Farm Life - November 2021

See what we are doing as we are moving towards the end of the Year

Food and wildlife

Currently, we’re harvesting seminole pumpkin, cassava, yam, mulberry, fig, Satsuma mandarin, red lime, herbs, papaya, summer greens, winter veggies, and more. The farm is exploding in brilliant fall color offered by tithonia, christmas senna, tropical sage, roses, bougainvillea, zinnia, gingers, achira, and cranberry hibiscus.

We’re experiencing an explosion of animals, birds and butterflies as well, because of the abundance we’ve added to the site. There is enough to share!

A baby rabbit crossing a pathway freezes long enough for me to get a close up. He disappeared into his hiding place shortly afterwards.

Migrating birds visit in November and help keep the weeds under control, devouring them in massive flocks. Bees and butterflies are going crazy, storing up enough energy for winter. There is a last minute burst of energy as animals prepare for a few lean months. We’re creating a system that will provide food year around, but are mindful of animals becoming vulnerable if they become dependent on winter food from us, so we’ve fenced our winter gardens.

The native animals have all adapted to an actual dormant winter here on our sand hill where nature rests for about 3 months during the dry season. But winter is our favorite time to grow annual veggies as we are relatively pest free and our most popular northern veggies like broccoli and kale just love the cooler weather!

Past events

We just wrapped up a number of great events and are scheduling more!

In October, we hosted a bevy of Girl Scouts. They stayed the weekend and we planted seeds, ate mulberries, had a campfire (of course), and learned about food forests and the relationship between trees and air (it’s deep).

Allen Clements of Forest Ranch Regenerative made a video about it.

She also got a couple of podcasts in:

Possibilities of Permaculture for Relief Efforts, Soil Building & Whole Systems Design with Koreen Brennan of Grow Permaculture. (48 min). Podcast with Permaculture Princess.

Creating Abundance through Permaculture with Koreen Brennan. On today’s episode we are grounding ourselves back into the soil of the earth after a month of exploring the cosmic realms.

NuEarth with Nixie Marie podcast

Earthskill event

In November, we held an Earthskills event which was a hit. Topics included wild mushroom foraging, tracking, starting a fire with a bow drill, raising animals naturally, farming with nature, chemical free beekeeping, surviving without money, and more. Our goal was to highlight the local skill sets and knowledge in the area because we really have some great resources here in West Central Florida. We know there are more of you out there - many more - so we’re going to have another of these in the spring. Let’s come together and strengthen our community! Stay tuned for dates! Do you have an earth skill you’d like to share? Let us know! And hope you come to our next one.

Design course

We hosted our current PDC at the farm over the next weekend and it turns out there are some talented people in the group that kept the beat and energy going til the wee hours.

Here Permaculture Design Course students using a home made “water level” to measure a level pathway on our hillside.

Students learned how to design a food forest, propagate plants, plant seeds and trees, and how to measure a swale on contour, to capture water and nutrients and direct them where they are most needed.

Beautyberry bush. We love this time of year - beautyberry jelly and syrup are delicious.

Past weekend

This past weekend, we had a dynamic meeting of local people interested in creating strong networks for resilience. This turned into a fruitful brainstorming and co-create session that is leading towards some very tangible support for local resilience.

Foggy morning.

Our entrance in the early foggy morning.

Upcoming events

On Dec 18th, we’ll have a Winter Solstice celebration for those interested in local, ecologically friendly food systems, economies and communities. We’ll give a tour of the farm and share some of the exciting local resilience news, and then celebrate with a potluck meal and a fire.

On Jan 15, we will start our second Online Permaculture Design Course. The material is rich and accessible and we’ll be offering regular live sessions as well. This course has allowed us to do a deep and focused dive into material that will help you really be successful in designing your site.

On Feb 5, we start our six-month In-Person Permaculture Design Course for 2022. This course has helped launch many people into permaculture careers, lush yards full of food, and richer communities and relationships. We continue to create and deepen networks, tools and resources to help you to reach your goals with permaculture design. With our design courses come career counseling, individual mentoring, links to community resources, and much more. Note: We are offering a special Early Bird price on our in person PDC through the end of November.

We have many plans for 2022! Earthskills, a Women’s Convergence, supporting the local food movement, expansion of our orchard, natural building, and more! We’ll continue to announce events in our newsletter.

Event Calendar

May your holiday season be mindful, peaceful and fulfilling!

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Farm Life - November 2021

Food and wildlife

Past events

Earthskill event

Upcoming events

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COMPANY