Greetings,
Early November we took a road trip down to Florida for my grandmother’s 94th birthday plus a visit to my parents. She’s someone who is most delighted by me choosing to grow and make food. A farmer herself, born on a small homestead in Kissimmee, Florida. She has since moved to Northern Florida, right on the Alabama border. Cotton and peanut country. The cattle ranches of her childhood have been replaced by Disney World and over population. I can relate to needing to move from the growing development.
It is important for me to take my children to Florida every year to see my side of the family. Though, every time I go, another piece of the Florida I knew as a child is gone. I also don’t view things the way I did 15 years ago. This trip illuminated these changes within me.
We happened to arrive at my parent’s home in Southwest Florida on November 5th. I don’t need to go into details about my political views. I’ll just say they don’t align with most, if not all, of my family and friends of the south. Being there for the election was so hard. I battled between being angry and trying to put our differences behind us to enjoy each other's company. Thankfully, we mostly ignored politics for the week and left the TV off. The kids were great buffers and mediators.
I’ve spent the last month trying to process these feelings about the state of our world and our political system. I realize arguing and being angry amounts to little. It is apparent to us that we have a special place here in Maine. One that will hopefully bring unification, peace, and bring a diverse amount of people and ideas together. I remain focused on community building, even with people I don’t see eye to eye with.
During my travels I did a lot of thinking about what our property looks like this next year, what I can and want to offer. I’ve been contacted by many individuals asking for various educational services.Planning to spend the next couple months creating field trip opportunities for groups of all kinds, from homeschool to adult get togethers. Rather than posting dated events, I’ll let you plan the time and get a group together. The worst part about this last year was hosting classes/events and no one coming due to scheduling.
If you have any ideas or desires for events/activities this next year, let me know!! I would love to work with you. I plan to have a handful of options by the new year posted to our website. I’ve got a few Astronomy lessons and sourdough workshops worked up. We will be working on getting the smaller greenhouse functional to be a classroom so our options open up.
We have received more encouragement to continue the growth of the observatory. Phillip got the opportunity to be interviewed by Ellie in Space in late October. The emails and phone calls we have gotten since this interview have been unexpected. We have gotten affirmation for what we are doing from complete strangers. Some generous donations have been made from people all over the country. Phillip has already invested that money into improving the Observatory with a new monochrome camera, the kind the Hubble telescope uses. We are excited people want to continue to support us in this work. I've attached some of the photos Phillip has taken this month. We don’t have any Astronomy nights planned right now. The weather looks a little tricky and Phillip would like to take time to learn the new technology we have acquired. If anything changes, I will send an update.
Phillip and I have been working hard on getting the food forest ready for winter. We are covering every bed with a thick layer of mulch; the stuff we’ve accumulated from the arborist over the last year. So far, we have gotten about 1/3rd done, hustling to have everything covered in the next week or two. It is looking like single digit temperatures in the forecast for south west Maine. This mulch will help protect the strawberry and herb plants from the hard freeze. It will also become food and a weed barrier come the spring.
It is a bit more work growing the strawberries without plastic, herbicide, and fertilizer. We are committed to hard work and believe it is the correct thing to do. As I cover every little strawberry leaf, I dream of all of the foragers who will enjoy this fruit come June. For now, they will rest deeply through the winter.
I have a few tentative things on the calendar for this month. I will be at the Ferment Farm Christmas Market on December 7th from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm with the Solar telescope and an information table about the science of the Winter Solstice. Come check out all the great vendors that will be there. The 21st I am hosting a Winter Solstice decoration making get together for the trees around the orchard at 1:00 pm. Things you could bring if you come; apples, oranges, hemp twine, nut/seed butter, bird seed, or anything friendly for the native wildlife. I'll have light snacks and warm drinks. Feel free to bring a treat to share.
Hope you are making the most of the shift into winter and embracing the rest it is bringing.
-Gwendolyn