North Carolina: Part 1

For the past 4 years The Merc has sent me to Medicines from the Earth in North Carolina. It's 3 days of awesome lectures on plant medicine from the "who's who" in the Alternative Medicine world. I'm so lucky! I always come back feeling rejuvenated and inspired. Chris got to tag along last year and this year, which is really fun for us. We get to turn it into a little vacation and Chris goes off and does nerdy historical things while I take classes on Natural Medicine. This year we had the opportunity to take a little side trip to Mountain Gardens. Joe Hollis took us on a plant walk of his garden paradise tucked away deep in the woods. He grows and harvests over 1,000 medicinal plants, has built a number of little cottages and has 3 or 4 apprentices come live on the land every year to learn about the plants. It is quite the magical place. We felt really lucky to catch a glimpse of the special life that this man leads.

Outhouse with outdoor shower.

Tons of tinctures that are there for people to come and use.

Same with the dried herbs. Anyone can stop by and learn and formulate their own medicines.

Belladonna.

Blueberries.

Vegetable garden.

Poppies.

That's Joe's 3 story house that he built himself!

To prevent erosion, he put retaining walls up, filled in with soil and planted vegetables.

That yurt is the first structure he built some 30 or so years ago.

A little camping trip to kick off the season.

A few weeks late, but I wanted to share a few pics from our little camping expedition over Memorial Weekend. We went to Lake Pomona with some friends and had a grand ol' time!

Sweet Success.

Yesterday was the most gorgeous day for the Garden Tour! It was in the upper 70s and the sun was shining. We had about 100 people come to our garden throughout the day. Everyone was really complimentary and asked a lot of questions. It was nice to have all of our hard work appreciated by others. Almost every single person said how much they loved Chris's garden gate. It was the show stopper of the day! It was a really awesome day. Now I can sit back and kick my feet up. Until we start our next project...

We had before and after pictures of the yard out for people to see the process.

Final Preparations.

Two days left until 100 or more people parade through our yard on the Lawrence Food Garden Tour. I'm really excited and nervous of course. We've worked really hard on planting and weeding and making sure everything looks spiffy. The rest has been left up to Mother Nature. Since this is our first year to be on the tour it's hard to know how the morning will go. I'm still thinking about making a little map of the garden so people know exactly what I've planted. I think there will be a lot of "why did you do it this way?" or "why did you plant that there?". It will be fun to have conversations with people and find out how they do it in their gardens. I still have so much to learn.

I love the way that Cleome's bloom. So special.

These little baby finches hatched at the end of May. They look like little furry bugs. They don't even have eyes yet!

This is 1 week later! They've grown so much that they barely fit in the nest!

The Lawrence Farmers' Market

I hardly ever get to go to the Farmers' Market because I work on Saturdays, so when I get the chance it's quite the treat! Chris and I went a couple of weeks ago to pass out flyers for the Lawrence Food Garden Tour which is this coming weekend and we are on it! (Shameless plug.) These are a few of my friends that have booths at the market:

Blackbird Bakery. Alison works with me at The Merc and makes delicious baked goods. This particular day I had a Moroccan asparagus pie thingie. Yum.

My dear friend, Audrey, and her son Lichen run Blessed Thistle Farm. And she sells tinctures at The Merc!

Dan and Cole Cottin of MAD Farm. Cole used to work at The Merc in the produce department and this is their first summer as full time farmers. I think their booth is extra fabulous!

Mural by Dave Loewenstein.

Jozie from Earth Flowers. They also sell flowers to The Merc.

Kevin Irick and his hot house tomatoes. He also sells at The Merc!

Lots and lots of Merc connections! We have a really big emphasis on buying local and the Farmers' Market really makes it apparent to me. Just walking through the market I have relationships with many of the farmers and growers or I at least recognize them from their weekly drop-offs of product. It's such a great feeling to be a part of the local food movement!