What’s it like to fairly take care of people and the earth? It’s a concept called permaculture, and it can provide a guiding spirit to the creation and tending of your landscape.
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Tag Archives: simple living
Our Year on the Farm – 2015
I had fully intended to upload these photos to the blog, but mistakenly uploaded them to the main Light Footsteps website. Instead of doing everything all over again, I hope you’ll hop on over to see this post in its entirety – I think you’ll truly be inspired by our 2015 on the farm!
Come join us next year!
I’ve been taking these last days before the New Year to slow way down, reflect, and dream of what I’d like to manifest in the coming year. After the fast-paced preparation for the holiday season, this time of quiet reflection is essential and has been bringing me a lot of joy.
It makes me wonder — how can I keep this appreciation for quiet reflection alive throughout all of next year?
Today I began going through some of our photos from the year and I have to say: none of the reflecting I’ve done comes close to the way I feel after going through our photos.
Wow – we have accomplished A LOT. It’s so hard to realize all that is going on when you’re in the midst of life. Looking back, I feel such joy at what we manifested this year and the beauty of our life. I couldn’t…
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Help others step lightly!
Next Hands-On Learning Day & Updates
Next Hands-On Learning Day: Saturday, May 23.
Come anytime after 11 AM. Potluck at 5:30. Bonfire to follow!! Free camping if desired! Bring drums, musical instruments, questions, enthusiasm, and your free-spirit!!
Now for what we’ve been up to and what you may find to help with….
With this being our first official spring on the homestead, we’ve been working long hours trying to get Phase 1 of our plans in place.
This year, we hope to have our educational medicine wheel garden up and fully functional, add 2500 sq. ft. of keyhole market garden space, and start our first area of food forest.
Progress with the medicine wheel garden…
Making progress on the keyhole gardens…
We’ve also added chickens and bees to the farm. A few new barnyard creatures should be arriving this week.
Ideally, we’ll also be putting in a greenhouse or hoophouse this season.
Why, you ask?
Because we are absolutely committed to being the change we wish to see in this world, and we are more eager and ready than ever to share why we love permaculture, homegrown food, herbs, and simple living with our community. We’ve been studying these ideas for well over 10 years and it’s time for us to share!!
Here’s the thing. This is a LOT for us to handle on our own. We really need your help and we’d love to share some of our knowledge with you! And of course, we’d love for you to share some of your knowledge with us!!
Are you interested in permaculture? Sustainable living? Homegrown foods?
Bees? Chickens?
Do you wonder why a keyhole garden is preferable to long square gardens with rows?
Have you ever heard of a food forest? Do you wonder why perennial crops are gaining more attention?
How have we done all this without tilling? Why have we tried to avoid that?
Do you know why this plant is one of the most valuable medicines in Ohio?
Have you ever wanted to grow your own medicine and are you curious about why I would have designed a medicine wheel garden?
Do you want to meet some awesome, like-minded people?
Please come visit us!! We’d love to have you this weekend for this next hands-on help day, but we are TOTALLY OPEN TO YOU COMING WHENEVER YOU’D LIKE!!
You can even stay for a week at a time if you need a country getaway! We are open to anything!
Also, let us know if there are specific things you’d like to learn about that would help us entice you to our home! We are open to any and all suggestions.
See you this Saturday, May 23!!
Help others step lightly!
Spring Foraging Favorite: Ramp Pesto!
The season for one of my favorite wild edibles will soon be coming to an end. Ramps, or wild leeks, are a favorite spring green that has a very unique onion-garlic-like flavor I’ve come to crave in the spring.
Although I would like to say that I’ve harvested several times already this year, I missed out on much of ramp season, but just HAD to get out there to make some ramp pesto.
I spotted a huge patch awhile back and finally returned there to harvest some ramps.
In the spirit of the latest consensus about sustainable harvesting, I only took the ramp leaves which are very flavorful indeed. I left the bulbs alone so that they can develop into new plants next year. Overharvesting can very quickly decimate a ramp patch (even one as big as this!), and when you can get away with using just the leaves, why not do that and ensure that this species continues to grace the plates of future generations? Continue reading
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Scenes from (Early) Spring
It’s starting to feel more and more like Spring on the farm!
…And it’s starting to feel more and more like we actually live on a farm!
Maple production has continued. We finished our 3rd batch this past weekend and it was the best one yet. This week we’re in the midst of the fastest rushing sap we’ve seen so there will be at least a 4th (and probably a 5th) installment of our syrup!
We’ve tried boiling the sap down a number of ways – a grill, a rocket stove, and this last time we used a portable electric cooktop that we placed outside.
I think the rocket stove was the most fun, but we had a hard time keeping the sap boiling and it took a lot longer than it should have (like, 10 hours!). We finished the last bit of sap on the kitchen stove and ended up with a decent amount of syrup.
The electric cooktop definitely won the contest for the most efficient way to boil down the amount of sap we collected. Continue reading
Help others step lightly!
Walking Mindfully
“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” —John Muir
Today I was reminded of how important it is for me to do walking meditation.
There are many ways one can train and focus the mind, but walking meditation is by far my favorite, and I think it’s also an important part of feeling more connected with the natural world. Continue reading
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The Solstice Within & Without
“The winter solstice happens in nature around us. But it also happens inside of us, in our souls. […] In the dark place of our soul, we carry secret wishes, pains, frustrations, loneliness, fears, regrets, worries. Darkness is not something to be afraid of. Sometimes we go to the dark place of our soul, where we can find safety and comfort. In the the dark place in our soul we can find rest and rejuvenation. In the dark place of our soul we can find balance. And when we have rested, and been comforted, and restored, we can return from the dark place in our soul to the world of light and new possibilities.” – John Halstead
I finished my holiday gift gathering last week.
This week, I rested. Continue reading
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Prevent Colds & Flu with DIY Elderberry Syrup
There are so many great ways to support your winter health with herbs. Starting with simple dietary additions (like garlic!) and ending with soothing choices to make your cold or flu more tolerable and shorter, herbs are my go-to for prevention and treatment.
One of the tastiest herbal allies, however, is the elderberry.
This shrubby perennial plant has been used as medicine for centuries to support health and well-being. I often see it growing naturally in moist soils, but it has also historically been planted at the edge of gardens as the protector of the garden. Even its name, Elder, speaks to its wise and respected role in our collective medicine chest.
Elder’s lacy, delicate flowers, and bright purplish-black berries can both be used for their medicinal properties. The flowers are diaphoretic meaning that they help to lower fevers by inducing sweating. It is a common ingredient in many cold-care tea formulas.
The berries are rich in vitamins C & A, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, beta-carotene, iron, potassium, and phytosterols. They are often used in prevention and treatment of colds because of their ability to boost the immune system. As an antiviral, they are helpful in treating upper respiratory viruses including colds and flu, but have also been used in treatments for other viruses such as herpes and shingles. Elderberry’s effectiveness is not just an “herban” legend, but its ability to reduce the duration of the flu and to fight viruses has been published in a number of scientific articles (links to abstracts in the resources below).
As a food, elderberry can be consumed as a jam, wine, or in pies, but it’s easiest to use as preventative medicine or for treating cold and flu when made into a tasty syrup. Luckily, it’s really pretty easy to do, too! I even made a handy graphic . . .
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A Visit to Quiet Creek Herb Farm
A couple weekends ago we made a trek across Pennsylvania to attend the Mid-Atlantic Women’s Herbal Conference. It was inspiring to be in the company of so many like-minded women and I was especially grateful to finally meet one of my favorite herbal mentors, Rosemary Gladstar. I’ve been an online student of hers for some time, but hearing her speak in person really reaffirmed how wonderful it is to call her one of my teachers.
She has an amazing way of synthesizing the big picture on the interrelatedness of herbs, health, happiness, and our connection with nature into an easily accessible and moving message. I hope I can be like her when I grow up!
On our way home, we planned to spend several days in the Western part of Pennsylvania visiting old growth trees in Cook Forest. Serendipitously, as we traveled along the road to our lodge we passed a sign for “Quiet Creek Herb Farm”. Continue reading
These Light Footsteps 