I inherited the brainchild of my younger son, who wanted to turn our horseless horse farm into an organic farm....I signed up...as his partner....and then opportunity took him back to California, where he is learning many new things about farming and about himself. What kind of mother would I be to hold him back? Not the kind that I am or would ever want to be. So I wished him the best and sent him off with my love and blessings. Of course, all of the seedlings he started died due to our crazy spring, and so I had to choose...start over on my own or abandon what we had begun....so after going through the stages of grief for what was supposed to be, I decided to try and grow some food.
Here were my first little corn plants, heirloom seeds from long before Monsanto existed..planted in June.in one of the four 12 by 4 beds that my son had made....along with three tomatoes that he planted back in May. I don't even know what kind of tomatoes but they became giant plants in no time...I do know they are heirloom organics and each plant has different tomatoes. I also transplanted mystery plants that were coming up in one of our compost bins...one in a big bed and the rest in a different garden area that we had started a few years ago, that gets sun through about two p.m.in the summer....good thing, too...because the mystery plants are delicata squash, a winter variety...The plant I put in the big bed is huge but a haven for squash bugs and such...I am letting it live for now as it seems to be keeping the bugs in its bed and they haven't migrated to the subsequent plants that I have in other beds so far....Well, my garden is thriving now....In my morning sun area I have two basil beds...one with genovese and one with thai basil, all friendly plants that come back from the previous year's seed heads...in fact, I have some plants that appear to be hybrids...genovese thai basil...should make for an interesting seasoning to cook with...I've also managed to squeeze in some lettuce and a few other herbs into these beds, which were originally my 'square foot gardening' beds that the basil took over...we also had made a long bed along our rickety fence that I had gourds in a couple of years ago...this year this bed is full...delicata squash from the compost bin, three kinds of gourds, passionfruit, lettuce, spinach, kale, pak choi, sunflowers, marigolds, basil, and still have a little room for something...not sure what yet....beside this bed I have a few odd snap peas and pole beans from my first try at seed starting...along with some St. John's wort...
So these pictures were taken five days ago....and of course, things have already grown a bunch since then....I spend a good part of the day watering and trellising and re-trellising and now I will be starting with the natural pest control as the eggplant bugs have arrived...
and we really like eggplant..
I'm sure you're wondering what in the world this has to do with GoodKharmaReThreads...well
Ifigure that in the end it all goes under the same 'umbrella' of
'GoodKharma', whether it is growing food, house- and farm- and pet-sitting, which I call GoodKharma Services,
so this endeavor will likely be
named GoodKharmaFarms.
The products I hope to make someday....tinctures, soaps, herbal teas, baths, haircare products, even luffa sponges from the luffa gourds...GoodKharma something....I figure you can't have too much good karma...and I spell it with the 'h' to distinguish it from other enterprises out there in the world.
This week I harvested my first radishes...and started picking and freezing and using in every way possible the plethora of wild blackberries around the fencelines of the farm....we are also getting a few tomatoes ripening and being consumed as fast as I can pick them...and I made the first pesto of the summer a couple of evenings ago for dinner...nomm! My ultimate plan for the farm will include a small orchard of peaches, plums, apples, and pears...and a small row of blueberry bushes.
GoodKharmaFarm will hopefully become a non-profit farm that will supply organic fresh food to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, food pantries, battered women's shelters, childrens' homes, etc. I want it to be a farm that does more than grow food to sell at the farmer's market. The products I hope to eventually make from the herbs and botanicals will be marketed and sold to help with the expenses of running the farm. And it will be quite an adventure learning how to create such things. I have even considered raising certain plants that can be used for dyes for dying yarn, clothing, etc. We have already gifted the bulk of the land's grass, as this farm was originally hay fields, to a neighbor so that he has hay for his goats and horses and we get our fields mowed without having to pay someone to do it...and what a waste it would be to just mow all that good grass when it could go to feeding something...a win-win for sure.
I am hoping to get back to making bags, and hope to incorporate my painted art (painted on fabric) into them to go a step further in making them unique....all still made with materials from thrift stores...and I will do clothing items by special order. I also will have painted art on canvases or framed available. I would like to incorporate crocheted pieces as well...just have more ideas and plans than time right now. As I sit and type this from someone else's bed where I am pet and house sitting....my last gig until August, I think...I am beyond happy to report that I actually found out where my muse was hiding and started working on a watercolor that I had sketched back in April....it felt really good and healing to be painting again....and I will get on my sewing machine next week and see if I remember how to operate the thing...so there will be more GoodKharmaReThreads...along with many other GoodKharma things out there soon...here's a peek at what I managed to paint today....definitely a work in progress, just like we all are.....namaste, my friends.
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