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Summer Vacation
(by Alexandra Heath - September 21, 2009)
Although there is a saying about the “lazy days of summer”, for me it has been anything but. First, though, I must apologize to all of my readers and customers who are used to seeing me in my herb booth at the Saturday Farmers Market in Oroville. Yes, I haven’t been there since mid-July. But I have had the pleasure of extended visits by a whole host of family members from out of state, so there have been some compensations for me. I do hope to be back soon.
Besides family members visiting, I have had several large crops to harvest and process, mainly carrots, corn, tomatoes, melons and beans. I was able to put my daughter and granddaughter to work shelling beans and they did a mighty fine job. My grandson chipped in to help with corn husking and we all did double duty blanching and bagging the corn and carrots for freezing.
Considering how much work happens all at once on a working farm, it is no wonder that extended families all lived (and worked) together in the past. I suspect, given the state of the economy and the rather gloomy prospect of recovery, that we are once again headed in the direction of families living together, although some of those “families” may be of choice rather than blood relations. “Whatever works,” I say.
In addition to being “up to my ears” with the garden, I’ve taken the time to attend several classes that help me keep my knowledge of herbs and gardening sharp. And I’ve learned some new things as well. At the beginning of August, it was off to New York, where I participated in a weeklong intensive under the guidance of an extremely knowledgeable herbalist, Susun Weed. Twelve of us women worked, slept, ate, and commiserated with each other for the seven days that we tramped through the hills of upstate New York with our magnifying glasses and field guides identifying wild herbs and learning about the active properties that make herbs medicinal.
Although by week’s end we were kind of grubby and tired, we all said good-bye on the final day feeling as if we had formed a “sisterhood.” It was wonderful. However, awaiting me at home was “the great tomato harvest.” So for the week or so after, while hosting my husband’s children home from college for a week to visit with us, I peeled, stirred, chopped, cooked and canned the tomato sauce that we will eat for the rest of the year. The kitchen was a delight of aromas—basil, garlic, onion, oregano—yum!
Finally, over the Labor Day weekend, I gifted my daughter and granddaughter with attendance at a four-day event that happens each year at Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville—the Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium. Held three times a year—twice in May and then in either August or September, whenever the holiday occurs—the Symposium hosts over 400 women for four days of gourmet vegetarian meals, classes by well-known and respected women teachers, drumming, dancing, and a handmade items marketplace. The focus of the event is on sustainability, so there were a number of classes on rainwater harvesting, gathering wild foods, wood-drill fire making, graywater reuse, seed-saving, as well as classes on herbs and gardening.
Now, I’m back home in the garden and today’s tasks include clearing out the melon bed, picking tomatoes (more sauce!), staking the peppers, pulling out the Black Turtle beans and the Painted Mountain corn, sifting compost, and turning over the garden beds in preparation for planting the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, oats, and spinach that are just now sprouting in the greenhouse. I have to tell you, I’m in heaven!
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If any readers are interested in finding out more about Susun Weed and the classes and apprenticeships she offers, you can find her online at www.susunweed.com. Each Tuesday evening from 7:30 to 9:30PM (East coast time), she provides FREE herbal consultations by phone. Her phone number is on her website for those who are interested.
More information about the Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium is available at www.womensherbalsymposium.org. Maybe I’ll see YOU there next year!
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