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.
Holistic Management: New Steps
Good news! The USDA sees value in this course, partially funding the manual. We received our manual yesterday: Whole Farm Planning and Management: Introduction to Holistic Management®. One of our New Year Resolutions on our ranch is to begin a process of study through Holistic Management, a system with the motto:… Read more »
Still Pruning
Vine that has been carefully evaluated and pruned. Still Pruning Pruning seems like it goes on forever! Each year Ramon has us write down the date he begins pruning vines (this year, January 2.) Each year he races himself. From start to finish, pruning to tying canes, the… Read more »
Beginning of Crystallization Period, January 15 to February 15.
Vineyard Floor in January. Beginning of Crystallization Period, January 15 to February 15. Do the crystals we call frost transmit information to the earth (like crystal receivers) this Crystallization Period, January 15 to February 15? This is the time Rudolf Steiner said the earth was most receptive to the forces of the cosmos. As earth,… Read more »
Pruning and Winter Light: Crystallization Period
Frosty Fallowness in January Pruning and Winter Light January into February is about cutting back old wood. Nevertheless, wings of light unfold, if you let them, and carry you through quiet fallowness. Although we are into the fallow period and do almost no Biodynamic spraying… Read more »
Rising Fullness of December 2012
Rise of the cold full moon over the Napa Valley, December 2012 Rising Fullness of December 2012 This evening we will grind together Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh (Three Kings Preparation) starting at 11:30 pm until 12:30 am. We will remember the fullness of the gifts of 2012, the seeds of which we carry into 2013…. Read more »
Seeding with Dreams This Winter Solstice 2012
Does Boey dream of Toyon berries? Seeding with Dreams This Winter Solstice 2012 Our warm greetings to you at this richly dark time of the year 2012. The long nights allow time for dreams which, like seeds in the earth, can sprout in the warmth of the new year. We dream of an earth tended… Read more »
Winter Work Our vineyard has huge caterpillars at work these days: our winter project to protect the rose geranium and lavender plantings during frosty nights. There are certain places the cold air accumulates, freezing the frost vulnerable rose geranium and some lavender, and it is in these places we stretch agribon over wire supports, which… Read more »
Fuyu persimmons prepared for drying. Photo by Jesse Pizzitola First Harvest of Persimmons, Last Harvest of the Season We harvested our first crop of Biodynamic organic Fuyu persimmons these two weeks, 30 trees, 10 gallons of persimmons. Not a lot, but too many to just eat! Our son Jesse dried the crop. They are as… Read more »
Vineyard Worker Each morning we find him sitting on his dead branch at the top of a Valley Oak in the vineyard, sometimes with his mate. He doesn’t like being photographed, never smiling, never saying Gopher! always taking off when he sees I am focusing in on him. Yet he preforms very important work in… Read more »
Storms and Gaviota The weather report says Storms the next few days. Tomorrow only severe thunderstorms and up to 2 inches of rain. The ground is waterlogged already, so we are warned: there could be flooding. But then Thursday, the report continues, we are to be prepared for 6 up to 15 inches of rain. If… Read more »
© 2025 Patricia Damery.
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