I was out of town for two weeks, so blogging on the village stopped. So did photos. The village did carry on as usual, with work parties and Thursday evening Community Dinners, including an Equinox Ceremony, thanks to Gabby, Andreas, and Justin.
So blogging commences again, at least once a week, shortly after the Community Dinner. Given the sudden onset of what seems like winter, after a solid week of humid high-80s weather, here we are, wanting to be inside without fans or AC. I’m even toying with starting a fire in the fireplace.
COMMUNITY DINNER
Last night’s dinner reflected our bodies’ sudden new need for warmth, the meal offerings shifting completely from light salads and snacks to heavy, with chicken, lentils, one salad, and three three different kinds of orange squashes, made three different ways. At one point I noticed that there was hardly any green in the meal. So Dan ran outside and harvested some collards, cut and steamed them. Voila!
Here’s Justin’s plate. He wanted to take a picture of it.
Notice the three squashes. One of them, BTW, was the giant that threatened to bonk people on the head whenever they walked under the bower on the way to summer meals on the patio.
Devon told me, in between mouthfuls of that squash, that it actually did bonk him on the head on his way out one dark night. And hard! Sorry!
More meal pics (some of which were taken by Gabby, who more and more, is going to be taking over photos for this blog and fb page, and she has established an Instagram page for Green Acres as well).
Oh, and BTW: we thoroughly enjoyed Dan’s special carbonated burdock root wine. YES!
BIODIVERSITY PROJECT
Dr. Heather Reynolds, of the Biology Department at IU, has a class this semester called Biodiverse City, in which teams of undergraduate students are working at various local sustainability places to both help out in each place and collect data for the class’s various projects within that overarching theme. Two teams of four are working here, one a Marketing Group to devise ways to inform IU students about Green Acres Permaculture Village, and the other a Biodiversity Group, also with four, which is going to map a section of, they decided, the front yard of the DeKist 1 house and compare it to an equal section of a normal green lawn across the street in terms of plant biodiversity. So that team arrived with their teacher last night one hour before dinner, to decide what part of the Green Acres garden to map and to be shown how. Here are a few photos I took on that occasion.
The initial drawing:
Measuring the section:
Suddenly, one of the students: “Oh wow, there’s a Monarch caterpiller!”
And more!
Yes, they were crawling all over the buttefly bushes.
Professor Reynolds mused: “Hmmm. Well, you could do some insect diversity as well . . .”
They will document the goji berry bushes. Here’s a single berry, clinging.
And there’s a fig tree too, but we doubt the figs will mature before it gets too cold.
FINALE
I’ve saved the worst for last. And this is a short report on a little plant that looked totally benign when I wiped my ass with it after taking a dump in the woods, but then ignited a flaming swollen monster that took my immune system four days to quell.
What in hell — for yes it felt like hell — is it?
