We are full into summer abundance, harvesting strawberries, onions, beets, and carrots and watching the plum and apple trees start to hang low with burgeoning fruits. The beans we lovingly planted in the soil are up and reaching for the sun, and we gardeners are soaking it up as well, in between foggy days.

Since early spring, we have been busy composting anything and everything we can pull, chop or dig up, mixed in with fine food scraps, and now we are harvesting rich heaps of finished compost to add to the beds when we plant seedlings and to the perennials as well. The used coffee grounds we have been saving from the workshops were inoculated with oyster mushrooms and we just ate our first flush!

The farm is bursting with animals: owls, coyotes, foxes and snakes...and an abundant population of gophers. The human population on the land has swollen as well, and we have had inspiring instructors and enthusiastic participants in steady programing over the last six weeks. With more to come!

Summer blessings from Penny, James, Tammy, and the RDI crew