Always love a life takeaway from nature! Especially from my fruit trees!
This season is very much about exploring new creative avenues and trying out new ideas. I have a structure I set in the winter but I’m allowing myself to be flexible as I’ve learned that people don’t come for my format and structure.
I started my Substack almost 2 years ago and have been slowly building. The biggest lesson was to not over brand my work and just see what resonated with people over time. If it could be replicated, great but not everything needs to follow a format. Leaving room for creativity is key 🔑
I feel that. Flexibility is an asset, my focus right now is learning how to apply a creative/inquisitive perspective to process anything that comes up.
I love philosophy, art, and permaculture but I think the real value is the unique experience and approach. So that's the priority.
Thanks for the read, and for commenting. I appreciate you!
*If we don’t move through all these seasons, the things we produce are like greenhouse plants. Cute, but fragile. They lack resilience because they haven’t been exposed to the natural elements. (This is why most of the vegetable plants die after you buy them from the store. Don’t get me started.)* this is so LOGICAL and obvious and i feel stupid for not seeing it!!!
Thank you so much for this timely reminder and beautiful analogy. I am in the Spring and I have been feeling frustrated. This piece has reignited my patience and determination.
I have been brewing vinegar for a couple of years now, fumbling through it mostly. I’ve read that there are quicker ways, like adding raw ACV to kick start the ferment, or infusing vinegar, or starting it with wine. I figure if vinegar can be made when you don’t already have vinegar I’ll wait and see what happens. What I have learned is that the flavors that develop from a whole fruit brew that can take months are unequivocal and sometimes very surprising. The slow method allows flavors to emerge that can be an amplification of what we taste already, but sometimes are quite unexpected.
Tamarind vinegar is so far tasting like what I imagine apple tree blossoms smell like. Cannabis flower vinegar, while having no detectable cannabinoids (I had it tested in a lab), is flavored by the terpenes more intensely than you could ever smell them in cured and dried flower.
Brewing vinegar is an amazing way to preserve those flavors over the seasons. I picked fresh ripe blackberries on a trip back to Oregon almost two years ago and brewed vinegar. I hadn’t had many blackberries in 35 years because they will never be what they were when I picked them off the bramble as a child. Now I can taste ripe Oregon blackberries any time, for as long as my vinegar lasts. :)
After 14 years of fumbling through my own garden my pomegranate had a full fruiting explosion last year. Many of them went into the fridge and I finally juiced them to make Persephone Mead this spring, which will be ready in the fall…
It’s taken a long time, and my own personal aging, to have appreciation for what can come with patience. To keep putting in the work knowing that time will bring things to fruition is worth it, and rushing it can ruin it.
I love this message. I’ve been disheartened by my own sad garden these past few years, but I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get my hands in the earth again. Thanks for posting.
I needed to hear this right now...been posting weekly for more than a year and my engagement has just been flat. I started to question whether I'm any good at writing. But you know what? Even if I suck I can get better, and getting more likes isn't a measure of quality. Got to tend my own garden; if people like it that's just a bonus...
This is the way. We can't guarantee a timeline or how things will be received, but we can commit to the craft. And I think the more honest we are about our full experience, the easier we'll find the people who really appreciate our work and perspective.
Always love a life takeaway from nature! Especially from my fruit trees!
This season is very much about exploring new creative avenues and trying out new ideas. I have a structure I set in the winter but I’m allowing myself to be flexible as I’ve learned that people don’t come for my format and structure.
I started my Substack almost 2 years ago and have been slowly building. The biggest lesson was to not over brand my work and just see what resonated with people over time. If it could be replicated, great but not everything needs to follow a format. Leaving room for creativity is key 🔑
I feel that. Flexibility is an asset, my focus right now is learning how to apply a creative/inquisitive perspective to process anything that comes up.
I love philosophy, art, and permaculture but I think the real value is the unique experience and approach. So that's the priority.
Thanks for the read, and for commenting. I appreciate you!
Thank you for sharing this reflection! I see what you’re doing with all those themes, keep going!
*If we don’t move through all these seasons, the things we produce are like greenhouse plants. Cute, but fragile. They lack resilience because they haven’t been exposed to the natural elements. (This is why most of the vegetable plants die after you buy them from the store. Don’t get me started.)* this is so LOGICAL and obvious and i feel stupid for not seeing it!!!
It took a lot of trial and error to figure it all out lol, but it does seem pretty obvious after the realization.
have you seen the (many variations of the) meme of the houseplant?
where the wild plant survives rain, drought, hail, snow, earthquakes, etc and the houseplant dies if you water her on wednesday instead of thursday?
BRUH.
in aromatherapy we learn that the plant that weathers the harshest conditions produces the most essential oil.
i can't believe i've never put 2 and 2 together.
Thank you. This is a well needed reminder.
Thanks for reading! I try to share the things that helped my change my perspective. Im happy other people find some value in it.
Thank you so much for this timely reminder and beautiful analogy. I am in the Spring and I have been feeling frustrated. This piece has reignited my patience and determination.
The journey begins again! Thanks for the read.
I have been brewing vinegar for a couple of years now, fumbling through it mostly. I’ve read that there are quicker ways, like adding raw ACV to kick start the ferment, or infusing vinegar, or starting it with wine. I figure if vinegar can be made when you don’t already have vinegar I’ll wait and see what happens. What I have learned is that the flavors that develop from a whole fruit brew that can take months are unequivocal and sometimes very surprising. The slow method allows flavors to emerge that can be an amplification of what we taste already, but sometimes are quite unexpected.
Tamarind vinegar is so far tasting like what I imagine apple tree blossoms smell like. Cannabis flower vinegar, while having no detectable cannabinoids (I had it tested in a lab), is flavored by the terpenes more intensely than you could ever smell them in cured and dried flower.
Brewing vinegar is an amazing way to preserve those flavors over the seasons. I picked fresh ripe blackberries on a trip back to Oregon almost two years ago and brewed vinegar. I hadn’t had many blackberries in 35 years because they will never be what they were when I picked them off the bramble as a child. Now I can taste ripe Oregon blackberries any time, for as long as my vinegar lasts. :)
After 14 years of fumbling through my own garden my pomegranate had a full fruiting explosion last year. Many of them went into the fridge and I finally juiced them to make Persephone Mead this spring, which will be ready in the fall…
It’s taken a long time, and my own personal aging, to have appreciation for what can come with patience. To keep putting in the work knowing that time will bring things to fruition is worth it, and rushing it can ruin it.
I love this message. I’ve been disheartened by my own sad garden these past few years, but I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get my hands in the earth again. Thanks for posting.
Sounds like an awesome journey! So much to learn in those seasons.
I appreciate you sharing, thanks for the read.
I needed to hear this right now...been posting weekly for more than a year and my engagement has just been flat. I started to question whether I'm any good at writing. But you know what? Even if I suck I can get better, and getting more likes isn't a measure of quality. Got to tend my own garden; if people like it that's just a bonus...
This is the way. We can't guarantee a timeline or how things will be received, but we can commit to the craft. And I think the more honest we are about our full experience, the easier we'll find the people who really appreciate our work and perspective.
I have subscribed to you, keep going 🌻🌳🍄
Thank you! Very much appreciated.
Thank you! I appreciate the read.