new

I’ve been experiencing an enormous surge of creative energy recently, resulting in a really good shift towards a different direction in my life. It all began with fruit. There is so much fruit here that I have been drying the surplus and in August began to sell blends of dried fruits at the Saturday Farmer’s Market in town. My little business is called Homegrown Organics and is expanding. The fruit is all organic, all local and all fresh – meaning it’s freshly dried the week before the market. I share the stall with Heather who’s selling plants and is expanding into herbal medicinal preparations. We also made seaweed emulsion and are carrying that too.
The blends are what I harvest so the fruits change, but in general I always have banana, pineapple, papaya, carambola and a fruit leather – often cas or guanabana. Then I have different blends, a tropical which is plain, a cacao which has cacao nibs, a hot, which has ginger, a coconut mix and a sour mix with sour carambola. It’s great fun. I love the harvesting, the prep and the social buzz of the market.
Over the last year the garden and working with plants has given me more joy and satisfaction than working in education. I’m ready for a transition. I’m growing sprouts for the market too, it’s difficult to get a good selection of seeds, but I’m growing mung and will add lentil and mustard soon. I’m also beginning growing edible leaves to make up salad bags. This is more a long term project, but slowly, slowly it’s coming together. By the end of the year I’ll be working with edible landscapes. It feels wonderful.