, during which I learned a lot about building electrical fences and how they work. I was happy that I had the chance to make oat cakes. Overall the experience really helped me in many ways and I hope to come back next year.

by Grace

The apprenticeship has been an exciting whirlwind of events, and experiences. Everyday the alarm goes off at 7 o’clock in the morning. Usually we ignore it, and hope it will turn off. We then eat breakfast, and head off to another exhausting day of work. My favorite work day was when we got to clean out the chicken coop, and llama pen. It was an experience. An experience I hope I don’t have to do more than once. Most of the other days we planted, and weeded, which was very satisfying.  The evening activities were a blast: the first night we played telephone pictionary, which was hysterical considering nobody was great at drawing; the second night we watched Captain America, which was really good; the third night we had a bonfire, we roasted some marshmallows for s’mores, and played sardines. When I look back to see all the work I have accomplished, I feel very proud. I am proud I persevered through the heat, and proud that I did that amount of work. Overall, I had a wonderful time learning new things, and hanging out with friends.

by Clayton

I have really enjoyed the apprenticeship so far. It has been a lot of fun. I have enjoyed the hikes, building the chimney for the pizza oven, and gardening. On Wednesday we went to Clear Lake, which was also very fun. On some of the hikes we climbed trees; some of them were really difficult to get up in. The pizza oven is almost complete; we finished the chimney. We work for six hours a day, doing either gardening or utilities work. We have planted, weeded and picked a lot of different plants. I especially liked working with the beans and the corn. It was a lot of fun to see the Land School when it isn't during the school year. I had a lot of fun seeing the animals. I helped change the llama's and sheep's pen. It smelled really bad, but putting new hay down was rewarding. The work here feels slow but the days seem to go quickly. 

by Saxon

Apprenticeship is basically a small Farmstay with no academic work,  less people, only 4 days and a total of 24 hours of physical work. During my apprenticeship I was in Donna's group with Grant and sometimes Clayton. The main things we worked on were building parts for a deer fence going around the new orchard, and laying bricks for the chimney on the pizza oven. While we were working on the pizza oven we learned how to make mortar, butter bricks, and lay bricks (buttering bricks is the term used for putting mortar on the bricks). We started out by gathering all the tools which included: Masonry Trowels, Brick Jointers and levels. We made the mortar by making the mortar dust into a volcano structure then pouring water in the middle and covering the water up with the dust so that it soaks up the water turning it into a clay like substance. Once we mixed it we had to test to see if it stays on the trowel when flipped upside down, if it does we then apply it to the brick and place it where it needs to go.

Our mortar mixing and brick placement didn't go perfectly but it still looked pretty good in the end. In the future I really want to try doing it again and hopefully it will be at the Land School.

by Rio

Last year, I went on an Apprenticeship because my sister had gone on one the year before that. This year, I went on one because I had a great time last year. Apprenticeship is sort of like a smaller and shorter Farmstay except no academic work to keep up on. This year our group is all 7th graders going into 8th graders with three girls and three boys. There's Grace, Sage, Grant, Saxon, Clayton and myself. We split up into Stewardship groups, one that goes with Laura where we usually garden and one with Donna where we build things, such as the pizza oven. We work for the whole morning and take a break for lunch. Then we go back to work until we have free time. Then we have dinner and an evening activity. We are all very tired by the end of the day so we are very thankful to be going to bed. We wake up the next morning, have breakfast and repeat the whole process. I am very excited to do more Apprenticeships in the future because I have had a lot of fun on the other ones I have been on.