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Notes from the Farm

Thinking Like a Plant

Thinking Like a Plant

It's seed-starting season, and I've basically moved into the greenhouse. The excitement is almost unbearable. I'm up to 32 trays of seedlings and by the time I've done a round of peeping into each tray, I want to start all over again because another seedling just sprouted. 

The seedlings fall into 5 categories this year:

Dye & Fiber

  • Calendula: Pot Marigold and Orange Barrel Flashback
  • Cosmos, Tango
  • Cota Tinctoria (Dyer's Chamomile)
  • Cotton: Pima Extra Long, and Sea Island Brown
  • Eucalyptus
  • Indigo: persicaria tinctoria, indigofera arrecta, indigofera suffruticosa
  • Madder
  • Marigold, Giant Orange
  • Scabiosa, Black Knight

Cotton, Pima Extra Long

A forest of indigo (persicaria tinctoria) seedlings


Viola and Dyer's Chamomile. Which is which? Who knows! I'm waiting for them to reveal themselves with their true leaves.
Edible Flowers & Leaves
  • Basil, Genovese
  • Chamomile
  • Cilantro, Lemon
  • Dill, Thalia
  • Jewels of Opar
  • Lavender, French Long
  • Love in a Mist
  • Nasturtium
  • Viola

Harvesting edible flowers and greens for a tiny salad last summer

Mini Veggies

  • Burr Gherkin, West Indies
  • Cucamelon
  • Ground Cherry: Aunt Molly, Loewen Family Heirloom, Mary's Niagra
  • Peppers: Aji Cachucha, Baby Red Bell, Bequinho Red & Yellow, Liebesapfel
  • Tiny Tomatoes: Better Than Candy, Brad's Atomic, Red Ruby, Spoon

Tiny pickled peppers & cucamelons from last year

Korean Essential Veggies

Flowers For Happiness

  • Aster, Apricot
  • Clitoria Ternatea
  • Cosmos, Apricotta
  • Craespedia
  • Lavender, French Long
  • Nicotiana, Jasmine Scented
  • Poppy, Princess Victoria Louise
  • Snapdragon, Apple
  • Stock, Night Scented
  • Zinnia

And 1 (one) non-mini pepper, a variety called Jimmy Nardello's. I've been told by a trusted garden mentor that it's the most delicious pepper she's ever grown, so I have some high expectations. 

What am I doing with all these seedlings? I'll keep and grow some, but most of the dye seedlings will be going to the NJ Fibershed Harvest Initiative. The gardens are a new community project, fostering a grow-and-learn together collaboration of local fiber artists. 

I'll have seedlings available for sale at the April Open Studio/Farm Tour in a few weeks.



Last year's garden experience was an adventure in self-discovery. I learned that I don't really like to cook--I love to bake and I have a lot of fun garnishing dishes. And I found that I don't even really enjoy gardening. What I do love is starting and fussing over seedlings. So I'm hoping that most of these seedlings will find good homes and gardens to go to. And the plants I'm keeping? They're for what I enjoy the most: snacking and garnishing!



A tray of sunshine, a/k/a calendula seedlings




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Hand sewing the Box Box Dress

Hand sewing the Box Box Dress
I decided to stitch the entire dress by hand. I mean, what else did I have to do? MDSW, which had been such a big part of my life for the past 10 years, was cancelled, and we had decided to cancel the NJ Fibershed Fiber Farm Market, which I'd spent the past several months organizing. NYC, and then parts of NJ, were crushed by tragedy. Stitching by hand provided me with something I could control, one very small thing amidst the maelstrom of fear, sadness, and anger. 
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Creative Advocacy Networking Retreat

Creative Advocacy Networking Retreat
Last summer, I taught a freeform tapestry workshop at the New England Fiber Arts Summit, hosted by Wing & A Prayer farm in Vermont. A day or so into the retreat, I realized that it was my very first experience of teaching at an event where I was not the only BIPOC instructor. I had the pleasure of teaching alongside Marceline Smith and Sylvia Watts-Cherry, and it wasn't just their irresistibly charming personalities that made the retreat unforgettable for me. It was the fact that, at a time when conversations around bias and racism were coming to a head online and in my personal life, Marce, Sylvia, and I could talk about those issues freely--and fearlessly--with one another.
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"Better living through science"

Natural dyeing is pretty much witchcraft. I don't know why anyone pretends otherwise. You forage for things in the fields and woods, and then boil everything in a cauldron of poison. My incantations run more along the lines of "horseshoe of iron and bark of crabapple" than "eye of newt," but you get the idea. 
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The Hay Chronicles

The Hay Chronicles
My sheep were disappointed with the hay I bought this fall. One of my neighbors had recommended the farm to me, and I called to order 70 bales. I was busy getting ready for Rhinebeck, so I didn't go look at it myself. As it was being unloaded into my hay storage, I wasn’t thrilled, but I didn’t want to complain. The sheep had no interest in it, and I thought maybe it was because there was still pasture. But even after 2 months, my sheep still wouldn't eat the hay. I grew increasingly worried about the coming winter, and having good nutrition for the ewes I want to breed.
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Shearing Day

Shearing Day
I love shearing day. It’s like harvest time but I don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting! My Shetlands are prodigious fleece growers, and since winters are short and relatively mild here, I’ve been shearing everyone twice a year. Timing is always tricky for fall shearing. In a perfect shepherding world, the sheep would have a full coat when it’s just cool enough to kill off the flies and ticks, but not really cold for another week or two. It would rain two days before the shearing, followed by 2 dry days, so that the sheep are washed but dry for the shearer. And of course, all those factors would coordinate with your schedule and the shearer’s. It would certainly be nice if everything fell into place so neatly, but let’s be honest. Sometimes, shearing just happens when shearing happens.
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