Blog: Musings on the Earth, Mindful Living, and our Connections
Mindfulness in the Garden
This weekend I had the opportunity to lead a session at the 2018 Good Food EXPO, a conference for all things garden, farming and fresh food related. It was my fourth year at the conference. The first year I attended, I met a young man – a high school student – named Lucas Zeidner. We...
Planning Your Garden, Part 2: Flowers and Veggies Together
I recently learned something about why it’s great to plant certain flowers near specific vegetables. I knew a few basics: that marigolds deter pests and sweet alyssum is great next to your kale, broccoli, collards and other brassicas. But why? Well, let’s start with marigolds. And note that there are different varieties of marigolds. You can grow the average size, from about 18-24 inches high, or you might prefer, as I do, the dwarf size. These grow up to about eight inches high and make great borders, because they don’t take up a lot of...
Planning Your Garden, Part 1: Companion Plants
“I planted peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and zucchini,” a neighbor told me. “The tomatoes aren’t growing at all, and the cucumbers are really struggling. How do you get your vegetables to grow so full and productively?” I hear these questions often. There are some basics...
Mindfulness, Chocolate and Walking
When you think of mindfulness, what comes to mind? I recognize that’s a pun of sorts. Apologies. When someone tells us to be mindful of something, they are seeking for us to pay attention, to focus ourselves to make sure we are present for a particular event, thought, or activity. Teaching mindfulness has the same goal. We...
Unexpected Interweavings
Life is filled with unexpected interweavings, cycles and circles. I experienced some of these this past week on my JMMTT – Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training – at Isabella Freedman retreat center and farm. Nestled in the woods of Falls Village, CT, about 90 minutes from the nearest airport, the center boasts trails and a pond, several greenhouses, a large network of yards and structures for goats and chickens, and extensive fields for produce and fruit orchards.
How Do We Measure Success?
Working with people is the joy of our work here at In the Gardens, whether it is helping them discover a love of fresh food as they grow and harvest, or guiding them to greater balance in their actions with self and others through mindfulness practice. It is in our interactions with the people that we serve and employ, our volunteers, and our donors that we fulfill our mission. Here are…
Listening to the Silence
I spent last week in silence. I was at the JMMTT—Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training—a 15-month program that began last May. It is an advanced step from the 18-month Clergy Leadership Program in mindfulness practices that I completed a year ago July.
As I posted on my Facebook page, I celebrated my birthday in silence. That was different. I also observed Election Day in silence. Our retreat guides were sensitive enough to the issues of our country to host an optional “election practice” evening in…
Shanah Tovah U’metukah — A Good and Sweet Year from In the Gardens
Shanah tovah! That means “A good New Year to you.”
We are approaching the High Holy Days in the Jewish calendar. These days begin with Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Days of Awe or the Ten Days of Return. The season quickly gives way to Sukkot, an eight-day holiday celebrating the harvest and the earth’s bounty. We acknowledge that the Creator and the earth have provided for us for another year. We pray for rain so that next year, too, will be…
The Worm and the Beanstalk
I think I have a worm. Or maybe it is a canny, selective squirrel. The bush beans (beans can grow two ways – on a bushy plant that is low to the ground, or as runner beans or pole beans, on lengthy vines that need to be trellised) are ripe and ready to be picked. And eaten. Yum. This is one of my favorite times of the season. All that hard work of cultivating the soil with compost, organic fertilizer and other amendments, of planting the beans and laying and testing the water system, of keeping away critters and pests, of…