Photo Gallery » Quail Springs Permaculture

Harvest season! What a grand cycle it has been as

Harvest season! What a grand cycle it has been as we begin our descent into slower times. One last apical gathering though! Today we collected the basil, opting to not give it to the approaching frost. Seed gathering wherever our hands may reach. Our rat toothed popcorn did well, some with interesting genetics revealing themselves. Peppers and eggs conveying mysterious messages we attempt to decipher in our dreams and ponderings. The oaks gifting powerful food after a year blessed with rain. The depths of the mourning glory could never be understood with just one life time....and so when they gathered in the gardens, song sprang from their breath. The seeds, they could hear, for the first time, they wept.
Together those tears in a glass bowl we collect.
Offering it as a seat for the goddess.
& when she sat down, she wept !
and dreamt...
Our world into being, she felt.
Once again our love did connect.
The earth awoke, and shook off the death.
The sun hugged her so hard the scourge did melt.
Enough tho, to start again. #quailspringspermaculture #harvest #basil #corn #folks #highdesertliving

Some Quail folks took a field trip to our neighbor

Some Quail folks took a field trip to our neighbors on the other side of the Cuyama Valley, out to @condorshopevineyard for a work party, harvesting wine grapes to make their delicious Zinfandel🍇🍷 Steve and Robbie of Condors Hope use their prolific background in Agroecology to tend to 5 beautiful acres of dry farmed grapes and olives while connecting the fruits of their labor with their surrounding community. On top of all the work they do, they’re also major advocates in the fight for water rights in the Cuyama valley. A work party at Condors Hope is always such a treat filled with good wine, good food and good people. You can still sign up for the last grape harvest party later this month or plan ahead for the olive harvests in November! 🍇 🫒 🍷 🌄

This past Saturday was a beautiful one here in New

This past Saturday was a beautiful one here in New Cuyama! We got to visit the Imagination Garden, the community garden we helped establish and tend every month at the Cuyama Family Resource Center, where we gave a bilingual composting demonstration, followed by a sweet potluck with some of the families who have beds here at the garden. We also planted rosemary, painted garden signs, and of course, weeding cannot be missed. Special shout-out to our compost wizard and Garden Director Haris for leading the demo, and to our Hosting and Community Engagement Director Yeni for translating this knowledge from English to Spanish. An even bigger thank you to Cuyama community who came to this demo and potluck; so special to share in the creation of soil and delicious meals all together 💖 #quailsprings #compost #permaculture #gardenlove #newcuyama

Betty Seaman @cobetty , natural building legend an

Betty Seaman @cobetty ,
natural building legend and longtime Quail Springs earthen building teacher, is leading a five day plastering workshop at Spring Wind Farm in Clermont, New York, this October 11-15. Please share this opportunity with your East Coast friends, and consider signing up for this life-changing learning experience with an inspiring master of the plaster! Fun fact – Betty was lead building instructor on the first legal, non-conforming, auxiliary to agriculture, cob (earthen) building in Ventura County. We are proud to have hosted the earthen building workshop in 2006 that built that structure out at Quail Springs! #legalizesustainability #earthenplaster
#naturalbuilding
#permaculture
#regenerativeliving
#quailspringspermaculture
#BettySeaman

🌶️🫑As summer wanes and the breezes dance a

🌶️🫑As summer wanes and the breezes dance and shimmer in the poplar leaves whispering the changing days of fall, we harvest the last of summers sweetness. Day light and sunburst in the form of abundant peppers. One of the dishes we’ve been savoring with our peppers is a Balkan saucy dip called Ayvar. You’ll find this across the Balkans but our Bosnian Farm Director Haris has brought it from the home of his heart into our inspiration. Ayvar is best when the peppers and eggplant have been roasted over the fire, plump with juices and charred skin. You then peel the skin off and blend it with Olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper. If you want to take the next step to make your Ayvar traditional, after blending it you cook it down on the stove to thicken the sauce. Ayvar is traditionally served with čvapi or any grilled meat and flat bread! #quailsprings #quailspringspermaculture #quailspringskitchen #coboven #sustainableliving
#growyourfood #desertfarming #organicfarming #desertgardening

✨ Work Trader Highlight: Hal 🌝 "Hal Crawford

✨ Work Trader Highlight: Hal 🌝 "Hal Crawford is from Detroit, Michigan and moved to Southern California in 2019. His goals is to use both his experience working and living at Quail Springs, as well as the additional intensive education with the QS Natural Building and Permaculture Design courses to land a full time farming position by next year. Eventually Hal would like to learn & work to acquire his own land to start & raise a family on and continue using the permaculture fundamentals learned at Quail Springs to build a more sustainable homestead life for himself, his family and his greater community." We appreciate this low key Leo for his steadfastness and commitment to working and living at Quail Springs, as well as the steady stream of one-liners. Thanks for always lighting the shower and bringing the movie nights, Hal! #quailsprings #quailspringspermaculture #worktrade #sustainableliving

✨🐐 SAVE THE DATE 🐐✨ Quail Springs is so

✨🐐 SAVE THE DATE 🐐✨ Quail Springs is so thrilled to announce our annual Fall Fundraiser mixer, hosted by our dear friends at @patagoniavta. There will be FREE live music, delicious food, refreshing drinks, and a silent auction featuring so many goodies from us here at Quail Springs and our amazing extended community. So much excitement to come! The fundraiser will be happening all day SATURDAY, November 4th from 11 am to 4 pm, at the Patagonia Ventura GPIW courtyard. We will be joined by @tierra_sol_ojai, @lpforestwatch, @blueskycenter, @slobeaverbrigade, and @the_ojai_c.r.e.w. Performances by @janaboo14 and the @muddydaughters. Can’t wait to see all of your beautiful faces in November! #quailsprings #quailspringspermaculture #fundraiser #livemusic #sustainableliving #ventura #patagonia

We’re swimming in basil & the water’s just fin

We’re swimming in basil & the water’s just fine! We have several different varieties of basil growing on the land presently. We’re busy making & freezing pesto to last us through the winter season, & also making sure we have a fresh batch on hand in the fridge at all times, because pesto is good on everythinggg, I am right? While basil can be seen as just a flavor enhancer in the kitchen, it’s also very medicinal (like all culinary herbs). Belonging to the Lamiaceae family, Basil carry’s anti-inflammatory properties, reducing redness, swelling & pain in the affected area (ie bug bites or stings), as well as soothing internal digestive troubles. Inhaling the sweet aroma of this herb may help relieve stress & bring alertness to the mind & it has been said to enhance memory with regular consumption. Basil is also antimicrobial, antibacterial, & filled with antioxidants. This is just touching the surface of what potential healing wonders this herb may hold. We hope you’re inspired to grow some of your own, even if it’s just a small pot on your windowsill. Thank you basil! 💚

Shout out to the dazzling and brilliant black holl

Shout out to the dazzling and brilliant black hollyhock
Magical creatures also known as black mallow of the mallow family. Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina’
These tall expressive flower stocks are biennial and share prolific seeds. They are medicinal~ such as in a poultice for sprains and burns, and in tea for digestion ( do your own thorough research before using these medicines !). When these flowers are ready to dry and drop, they can be collected for a big steamy pot to dye fibers. Depending on the natural cloth, such as wool, silk, or cotton, they give a beautiful range of greens and seafoams…..😋bees and butterflies and hummingbirds adore them

🦋Work Trader Highlight: Isabella🌻 We want t

🦋Work Trader Highlight: Isabella🌻 We want to appreciate one of our Work Traders, Isabella, who brings constant energy and joy to the Quail Springs community! “What brought me to Quail Springs was the intention to complement my experience on community mental care with life tools for environmental sustainability on my personal and professional life. Always with the initiative of supporting and learn ways to hold mental and physical community-care I share practices of yoga, meditation and healing movement, co-working on alternative education projects for children and elders since I graduate as an Occupation Therapist from college in 2019. On the way, I found the Quail Spring work-trader opportunity and started to get familiar with the wisdom of nature and its cycles from all knowledge and experiences that people, animals and the land give to me every day to live in this world in a better way. So what’s next? After being here I need to start building a solid budget to keep my professional education for the next year. I'm so excited to join any project from November 2023. My experiences range from gardening, children and elders care, social justice, education and mental health. 💙🦋” Isabella is currently seeking opportunities after her time at Quail Springs. If you have any leads, please get in touch with her @vertigo_vertiginoso #quailsprings
#quailspringspermaculture #worktrade #ecoliving #sustainableliving #cuyamavalley

🫀 harvest day 🫀 Here at Quail Springs, butc

🫀 harvest day 🫀 Here at Quail Springs, butchering is an honored practice performed with reverence and intention. It is an act that connects us to all that sustains us through acknowledging the cycles of life and death. It encourages us to confront the responsibility we owe for taking a life to sustain our own. In exchange, we continue to do good work and offer gratitude. Goats can transform our brittle desert landscape, much of which is not suitable for the human diet, into bioavailable nutrition via meat and milk. What a privilege it is to consume such high quality food! This goat was raised on a fully 'wild' diet -- three years of grazing on high desert chaparral, with just the occasional alfalfa hay or pruned poplar branches on a rainy day. While some Quail Springs residents tend to be vegetarian or pescatarian, a few make exceptions for this extremely high quality, ethical meat. Our goats are loved and cared for, and it's our honor to facilitate their journeys to and from this world. Many of us enjoy organ meat, such as heart (pictured in the first photo) and liver (seen in the video). While these cuts tend to be cheaper or less favored in the standard american diet, they are VERY nutritious and consumed widely throughout the world. Have you ever tried heart or liver? What do you think? As always, we have a practice of sharing a round of gratitude before each communal meal. Harvest day gratitudes are some of our most profound. We are grateful for access to land. Grateful for high quality food. Grateful for connection to that which sustains us. Grateful for goats. Grateful for community. Grateful for song and ceremony.

🍃~ hyles lineata~ 🍃 Also known as hummingbir

🍃~ hyles lineata~ 🍃
Also known as hummingbird moth has been so present these days at the farm! They have been busy at dawn and dusk sipping the last sweetness of summer, reveling in close intimacy with the scents of okra, artichoke, and our dearest evening primrose. The larvae burrow into the soil at their pupae stage where they stay for about 2-3 weeks until they emerge as adults. The adult moths only live a few days sipping flowers to mate, lay eggs and then the cycle begins again. When they emerge as their caterpillars they vigorously begin eating fresh leaves to harness the energy to spin their cocoons and descend again. To be kissed by the wind of their gentle buzzing wings in the quiet hours of the day is a treat of precious presence. #nativepollinators #hyleslineata #wingkissed #eveningprimrose #quailsprings #quailspringspermaculture

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