The Planting Season

This month, we've been busy engaging with our joyful community and preparing our gardens for an abundant harvest in the months ahead.

We have now begun removing the tarps from our garden beds that were placed in early spring. These special, UV resistant, food grade tarps kill off weeds, warm up the soil and support the important life beneath the soil by keeping it sheltered and providing food sources for them. Removing tarps reveals the surge of life beneath our feet. The soil biology that comes to feed on the biodegrading plant life; the worms, nematodes, protozoa, fungi and bacteria are busy naturally cycling nutrients and aerating the soil, so there is no tillage or soil disturbance required from us, laying a simple tarp on grass and weeds does it all.

Once the soil is cleared of weeds and grass, we add or "amend" our gardens with farm made vegetable compost and animal manures. I also buy in rich worm poop or "worm castings" to add even more diversity and fertility to enrich the soil and prepare our beds to grow nutrient dense vegetables, which always begins with well prepared, rich soils.

Soil that is alive and teaming with life is a valuable resource, it converts gases in the air (carbon, nitrogen and more) to liquid nutrients for plant roots to absorb. It's also where our gut microbiome originates from (let's dive down that rabbit hole together soon). Living soils also act like a sponge to absorb water when it rains, hold and release it during drier periods as needed, so we are drought proofing by investing in our soils. Once the soil is prepared, every garden bed is covered in straw mulch to keep things dark and moist to protect the soil biome. Three to four inches of mulch prevent weeds in any garden and also keeps water in the soil where it is needed by germinating seeds.

On our farm we intentionally spend more time preparing the soil than we do planting it, because we want to work with natures' cycles which makes our jobs easier and even enables us to enjoy some downtime in hammocks!

Let us know what you do to prepare your gardens or support natural biodiversity. Looking forward to sharing all the delicious produce coming soon!

One moon ago, we sent our first Hammock Earth newsletter, full of dreams. Today I'm writing to you from inside those dreams, and they have become something more real and more beautiful than I imagined.

We launched the Hammock Earth website, gathered three times on the land and more online, and deepened in connection at the intersection of growing food, embodiment, creativity, curiosity, and joy.

This new moon in Taurus, with its themes of grounding, of rooting into who we really are, feels like the perfect companion to what's been unfolding. These dreams are taking root. And I get so much joy playing my part as the mycelium: the connector, the nurturer, the invisible thread beneath, co-creating and holding what wants to grow.

This year's Embodiment Circle, co-created over five years by incredible facilitators, gathered for its closing retreat to Celebrate our Becoming on a rainy day in April. Sixteen participants welcomed each other into their creative nooks, made art, danced and sang, and ate farm food made with love. The diversity of ages, backgrounds, and life paths in the room made the joy and belonging feel even special. Everyone arrived as their whole self, and everyone was received that way with safety and ease.

The retreat was only the beginning. In the weeks since, I've had the joy of witnessing these same humans boldly share their dreams with workshops, a magazine launch, an art show, a film and standup comedy night. It's really such a gift to be in relationship with other embodied humans boldly sharing their gifts of becoming with their community.

On Earth Day 🌎, we welcomed local community in with nervous system reset tea, nourishing food, and hammocks. We had beautiful convos and planted seeds while enjoying delicious sourdough and soup by Chef Ty.

Last weekend, we had a Mushroom Inoculation Workshop 🍄, share delicious food, and bathed in the forest covered in magical trilliums. The depth of connection that emerged, the laughter, the quiet, the joy in all three events between humans, our pets and the land reminded me why this all matters.

Mushrooms don't fruit on a schedule. They emerge from a network that's been quietly working in the dark, deepening connections over time. The most nourishing things usually do. So does our mission of cultivating ecological belonging.

I am so grateful to not just carry a dream, but to be part of the mycelium: connecting, feeding, quietly holding the conditions for all of our dreams to take root together.

Thank you for saying yes to receiving this note, co-creating, collaborating, showing up, planting a tree and even being a founding member of Hammock.Earth.

Below are two upcoming collaborations, both, delightfully, with someone named Lisa, we hope you'll consider joining. More events are being added to the calendar regularly, and we would love to hear from you if you'd like to collaborate.

In June, Lisa B will be hosting a fun, playful, intuitive art day at the farm designed to help you reconnect with your inner child and invite a sense of calm soothing your nervous system.

You'll be guided on a nature walk, playful practices and create three mini artworks: one to keep, one to trade, and one to give away.

Lisa B is an educator, painter, potter and life long student. She engages in hands on practices that embody creativity and play to ensure continued growth for body, mind and soul. Her goal is share this learning with others to help everyone find balance and peace within themselves and their surroundings.

Some knowledge takes twenty years to distill. Lisa Tong, the award-winning creator behind @TheChineseSoupLady has spent two decades documenting generational recipes, exploring the healing language of soups and teas, and studying Traditional Chinese Medicine. We are so excited to welcome Lisa to our farm as a chef, alongside her daughters as sous chefs on Friday July 3rd.

This is a rare thing: a multi-course farm table dinner where we get to savour TCM wisdom with seasonal, sustainably sourced ingredients. Anahita and Lisa will guide you through how food is grown, what it does inside the body, and why food is medicine.

We have never hosted a collaboration quite like this one. Let us know if you'd like to come and we'll confirm that the event is happening if we have at least 10 people committed.