KW-28 Rituals and Fireflies

Food is an important part of a balanced diet.

Fran Lebowitz

Last night, around 2am, I got up to take the air. Summer nights at the barracks are spectacular. Standing under the dark warm sky, the heavens dripping with constellations and shot through with the Milky Way, surrounded by silence is the worthy compensation for having the bladder of a 50 year old man.

Come August, it’s tempting to stay out all night. Enjoying a midnight of wonder at 16 or 17 °C, there doesn’t seem to be a good reason to ever go to bed. Last night, it was quite a lot cooler than that, maybe 9 or 10 - still pleasant enough to be out for a while - but the mottled black sky was as alive as I have ever seen it.

I do not recall ever having seeing fireflies here before. I stood watching their flickering Brownian flight against the blackness, and honestly, I am still a little magicked out by it this morning.

The soft fruits today. As the oldest cultivated part of the barracks, it is loaded with the most memories, but also with the best berries!

New Year’s Resolutions

For five years, I hardly left the barracks. In January of this year, I resolved to change that and to leave more often. This week, I was making good on that for the second time this year, and honestly, it’s exhausting.

Both opportunities to close the gate behind me this year were for important family reasons, and I am glad I had the opportunity to do them. Honestly, though, I am done. I love being with the people I care about, and if they can’t come here, I am happy for the chance to go to them.

I have never enjoyed coming back to a place as much as I enjoy coming back here. And how could you not? This is the most calming, verdant, stilling place that I know. It’s a treat to all of the senses. For everyone who comes here. There is a mindfulness game¹ you can play where you can deepen your immersion in a place by deliberately sensing it in as many ways as you can think of. Start with sight, sound and smell and work up from there.

Doing this at the barracks fills me with an overwhelming sense of connection with and love of all that exists.

I should stay here more often.

The Week Ahead

We have one new volunteer coming this week. I believe she is staying a month, more or less. And one more the week after. To go with the one we already have. It’s filling up, and I am super excited about all the work we will get done.

It is mostly the rotation of weed, water and mulch, but without the watering so much.

But specifically in the garden:

• Plant out the last of the beans. We have climbing french beans and bush french beans. The climbers are tasty heavy croppers for the stores. The bush variety are purple. For fun.

• Plant out the okra. My first time with okra, and it seems to be doing pretty well. I have no idea how long it needs in the sunshine, so although the plants are doing well, I am not guaranteeing anything edible coming off them. Does anyone even know if it will do better in the field or the polytunnel? Your thoughts in the comments, please! Also, what is the new thing that you are growing this year?

• I am going to try to get something more in the vineyard. It’s an almost total wipeout up there, and I am not content to leave it at that

• Finish clearing the pig house should be on the list, but a large and closely knit family of wasps has moved in. So yeah, no-ones too keen on that.

• Weed the firepit. And have a fire. It’s been too long!

Pirate Gardening Tip of the Week

Pirate gardening is mostly old man gardening. It was old man gardening when I started with my first vegetable plot 30 years ago. So, mostly, it’s just the ancient ways of doing things.

Enjoy the fruits of your labours

It’s finally time to start to delight in the abundance coming off the garden. You did it. There is still a way to go until we are eating 100% fresh from the ground, vine and stem, but we got here. Spring did not wash us out entirely, winter did not defeat us with its beautiful brutality, and the summer sun failed to scorch us from the ground.

About now at the barracks, a few weeks earlier for many of you, we are finally going garden to table with hardly a moment in between to knock the dirt off.

The pirate tip for this week is to enjoy it. Make rituals and follow them. Respect and savour the harvest, especially the firsts. The first strawberry - eat it with cracked black pepper. The first potato, boil it simply and have it with salt and olive oil.

Home grown foods are better, harder won and better for you than any you will ever buy. Soon enough, they will be line items and bulk carbs in the winter stores. For now, they are the gold standard reward of your partnership with the earth and must be treated with respect.

Five Years Ago

The soft fruits have come a very long way in the last five years. Now that they are all totally overpowering each other, I’ve started rearranging them. And any self-layered new plants which have auto-propagated, I am moving up to the pumpkin patch. I think I might start to establish the pumpkin patch, or at least up to a half of it, as the mass production wing of the berry department. This area, just by the loft, is always going to be replete with variety and fresh berries in season for scattering on your breakfast, but the pumpkin patch, behind the Big House, just beyond the orchard; that might become the hardcore berrying area.

I shall see how it evolves, and there is, as ever, very little to be gained by rushing anything.

The weeks do have a habit of dashing by, though. So I shall go and get on with this one and wish you love and connection until the next one. Take care of each other,

Your

Pirate Ben

xoxo.

1. I say it like it’s a thing. I have done it without putting it into words before, but as far as I know, I just invented it whilst sitting here at the keyboard. Let’s make it a thing! It needs a name. Intentional Sensing. Advanced Gratitude Detection. Mindful Environment Appreciation.