Notes from the Field / April 2024
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writings & media
Articles, photography, video, and writings sourced from our work in and beyond the field. Our “from the field” series features projects, daily life, and reflections inspired by our work at home on our two farm sites in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Our “beyond the field” series features, projects, collaborations, and partnerships we are engaged in with our broader community.
Popular subjects include permaculture, forest gardening, regenerative agriculture, plant medicine, ecological restoration, earth based spirituality, and other diverse musings on agroecology topics.
Notes from the Field / March 2024
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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.
Read MoreGathering Seeds
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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…
Read MoreDecade in Reflection Part Four: Beyond the Field
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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.
Read MoreDecade in Reflection Part Three: Plant Medicine for People & Planet
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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.
Read MoreDecade in Reflection Part Two: The Way of Water
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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.
Read MoreDecade in Reflection Part One: Forest Garden Farm
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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.
Read MoreFrom the Field: Spring in the forest garden
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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…
Read MoreBeyond the Field: Ironbound Hard Cider Project
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A couple of seasons ago, we were approached by Ironbound Hard Cider to help develop their new cider orchards within a regenerative design context. This summer we broke ground on installing a swale system on their sloped field to help mitigate erosion and run-off, while retaining water in the landscape and increasing soil hydration for tree roots. Their new orchard layout will follow the contours of the landscape creating a continuity between agricultural production, and the underlying geographic formations of natural landforms.
Read MoreUNDERSTORY SERIES (UNDERSTORY 004)
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The shadblow serviceberry are in bloom at fields without fences in the cliffside above the river. Down in the valley below, their namesake, large river fish called shad, are beginning to make their run up the Delaware river to spawn. Just a bit downstream, in the river town of Lambertville, street vendors and local musicians are preparing for this weekend’s annual Shad Fest…
Read MoreUNDERSTORY SERIES (UNDERSTORY: 003)
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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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