While the June-bearing strawberries are starting to taper off now, berry season has just begun. Raspberries and mulberries have been full-on in the past week, and this morning Sara brought in our first major harvest of black raspberries. Not having brought a bowl to the garden, she cradled them in the trough of a very large and healthy cauliflower leaf! Blackberries are ripening and elderberries flowering all around our porch with their light perfume.
Ted here to share this week’s news from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, amidst the first flush of summer’s bounty.
I typically think of summer and think sunny, warm weather with occasional, relatively brief bouts of rain. Not so last year, when it was mild and moist more than not; and this year is following that same pattern so far, despite the few days in the 90’s this past week.
Nearly every day has held some chance of rain or thunderstorm in recent weeks, and most have indeed manifested at least a bit of wet. We have only had a couple major storm events with an inch of rain or more, but the ground has nonetheless stayed sodden, the chicken yard mucky, and the paths impressionable, prone to rutting in places.
As with most weather, some things like it, and some don’t. Cool and moist in the garden favors cabbage, broccoli, and the like— Sara has been bringing in some of the biggest cauliflower we’ve ever grown from our garden. Hotter, drier weather, within reason, favors the nightshades, okra, corn, squashes, and other summer veggies– the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant thrive, and don’t suffer so much from disease pressure, ripening more of their fruit without it rotting.
Among food-producing trees, I have come to the conclusion that pears may be the most trouble-free, steady producers we can grow here. But depending on the variety (some are resistant), they can suffer fire blight in wet conditions. This bacterial infection first desiccates and then blackens foliage in clumps, and fleshy, new growth is most susceptible. The blight pressure this year is heavy on those of our trees that are prone to it.
Thomas this week did some research and then offered a bit of training on pruning to control an infection, including the necessity of dipping one’s pruners in alcohol between each snip to avoid spreading the infection to new locations in the tree or to other trees. I’ve no wish for a drought, but at the moment I and my Seckel pear could definitely go for a string of dry, breezy days to slow the advance of the infection.
Our second visitor session of the season wrapped up its second week today, and several visitors have chosen to start seeking residency here. As a member of our Membership and Residency Committee, that means a series of interviews and getting to know more about these newer folks and how they perceive they’ll plug in to the village, what challenges and excitements they expect to face. It also means helping our village to grow, and that gives me joy.
Earlier in the week erstwhile resident Eric returned to wrap up his affairs in the village before heading off on his next adventure. That included emptying his temporary cabin, “Viking House”, and preparing it for transport to a homestead at Red Earth Farms, next door. Several Dancing Rabbit structures began life at Red Earth, including Wisteria and the Red Tent; this was the first to make the journey the other way.
By the end of the week, the vacated warren space already sported a trench for the foundation of Joe’s new house. Joe’s steady presence out there, slinging mud out of the trenches, reminded me powerfully of doing similar work shortly after I first moved here in 2003. I do not wish to start again from scratch, but it did bring up a little nostalgia for me. Hopefully I can exorcise the longing with the construction of a pottery shed I recently got approved.
Most of the other notable events this week ended up clustering toward the weekend. Friday evening Loren asked the Mercantile to host a dinner of fajitas and margaritas for her birthday, and the cafe turned out excellent steak, chicken, and tempeh fajitas to a crowd of a couple dozen while Loren welcomed friends on the porch. Tres leches birthday cake followed, completing the feast and leading us with happy bellies into a Q&A with visitors that evening.
Saturday night brought a no-talent show at the Casa, with our friends from Yarrow Hill at Red Earth providing both the emcee and a series of humorous “commercials” sprinkled in amongst the various acts. Many acts were musical, including a guitar piece by our youngest visitor (16!), and Aurelia and I in a penny whistle duet; but crowd favorite Mrs. Freud rounded out the evening with her ever-perceptive dream interpretations.
Nathan celebrated his birthday Sunday, and among other things requested a Matrix practice session Saturday afternoon. This set of communication tools, recently brought to our community through a weekend-long training, has caught on, with its focus on the impact of dialogue on interpersonal connections and understanding in building group consensus. We’re still exploring the ways we’d like to use it in village governance and other settings, but it has clearly started to fill in some missing communication pieces for a variety of villagers. Might not sound like the sort of thing most folks would celebrate a birthday with, but then Nathan is not like most people in that respect!
I also completed the electrical work of connecting Nathan’s house to our grid-tied, net-positive, village electrical network, known as BEDR (Better Energy for Dancing Rabbit). Though he’ll continue to rely on his off-grid system for most of his other needs, the connection was necessary to allow the installation of a new, highly efficient heat pump, which Nathan expects will almost entirely eliminate the need for wood heating, improving village air quality in the winter. That seems a good birthday present as well, given Nathan’s concern about this issue over the years.
In the realm of upcoming events, the village is getting excited to host as many as several hundred riders for a leg of the Big BAM, or Bike Across Missouri, on June 26. Various local organizers are working on everything from feeding the bikers passing through to offering them various needed services during their short stay.
Along those lines, the kids of our newly-formed Spiral Scouts group will be pursuing their Nutrition badges by making and offering cookies, kombucha, and herbal sun teas to riders and Rabbits, fundraising for various group needs and camping trips to come.
A group of Rabbits is headed down to St. Louis next weekend to exhibit at the Green Homes Festival, hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden. We’re looking forward to building ever more connections with other Midwest practitioners and enthusiasts in the green- and natural-building fields.
Finally, excitement is also building about Dancing Rabbit hosting our first Permaculture Design Course later this summer. Midwest Permaculture will lead the event, with help from Rabbit Sharon, and the village will serve as both classroom and playground for the training, while also getting a few of our own trained. You’ll doubtless hear more on this as the summer progresses, so keep an eye out and get in touch if you have interest in participating.
May your own harvests be bountiful as the solstice approaches, and your feet not too muddy!
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Interested in intentional communities and cooperative culture? Check out the Twin Oaks Communities Conference, September 4 – 7, 2015, in Virginia! The conference is a chance for people interested or involved in intentional communities, cooperatives, and community-based projects and organizations to share ideas, network, and enjoy a weekend together. There will be formal workshops, open space, plus many informal opportunities to cross-pollinate with other community-minded folks.
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Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is an intentional community and nonprofit outside Rutledge, in northeast Missouri, focused on demonstrating sustainable living possibilities. Find out more about us by visiting our website, reading our blog, or emailing us.