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Home - by Tessa Altstatt, Garden Intern

10/14/2014

In my wanderings, I have often pondered “How did I get here, to this place in time? How did everyone get here?” I know, I know…you’re probably thinking “how could this be related to the garden?!” Well. Just be patient.

I have carried my ancestors from Europe with me always, but especially through this trip (my W.W.O.O.F.ing trip that started in May) as they were farmers as far back as our family’s written history will go. I find that my fingers grow calluses gratefully after a hard day’s work and I feel my ancestors supporting the strength of my skin to earn harvest.

Then there are other ancestors giving me strength, yet I do not know what they did or where exactly they came, just that they were from this side of the world. Deep inside they have always been and will always be, giving my bones the courage they need to move, only in a very different way.

Having different parts of myself coming from different sides of the earth, with very different traditions, has always had me wondering where I belong. “Where do I understand the land best? How can I be most beneficial to this planet?”

However, I am displaced, as are many Americans, and I do not quite remember the ways of the land my ancestors tended for so many thousands of years. Here at Songaia I am reminded that, no matter how far we have traveled, or what blood runs through our veins, we are human and we stand on land. What we choose to do, live to survive or live to profit, is what matters. The humility we keep is the important part. As long as we decide to cherish and support the land, helping it to thrive, to regenerate and give it hopes for many years of health, we have a place to live. We are welcome.

We must always remember we are standing on the ashes of someone else’s ancestors. With this new diversity of people, plants, and animals, permaculture is a beautiful step into oneness. It combines all the ancient wisdom into a modern world and connects us again to the land.

As Patricia, Amy and I begin to plant cover crops and blanket them with remay, all the knowledge that was thus gained here has been seeded and covered to grow into my next journey as well. As the garden turns, I turn. I will miss greatly all that is Songaia, I will miss each and everyone’s individual beauty. I will never forget the faces, the laughter, the shared wisdom, and the teeming garden I was so blessed to have tended. Thank you for this opportunity, thank you for showing me that a supportive community is possible is this brave new world.

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Jammin' to Jam and Digging Holes - by Amy Zhang, Garden Intern

10/12/2014

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And weeding, because what is a blog I write without weeding in it? Ah, but this case of the weeds was the largest yet. Patricia, Tessa, Mackenzie and I battled the bindweed around the raspberries. There was so much of the stuff that I stopped looking for it and just dug in front of me, inevitably finding a tangled mat of bindweed root.

I feel a bit guilty saying this, since it’s the bane of the garden, but bindweed is a pretty fun weed to pull—like Helen said one time, “You just follow it and follow it and it’s so easy to pull out a whole root!”

I think my thing with weeding is starting to grow a bit too large. I’m not much of a gardener, but to all of the gardeners out there, if you’d like some weeding done, I can help. :)

The concord grapes in Life Song Commons finally ripened, so of course it was also jamming time. I’m usually the only cook and eater in my kitchen, so making large batches of anything normally doesn’t turn out well for me. So it was fun to make lots and lots and lots of concord grape jam—Patricia has an amazing book with canning recipes, and this grape jam is no exception. I don’t even like jam that much (it comes from growing up without sugar) and I think this jam is delicious.

Some of the beds we planted with cover crop are starting to sprout now. I saw one that Tessa and I recently did and thought back to when we were sprinkling the seeds on the ground. It just hit me at that moment: Turns out, we were sprinkling life. How cool is that?

While we're talking about cool moments:

Tessa and I joined in on this month’s circle. The stories we heard were amazing. Thank you to everyone who came! It was an honor to listen in.

Doug and I got started with winterizing the pipes in the garden. Basically, we’re adding valves to all of the lines off the main line from the pump house so we can cut them off in the winter, except for the one we want to keep active. This meant we had to dig—a lot. For two and a half days, digging holes and hacking at pipes was all we did.

BUT it was beautiful outside for all of those days, so despite feeling like Stanley Yelnats from Holes, I did appreciate the work. And it's for a good cause, so there was that to think about, too.

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The Bees Harmony With the Beating Sun - by Tessa Altstatt, Garden Intern

10/5/2014

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Canoeing with Amy at the Women's Permaculture Gathering

Last week, I sat down in the garden with the sun glaring into my mind, reaching even the dark webbed corners, reminding me that this world is changing. Reminding me that I am changing. Normally the intense heat of this new sun is challenging, it acts as a clock, causing me to think about the amount of time I have to be spending on the task at hand as opposed to focusing on what is being done. Consumed by time, eyes open yet absorbing nothing.

This particular day was different, the sun was shining in. As my forefinger poked homes for the seeds to grow in, I gave extra care to remove any weeds nearby. I wanted their growth to be undisturbed, I wanted them to be strong. As I ran the two companion plants, lettuce and carrots, alongside the river of broccoli (as Helen dubbed the design) I thought about the importance these things would have to the people living at Songaia. I meditated on the fact that these seeds would eventually grow to feed people.

After the bed was finished, something was beginning to grow inside of me, an old flower began to bloom and as the day grew, the heart of the flower thumped and thumped inside my head. Suddenly I realized that every living thing is wonderfully alive and doing their best. I wanted encouraging words to escape my mouth and wrap around the soul of whatsoever crossed my path. A seed I have watered for so long in my life which had grown to quite the decent size, had been reduced to nothingness from the strangling of lesser thoughts. However, the sun has shown what was forgotten and the doubt and fear can be swept in the dark.

On Saturday, Patricia, Amy and I went to the Women's Permaculture Gathering. Sunday, we protested climate change by working in the garden. Sunday evening, we welcomed the Fall Equinox by giving blessing to a part of Songaia that we thought dearest to our hearts. I gave to the bees. The messengers of love. They never oppose, only serve to work and work hard at helping plants thrive. I had a dream I wrote a blog post on the relationship between bees, the sun and global warming. I even remember the title "WARM, WARM, WARM, HONEY"...whatever my dreams were whispering to me in riddles, I think I now know. Do not fear the destruction, do not fight it, do not march in protest or oppose, yet simply work at making things thrive. Let the sun fill you with the reminder of life, not a reminder of the time we have left.

"Sitting at our back doorsteps, all we need to live a good life lies about us. Sun, wind, people, buildings, stones, sea, birds and plants surround us. Cooperation with all these things brings harmony, opposition to them brings disaster and chaos." -Bill Mollison

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In which we go on a journey and grapes attack - by Amy Zhang, Garden Intern

10/1/2014

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The last two weeks have been busy at Songaia—it seemed like there was a never-ending stream of grapes coming from the arbor in front of the Common House. At one point, I asked Patricia and Doug what they’d been feeding the vines (ogre blood?). Turns out, it was nothing. How crazy is that?

New experiences!

Weeding. Ok, not a new experience, but it’s one that’s (ahem) grown on me. Weeding on a sunny day with a light breeze is somehow incredibly satisfying. (But you know what isn’t? Picking grapes off of their stems. Those things can hurt—I have the cuts to prove it. Parth, if you’re reading this, stop laughing.)
Women’s permaculture gathering, and seeing the Milky Way for the first time. I don’t go camping. I hardly even go hiking. So this was my first time seeing constellations other than Orion—so many stars the sky seemed dirty with them.

At the permaculture gathering, we met a lot of incredibly passionate women. It reminded me of some of the poetry festivals I’ve been to, people who gather together because of a shared love.

[If I'd had some foresight, I would have taken pictures of the gathering. But instead you get this picture of the sunflowers, who were getting too bold. So we tied them up.]

Once we came back, we got back to prepping for the winter, cleaning up beds and planting cover crop.

Covered and ready for winter.

Doug and I have also created a plan of attack for winterizing one of the water lines in the garden, so that we don’t have to carry buckets from the pump to water the winter beds, and we’ll start working on that this week.
Cheers,
Amy

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Home - by Tessa Altstatt, Garden Intern

Jammin' to Jam and Digging Holes - by Amy Zhang, Garden Intern

The Bees Harmony With the Beating Sun - by Tessa Altstatt, Garden Intern

In which we go on a journey and grapes attack - by Amy Zhang, Garden Intern

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