An Environmental Novel About Love and Redemption My novel Goatsong has launched this month! The books are on the way! Several events are being planned for the new year to introduce Goatsong, which will be announced in the coming weeks. What has been said about Goatsong: Smokey Zeidel, Author of The Storyteller’s Bracelet: A Moving Tale of Love… Read more »
Category: Harms Vineyards: Passed Lives
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.
An Environmental Novel About Love and Redemption

An Environmental Novel About Love and Redemption Patricia’s novel Goatsong has launched this month! The books are on the way! Several events are being planned for the new year to introduce Goatsong, which will be announced in the coming weeks. What has been said about Goatsong: Smokey Zeidel, Author of The Storyteller’s Bracelet: A moving tale of love… Read more »
Pond Clean-up

Pond Clean-up
Pond Clean-up Left unchecked, this plant would completely take over the pond. The period after harvest has also allowed time to clean out the small irrigation pond, which colonised by a type of Ludwigia or water primrose, a non-native, invasive weed from South America. First we must drain out enough water by irrigating the vineyard and… Read more »
The Greening

Shoots of native blue wildrye illuminated by sun photographed against the dry grass of mid October. The Greening This time of year is magical to me. For the last months in our Mediterranean climate, everything has been brown, and the fire danger, high, especially as autumn approached…. Read more »
Path of Light

One of the more magical experiences is walking in the forest in the early morning and finding a path of light—something so hard to capture with camera— the one place the sun makes it through to the forest floor. View Our Lavender Products
Rose Geranium: Last Distillation of the Year

Rose geranium in vineyard. The slightrise on the right shaded the plants, causingfrost damage. This month we did a second distillation of rose geranium. Now we can put away the still for the winter. It was a small distillation, as this first year growing rose geranium has been a steep learning curve. For one thing,… Read more »
October: Vineyard Cleanup

Loading rejected hay into truck with blackberry brambles. October: Vineyard Cleanup October is one of our busiest months. We clean out the invasive Himalayan blackberries that have sprouted by the small pond and take them, along with the organic hay we bought two years ago—and our goats refused to eat—to the county composting facility. The… Read more »
Racu’s Clooties

Racu rushing to a favorite rubbing spot. Racu’s Clooties Racu, our llama, brushes pieces of his coat onto particular bushes about the ranch, almost like prayer ribbons or Celtic clooties— at least, that’s what they mind me of. He is such a regal being, a conscientious guard of a… Read more »
Pumpkin Party in Petaluma this Weekend!

Pumpkin Party in Petaluma this Weekend!
Grandson Wesley helping Auntie Lisa load pumpkins for the party. Pumpkin Party in Petaluma this Weekend! Our son Jesse, his wife Lisa, and his partner Nathan are sponsoring a pumpkin party at First Light Farm in Petaluma this Saturday, October 20, 4588 Bodega Avenue. There will… Read more »
Biodynamic Rain Dance

Upper Reservoir. Photo Art by Bill Fulton. Biodynamic Rain Dance This week we will do a Biodynamic sequence spray to increase moisture. On Wednesday afternoon, October 17, we will begin by stirring two earth preparations together, Barrel Compost (BC Prep) and BD 500 (horned manure), which we spray on the ground in the late… Read more »
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