Chicago Deep Dish
Somewhere in Iowa
Arches National Park
Hitting 3,000 miles in the car
Lake Tahoe
Bolinas, CA
As I was saying, I arrived in mid August to my new home and job at Commonweal Garden in Bolinas, California, the primary demonstration site and educational center for the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI). We work in collaboration with Commonweal, a health & environment research institute and retreat center in Bolinas. Commonweal and our property are on the border of a magical place, the Point Reyes National Seashore. It’s not uncommon for me to see dancing foxes and lolling sea lions all in one day. I say magical, because this place has a really intense energy. It may come from the fact that this was sacred Miwok lands or that we are on a lost continent that is slowly rising out of the Pacific. Whatever it maybe Bolinas is special.
RDI has a collection of amazing programs & workshops that range from one-day classes like knitting & weaving to longer programs like the nine-month RDNA (Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness) course. Because these programs are hosted on the farm there are always students here milling about or sitting in our large yurt library having class. It’s usually very busy with these folks coming and going but then there are the quiet days when there are no students here and it is just my fellow work traders and staff. In total we are about ten people that all live here permanently in our small humble community. Our community’s main responsibility is to care for the land and the facilities of the educational center. For me personally this ranges in all different ways from gardening to teaching, as I’ve also been given in the interim the title and responsibility of Farm Manager for the next couple of months.
It’s been a blessing and a challenge, having these new pressures of Farm Manager…Farming in a new climate, new people, lots of animals…deer, voles, gophers, slugs, and quail, eating at our garden,….learning an unfamiliar land. But the garden is looking beautiful and my crew is awesome. I’m finally getting to really express my creativity and skills on this land.
As farm manager I get to live in a beautiful cordwood cottage with a deck that has a stunning view that overlooks the farm and behind that, the Pacific Ocean. I share with the rest of the community, the kitchen, office, bathhouse, and living room. This is just like past communities I’ve lived in. I really enjoy sharing, especially when we all get to partake in delicious organic meals straight from the garden and lots of stories.
The altar in my room in the cordwood
Composting Toilets
Bathhouse
Our living space
Another perk to living here is that I get to join in on the workshops taught here. We also get our own private EOL (Ecology of Leadership) class and I think this week I’m going to take an indigo dyes class.
A little note about the farm...So Commonweal Garden is Certified Organic and super diverse with our main growing area about 1.5 acres with a variety of plantings, a large kitchen garden, a 2 acre orchard, and tons of perennial zones. Because it’s California we grow year round so that means we are entering a season filled with brassicas (kale, cabbage, etc), though, this little valley I live in has it’s own weather patterns. It can be sunny and 80 in San Francisco (which is 20 miles away) and 40 and foggy here. As soon as the sun is gone from the sky it gets cold. Which makes me extra happy about my little cozy cottage. On hot dry days it’s a bit more of a challenge as we are on our own water system. We’ve got a couple of ponds and a creek that runs straight through the property that we collect water from to irrigate the plants, so we have to be extra thrifty when watering. But this also means that we have cool crisp unpolluted, unchemicalized water to drink.
RDNA's Garden Beds
Baby plants hardening off outside
Lion Paws
Snow Peas
Kitchen Garden
The farm is designed with a traditional permaculture infrastructure with greywater and rain catchment systems, composting toilets, swales, etc….As well as goats and chickens! I’ve gotten pretty proficient at goat milking and cheese making. And this week we may get our apple cider press out and start harvesting apples.
Basically to sum up, I’m working hard, but in a beautiful area of California and teaching beautiful people in a beautiful garden, so at the end of the day I’m exhausted but very happy.
