Category Archives: Earth-Centered

My Sono-Ma: “Tracking” in Ragle Ranch’s Wild Space

By Sono-Ma Holly | Published: February 20, 2012

“Point your body towards the sun.  Then, get your nose as close to the ground as you can,” instructs Sono-Ma friend and “sacred survivalism” guru Karla Gormely.  All three children immediately drop to their bellies onto the muddy path.  I cringe thinking I should have put Bryles in rain pants before we hit the trail, but I am in awe of how intensely interested the children appear.

“What do you see?” asks Karla.  The children remain silent.  “I see lots of circles, lines, and some bike tracks,” offers Phelan.  “Good,” says Karla.  “Now, what about animal footprints?  Do you see any tracks that you know?”  “Doggy paws!” says Phelan jumping up excitedly. “Can I draw it, mommy?”

Karla obliges his request by pulling out notebooks for her two kids.  She then offers her own observation notebook to Bryles so he can also try his hand at documenting the tracks he finds.

Soon all three children are silent again, intently working on drawing the different tracks they can identify.   While Bryles can wield a felting needle, card wool, bake bread, and use a hammer and saw, he’s rarely picked up a pencil or practiced drawing things he’s observed.  I glance over his shoulder to watch what he creates.

“Draw what you see,” directs Karla adding, “Don’t just draw something the way you think it should look.  Try to capture what is really before you.”  Bryles first follows along by drawing three small circles and one large circle.  The circles are in something of a linear fashion, but I can see he is feeling out the shapes of the dog paw.  His second drawing, again of the dog paw, includes circles but this time they more truly mirror the arrangement of the shapes on the ground.  As he is able to coordinate his hand and eye, his excitement grows.  “Let’s go find more!” he says to friend Phelan.

Soon, he’s on his third drawing – now of a horse shoe print.  His shape is spot on, and he’s detailing out things like nail impressions.

We hike on and Karla and I marvel at the children searching for other signs of animals in Ragle Ranch Park.  “Is that a bunny trail?” the children ask each other as they follow a tiny path leading through dried grass to a thicket of bushes.  They peak under the thicket, but don’t see a bunny.   However, they are most happy to move on to another search.  Stomping through mud puddles, swinging from low branches, and pausing at marshy spots to search for frogs, they seem to make endless exciting discoveries.  “Hey guys!  Come see this!” they shout back and forth, pausing only to take a short reverent glance at images like this creek scene:

“Isn’t this great?” I say to Karla as we follow the children weaving on and off the trail of Ragle’s 157 acres of woodlands, marshland and segments of the Atescedero Creek.   We both consider ourselves nature lovers, and while I can’t yet build a debris hut for shelter or find as many medicinal plants as Karla, I do believe that nature makes an incredible classroom and healing space.   We try to meet up to get the kids together for outside play and “gathering” as often as possible.   Together with our kids we’ve collected elderberries to make tincture syrups, lichens and moss for building fairy houses or dying wool, and we’ve picked blackberries for cobblers, pies, smoothies and more!

Ragle Ranch

You, too, can get your family outdoors.  Here follows a list of local parks and programs.  Also included is a list of books and on-line resources for connecting kids and nature.

Parks

Sonoma County’s regional parks offer great diversion for outdoor enthusiasts, with parks such as Ragle Ranch offering open-ended, nature spaces that encourage free play for young children and adults alike!

For more information on Ragle Park, please read our earlier My Sono-Ma story: Exploring Ragle Ranch Regional Park & Wild Spaces in Sebastopol California

We also enjoy climbing through the rocks and creek at Santa Rosa City’s Brush Creek Trail.  Read about our adventures here.

Local Programs

The “Buckeye Gathering” in Forestville, CA offers an incredible, local opportunity to learn wilderness skills as a whole family.  This week long event offers workshops for adults and a kid’s camp ages 5 (for children of attending adult guardians). Camp coordinators say, “What we offer has not always been known as ‘Primitive Skills’, ‘Traditional Arts’ ‘Wilderness Survival’ or ‘Earth Living’. At one time it was simply LIFE.”

Buckeye Gathering

http://buckeyegathering.net/joomla/index.php

Peter Bergen and Michelle Sauceda recently started “Outside In Nature” a children’s “Deep Nature Connection” program at Tara Firma Farms in Petaluma.  Two families from our Waldorf school enrolled their boys in the program.  These kids are practicing primitive skills such as creating fire with friction and how to build debris shelters.  They also get plenty of “dirt time” or “unstructured time in structured container” of the program’s “invisible school” model.  Read more about these inspiring ideas and models here.

Outside In Nature
707 225 2404
www.outsideinnature.com

Books

1.)  “Last Child in the Woods” and “The Nature Principle” by Richard Louv

“The immediacy of Richard Louv’s message in Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder galvanized an international movement to reconnect children with nature. Now, in The Nature Principle, Louv reaches even further with a powerful call to action for the rest of us. Richard Louv makes a convincing case that through a nature-balanced existence—driven by sound economic, social, and environmental solutions—the human race can and will thrive.” (via http://richardlouv.com/books/)

2.)  “Coyote’s Guide“…by Jon Young, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown

“This is good medicine for nature deficit disorder. Coyote’s Guide should become the essential resource for anyone who wants to revive their sense of kinship with nature but needs some help. . .” Richard Louv, author of the national bestseller Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder, and chairman of the Children and Nature Network. (via http://owlinkmedia.com/store/books/coyote2/) 

3.)  Animal Tracking Basics by Jon Young

“This how-to book teaches the basics of being a successful tracker – explaining what to look for to find or identify an animal and how to develop an essential environmental awareness. Also describes aging tracks and sign, understanding ecology and mapping, keeping field notes, using track tools, and making casts. “ (via http://owlinkmedia.com/store/books/animal-tracking-basics/)

Links

1.)  “Let’s Get Outside” & Children and Nature Network:  http://www.childrenandnature.org/

2.)  Wilderness Awareness School:  http://wildernessawareness.org/

3.)  Forest Kindergartens at Waldorf Schools (e.g. Saratoga Springs Waldorf School) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/nyregion/30forest.html

4.)  Mother Earth School (outdoor education led by trained Waldorf Teachers in Oregon) http://www.motherearthschool.com/index.shtml

5.)  Tom Brown Jr. Tracker School http://www.trackerschool.com/

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Beautiful Winter Days, Yes, but…

By Farmer Paul | Published: January 19, 2012

 Last month was the 2nd driest December on record for Sonoma County, AND, more importantly, the 2nd coldest December on record for Sonoma County… and January hasn’t been any better yet. While the daytime temperatures have been in the upper fifties to low seventies with clear, beautiful, sunny skies, the nights have been cloudless and cold. The natural cold sink of our valley bottom has been shockingly frigid with 11 to 12 hours of subfreezing temperatures every day and lows in the mid to upper teens! Yes, when the mornings are around 35 degrees in Santa Rosa and there’s a little frost on windshields, the temps hover around 30 and 31 degrees in Sebastopol, and drop to 22 degrees at our house at Singing Frogs Farm and drop again to 18 or 17 degrees in the lowest fields below our house. When temperatures are this cold for this long, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING stops growing!

For those of you who love to support local food and local growers, winter farming in Sonoma County presents some challenges to us farmers. While some farmers may have land up on the edges of Sonoma Mountain, or in the banana belt around Occidental, many others of us are growing in low valley bottoms where the construction of houses has been disallowed leaving the land for agricultural or conservation purposes only. While the very limited sunlight in the dark of winter (less than 8 hours per day) already has crucial negative impacts on vegetable crops this far north, the deep freeze that our county has been in since Thanksgiving has been even more devastating.

When you read about heavy crop losses to weather, plagues, or other issues around the world, it’s important to realize that it can happen right here in our communities – even when the days are bright, sunny and beautiful. One shocker from the deep freeze has been the lack of growth of even pasture grasses. We, as well as the many dairy farmers in the county, are being forced to buy alfalfa to feed our livestock and our chickens have no green grass to scratch around in. More troubling, heads of lettuce which were about the size of a softball at Thanksgiving haven’t put on a single new leaf in 7 weeks – they’re still the exact same size! After all, what plant wants to put out tender new growth when 12 out of every 24 hours we’re experiencing subfreezing temperatures – into the upper teens! So our lettuce sits…. and sits… and sits in the fields, waiting for warmth and light to grow… just a little more.

While waiting for our crops may not be the worst problem one can imagine, it precipitates another more devastating problem: If you are a truly organic (pro-Mother Nature) farm as we are and you don’t use any sprays (not even organic pesticides), then the longer your plants sit in the fields, the more damage is wrought by pests. Of 14 lettuce crops we planted back in September and October for a December and January harvest, we’ve lost 8 of the crops so far to mice, slugs and snails (mostly mice). Usually, our crops outgrow any damage by pests, but since our crops are in stasis, the pests are devouring them wholesale! We’ve had complete crop loss on some lacinato Kale, Collards, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Bulb Fennel, and numerous spinach and lettuce crops – tens of thousands of plants that were ravaged by the cold and/or by pests.

While we have had some suprising successes this winter, and have learned a lot about plant growth, it has been an exceptionally difficult winter for us to keep production up. One other large, local CSA had eight things in their CSA box last week and only ONE of those was freshly harvested – everything else was processed foods or storage crops from the autumn. We faired a bit better with 4 fresh-harvested vegetables in last week’s box, but we’re barely holding it together. Gladly, many of our CSA members understand this, and many more are coming to the understanding that food security is really a very thin veil that separates us consumers from the global, industrialized food production system. One Singing Frogs Farm CSA member recently shared with us…

“I just want you to know how wonderfully connected I feel to the earth because of you.  I often hear of “crop failures” in the world, but because I can buy anything I want in our wealthy US economy, especially in California, I rarely understand what this really means at a gut level.I am enjoying knowing that this cold, dry winter is making it hard for me to eat the delicious food you grow for me.  It even makes me more aware of the plantings in my own yard!  I willingly and gladly give up your wealth of delicacies during these hard times because I know when times are good (like last fall), everything tastes soooo much better than usual!

I don’t want to buy veggies and feel a little under nourished in the veggie dept.  This is a new feeling for me and I like it.  It’s good to crave the new fresh greens of spring when deep in the middle of winter.  I’m going to eat veggies this spring with an entirely new appreciation. It is easy to eat junky, fast food in our lives when we stop appreciating how important the farmers and their crops are in creating good food for us.

We forget the food is grown by someone; it doesn’t just show up on a truck and go into a grocery store.My experience with CSA has been worth every penny I’ve spent on it and indeed, has returned to me far more nourishment than I ever expected.  Your farm nourishes my body, and also my soul.” – Karren Wofford, CSA Member

Thank you Karen.

(c) 2011 Paul Kaiser

Paul Kaiser served in the Peace Corps in The Gambia, West Africa.  He worked with several  rural agrarian communities to develop sustainable land use management systems that incorporated multi-purpose trees in the farm fields and gardens for soil replenishment and protection, biodiversity promotion, and household products such as fuel wood, timber, fruits, leaves, animal fodder, etc.  Since then, Paul earned dual Masters Degrees in Natural Resources Management and Sustainable Development from the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica and the American University in Washington D.C.  In the last four years, Paul and his wife Elizabeth have married sustainable land management with local food production at their biodiverse and family-friendly Singing Frogs Farm.  In addition, Paul created his “Night Heron Woodworks” business, where this accomplished furniture maker sells hand-crafted, salvaged hard wood pieces.

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Farmageddon Film Screening, Food, and Discussion With Your Local Farmers – Be There November 5, 2011

By Sono-Ma Holly | Published: October 29, 2011

Local farmers are gathering with the newly formed Food Rights Coalition to show a thought provoking film:  Farmageddon.  Ready for a riveting exploration of recent issues facing artisan farmers committed to nutritious, raw, organic foods?  Sono-Ma has the details for this November 5, 2011 don’t-miss-event here:

The Trailer

Farmageddon – Movie Trailer from Kristin Canty on Vimeo.

The Film Synopsis

“Americans’ right to access fresh, healthy foods of their choice is under attack. Farmageddon tells the story of small, family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent action, by agents of misguided government bureaucracies, and seeks to figure out why.

Filmmaker Kristin Canty’s quest to find healthy food for her four children turned into an educational journey to discover why access to these foods was being threatened. What she found were policies that favor agribusiness and factory farms over small familyoperated farms selling fresh foods to their communities. Instead of focusing on the source of food safety problems — most often the industrial food chain — policymakers and regulators implement and enforce solutions that target and often drive out of business small farms that have proven themselves more than capable of producing safe, healthy food, but buckle under the crushing weight of government regulations and excessive enforcement actions.

Farmageddon highlights the urgency of food freedom, encouraging farmers and consumers alike to take action to preserve individuals’ rights to access food of their choice and farmers’ rights to produce these foods safely and free from unreasonably burdensome regulations. The film serves to put policymakers and regulators on notice that there is a growing movement of people aware that their freedom to choose the foods they want is in danger, a movement that is taking action with its dollars and its voting power to protect and preserve the dwindling number of family farms that are struggling to survive.” (via Farmageddon Press Kit)

The Event Details

Date:  Saturday November 5th

Location:  The Arlene Francis Center at 99 6th Street in Santa Rosa.

Time:  Doors will open at 7PM with a mixer of local foods & beverages. The film will start at 8PM with a panel discussion after the movie. (Organizers are working on having a couple of surprise guests from the food movement on our discussion panel – will Sono-Ma Contributor Paul Kaiser of Singing Frogs Farm be there?  Show up and find out!)

Tickets:  Click here to reserve your space via brownpaper tickets.

Donations will also be accepted at the door will be graciously accepted to help secure our right to grow and raise our own food without Big Ag and our governments continued effort to close down small family farms.

 

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