Category — Bioregional

The big news is that my daughter Kasie has moved here and I am happy and thankful she is here. In addition to the joy of just having her spirit and energy around, she has also relieved me of my overnight work for Origins. This currently leaves me working two day shifts per week which is much more manageable considering all of my other work and activities.

I started a batch of prickly pear fruit wine this morning. In another few weeks it should be ready and I will bottle some as wine and make brandy out of the rest. Tomorrow morning I’m gathering more fruit and will make more wine. I also want to try making mesquite wine and brandy which should have an interesting taste. I also need to figure out how I want to distill the wine. I could buy a distiller or I could build my own from parts I buy. The kind you buy costs $500, so I don’t think I’ll go that route!

We had another great meeting/potluck for Arivaca Local. There was another big event going on at the same time, so we only had 10 people show up, but I enjoyed the smaller group and felt more connected to each person. We started by talking about the upcoming barter faire which then segued into discussing local economy in general.

Mesquite pods are a gift from the land and I spent the morning accepting that gift. The procedure is simple. Wait for the pods to become ripe and fall to the ground and then gather them. After they are washed and dried again, they are kept in dry storage until they are milled. Arivaca Local will help plan the Mesquite Festival this year and Kyle Young will again generously offer use of his hammer mill to mill the flour. I’ll store my pods until the festival comes around the end of October, then come home with the very sweet mesquite flour. The flour has no gluten, so any bread products must be blended with wheat flour. Of course, the mesquite flour is so sweet that using much more than a handful per loaf of bread would be overpowering. Seriously, this stuff is so sweet that some people will put a teaspoonful into their coffee in place of sugar.

Moving back to Arivaca has been one of the smartest things we have done. We have deep roots in southern Minnesota, but we have strong roots in Arivaca. Everyone who knows me knows that some of my interests come and go, while others become part of who I am. One of those deep interests is music, another is birding (although I’m a terrible lister), and a third is the idea of knowing a place. This third one can be called bioregionalism, a sense of place, and living in the land. My sense of place in southern Minnesota is strong, having grown up on a small farm and spending a great deal of my life in the area. I’ve fished, hunted, explored, hiked, gardened, birded, gathered wild foods, camped, and truly lived in the land. The same applies to Arivaca. I feel the roots growing deeper and although I will always travel and explore new land, I hope I can allow these roots to grow deep enough to keep me grounded.

Gathering mesquite pods is one way to deepen my roots. This is an act of connecting with place that has been practiced by dwellers in the land for hundreds and thousands of years. Sitting on my stool, hand-picking pods one by one from the ground, I feel deeply connected and grateful to be home.