Hello everyone!
It would seem that the changing of the seasons is upon us, bringing us to the doorstep of the end of the growing season (and our CSA box deliveries, unfortunately). Here at Oz, that means a few different things. It means lots of time spent out in the orchard harvesting untold numbers of apples as they ripen, it means preparing the crop beds for their rest over winter, and for the apprentices it’s a time of reflection as we come upon the end of our apprenticeship.
At the beginning of the season (and our learning curves), we learned to “wake up” the fields from their winter slumber, using a broadfork to aerate the soil, adding any nutrients that may be lacking, and installing irrigation lines that would keep our new crops thriving. After a season of rest, we worked hard to realize the potential in the grounds we lived and worked on. This was by no means an easy task, and more than a little nerve wracking at times. There were certainly days that our work felt like climbing a mountain of marbles.
Over time though, sprouts began to appear and we began to grow alongside them. Harvest mornings (which had started as a hectic 6 hour rush) started to fall into a rhythm as we got used to the workflow and the amazing crops in our care. I realize now that all this time we were working the Earth, Mother Earth was working us right back. Over the course of the season, I’ve felt myself being reborn into a stronger version of myself. One that is no longer so daunted by the seemingly never ending challenges of being in true communion with the land.
And now, coming to the close of the season, there are still more lessons yet to be learned. Now we will be learning to “put the beds to bed”, and prepare the fields for their season of rest. We’ve been harvesting and pulling up beans, corn, and squash crops, taking out and storing irrigation lines, and pulling silage tarps over whole plots like giant quilts. Tucking the land in for bed.
Enjoy the abundance.
Heidi, Farm Apprentice
Chrozicle Issue #636
Autumn blessings from Oz!
We are fully immersed in the season and, in turn, fully indulging in the greatest display of abundance all year! The air is cooling, as the earth and out spirits begin to relax and recenter as we begin to enter the winter season.
I also want to acknowledge and thank the farmers, apprentices, other managers, coordinators, all the beloved members of our families and the greater community who joined us in our annual Harvest Celebration! We are truly honored to be surrounded by such amazing, dynamic, and generous people! Can't wait to share the fruits of our labor over the holiday season and look forward to the celebration next year!
All my love and gratitude,
Eric Schneider
Maintenance Manager
Chrozicle Issue #635
Here at the farm the apples are ripening with sweetness in the crisp, cool fall air, we’re noticing the days quickly becoming shorter, and feeling grateful for the first rains rejuvenating the land.
Now that autumn has arrived, it’s time for us to join a great tradition stretching far back to our ancestors, a tradition shared by many peoples and cultures throughout the ages. We call it the Harvest Festival. In these days of abundance (and looking ahead to the low light and chill of winter), we give thanks for the nourishment of the land, the fertility of the soil, the labors of the hands that have worked it, and the ties of community. The tradition of similar celebrations seems to date back nearly as far as agriculture itself– many variations of festivals of harvest were practiced in ancient times, from Egypt to China, throughout Africa and Europe, across Mesoamerica and South America, and today countless others continue in every corner of the world. Many have coincided with the full moon of the month at the peak or end of the harvest season, many have included Goddess worship and celebration of fertility. As long as humans have cultivated land and crop we’ve gathered to share and express our gratitude for the Earth and the blessings of sun and water– celebrating the many gifts we’ve received through feasting, parade, song, prayer, dance and any other imaginable human revelry.
In doing so we honor and participate in the great cycles to which we owe our very lives. We acknowledge that which must lie down in the grave of winter in order for the bounty to rise again in springtime, we give thanks for the endless renewal of life. We honor the life that has been given and taken over the course of the season to nourish our own lives, we give thanks for the perfect transformation of things. We attend to the paths of the Sun and Moon, we give thanks for the light, and for the darkness.
Please join us at Oz Farm this Saturday, October 7, 2pm - 8pm, to celebrate the bounty of the season, the labors of our apprentices, and the beautiful tapestry of community through food. We’ll have food featuring Oz veggies, cider from our orchard, apple pies, live music, farm tours, and loads of fun.
https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/exhibits/show/thanksgiving-culture/harvestfestivals
https://www.britannica.com/list/5-harvest-festivals-around-the-world
Best,
Jordan Gardner, Farm Manager
Chrozicle Issue #634
Happy Tuesday,
Another week is here and passing on the farm; and as I sit here this Monday evening and think of what to write, all I can think about is how tumultuous the days can be here, in every way. Each day is a flurry of all kinds of activity, from work, to cooking, after-work projects, socializing; there’s never a dull moment (unless we are thinning beets or carrots or something). Today, instead of farming, I helped dig a trench to find a big leak in our irrigation system. Last week I chased a deer through a bunch of stinging nettle to corral it out of our main field. A couple of us are making some “home-brew” with apple and pear juice we made from the leftover fruit we didn’t sell. I don’t think my life has ever been so engaging.
Growing food for people can be hard, and all of the challenges we face to get the food from seed to CSA box are well worth it to see it all packed up. Every crop on the list this week—every week, really—has had its challenges. With the gems getting munched by deer, beetles eating holes in the kale, onions bolting, worms in everything, cabbage (along with everything else) annihilated by gophers, you learn to stay on your toes, and take the experience with you to do it a little differently down the road.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn so many different things and feed so many people, including myself and my friends around me. As the season winds down, we hope you savor every last bit of the harvest and preserve whatever’s left, to enjoy sometime in the winter! We certainly are.
Thanks for reading,
Jacob, Farm Apprentice
Chrozicle Issue #633
Hi there folks!
You’ve heard a lot about the joys of life on Oz Farm through vague descriptions of sunsets and redwood forests and friends around the table. However, I’m going to flip the switch to shine a light on the dark side, behind-the-scenes problems and mistakes that take up a lot of our energy every day and can keep me up at night. I think it’s important to share the realtime challenges with you as you have signed up for the ride with us and unknowingly experience the impact of each success and failure in the fields through the contents of your box each week. This is the really juicy and sweet part of the CSA model, where we make this agreement together to roll through the highs and lows together. You’ve lent your trust and upfront financial support and we’ve given our best effort to grow wholesome, diversified, beautiful food for you. As new farm managers we came in kind of blind, and have been feeling our way slowly in the darkness over the course of this season. Right up close each challenge can seem catastrophic, but with a little perspective looking back on the season it appears more like a comedy of errors. I hope you’re laughing with us.
First, early in the season before apprentices arrived, we spent a month trying to gopher/rat/bird-proof the greenhouse tables as mysterious night prowlers took out thousands of plant starts under the cover of darkness. It was devastating to see the continuous loss, morning after morning, which hit us hard especially in terms of flowers and early produce.
Then it flooded, water logging the fields and making for a very late start - so we couldn’t plant all those eaten starts anyhow! We optimistically thought the flood might lower the gopher population (which it may have done short-term) but woooodoggy they’re back with a vengeance!! They have recently destroyed about 50% of mid-summer plantings of lettuce and brassicas, which is cutting into our autumn supply of greens and broccoli. What the gophers are not pulling underground to eat (they suck whole plants down into their tunnels), the deer are browsing from overhead! They love to chomp the tops off of fennel, dig into every lettuce heart they come across, and even browse those bitter chicories that you’re probably thankful to the deer for eating so no more giant escarole goes into the csa boxes ;).
We built temporary hoop houses in the spring for the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Two out of three have survived the coastal wind, but our poor peppers and eggplant are exposed and not producing without the greenhouse effect. We miss you friends!
Our summer plantings of brassicas- meaning kales, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, etc - have been impacted by an explosive overpopulation of flea beetles this season, which nibble lacy holes in the leaves, stunting the plants’ growth. As a certified organic farm we do not use insecticides, and are limited in our response, which has mainly been to spray regularly with a mixture of soap and neem oil. We are hopeful that the population will decline over the winter and we can implement more proactive strategy next season, using cloth or net covering to protect the plants from insect damage.
One of the greatest and latest challenges that we’ve been facing has to do with water - first noticing how quickly we were running out and the related crop stress. As you can imagine, the underground water infrastructure and plumbing at Oz is somewhat mysterious, having been cobbled together over the decades by many different people with varying skill sets and visions (kind of like everything here). For the past couple of months, water has been seeping out of the system to the extent that we have had almost no ability to store the water pumped out of a well when the light is on the solar panels during the day. During this last week, some of the crew have been digging in search of the broken pipe, 24” under a hard-packed road. Due to continuous weddings and retreats on the property, we are unable to use large machinery to dig up the line and locate the leak. We are still deep in the problem-solving on this one, running all the irrigation we can during daylight hours on the annual crops and trusting the deep root systems of the perennial trees to survive the summer without irrigation.
These are just a few of the countless facets of mystery and mistake that we have encountered over the past months that have shaped the contents of your csa boxes. Some weeks it’s on the lighter side when available crops are limited, and some weeks the box is heavy with abundance. We try to balance it out with confidence that we have your full support in our effort to grow the soil, grow community, and grow good food to feed your life energy. Thank you for your trust and understanding in bearing with us through the ebbs and flows of the season. May we remember that every challenge is an invitation to learn, grow, and respond with grace and stability in the current of ever-changing conditions.
Katy, Farm Manager
Chrozicle Issue #632
As the fall Equinox approaches we begin our transition into the tail end of the season. August is usually considered “burnout month” on the farm but this year with the late rains we had everything on the farm is a little behind schedule. The apples are a few weeks late, tomatoes are finally ripening, we’re just beginning to see color on our peppers. We are always playing nature’s game and as much as we try to impose our will on the farm, nature reminds us who is in charge. We never know what nature will bring next so we try to be like a horseback rider. “In the saddle, as long as you have good posture and a good seat, you can overcome any startling or unexpected moves your horse makes. So the idea of the saddle is having a good seat in your life.” Farming on land is a lifelong education and every year brings new lessons. Sometimes we fall off the horse completely but ideally we learn to anticipate the things that used to blindside us and take action before small problems become big problems. With so much going on at the farm this time of year it can feel like we’re constantly chasing down problem after problem without making forward progress but as long as we stay mindful in “the saddle” we’ll make it through any surprise nature throws our way.
Although it can feel like there’s so much more to do it always is encouraging to reflect back on how much we have done already and remember that we are making progress, together, day by day, at nature’s speed, to our goals of a successful season.
Thanks for your support!
Dean
Chrozicle Issue #631
Happy September! ( can you believe it?! )
As the farmers are farming, the apples are appleing and the season be seasoning!
September is one of my favorite months, it feels like the top of a deep breath before the exhale. Summers peak energy is still vibrating through the soil while the crisp morning air reminds us to cherish the tomatoes that continue to ripen.
As we fold ourselves into Virgo season, and our focus shifts to little details of our lives, we continue to invest our energy into the realistic potential with attentive work and dedication.
On the farm, that looks like time and energy spent harvesting pears and apples that were planted long before us, tending to tomatoes ready for canning, thinning radishes and plucking parsley.
For myself, this seasonal energy has manifested in forms of communication. Connecting with my new community, having conversations of what was and what is to come.
A special thank you to everyone who supports us each week, and an extra appreciation to all that came out to the farm this past Friday for our pizza night fundraiser, the turn out was a great reminder of how loved and supported we are within our community.
With massive gratitude,
Roza
Retreat Manager
Chrozicle Issue #630
The oldest cultivated beings on the farm are apple trees. When we arrived as apprentices in April they were flowering with beautiful white blossoms; the bees buzzing around them, birds swooping above. The first tiny fruits were joyously noticed, but still the long-lived stalwarts that we walked amongst every day were less often greeted and noticed than the more rapidly growing, flourishing lettuces and greens, zucchini and potatoes, broccoli and tomatoes that we have learned to sow, carefully tend, and harvest through months of farming in this amazing environment.
Now the apples are starting to ripen and are ready for harvest. The trees that we were so excited to learn about now inspire a deep reverence as we begin to more carefully work with them to understand their growth and needs, varieties and flavors of fruit. We prune them and it feels relieving; harvest and sample and we feel enlivened, joyful; learn about their history and pruning techniques from the wider Oz community and feel once again part of a long-lived, vital, connected community with intricately-shaped (sometimes knobbly and gnarled) beings at the core.
We are so glad to share the first bounty from these trees with you and have you join in the crisp, sweet appreciation of this new season’s harvest. And we hope that you will all come to greet and thank the trees themselves at this year’s Harvest Celebration in October. We can’t wait for the pies and a full day dedicated to sharing enthusiasm for these thriving beings with the entire community connected to them.
Laura - Oz Apprentice
Chrozicle Issue #629
Tomatoes, basil, and buckets of squash,
herbs bundled and drying for tea in the fall,
the time of abundance and preservation at once.
Breaking bread and saving seeds,
a full table of neighbors sharing their tales,
exchanging stories and contributing with busy hands.
The days are long,
long enough for river plunges at their end,
this season won't last and the fog and smoke are a reminder of that.
Enjoying the now and wondering about the future,
everywhere else has disaster on their hands,
ours are busy working.
-Amanda Mahaffey, Nonprofit + Apprenticeship Manager
Chrozicle Issue #628
It is early morning and the birds who inhabit the willows that now, in the height of summer, envelop my little cabin, are beginning to chirp and sing. For the last hour I’ve watched the sky brighten, waking up — or trying to — to the creakiness of my body, the multitude of thoughts and feelings of this morning.
Now, midway through the growing season and my time here at Oz, I feel like I am farming, living in this community; securely enmeshed in the workings of this place, and it is as challenging for me as it is beautiful. Newness is challenging, and so much of my work and daily life here is new to me! I am realizing and accepting, though, that the interconnectedness of this community of people to each other, to the broader ecosystem of the farm and wilder lands surrounding it, consists of a balance of challenges — of navigating relationships, continually putting forth physical and emotional effort — and of ease — of friendship, abundance of harvest, and joy of learning.
I've been trying to really savor my time here, especially the sweet, enjoyable experiences/moments/tasks. Most of these pop up on your average day at Oz, during the workday as well as not, which is so special. I want to share a few with you:
Digging potatoes. Smooth and round treasure right beneath the soil surface. Nails chock full of dirt.
The farm kitchen front porch. A congregation spot. Any number of projects filling up the space, people sitting, standing and leaning, talking. Stopping by or hanging for hours. It shakes when the washer’s running.
Cooking and eating all the beautiful veggies we grow as well as meat and dairy and mushrooms and berries grown by our wonderful friends and farmer’s market community. It’s a huge privilege and joy to have access to this food, and to prepare it with so many people who grow it and care for it together.
I’m super excited for the remainder of this season, and I hope you are too! Thanks so much for the support and all the love,
Helen, Apprentice
Chrozicle Issue #627
This year really seems to be flying by, so let’s take the time to gather our loved ones around a table full of good food and take these beautiful moments exactly as they are.
At our dinner table on the farm, mealtimes with the whole crew are accentuated with rawness. We have moments of hardship, relief, laughter, and humanity even on days filled with frustration and stress. We have overcome increasingly strange weather patterns, flea beetles, and a never ending war on weeds. And yet, at the end of the day we come together over the food we’ve grown with love for each other, the work that we do, and an earth that loves us right back.
On the hardest days, all of us come to dinner with raw hands and hearts. But one look around the table reminds me why we are all here. The team that runs this farm is not the one any of us would have imagined. A group of people so incredibly different, yet impossibly similar. Not unlike the world we live in…
In fact, maybe we (as human beings on this wondrous planet) aren’t so dissimilar at all. All of us come from our own hardships and battles. All of us seek a life that makes our battles worth it. And all of us wonder about a world where we can all come together, maybe over a plate of good food.
In my time at Oz, I’ve come to believe it’s not only possible but incredibly beautiful to see in action. The road may be long and it’s certainly going to take a village, so thank you for being an important part of ours.
Heidi Lundberg, Apprentice
Chrozicle Issue #626
VII
Put your hands into the mire.
they will learn the kinship
of the shaped and the unshapen,
the living and the dead.
VIII
When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird.
When I call
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.
IX
Sowing the seed,
my hand is one with the light.
Hoeing the crop,
my hands are one with the rain.
Having cared for the plants,
my mind is one with the air.
Hungry and trusting
my mind is one with the earth.
Eating the fruit,
my body is one with the earth.
– Wendell Berry, from “Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer”
As we continue to turn the fields this season we continue to turn the wheel of life and death: each new seeding brings the miraculous emergence of the living from the inevitability of the dying. As farmers we are blessed to practice this truth with our own hands.
Recently our apprentices joined a long human tradition and tried their hands at direct seeding, a technique of planting seeds into the ground we do with our trusty little Earthway seeder, pushing spinach, cilantro, dill, radish, turnip, beet, and carrot seeds into prepared earth. A seed is a true miracle, proof of magic we may easily overlook: the form of each vegetable (let alone a tree) emerges from so tiny a package… sort of like the big bang.
For millennia we have planted seeds–by stick, by clay seed ball, by hand, sprinkling this magic across the earth and participating in the great unfolding dance of life. Many peoples have sang over the sowing, or prayed, imbuing the seeds with the highest vibrations of reverence, gratitude, and prosperity. Such foods are surely medicine!
These days on the farm we are busy harvesting and harvesting: a bounty of freshly dug potatoes, plumping bulbs and fronds of fennel, the tomatoes beginning to ripen on the vines. As we harvest the gifts of the earth we join again the circle in death, honoring the life that has been given and will live again in you, in me, in each of us as we eat the fruit of the earth. And again we turn the field, turning our lives, and, in glimpses, understanding better our place in the great brocade.
Jordan Gardner, Farm Manager
