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 »
Compost Cycle of Our Ranch
Dasher and Valley clean last leaves from chardonnay vines. White strips are pheromone strips to control European grapevine moth. Compost Cycle of Our Ranch I think of our goats as kinds of blenders: they mix up the food stuffs of the ranch, then release what isn’t digested to be composted and put back into building… Read more »
Whispering Persimmons
Lisa and Jesse harvest persimmons with pruners. They talk to you as you work: the persimmons, that is. The late afternoon sun is cool; the October earth, Mediterranean dry. The work goes quickly. Images come, for that is how persimmons speak: Trap gophers! Interplant more rose geranium! Irrigate earlier for larger fruit! Jesse, Lisa, and… Read more »
The grapes are in!
Wesley, Maggie, and discovered treat! We finished the harvest on Tuesday, and they were in good shape, even after the rain. Ramon is a excellent farmer and managed the leaf pulling well (so air gets in), but the biodynamic preparations also invited drying forces. We ended up averaging more that three tons per… Read more »
Light and Portals
Tomatilla in late afternoon. Biodynamics is one of the few disciplines that addresses the forces behind what we “see.” It requires more quiet to feel these forces, another consciousness even, balanced with reason. What is it about light that opens these portals? The late afternoon sun shining through the tomatilla skin… Read more »
Casual Browsing
Boey Casual Browsing Yes, she is a casual bowser, meditating in her own way on sunlight turned leaf— a great exercise, it turns out, for this Crystallization period ending February 15, and particularly if you are a goat!
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 »
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 »
Waiting: spray Biodynamic Prep 500 to balance the hot and drying forces with earth forces.
Aaron Bader of Adler Fels Winery Waiting Our winemaker for Adler Fels Winery, Aaron Bader, tests the rest of the grapes, saying it will be another week to ten days before harvesting them. The weekend is to bring temperatures into the 90’s, which may speed the ripening up, but also be dehydrating. We will spray… Read more »
© 2024 Patricia Damery.
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