New energy was brought to the Santa Barbara Earth Day presentation this year with a display that was creative and educational as well as totally handmade. Senia, Cami, Martha, Beth and Brenton unpacked all the books, murals, blackboards, and a turkey, and beautifully placed it between the food court and the community stage. The turkey, Pilgrim, strutted and conversed with …
Growing Chile, Part Two: Starting Seeds
Today I was delighted to find my order of seeds had finally come through the mail. I combed through internet and catalog trying to find the right plants. I finally found the gold mine in Native Seed Search, an awesome and inspiring organization. Here is their mission statement: “Native Seeds/SEARCH conserves, distributes and documents the adapted and diverse varieties of …
Growing Chile, Part One: Bed Prep
As the cold of winter is replaced by the mud and rain of spring and our powdered and dried chile alchemizes its last few pozoles, our stomachs begin to rumble at the thought of a fresh crop of Capsicum annuum. We came to the table with a fiery ambition of creating at the very least enough dried chile to last …
Volunteer Weekends with Quail Springs
Over the past 3 weekends, Quail Springs has had the opportunity of having volunteers come to the land and help build projects and learn about how permaculture and sustainability are touching the ground here. With over 80 volunteers over a series of three weekends we got to work on natural building projects, the food forest, and installing a water tank. …
Quotol Canyon
Imagine yourself walking down a tight canyon of rich orange sandstone, the elevated spots are loosely adorned with the blue green of Single Leaf Pinyon. The map you in your hand says you are in the San Emigdio Mtns, approaching Burges canyon. The Chumash people who come to visit this place and who call this whole region their home call …
Water in the Desert
In the desert, water is felt deeply. It is celebrated. A small and rare desert spring nourishes countless plants and animals. Tracks mingle near the source: pack rat, deer, quail, snake, hawk, coyote, mountain lion, bear, human. Rain is precious, and we feel it coming, our bodies responding to even slight changes in moisture and scent. Our average of seven …
Harvest Day Pesto
Harvesting is one of the many wonderful jobs here at Quail Springs. As the months pass, we get such a large variety of goodness from our organic garden. In the middle of February, we are aiming to do about two harvests a week. With the climate here being rather warm, we are harvesting all sorts of greens as well as …
Grainy Goodness: Bread
As a community, we love our wholesome bread. This recipie provides for a simple and hearty piece of toast or freshly sliced bread. The process goes over two or three days. It’s simple and effective. To my surprise, I managed to make a few loafs yesterday without killing the 100 year old whole-wheat starter we have. Pressure is off! Over …
Riled Up Cookies
Riley has kindly donated his peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie recipe for the benefit of all you readers out there. During these colder winter months we have had a few batches of these decadent peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies.They help keep our energy up and our bellies full as the snow finally comes down. Heat your oven to …
A Visit from Vision
We were recently graced by the presence of the Vision group from the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” The University of St. Thomas’ Vision volunteer program sends teams of primarily students to engage in service projects all around the world. This was their 4th year to come and work with Quail Springs. Over a 9 day stay the visionaries helped us to: Install half the fencing in the …