Lavender and Bees

Lavender and Bees Lavender and bees go together!  The following is an excerpt from  Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation and tells how the bees helped us get started marketing lavender. June 10 is generally the beginning of the lavender harvest for the flowers we dry. The work begins before sunrise, as we try to get… Read more »

Honey Lavender Limeade

Honey Lavender Limeade June is a great month for a new lavender limeade recipe, and this is a preview!  We will be running a special this week on loose flowers, but here’s a preview of a delicious and healthier, less sweet version of our famous lavender limeade. We use a pyrex pot to infuse the… Read more »

Making Medicines and New Consciousness

I just returned from a five day seminar/workshop, Alchemical Lab II, Making Medicines, presented by Dennis Klocek and Matias Baker at the Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, CA. The days were a deepening of the work we began a year ago, a sinking into the task of our time: healing through development of consciousness… Read more »

Lavender Harvest Begins!

The heat of the last days pushed the lavender quickly, and lavender harvest has begun! We cut the longest stems for the dried bouquets, harvesting them just as the bees inform us two or three of the calyxes are open. This way the dried bouquets do not “shatter” or lose too many flowers. This year… Read more »

Land Activism and Communication

We never expected the need to get into Land Activism, and yet, here we are, attending Napa County Board of Supervisor Meetings, Planning Commission meetings, Agricultural Protection Advisory Committee meetings, making public comment, advocating for the health of our environment. One thing that sets Biodynamic farming and certification apart for organic and conventional farming is that… Read more »

Uninvited Guests (Pests!)

Uninvited Guests (Pests!) When I first started writing The Uninvited Guest: Fire and the New Consciousness, I was thinking about fire. Collectively we banned it from our environment over the last 100 years and now it threatens to return with a vengeance. In this fifth year of severe drought in the West, we are being warned… Read more »

Redefining Weeds!

Redefining Weeds! We are not complaining, believe me!  April’s cherished 0.7 inch of rain was more than welcome!  However, it did produce more grass and weeds, and again, we are at it: pulling thick-leafed “weeds” from the rose geranium, the bindweed from the lavender, the grasses from between the new plantings we have set out… Read more »

Acres: Article on Biodynamic Farming

Acres: Article on Biodynamic Farming This month Acres magazine published an article about our entry into biodynamic farming. Along with the story of why we began farming in this way, we offer suggestions about how to start gardening or farming this way yourselves. One of my greatest pleasures is to know that when I walk through the… Read more »

You Made It!

You Made It! Hey! You made it to our new location! Now just sign up… the follow link is to the right. You see it there! Follow me (Boey, as in bovine, because I look a little like a cow) and all that we do here at Harms Vineyards and Lavender Fields. You can also sign up… Read more »

Spring and Drought

Spring and Drought The days are stunningly beautiful, and the meadow and forest verdant green, even in this fourth year of severe drought. The news is hard: California has a year of water storage left. What then? The drought is like a zen teacher, whacking us into consciousness: water is precious. Do not waste it… Read more »