The following posts were taken from the website for Harms Vineyards and Lavender Fields, which we operated from 2010 until 2019. They offer a window into our lives on the farm and the ways the farm changed us. In 2018 we decided to end our lavender business but we continue to work with our land in ways that bring balance and health. Posts on this website will continue to follow our work.
Pond bottom. It has not rained for some time, so far only 25% of average for this time of year. Farmer’s Almanac said it would be a cooler, wetter winter. They got the cooler part right! This year in northern California is the driest ever on record. Our small reservoir is bone… Read more »
Drought
Drought The vineyards are quiet; the nights, cold; the goats, rowdy with too much rest. This is the time to sink into the sofa and seed yourself with Spirit, whether that be from meditation, dreaming, or from reading. These books are some of my own reading that I have gotten a great deal from this… Read more »
Waning moon, December 29, 2013 Waning 2013 and Dark Nights The old slip of moon rose this morning, the Valley Oaks backlit by the beginnings of Dawn. It is the end of 2013, the darkest time of the year. I admit: I love the dark, a time that it is easier to live inward. The… Read more »
Waning 2013 and Dark Nights
Waning slip of moon, December 29, 2013. The old slip of moon rose this morning, the Valley Oaks backlit by the beginnings of Dawn. It is the end of 2013, the darkest time of the year. I admit: I love the dark, a time that it is easier to live inward. The plants… Read more »
Waning 2013 and Dark Nights
Two young redwoods we planted (left and center) 14 years ago to keep the redwood clump (to the right) company. When we first began using Biodynamic practices, we were advised by our consultant to plant redwood trees at the east end of our vineyard because the clump of redwoods there were lonely and… Read more »
Re-membering Ourselves into the Cycle of the Whole
Re-membering Ourselves into the Cycle of the Whole Each year there is only one time this picture can happen: this (December) time of year, this (late morning) time of day. Each year I am taken aback when I see the shadow tree sprouting again from the pot. It slows me down! For a few moments balance… Read more »
Valerian and Frost
Burrrrrr!!!!! (Okay, I know, some of you are much colder! But we Mediterranean climate people aren’t used to frost!) When you need gloves to walk the goats in the morning, and when the grass sparkles at sunrise like stars, you seriously consider spraying Valerian on tender young plants, if you didn’t the evening… Read more »
The Blessed Greenness!
It is beginning! The great greening happens so quickly in Napa! Within the week of the first substantial rain of the season, tiny green sprouts present themselves below dried vegetation. Within days the landscape changes from the brown and grey grace of summer and autumn to the benedicta viriditas of winter… so different… Read more »
Happy Thanksgiving from Harms Vineyards!
Boey and St. Francis: Thanks for the animals! Happy Thanksgiving from Harms Vineyards! There is so much for which to be grateful this year: the harvests of grapes and lavender; our dear llama Racu who guarded our goats these last sixteen years and passed this fall; our customers who have supported our Biodynamic organic farming… Read more »
The Blessed Greenness!
Morning light through remaining frost cloth. The Blessed Greenness! The great wind played havoc with our new lavender plants’ frost cloth. The cloth gives six degrees of frost protection, enough to protect the tender plants while transmitting 75% of the light. The rain goes right through, so we leave it on all winter, if… Read more »
© 2024 Patricia Damery.
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