Notes from the Field / April 2024

Notes from the Field / April 2024

We hope the best for April with good cause; silk blossoms have emerged on the rickety skin of crooked branches. There is suddenly soft greenery underfoot where there once was wet muck. Fat bumble bees burrow into every miniscule open mouthed flower. The world is alive with miracles. And that first green of spring, a green so green, the Cherokee gave it another name distinct from other green, is sweeping across the land like the repeated soft strokes of a crayon - faint at first, then thick and waxy, shimmering.

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Notes from the Field / March 2024

Notes from the Field / March 2024

March has arrived as March often arrives, in blustery fits and false starts. A sunny mirage disappears beneath silvery overcast clouds for days. A warm breeze beckons only to become fearsome wind nipping. That the most tender of iridescent petals should be the first to emerge into this rugged terrain is a reoccurring mystery. A heartening mystery, and surely a sign that the god of spring must hold a jaunty sense of humor.

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Gathering Seeds

Gathering Seeds

Now that the trees have assumed their sparse posture for the season, the ground is thick with a litter of leaves around which all manner of intricately shaped seeds are moving into the earth by way of a slow-motion burrowing. These seeds, the cores of nuts and fruits and the tiny and robust sheddings of wildflowers, have burrowed into my pockets as well. They are tucked in paper packets in the cupboard, tumbled in glass jars in the fridge, and awaiting my attention, spread out here and there on the kitchen counter…

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Persimmon Season

Persimmon Season

The persimmon tree has become a peculiar marker of time on the farm. As an early succession tree, they were one of the first orchard canopy species to spring up. And when they did, the landscape started to take on a young forest quality, which felt enormously exciting at the time. I distinctly remember standing face to crown with a six foot tall persimmon some years back and thinking, my goodness I can’t wait until you’re older and you tower over me and bear fruit on every branch! A thought that was quickly followed by another, more alertly prescient thought, I suppose I’ll be older then too…

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Decade in Reflection Part Two: The Way of Water

Decade in Reflection Part Two: The Way of Water

In honor of our ten year anniversary, we’re taking a trip down memory lane in a new multi part series. Through archival photos and retrospective writings, we’ll revisit forest gardening, water management, plant medicine, and other pursuits we’ve explored over the last ten years at Fields Without Fences with the kind of nuance and cosmic humor that only hindsight provides.

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Decade in Reflection Part One: Forest Garden Farm

Decade in Reflection Part One: Forest Garden Farm

In honor of our ten year anniversary, we’re taking a trip down memory lane in a new multi part series. Through archival photos and retrospective writings, we’ll revisit forest gardening, water management, plant medicine, and other pursuits we’ve explored over the last ten years at Fields Without Fences with the kind of nuance and cosmic humor that only hindsight provides.

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New Fields Without Fences Illustrated T-shirts!

New Fields Without Fences Illustrated T-shirts!

We are so pleased to announce Fields Without Fences t-shirts illustrated in gorgeous detail by the enormously talented Philadelphia-based artist, Meg Lemieur, and printed on organic cotton at a local eco-friendly print house are now available!

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From the Field: Spring in the forest garden

From the Field: Spring in the forest garden

Photos and reflections of the farm in spring; * Our “From the Field” Series features projects, production, and reflections derived from our work at home on our two farm sites in near Frenchtown, New Jersey.* Earth day arrives just as I’m beginning to feel love drunk on a new spring. A few days ago, standing under an old pear tree, alive and buzzing, radiant in sun gold full bloom, I abandoned my farm chores…

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WILD FARMING SERIES: Perennial Polycultures / Complexity & Abundance

WILD FARMING SERIES: Perennial Polycultures / Complexity & Abundance

Growing in perennial polycultures mimics the complexity and abundance naturally displayed by wild ecosystems. Cultivation happens within a horizontal and vertical spacial context, maximizing the productive yield of any given area, but also within the context of perpetually unfolding succession.

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LISTEN: Fields Without Fences' Lindsay Napolitano Interview on the Nurture Your Nature Podcast

LISTEN: Fields Without Fences' Lindsay Napolitano Interview on the Nurture Your Nature Podcast

New interview with Dina Costa of Nurture Your Nature Podcast! Lots of terrain covered in this one - and the waters wade deep! Dina is a charming and thoughtful host, and I highly recommend checking out this relatively new offering of hers… Nurture Your Nature Podcast available on iTunes

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READING THE LANDSCAPE SERIES: Snow Cover

READING THE LANDSCAPE SERIES: Snow Cover

From a permaculture perspective, late season snow presents a wonderful opportunity to read patterns in the landscape. By observing snow melt, we can easily identify where water naturally moves across the landscape, and this gives us insight into ways we might harness water flow, interrupt or redirect it, or choose select species that thrive in seasonal inundation…

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2019 Permaculture Apprenticeship Program Opportunities

2019 Permaculture Apprenticeship Program Opportunities

After a two year hiatus, we are please to announce the reinstatement of our Seasonal Apprenticeship Program for 2019!

Join us for a unique work-study program on our 10 acre forest garden farm. Our Seasonal Apprenticeship Program offers hands on learning opportunities for beginning farmers, gardeners, permaculture practitioners, and plant lovers.

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UNDERSTORY SERIES (UNDERSTORY: 003)

UNDERSTORY SERIES (UNDERSTORY: 003)

For the first few years when anyone would ask what we grow on our farm, I would crack a smile and quip, “we mostly cultivate patience.” It’s like that with perennials. A tiny herb, a bare root whip, a scattering of seeds cast out into the landscape like a wish that might one day blossom and fruit into the vision so easily teleported to within the mind’s eye. But time travel otherwise trudges on at a reliable pace; minutes becoming hours, becoming seasons, becoming years. In the meantime you will curse the nursery woman who sold you the poorly grafted pawpaws, then you’ll curse yourself for buying more…

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WATCH: Fields Without Fences Forest Garden Interview with Green Revolution

WATCH: Fields Without Fences Forest Garden Interview with Green Revolution

Sharing this rather sweeping interview with our friend Alex Marcoulides for his Youtube channel called Green Revolution. Alex stopped by Fields Without Fences for a broad conversation with us about forest gardening, permaculture, successionally managed farm ecosystems, and elderberries, and we go pretty damn deep. This interview is from last season (2017), and listening back to it, I am completely impressed with Alex's ability to listen, synthesize, and offer careful reflection at a nearly rapid fire pace!  Alex's energy is purely electric and plugged in.

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UNDERSTORY SERIES (UNDERSTORY: 002)

UNDERSTORY SERIES (UNDERSTORY: 002)

Someone chopped down a tree and began the task of making firewood. That task was abandoned in favor of a more pressing task, and a forgotten round of tree trunk began to dry, then wet in the rain, then dry again. One day someone pulled it into the shade of the old crabapple to sit on for a sunny afternoon, until it was forgotten and left to decay once again…

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UNDERSTORY SERIES (UNDERSTORY: 001)

UNDERSTORY SERIES (UNDERSTORY: 001)

Each still image I capture in the garden represents a particular passing expression of the plant world in seasonal succession. And the static nature of the photo belies the true nature of the emergent forest garden which is in a state of perennial movement, forever shifting as plants come into blossom, maturity, death, and rebirth. I’m beginning an ongoing series where I’ll explore dynamic evolving interactions within the polyculture understory of our forest garden farm. If you enjoy it, please let me know and pass it on!

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LISTEN: Fields Without Fences Interview on Farm Small Farm Smart Podcast

LISTEN: Fields Without Fences Interview on Farm Small Farm Smart Podcast

Back in early April I had the pleasure of speaking to Diego Footer during an interview for his Farm Small Farm Smart Podcast. Diego initially reached out to talk to about medicinal herbs and our herbal CSA, but the conversation organically expanded into more nuanced topics including plant medicine for the earth; site specific design; breaking free from traditional modalities of cultivation; plant autonomy and sovereignty; and understanding the driving force that is propelling and defining your interaction with the land…

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