Farm Fresh July 2020: Life in the Garden, This Season's People, Blessed Always

Farm Fresh News - July 2020

In this issue:

Blessed Always
Life in the Garden
This Season's People
Bikes for Kids

Deborah Flowers in the Garden

Dear Friends,

The longer this pandemic goes on, the more we keep thinking, "Starting the community was a good idea." It's so much easier to social distance when you are out in the country. So far our county is up to 10 cases...total. To a large degree we are in control of our food supply, boih through gardening and with our own store so we can keep our trips outside the community to a minimum. We have our own water supply. A number of us work from home. We have a medical team, a clinic, and many skilled medical professionals. We communicate with each other daily on many formats. The list of advantages goes on and on.

And so I have to wonder, are you where you want to be? Is this the catalyst you need to rethink your lifestyle? Where and how you live?
Are you planning to make changes on how you will manifest your future?

Namaste y’all!
Douglas

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I wanted to offer this prayer that we often use for a closing in our singing sangha.

Blessed Always, Blessed Always

For the arms of love surround us

Let our joy be so triumphant

as we trust in Love and say Amen

This song was originally written and performed by Rickie Byars Beckwith, and I learned it from a Dances of Universal Peace friend who had the opportunity to play it with Ms. Beckwith one time.

However, Ms. Beckwith has strong roots in the Christian faith, and me being more of a hippie Buddhist, I changed the word God to Love to make it a bit more inclusive. And it is the arms of love, of our friends and family, that hold us physically and spiritually in their hearts. The original version says, “rest in God,” which I changed to “trust in Love,” because for me it removes the separation between us and spirit.

As I think about and pray for all those who are unable to have the arms of their family around them, I send out this prayer, that the arms of our love may hold you in our hearts and that you may feel the presence of our love.

Douglas

Click here to listen and watch my video on YouTube. photos of The Farm by Maggie Meeker

And here is the version with my friend Sky Roshay performing with the person who wrote the song, Ricky Beyers Beckwith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DqDrS241rQ

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We are raising funds now to purchase 50 bikes and helmets. Do it for the kids!

Hi Everyone, Kids To The Country is raising funds for giving approximately 50 bikes to the homeless and low income kids we serve in Nashville. Please help if you can. Here is the info and a heartfelt thank you! Donations: www.kidstothecountry.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION email: kidstothecountry@gmail.com

Donations for KTC: www.kidstothecountry.org + www.plenty.org/donate

Mary Ellen Bowen, MSc, Director kidstothecountry@gmail.com

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This Season's People

edited excerpts from This Season's People, created from recorded talks by Stephen Gaskin

"I think the only freedom we have comes through responsibility. If you become responsible, you become able to act; and if you can act, you’re free. Freedom comes with sanity, because if you’re sane you can figure out what to do, and you can use your free will.

I like to hang out with brand new babies that are just born, because I can let go and feel a lot of peace. But as soon as I get peaceful, I find that what I have to do is get up and go back out and start taking care of business again, because there’s a lot of folks that still need help, and we can’t rest yet.

What is going to carry us through is faith and love and good principles. Faith that there are such things as love and good principles, and the nerve to try to use them and carry them out.

We should ask for the sake of all humankind that there be peace and that there be understanding and that Grace come onto us to help us get this planet together because this planet needs to get it together.

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Life in the Garden!

Our dining room table
I pick tomatoes as soon as they blush any color before the bugs have a chance to take a bite, and then let them ripen indoors.
Pear shaped or Roma tomatoes for salsa.

Right now I am picking over a gallon of blackberries a day from our 2 rows in the garden. Japanese and Black Beauty eggplant.

In the back, pickles fermenting in a salt brine.

For my wife Deborah and I, there's no better way to social distance than to spend time out in the garden, with lots of fresh air and sunshine. Not that our routine has changed that much from other years. However now that I am not hosting retreats and she is not taking on any new birthing clients, we can extend our time, adding a few extra hours each day. Our garden has never looked so good!

Tennessee summers are hot, so we generally make our way out to the garden by 6 AM. Somedays we'll take a short break around 10 AM to eat some fresh fruit - whatever's in season (right now it is blackberries). Otherwise we stay out till 11 or 12, then come in to shower and have lunch. It works out great for intermittent fasting. I've lost 10 lbs!

left - Japanese beetles making more beetles right - the collection of the morning

The first thing I do each morning is collect Japanese beetles. These pests are especially troublesome on my red raspberries. In the early morning when it is still cool, they are moving too slow to fly, so they rely on their other defense mechanism, falling. I take advantage of this by placing a cup of water under them. They fall right in and can't get out. I place the cup in the sun to do them in and then start over again the next day.

Sockin' it to the corn!

For many years Deborah and I grew several plantings of sweet corn, but then the squirrels decided they liked it too. It got so bad we finally gave up, but after three years, we decided to try again. We've been pouring our pee around the patch - it is said the squirrels don't like the human scent. But then I came across this idea on the internet, covering each corn in a sock (I wait until after the silks are brown to be sure the ears are pollenated). Not only does it reduce the strong corn smell that attracts the varmints, but they also soak up the hot pepper juice I sprayed on them several times. And now we are harvesting corn, with 2 more later plantings on the way! Sooo good!

Cardboard Mulch - and the snails that it attracts eating a squash blossom

We use a variety of materials for mulch, mostly chopped leaves and straw, and landscape cloth for long rows. This year I really wanted to get weeds everywhere under control, and have put down a lot cardboard, which I collect each morning from our recycle center. Some of the landscape cloth is semi-translucent and the weeds keep growing under, so I have been covering this with cardboard as well.

Unfortunately, like everything cardboard has its downside. It has been so wet this summer, some of it is growing mold. I have also found that it makes a great home for snails! Snails eat a lot of different things, including squash blossoms. Fortunately, they seemed to be attracted to the pollen of the male flowers, and the damage they have done hasn't been enough to keep the female flowers from getting sufficiently pollenated and making zucchinis!

Lettuce in July

We have found some heat tolerant varieties of lettuce that do well in the hot summer months, allowing us to have lettuce all year. We start them indoors under grow lights and then transfer out to the garden. In summer it is vital to keep the plants covered to keep away insects. Above, we are using a light screen netting, which lets more light, air, and rain through that the cloth insect barriers.

Fried Green Tomatoes!

A delicacy of the south! Simply slice. dip them in cornmeal and fry. In this case, the Native American corn from last year's harvest.

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Peace,

Douglas

Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com