Sauna Completion on the Horizon….

/0 Comments/in /by

As the weather starts to turn cold, wet and windy a nice evening in the sauna becomes increasingly enticing.   Several months ago we begin construction of a sauna with an accompanying deck over our pond (convenient cold plunge) and the end is in sight.  It took some time accruing the materials we wanted: all of the wood for the sauna (excluding the plywood) will be from local, sustainably harvested sources.  A large fraction of the wood coming from a fellow in town who takes down large often dead or dying trees that pose a danger to homes.  We will be installing large Port Orford Cedar slabs for the benches in the sauna, and there will be incense and deodar cedar for the walls, ceiling, and beams.  I’m anxious to smell the eclectic mix of fragrance they’ll be putting off.

DSCN1279

 

At Full Bloom we’ve been blessed to have come into contact with a thriving natural building culture as epitomized by Matt Musselwhite the builder of our sauna.  Rather building some standard version of a sauna Matt is building in relationship to the topography, incorporating the pond, the views into the design.  He is also using local wood and displaying it in such as way as to provide any future sauna guest with a sense that this structure arose from the land and wasn’t just superimposed onto the land as many structures are these days.

DSCN1282

Matt Musselwhite taking a break from building to pose for the camera.

I will keep you all posted as the sauna progresses, so that you can see the full extent of Matt’s artistry and the gift that it is to create structures embedded with relationship.

“Life without sauna seems to me impossible.”  Urho Kekkonen, former prime minister of Finland.

 

The Art of Food Preservation: Sauerkraut

/0 Comments/in /by

In the modern age there can be a tendency to outsource everything from childcare, to dinner, to dog walking.  As I’ve written in previous blogs its the intention here at Full Bloom to cultivate a first hand, direct relationship with food.  This starts with the planting and tending of a myriad different vegetable varieties and the harvesting and processing of those vegetables.

This week we processed over 7 gallons of cabbage and beets into sauerkraut.  For those of you who are wondering what exactly this substance called sauerkraut is let’s again turn to wikipedia:

“Directly translated: “sour cabbage”, is finely cut cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria, including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus.[1][2] It has a long shelf-life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid that forms when the bacteria ferment the sugars in the cabbage”

Sauerkraut is a way of simultaneously preserving a food as well as creating an immeasurable healthy food source that provides the body with high quantities of benifical bacterium that are often depleted through the use of anti-biotics.  Its also a fun thing to do with friends.  There is something really satisfying about bringing cabbages in from the field and processing them with others.  Its a simple and yet profound act, often overlooked and undervalued in the modern world.

DSCN1238

DSCN1244

It will be a joy to share the art of fermentation in classes and informal gatherings at Full Bloom in the years to come.

“When General Lee took possession of Chambersburg on his way to Gettysburg, we happened to be a member of the Committee representing the town. Among the first things he demanded for his army was twenty-five barrels of sauerkraut.”
Editor, The Guardian (1869)

 

 

Our First Permaculture Design Course at Full Bloom

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

We recently facilitated a permaculture design course on the land through the Siskiyou Permaculture Insititute (http://siskiyoupermaculture.com/).  Some of you may not have heard of the term so let’s look at wikipedia’s definition:

Permaculture design emphasizes patterns of landscape, function, and species assemblies. It determines where these elements should be placed so they can provide maximum benefit to the local environment. The central concept of permaculture is maximizing useful connections between components and synergy of the final design. The focus of permaculture, therefore, is not on each separate element, but rather on the relationships created among elements by the way they are placed together; the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts. Permaculture design therefore seeks to minimize waste, human labor, and energy input by building systems with maximal benefits between design elements to achieve a high level of synergy.

DSCN1022

Tom Ward on a site walk at Full Bloom with design course students.

DSCN1047

Class time in the Full Bloom farmhouse with co-teacher Karen and Tom Ward on the Right

The course was geared for experienced permaculturalists and focused primarily on doing design work for Full Bloom (rather than going over general permaculture principles).  It was taught primarily by Tom Ward who has been designing farms and properties in Southern Oregon for several decades now and is an absolute treasure trove of information and lore of the area.

It was a joy to participate in the course and take in so many differing perspectives of the land here, as well as to recieve some really creative design possibilities such as changing the way people drive onto the land so that we don’t have a road through the central area.  It was also very humbling to recognize how little I really know about all the natural systems that surround me here (geological, hydrological, wind, etc.).

I am excited to continue to hold courses so that we all can be come more literate about how we as humans affect our local environment, and how we can make that affect a positive and regenerative one.

“From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.”
― Tony Hillerman, Coyote Waits