#farmlife - journal

My neighbor sells cinnamon. I happened by her place the day they were debarking an 8 year old cinnamon tree to sell the cinnamon. I bought 2.2 pounds for about $12. I often have guests smell the whole amount it is floral, spicy fragrant and heady - easily one of my favorite smells.

Today I mixed this cinnamon, dried oranges, cloves, an anise, pepper, fresh turmeric (we grow it and ginger here), ginger, 6 incan berries, and tea leaves that had been oddly processed. An oolong tea had been started but I needed to go to Cusco and when I returned it was just dried tea leaves mixed with gently rolled tea. It is nice, I call it the house tea because the technique to make it was so basic and it is a half tea - some flavors are developed and some are light.

The mix above was blended together in a paste and stored in a jar to use over the week. It’s like a Christmas tea but wonderful any day of the year over some ice. I know, because right now I am drinking it.

Several great volunteers finished a month long stay with us this week. A lovely couple, a fashion designer, artist and his partner, left today. I am so grateful for the collection of very cool people that have been visiting and helping here.

Next week an expert at foraging and plant identification is coming. We are going out with an older man who both knows the terrain and has a wealth of unrecorded knowledge about the local plants. We will catalog and photograph and hopefully create a season identification book for this area. He has also trained with a bonsai master for a few years and will help advance our knowledge and bonsai practice here. I hope he likes tea.

Today, I caught a monarch in the moment it was preparing to enter a chrysalises. I went back to photograph it and noticed a full on ant war. There are more than 6 ant kingdoms here. Ant wars are serious wars. The locals stand back and pee on the ground and just let them unfold. A larger group was stealing eggs of the smaller group, the monarch went missing in all of this.

We found other monarchs though. Such a gorgeous species. The chrysalis is a lovely green with gold etchings on it.

I included a photograph of the coffee we picked last week in the yard drying. It is a bountiful year. Today, we had some extra beets so we made a few bottles beet lactoferment. Oh, and little pineapples we picked in the yard today.

With Love, Sarah IMGuardian.org #farmlife #farmday May 28th, 2022