Never a down or dull moment

              Eli and Heidi vending our products at the 2014 MidAtlantic Womens Herbal Conference

I was going through photos and came across this one which I love. I had to share it and give you some background. It is one job in itself to grow plants from seed to harvest but we don't end things there. We take it to the next level by taking the harvest and transforming it into incredibly fresh products like you see at our table. During the growing season we make sure to harvest 100's of pounds of fresh herbs so we can dry them in our drying house which later get processed into our special line of tea blends and bulk supplies. We infuse and macerate many of the herbs from the farm which become oils, salves, tinctures and tonics. Heidi Benard interned with us 2 years ago and brought loads of energy and vision to the farm. She got so hooked on medicine making she committed herself to being our products coordinator. She helps to manage literally hundreds of products we create and keeps me on track especially while I have 10 other pressing responsibilities overseeing the farm and of course keeping after my son Quehanna! It is such a pleasure working with this woman and she has tons of enthusiasm for any job no matter what size. This year she enrolled in Maia Tolls Sage School of Herbal Studies and we are excited for her new studies.

We are gearing up for our upcoming growing season and you can sign up for a share of our products which runs over 6 months May-October. We are a member farm of Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative and they do an awesome job of getting our goods from the farm to your doorstep. www.lancasterfarmfresh.com. Click on CSA and scroll down the options for CSM Communtiy Supported Medicine...that is us!

Strong Heart Tea Blend, imbolic art

STRONG HEART tea blend

STRONG HEART infusion

winter tea inspired art for full moon

Winter at the farm

looking south from the annual flower field on a chilly winters day 

It has been several seasons since I have blogged. And it seems that I can only really carve out this time in the quiet hours of night when everyone has gone to bed. I embrace winter. For all the months we are working our bodies, sweating, baking in the sun, reaping what we sow, winter is the exact opposite. We are right around the quarter holiday of Imbolic which means we are between winter solstice and spring equinox. Tradition was to make note of what things one would want to be seeding in the spring. It is also the time for cleaning out the old and bringing in new energy. I have been doing this almost instinctually and when I learned more about the holiday I realized maybe we are all more in sync with the rhythms of the earth than we give ourselves credit. We are relieved and happy to have placed all our seed orders. There is so much joy in the mail carrier delivering another package of seeds that our 2 year old son Quehanna excitingly picks up and carries to his mama with a big smile. There is so much in a packet of seeds. Life stored and waiting for the right conditions to grow. Even with all the planning we can do indoors, there is so much mystery that unfolds when things start to grow.