Birthday Ramblings
We make a big deal of birthdays in my family. That was something that I initiated with my daughter, not something that arose from my family of origin.
We love it all: the special foods, the decadent deserts, the presents, and celebrating for several days. We call it the Birthday Season.
So because yesterday was my birthday, I was somewhat reluctant to go with the Sustainable Gardening Club on a field trip to the birth of permaculture in the Midwest. Formerly known as Dreamtime Village, I am uncertain if the place or the enterprise still has a name.
Formed in 1991 when a hippie couple wanting to leave Madison hooked up with a wild man and his millionaire girlfriend by answering a classified add. I think that mIEKAL aND is the only remaining member of the original enterprise.
mIEKAL talking about his stand of pawpaw trees.
I knew about the place in the 90s, but I was done with homesteading and "intentional communities." I was living in La Crosse, Wisconsin, raising a little girl on my own. I was, however, lucky enough to own a home and I spent hours creating a magical shade garden. It wasn't until I moved to Madison in the mid-2000s that I became interested in and then quickly disenchanted with permaculture, at least in its community aspect. I quietly practice permaculture on my small urban lot, after having spent a small fortune getting a permaculture design certificate and entering into and then subsequently leaving the Permaculture Guild in the hopes of finding belonging.
But it is through my permaculture connections that I learned of mIEKAL and have longed wanted to see his place and ask him about my hardy kiwi vines, which grow insanely but never seem to produce any fruit.
So yesterday I actually rose early to take Pluto out for a run before the heat (my handsome man says a black fur coat is hell in 90-degree heat) and to meet up with other sustainable gardeners. I was pleased that I did not have to drive nor give anybody a ride, as mIEKAL's place is 2 hours from Madison.
I thought I had been everywhere in Vernon County, a very rural, poverty striken part of the Driftless Region, the part of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois where the glaciers never passed. It is a gorgeous area of deep valleys, steep bluffs, trout streams, the Mississippi River, countless springs, poor farmers, and leftover backwoods hippies. It is the home of my heart. As soon as the topography changes and I see those distant hills, I feel like I can breathe and relax.
mIEKAL's place, however, is in a location so remote I had never been there before, despite my 30-year residence in the Driftless. We overshot it and had to backtrack.
mIEKAL was pretty much as I envisioned him being. I truly love some of his philosophies: plants guide us, plants are medicine, and that the products we make from plants embody the qualities of the land from which they came. Devoted to plants, particularly unusual permaculture plants and unusual fruits, mIEKAL makes his living taking those fruits to farmer's markets and selling nursery stock that he has propagated. His biggest dream seems to be to create a winery. I bought a bottle of his black currants melomel and my family and I agree that mine is better. Just sayin'.
mIEKAL was a gracious and informed guide and I truly hope that he is grooming younger people to take over his vast knowledge when he passes.
Here's some more photos from the field trip:
This is one of the more fascinating things that mIEKAL does on this land. These are fig trees that he grows in buckets. They get moved into a cellar in one of the houses on the land (I am assuming that they use grow lights throughout the winter) and then are brought back out in the spring. dark_phoenix54, if you thought your repotting job was exhausting, imagine tackling these things, which mIEKAL said are in need of repotting.
Across the street by another old house, mIEKAL has countless potted plants that he moves to the top floor of the house where the plants get much southern light. I don't know what all he had planted there, but he had a collection of ethenogens. mIEKAL said he is too old to use these plants, but he keeps them around because they have things to tell him. He gave me a pot of salvia divinorum. I have no intention of using it but want to pass it onto my chemist friend Jim, who is very into ethenogens.
Monarchs on Mexican sunflowers
I got no answers on my hardy kiwis. Maybe I can cultivate (har, har) a relationship with mIEKAL and get him to stop at my place if he is ever in Madison and advise. Maybe I have to cut them down and start over. Maybe I need to move the Concord grapes. Everything is a tangled mess. Maybe I need to sell the property and let it be somebody else's problem. For that last reason, I purchased no nursery stock because it is all too much for me and this point.
I got back in town in plenty of time to feed the cats and take Pluto's dinner over to Jessica's. Jess and Jason were kind enough to come get the boy after Reese's soccer game near my house. As usual, they were unorganized with the keys and they could not open the lock box. So Jason boosted Jess up and she climbed into my bedroom. Pluto was hanging out on the bed there and was sufficiently pleased to see one of his favorite women entering his territory. Some watch dog. He just about kissed her to death.
We had a fine celebration with take-out Indian food, presents, (I got a great toaster as my toaster oven died and I am so done with toaster ovens. Jess also gave me a lovely necklace with a gemstone for her and each of her children.), mIEKAL's not so good wine, and cheesecake.
My grandson made an impromptu "card" from "Plooto" and gave it to me with a green agate. That really made me happy.