Blue Dick

These the goats love!  I have to be very careful photographing when the goats are with me, or the flower head is gone, quick as a wink! These are the kinds of plants  our ranch expresses when it is in its full individuality and natural biodiversity. The more I understand, the more I see that not listening… Read more »

Cycle of Kale

Kale planted last fall is still producing but has bolted.   One of the best leafy green vegetables that we can eat is kale, and it is amazingly easy to grow in our gardens. Not only do we love it, but when it bolts (goes to flower), the bees also love it, and when I… Read more »

Blue Wildrye

Gaviota and the silhouetted blue wildrye.  Some years ago we contracted with Judith Larner Lowry to identify native plants on our ranch so we might better understand how to support the unique mix of plants that are at home here. One of my favorite perennial bunch grasses is blue wildrye, seen here silhouetted against the… Read more »

Open House June 23, 2012

Harms Vineyards and Lavender Fields  Biodynamic Organic estate grown distilled lavender products Open House June 23, 2012 Please join us for a day of tours, talks, sensory delights! Sip our lavender limeade, taste lavender culinary goodies, meet our goats. Harms Vineyards and Lavender Fields 10: am to 4:pm 11:am Charlie Toledo, Ex.Director, Suscol Intertribal Council First People’s Sustainable… Read more »

Yarrow

Yarrow bed. Behind bed is sticky monkeyflower, poison oak, and coyote bush. Yarrow is one of the flowers that make up the six compost preparations. It grows abundantly in several grassy places on our ranch. Last year’s growth remains as straight stems. Yarrow likes to grow with soap root and coyote bush. Steiner held that… Read more »

Sticky Monkey Flower and Compost

Sticky monkeyflower tends to hang outwith poison oak and coyote bush. One of the plants in full bloom now is sticky monkeyflower. A member of the figwort family, the flower blooms on our hillsides most of the summer. The hummingbirds love it, and so do goats! I wonder what energies are collected and moved about… Read more »

Caution

We walk the hills this morning without the dogs, who abandon us almost at the beginning. The vultures are circling and swooping low, a sure sign of a recent kill, something that Moka and Leo cannot resist searching out. No amount of calling dissuades them. The goats walk solemnly in a straight line behind me…. Read more »

Nature’s First Green

This time of year is intensely green in northern California. The hills are verdant, the forest, gold (Nature’s first green…). Psychologist Carl Jung says the alchemical benedicta viriditas, the blessed greenness, is “the sacred immanence of the divine spirit of life in all things”. A walk in the forests or the green hills of Napa… Read more »

Cup of Tea for Young Lot Sophia

Young Lot Sophia lavender the first week of May. After fermenting the compost tea for at least 24 hours, we serve the young Lot Sophia plants about a cup each. The plants are pushing some growth, which means they are rooting in, and this tea will provide a good source of nutrition to facilitate this… Read more »