August: The Fifth Season

August: The Fifth Season In California, August is a kind of fallow month. The following excerpt from Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation tells why: Ash and the Fifth Season In the Mediterranean-like climate of the Napa Valley, there is a period of summer dormancy that has is often called the fifth season. The grasses are… Read more »

Eating Locally

Eating Locally You would have thought I had just brewed a poison tea. Half of my writing group scoffed at the Douglas fir tea that I had just made. I had picked the tender fir tips from several young trees on our walk earlier, committed to having at least one item from the retreat land where our… Read more »

Eat from the Land

Eat from the Land Eat locally grown plants from the land each day—a practice that we have almost forgotten is possible! In past times everyone had a garden. The connection of the earthy beets on the table and the soil outside the kitchen was a conscious one. The work of growing food  for sustenance became a dialogue with… Read more »

Fire and Farming

Fire and Farming This morning it is evident that the fire in the eastern most part of Napa County is less contained that it was yesterday morning this time. A large plume of smoke spreads across the sky at first light. The orangish light is alarming and reminds us to think about animals and evacuation… Read more »

Forest Buddha

The Forest Buddha sits just outside the gate on the western most reach of the vineyard and lavender field (Lot Sophia). Each day I walk the goats, we pass the Buddha. He amplifies a quiet place in my soul, reminding me of why I am on earth. The goats remind me, too, in their much more… Read more »

Old Friends

Old Friends The Psychological Perspectives issue with my article about the death of a beloved valley oak on our ranch, “When an Old Friend Dies,” had come in the mail the day before. As I sat down to look at the article in print, the phone rang. “I am not sure that you know, but Mary… Read more »

Farming, Community, and the Sacred

My farming father would have been amazed at my son Jesse and his wife Lisa, of First Light Farm! He farmed all his life and loved the land. Community was a given in small town farm life, taken for granted. But with the advent of agribusiness practices, small farms went out of business and community deteriorated …. Read more »

The Gold of Farming

The Word for the Day, this rainy morning, from www.gratefulness.org: Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water.  DOGEN ZENJI   Yes, it surprised us and… Read more »

Honey Lavender Limeade Tasting!

Join us on Saturday, July 11, at our son Jesse’s First Light Farm, 4588 Bodega Ave, Petaluma, from 11 am to 5 pm,  and try a sample of our newest recipe for Honey Lavender Limeade! We will be selling our loose flowers and discussing their many culinary uses. Lavender is a plant that grows in the… Read more »

Death of a Tree

Death of  a Tree “When an Old Friend Dies” was just published in the June issue of Psychological Perspectives. The article details an experience my husband and I had when an ancient valley oak fell last year. It is a tree we both loved. It grew next to a little pioneer farmhouse that we lived in while we built… Read more »