New Acorn To Oak – And May Day Celebration

The latest issue of our ezine, Acorn To Oak, is now posted!

I’m delighted to include a radio show clip, in which I tell a story and play harp. I’m also particularly proud and pleased with a video I produced of my kids herbal comic, Paloma And Wings.

Please check out the fanciful fun at:

Acorn To Oak - May 2014  Into The Forest Wood - cover art by Jane Valencia (c) 2014Acorn To Oak – May 2014

 

Oh, and psst! Shell and Govan from Because Of The Red Fox are celebrating their birthday today! I hear that the Hundred Acre Farm Community had a May Day celebration particularly in their honor, and that Bert cooked up a fine array of cakes and pies for the occasion. GK and the hounds served up heaping platters of meat. The hens wove some lovely May crowns using beak and claws, and the bard foxes served up some mayhem on the side.

Hope your May Day was great fun!

Tales Of Raven ~ with harp!

I’m so looking forward to being part of the evening’s entertainment taking place at the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie on Saturday, April 12, 2014 from 7-9PM. It is co-sponsored by Bookman West Booksellers and by the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie.

I’ll be telling tales of Raven, and threading in music with my harp. David Lloyd Whited will offer some of his poetry. Character actor Jake Easu will perform Edgar Allen Poe’s poetic narrative “The Raven” as well as other tales. The whole event will be by candlelight!

Join us if you can!

An evening of poetry and performance - Raven Tales!
An evening of poetry and performance – Raven Tales!

What’s New In Your Agrihood?

In which Santa (Samantha) Wakefield-Browne, one of the supporting characters in Because Of The Red Fox gets rather excited …

Santa, here. You may or may not know that my family (that includes my cousin Shell and her family) live in the Hundred Acre Wood Farm Community — basically a rural neighborhood of a number of households that works together to grow food for ourselves.

You'll see delicious greens like this at your local CSA organic farm!
You’ll see delicious greens like this at your local CSA organic farm!

Some of us raise chickens for eggs and meat, one household raises cows. Some folks help with growing vegetables or making cheese, or making other kinds of food from things our community grows or provides. Some folks help with providing wood for our winter fires. It’s all a kind of cooperative, and it works pretty well for all of us.

Well, my dad (he’s a co-owner of a chicken shop in Seattle, as well as owner of a feed and supply store here on Yonder Island) — my dad has heard about something new. They’re called “agrihoods”.

Basically, they’re residential developments that have a working organic farm at the heart of ’em instead of a golf course or a park. And families are excited to beautiful farms in their neighborhood and the opportunity to get fresh fruit and veggies in weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares, and at farm stands.

It’s certainly very fun when folks pick upĀ  their farmshares at the farmstand here. Everyone catches up on all the news of the neighborhood, and us kids get busy in some huge games of Hide and Seek or Fire In The Forest. So I think it’s very cool that this kind of thing is catching on around the country. It’s the best thing I’ve heard about since Backyard Chickens became the rage.

Okay, this is Santa, signing off. Check out an Agrihood near you!

Read an article about Agrihoods here.

What you might find in the Hundred Acre Farm Community farm stand in late summer
What you might find in the Hundred Acre Farm Community farm stand in late summer