Spring is surely here. The last frost seems to have come after 3 weeks of no freezing temperatures. We have been planting before the coming full moon, sowing bush beans, peppers, tomatoes, kales, chard, lettuce, corn, sunflowers, and melons.  I noticed the blog intro says we will discuss how we eat... well I finally did a step by step. More pictures to come, but here are a few..

March 30th snapshot of my gardening assistant.

Another shot of me looking for kale leaves

March 30th candid, went kinda like, "Look up from the cilantro!"

March 30th harvest to be stir fry!

March 30th view of a pea plant persevering the last freeze.

March 30th view of a seedball surviving the freeze and sprouting, dead center of the picture.

Greens washed and ready for the next step.

Broccoli, garlic, carrot, zucchini, egg, cilantro, red russian kale, and spinach ready for the wok.

Tempeh cut up, coconut oil in the wok, liquid aminos up next. The rice is waiting for boiling water.

And now we are a cookin.

Tempeh, cooked rice, and veggies all mixed up in the wok on low heat. An egg or two cooking in the pan, waiting to be chopped up into small bits and mixed with the rest!

Then there was a plate full of real food. I eat a lot I wont lie, fast metabolism, and real food make for one healthy vessel.

March 31st view of a strawberry bloom.

We absolutely love these berries, nothing compares to food grown in your local area.. I mean within a dozen miles or less, the local plant rNA is the healthiest for you if grown harmoniously.

The peach tree blooms have faded, or they were struck by freeze, either way lets hope for peaches this year!

The blueberry bush blooms are just so elegant.

Working on a lengthy post about food and agriculture, but in the meantime, enjoy an update of the gardens. Hoping most of the seedballs and new sprouts showing life will survive tonight's/tomorrow morning's 30 degree F temperatures. I had really hoped we were done with the frost and freezing, but here I find myself pondering what will need to be reseeded after tomorrow...

March 28 Mammoth Snow Peas with seedballs all around sprouting.

March 28th view of a clover plant and radish popping up under the mulch's protection.

March 28th view of two seed balls sprouting. The closet one under the mulch still left untouched, but the two sprouts in the back of the picture I had to uncover from the leaves around them. The seedball was covered with leaves and I spotted two little sprouts pushing the leaves up and aside. Nature :)

March 28th view of the peas and seed balls sprouting. Hard to see, I apologize, hopefully pictures will be clearer in the future. Basically the clay and compost balls are shooting forth 1 to 4 sprouts each, but only a specific area of the plots seedballed! I think it has to do with the shade this area gets, letting the seedballs germinate and not dry out too quickly.

March 28th view of more seed balls sprouting forth little jewels of life. I do hope these plants make it through tonight's temperatures! Most are brassicas, spinach, or hardy root crops.

March 28th attempt to show one seedball and the life shooting forth!

March 28th view of spring trying to take over. The cilantro is bolting, lots of seed (coriander) this year! Some of the kales, both red russian and dino, have made a great recovery and are meeting my stir fry needs. The spinach is still doing great, though not as bountiful as I had hoped. Still, feeding the two of us (three for the past 16 weeks and coming months) and the occasional chickens, off one spinach row has me very satisfied even if not able to supply neighbors, yet.

Today is a fruit crop day, with lots of rain forecast over the next week. So we took the opportunity to plant an early crop of bush beans. We heavily planted last year's spinach transitioned to squash then kale mound (for those looking backward in posts for reference).  We also planted provider bush beans in the raised bed with the least amount of winter cover crop success, where the pac choy went and four still flower out to seed.  A few cilantro volunteers are showing up in that same raised bed. I love how Nature chooses where she will thrive and express life. I sowed a few bush beans in the pawpaw mound as well, to give a little extra nitrogen in the future. There was a mound behind the neighborhood sign in the front yard that I tried to fix our first year here, mostly sand and covered with landscape fabric. Not the most conducive situation for plant life, so red ants had turned the 10ft x 3ft mound into a condominium.  Over time I managed to slowly rip the fabric back and amend the soil to established some plant life which can thrive in mostly sandy conditions. The red ants have their place in this world, I would say they have done more benefit than humans for agriculture at this point. By aerating the sandy mound, moving different layers of soil, organic matter, seeds, water, and oxygen, they have restructured the soil to be more conducive to life. After they had moved on, generous amounts of diatomaceous earth were used, I moved oregano from the spiral garden to this mound, about four 2ft diameter clumps of oregano. Three of them seem to have taken root and survived the winter. I raked leaves over the mound, about 6 to 8 inches thick, to mulch the mound for insulation and erosion protection. Today I discovered the three patches shooting forth lots of new growth, added some better soil, and planted about a dozen sweet corn plants. Might make a good vision block, and I aim to do pole beans with squash at the base of the corn, filling the rest of the mound the oregano doesnt. I am curious to see what the corn will do in such a mound, after such amending over 2-3 years.

March 22nd it has begun! The first seed ball sprout has been spotted. A purple or red brassicas by the look of it, red cabbage or red russian kale most likely.

Happy Spring Equinox!! What a wonderful time to have chest high surf, ~1,397 seedballs strewn about the garden plots, and upper 60F temperatures with a light rain. May this day bring forth blossoming new spirals of positive energy and souls into your existence.

March 20th view of the Craig's Crimson Cherry. The first winter the entire tree died down to the root and this is the result of 2 years of recovery, one of which had frequency benefits.

March 20th view of the Elberta Peach. We have received fruit from her the past two years, with increasingly larger fruit and more of them. With these fruit and habaneros expected this summer, we should have some great hot sauce!

March 20th view a blueberry bush getting ready to bloom.

March 20th view of seed balls strewn about on the pawpaw mound.

March 20th up close view of three easily spotted seed balls at the base of a pawpaw tree.

March 20th view of plenty of seed balls in the pawpaw mound.

March 20th view of some of the veggie plot's seed ball status.

March 20th view of some of the yard being reclaimed by nature. I noticed 3 seedballs in this picture.

March 20th view of our planters, finally released from the captivity of the porch. From the  bottom, 2 pawpaw trees, 3 different variety fig trees, 2 arctic hardy kiwi, the bulbs we dug up, 3 tea plants and a flower from Compassionate expressions we seed saved from round out the front right plants (mostly all white planters). The black planters in the middle left of this picture are a goji berry, potatos, two rosemary planters, and the clay colored planter has a tea tree (used for the amazing essential oils, not herbal/drinking teas as the other three were) within it. The planters around the outside of this picture are perennials coming back from last year's planting; two mints, horseradish, valerian, and two sages.

Spring seems to be showing her presence these last few days. Lots being done here at the homestead and work being done on the new land as well! The 5 strands of barbed wire dont seem to be much hassle, but the poison ivy is. Jewelweed, a plant which counter acts the ivy's negative oils, is the Native American Indian remedy I am going to freely sow on the land in due time. Here in Wilmington the artic kiwi vines, figs, goji, and tea plants are all showing new growth after overwintering on the porch. The peas are starting to sprout in all the plots sowed; raised beds, both no till plots, and the spot along the spiral garden too. Seems some critters have found the raised bed pea sprouts, not all but a third or so. This is fine as we planted so many peas, I am happy to feed the animals as they find sanctuary here, even in such an area of fast developmental encroachment. Hoping to see 9 healthy corn sprouts in a few days to a week, Black Iroqouis Sweet Corn, for the start of our three sisters mound of significant size, about 6ft x 6ft. I plan on putting a few sunflowers in the middle of the corn circle. Both plants will act as the taller sister growing up to support the beans. As for Natural Farming practices, I have managed to make and sow just over 1,000 seedballs into the two mulched plots, totaling about 600-700 square feet. Crops are all spring crops: lettuce, mizuna, arugula, pac choy, tatsoi, cilantro, red russian kale, lacinato/dino kale, curly roja kale, chard, spinach, white clover, red clover, buckwheat, alfalfa, radish, beets, carrots, onions, catnip, oregano, savory, basil, and about a dozen native perennial wildflowers.  After casting the seedballs out on proper biodynamic days, we wait. About .25 inch of rain has fallen since, and the pictures show some erosion to the balls, but I am guessing at least .50 inch to a full inch will be needed. The other trick may be consistent moisture day to day, which the forecast show is coming next week. We tend to get lots all at once, not over multiple days. Without more straw mulch to put over the cast seedballs, retaining the moisture long enough for germination could be difficult without the consistent rains. We also seem to have a found  type of goumi at a local surf spot, seems evergreen in this zone, thrives at the dune edges, silver leaf underside, small elongated red and silver berries with single central seeds. Hoping these sprout and may be used to grow a hedgerow in certain spots from both the traffic and neighbors (long term, 5 to 10 years). A clip I felt should be shared and viewed by all those effected by the global warming propaganda. You make a difference, we all can, but don't forget to realize we are part of a greater whole, one collective organism/entity/being, that works on its own rhythms. Be it on a cellular level, or a galactic level, a farm or solar system, these work as collective organisms, individual only from one own's perspective but still part of a bigger whole. In the global warming propaganda, we are not told to consider the sun, the Aten. Watch this video please, realize we need to not fight Nature, but work with her rhythms, however extreme. Most of all dont blame ourselves and dwell on it, move forward, change practices, see the bigger picture and our place within it, not maiming it.  We have incarnated at a time of great change. Top 6 Climate Change Issues

Have trouble sleeping last night in Europe or the East Coast? We had an intense geomagnetic storm! Today's NewsToday's News (links listed below video are important to understand, take 10 min to learn about the great floods, oxygen deprivation, mini ice age, and pole reversal events due within a decade or two)

March 16th view of the crab apple blooming!

March 16th view of Mammoth Snow Peas sprouting and the occasional seed ball spotted in the background.

March 16th view of a few seedballs in one of the plots. They have received about .25 inch of rain so far

March 16th view of more seedballs. Not the most exciting pictures, but with enough rain life will come forth.

March 16th view of plot of yard I am not mowing, but seedballing instead. A few seedballs can be spotted here, but we have about 400 more to sow today, before the rains in the coming week.

March 16th view of peas sprouting with seedballs waiting to do the same.

March16th update of the spinach and cilantro rows, with peas sprouting at the base of the pvc.

March 16th view of the spiral garden this spring. Three or four cauliflower plants are on the inside row. The outside row, from the bottom, has chard, the pac choy on the corner. The two kale varieties can be seen parallel to the cauliflower row. After that red cabbage and broccoli make up the remainder of the row pictured here.

Lots of life coming forth and transformations have been taking place the past couple days! From peas starting to sprout to finding resonating and culminating knowledge! Hoping for the cold coming tonight and tomorrow is the last of winter's presence for this cycle. It seemed to start its visit early in 2014, mid November I believe, so let it leave hastily in these early months of 2015. The plants and animals are yearning for Spring to show her beautiful presence, from Young Willow tree to the potato sprouts. Hope the linked knowledge helps anyone who accepts it on this journey and the next sojourns! It felt wonderful to be able to connect all the dots, wonders, and cast aside subjects into one meaningful and deliberate expression of knowledge. Take the time to listen to them and be assured there is great worth in your existence here, in our soul group. I am stilling working myself on the second, longer, video, but truly appreciate the knowledge being expressed and shared openly. Enough soul transforming for now, enjoy the pictures of the plants and outer transformations!

March 5th view of the Craig's Crimson Cherry starting to put forth new growth!

March 5th view of the Daffodil almost ready to bloom! I think she is holding out for this last frost/freeze.

March 5th I pulled some mulch back to reveal 3 out of 4 pea sprouts popping the soil! Made sure to put the mulch back over them as they will be better insulated from the cold, and retain more moisture.

March 5th view showing another couple sprouts emerging at the base of the tepee legs. The peas in this plot were sown at the beginning of February.

March 5th, it may look like chaos to the scientific farmer, but I see peas sprouting in the raised beds with vetch, rye, clover, and other green manures starting the spring cycle.

March 5th view of Young Willow's spring excitement, no longer containable within her branches. This tree was acquired at the ribbon cutting for Progressive Farms last April and we hope to put her as a centerpiece for one the future homestead's many animals and plant sanctuaries.

March 5th for the record view of the lawn. From the newly built Pawpaw mound back to the new (to be established) fig mound and mulched area (about halfway into the yard in this picture, a mulched area that stands out) will be the back edge. It measured to be about 30' by 30'.  I will not be mowing it, but simply seed balling it to see what can truly be done with 'Do-nothing', Natural Farming. I may put transplants from local sources (seeds, cuttings, transplants, garden fair, etc) to help get the area established faster. I have even though of planting bush beans and soy beans in the soil to get something growing that may produce food the first year. Lots of green manures and dynamic accumulators will be used, as well as a couple native perennial flowers. As mentioned, beans may prove able to help out, as well as lots of leafy greens such as kale, lettuce, chard, tatsoi, pac choy, mizuna, arugala, and chicory. The idea would be to grow as much as possible in the sandy soil, knowing the plants will decompose to enrich the soil further, distract the wildlife foraging the area, and possibly feed anyone who sees food in the sea of vegetation ;) Obviously, the yard in this area will be unmowed so the plants can thrive.

This is a picture from last fall of the Stars and Stripes Lilly we have observed growing all over this property. The only other property we have found in Wilmington and surrounding area with this variety is Poplar Grove Plantation. We believe there was a strong relationship between the families residing here and there in the recent history (1825 to now). Both were surely self sufficient in food and possibly bartered or exchanged gifts, resulting in the flowers found at these two unique locations.

March 5th greeted us with wonderful weather, even at 6:30am! We spotted our opportunity to propagate the Stars and Stripes Lillies this year as little bits of growth were starting to show through the soil. With a little digging, small clusters were unearthed and planted two each in these planters. The two plants in the background are the white azaleas we found and transplanted just a few days ago. May these plants live on with us at the new land, symbolizing the connection we will always share with our current home here.