Garden Canning Season

The garden canning season has officially begun on our little acre, with 8 quarts minestrone soup, and 4 quarts of beans in highly seasoned water. This is roughly 24 meals. And I say that’s not too shabby.

Next up will be stuffed pepper soup, and stuffed cabbage soup. And other stuff. But not today. Today we wait patiently for these jars to process. Tomorrow we’ll wash them, label them, and put them on the shelves.

I’m already looking forward to our fast slow food this winter.

I’m feeling very grateful.

🕊

Tomato Bounty

 

Rain is in tomorrow’s forecast, so today is about getting out into the gardens to make sure harvests get harvested.

First, I have to get the harvested, fully ripened tomatoes into the dehydrator. Then, and only then will I have room for what’s to come.

I’m so grateful for this bounty. Bounty to share, bounty to enJOY in the moment, and bounty to nourish ‘n’ sustain us through the months ahead.

Peace. 🕊

A Liminal Ramble from the Full Moon Hedge

 

This past full Lughnasadh moon, the first of two full moons this August, has expressed a pronounced yet gentle verve to me.

One of my habitual moon rituals is, at the full moon, to assess all that's in my moon cauldron and to engage the days of waning moon to empty these holy bits so that by the new moon the cauldron is void, empty of holy bits, so that I may choose what to add to explore during the waxing phase. 

So now, as we move beyond this brilliant full moon, it would be time for me to start emptying my moon cauldron in preparation for the upcoming new moon. Make sense? I sometimes wonder if it does. ::nods:: But that's beside the point. You see, this full moon handed me a word, and that word in Linger.

Linger.

I don't know what it means, but I do know that when Luna offers a gift, I accept it. I'll embrace it until such time I'm able - and willing - to acknowledge and honor what I discover as I unwrap and explore the contents of this gift.

Even in my befuddlement I feel how this word, this gift - Linger - resonates within and around me. It feels moored to another word that has been holding my conscious awareness, and driving my recent work - Liminality. This recent work, and the word itself, is inspired by the book Living Resistance, by Kaitlin B. Curtice (a read I most definitely recommend). This work with liminality has been going on for a while, and is anchored somewhere in early 2022, before I read the book, and when I returned to Hedge work, as I call it... working in and with those spaces between spaces. 

Linger. Liminality. Hedge.

So here I am, pondering the intersection of these web threads that are holding me, pronounced yet gentle. Swaying in their embrace as I prepare to pass through the gate of 65/11/2 in October. There's nuance here, yet I can feel the tug to leave that unexpressed for now, and let it linger.

So here I rest - for today - swaying with the swing, pronounced yet gentle, as I Linger.

Linger.

Peace. 🕊

Lughnasadh Blessings

 

August kicks off - in my realm - with sunshine, good air quality, unusual tempered temperatures, and a good dose of righteous indignation. And being a backyard farmer with some Irish in me, this holy time of Lughnasadh holds a special place in my life and in my heart. 

Of course, any event that honors the earth, our divine Mother, my beloved Nona Gaia, her abundance 'n' generosity, is an event that I'll embrace with a madness. Such earth-centered holy days act to ground - and ground again 'n' again - my dedication to nurturing the living rituals that are part of my daily living. Rituals that nourish and sustain life. All life. Thus, that righteous indignation (but that's yet another rant for yet another day, gods willing ::knock wood::). 

Righteous indignation aside, today I'll be harvesting green beans, zucchini, kale, collards, beets, maybe another cabbage, french fingerlings, peppers, green onions, the first couple of ripe tomatoes, and possibly a few carrots... parsley, dill, cilantro, summer savory, Mexican mint, calendula, mullein, monarda, yarrow, other botanicals, and - yep - sweet, sweet basil. 

Not to mention echinacea, wild carrot, zinneas, and other blossoms to add color 'n' verve to our day, and days. 

What color 'n' verve are you harvesting this holy day, this season, this life that nourish and sustain? What prayers do you live? 

What prayers do you live?

Peace. 🕊