Peaches, Moths, Mushrooms, and Manure

by Raven Glomus

Wrapping up some posts from the Commune Life Facebook feed that blog readers might find interesting, here’s some stuff (mostly food and agriculturally related) that is happening at Glomus Commune and Acorn Community.

At Glomus the last couple of weeks have been about the harvest and what to do with all that food. The biggest, juiciest harvest recently has been peaches–so many peaches!–and what to do about them, and lots of the other things we’ve been harvesting is canning.

Here’s what we said on Facebook: “Peaches, peaches, peaches! Glomus Commune is currently blessed with three trees full of ripe, juicy peaches.” And the pictures:

And then the canning: “Yesterday’s peaches have been canned. With the harvest coming in, there’s a lot of canning going on at Glomus Commune. Along with the peaches are canned tomatoes and there are two different types of relish canned, all done in our outdoor kitchen, created this summer for the mycology camp. (Not sure why this is called canning when it’s all being done in jars.)” Of course, more pictures:

And the comments responding to my question:

Acorn has put out a number of posts this last month that we have re-posted on our Facebook feed. One of the most surprising (to me at least) concerned a moth. When I saw the picture, I was certain that it was a hummingbird and I had to look it up on the internet to learn that, indeed, moths also drink nectar from flowers this way.

What I wrote on the post was: “Like a hummingbird, this moth is drinking from a flower at the Acorn Community.” Acorn wrote:”A spectacular shot of a moth drinking from one of our primroses! We love all our pollinators here at the farm🌻🦋🐝🌸🌼🌹” Here’s a still of the moth:

And a link to post with a little video clip: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSMf3CUAAxh/

Then, there’s Acorn’s post about finding a lovely ‘Chicken of the Woods’. Look at the size of that thing:

Acorn wrote: “Found this chicken in the woods mushroom on our property! We cooked it up for our community dinner and it was delicious! 🐓🍄” There are also pictures of the mushroom cooked up and the satisfied diners on their Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUBTj0glCcy/

Finally, Acorn’s business is Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. On SESE’s website, they wrote this piece on “Using Manure in the Garden” with everything you might want to know about using manure. I was kind of flip on our Facebook page: “Here’s a load of manure: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (Acorn Community’s business) talks about how to use Manure in your garden.”

Here’s a link to the article from the SESE blog: https://blog.southernexposure.com/2021/09/using-manure-in-the-garden/

And that’s some of what’s been happening so far this month at the communes.

Ants, birds, and wildlife at East Wind

Here is the final, wrap up video of Sumner’s series about wildlife at East Wind Community. While most of the early footage is of ants, there’s also some bird shots and some stills of flowers plus electronic music made by a friend of Sumners. What may be most important is Sumner’s evaluation of this series and his acknowledgements of assistance with it, which is at the beginning of the video.

Insects and Spiders at East Wind

Sumner continues cataloguing the wildlife at East Wind Community with this video on various insects and spiders found around.

Geese and Cats at Glomus Commune

by Raven

Our communal creatures took the lead on our Facebook posts this week.

Remember the cute little goslings that we had at Glomus?

Meanwhile, here’s one of the more vigilant members of the commune:

What I wrote on Facebook was: “Chamomile is a long-term member at Glomus Commune and a worker (mostly catching mice and voles) at East Brook Community Farm.  He likes to be on top of things.”

All pictures are from the East Brook Community Farm Instagram account.

Much more wildlife at East Wind

Sumner takes a wide look at various reptiles, amphibians, fish, and mammals that make their home at East Wind community. Communal sharing goes beyond human folk to the other creatures that we share our lands with.

Growing Season at Acorn and Glomus

by Raven Glomus

It’s full into the farm season and this weeks roundup of stuff from our Facebook feed focuses on what’s growing at Acorn Community and Glomus Commune:

First, Acorn gets a lot of early lettuce and donates to their local food bank:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPA-3maFEcm/

And then, on Instagram, someone at Acorn Community is bragging that their whole breakfast (vegetables and eggs) comes right from their own farm.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPIqG28FXVI/

Meanwhile, here at Glomus, here’s Cicada of East Brook Community Farm (our communal business) bringing out the greens and veggies for our first weekly CSA of 2021. Farming is our business, and it’s a lot of work, but this is the payoff.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPqTl-TD67t/

Finally, farm work is not just about vegetables. Here are some pictures of the cute little goslings that we are raising at Glomus:

Walking the Loop

If you were walking the loop around Lick Creek at East Wind Community, what kinds of birds would you see? Take a tour with Sumner.

Communal bees vs solitary bees

Sumner (ex-East Wind) looks at the bees that you can find around East Wind Community as well as their social structures. This is part of Sumner’s continuing series on non-human life around East Wind.

East Wind’s Dairy Barn Birds

Sumner continues his exploration of birds and other wildlife at the East Wind community. Here he takes us down to East Wind’s dairy barn and out to pasture with the cows, all the while looking at the birds that surround those places.

Jays and Birds of Prey at East Wind

What kinds of birds can you find at East Wind Community? How about blue jays, white jays, and various birds of prey…

Here’s Sumner’s latest East Wind wildlife video.