Penn's Blog

The Year Was 2020.....

11/18/2020

First, I pay tribute and respect to all who have experienced the worst this year has had to offer. Most especially the front line workers - all of them. I send love and strength to you all everyday. As people's hearts broke and so many were isolated in hospitals and fires raged and hurricanes roared, my heart ached and I tried to find a way to ease the pain.

Yet, here I was, safe on the mountain with boys who militantly enforced the rules to protect Cord from possibly getting COVID. As he lives with heart failure yet continues to work so hard, rain or shine, they had his back every step of the way. My heart is grateful. We are so lucky to live in the woods in times like this. Having 'permission' to stay home and stay safe was good medicine for us. Although we were out of work for a good part of the year, we made it through.

My time in the woods is precious, I know and love each tree, each rock, each path. The anguish I felt in the ether was palpable and all I could do was try to respond with love.
I know I am blessed to live on this mountain, amongst these ancient trees, watching these ancient skies. I never get tired of it and in fact, it has drawn me even closer to nature, our life here, my boys, the large and small wonders that are all around me and self-love. I am also much more aware of and fascinated by the People who lived on this land, in this case the Ute. With trees that could be 1,000 years old, I know their children played beneath the same trees mine did. It is a precious connection I do not take lightly.
Two of my boys and their significant others got sick with COVID early on in the pandemic yet still managed to finish their work and responsibilities. Beau graduated from college with honors with a degree in business. Max completed his 2nd year of Law School and writing for the Law Review. Wulfgar lost so much, most of his friends were seniors and they all graduated and left. There was no more music or music teacher or drama in the school, the play got shut down and Shakespeare in the Park got cancelled. He is now a senior and is adapting to a new and very different life. I give him all respect - he is so strong and although this is all so disappointing, he remains the wonderful, funny, kind person I know and love.

We said goodbye to our 35 year old mare Baby this summer. It all happened so fast and she was in the ground next to her mother within hours of the diagnosis of a spinal injury. She came up to me nickering with ears pointed forward and had a lovely bucket of her favorite feed just before she left this earth. The picture of the painted sky below happened at the same moment. She was a tri-colored buckskin paint. She was a wonderful part of our family.

At the top of July it became dire that my 92 year old mother needed to move into assisted living. That took the family rallying and a large part of the summer. She is safe and surrounded with her art, the facility has a perfect record for no cases of COVID and she is well taken care of. But we can't see her at the moment. So I write her regularly and see her on the porch when it's allowed. We must stay strong and do our part until this is over. She is so brave and her whole life changed without her family to help her inside her new home. She never ceases to amaze me. Her era of people are the strongest, most resilient on earth. And that smile! The time I spent packing her up is the most precious time I've ever had with her. She has led an absolutely amazing life and I was humbled to see it all as we went through every single thing she owns and sorted it out. I am in awe Mom.

A week after I got home from getting my mother safe, it snowed for 4 days and I lost 90% of my seed crop. It's ok - I got some and I am blessed with banked seed from the gloriously abundant years before.

So, to all of you who have suffered loss, felt the pain, worried yourselves silly, I feel ya, even though I know how lucky I am to not have lost a loved one to COVID. From this turmoil will come a great big pendulum swing. Life will keep turning, seasons will keep coming and sunsets and sunrises will keep occurring. I am busy everyday sending love on the wind to you all.

The sky as Baby flew away.

One day while walking in the woods, I came across these three - having a nap in the trees - Baby on the left.

A few years ago, Max and my mom - discovering they were wearing the same shoes! LOL

The Dream Team! When COVID first started - so a socially distanced selfie.

Gone fishing.

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29 Years

1/29/2020

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Penn and Cord

Yeah, I like him pretty good. We still hold hands. We have matching black robes. He's the love of my life. The Holidays are not officially over at our house until January 6th because our anniversary is the 5th. We usually head to water of some kind. The last few years, we head straight to the Arkansas River in the canyon somewhere near Cotopaxi or Texas Creek. We find our way to the other side of the river and tool along in our vehicle with a lunch packed in a cooler. Sometimes after the river, we head to Cañon City and have an early dinner there and then head home to watch a movie - and hang with our youngest boy - Wulfgar. On our way back and before I could suggest it, Cord turned into Skyline Drive, I yelled, "You grabbed my thought! Yay! So many memories there too.
This time not only did we enjoy the icy river, but we found a new-to-us BLM road that we explored for hours. It was so beautiful, so interesting, so wonderful. We've lived here a long time and finding a new road, a new 'find', thrills us. There wasn't time enough in the day to follow all of the off-shoot roads - we just had a blast. And then we ended up back at the river and Cord caught a nice, fat, river trout while I collected seeds. This is the same river where I caught my first river trout WAY back when with my late dad. This is the same river where we took our boys so many times to fish and play. This is the river where I learned all about white water rafting with my brother as oarsman in the late 70's. This is the river that was changed forever when we watched the Pueblo Reservoir fill from Liberty Point. We used to picnic down at this river when I was a little kid, in Pueblo West, and I once rode my horse all the way down to the river bottom and back on my own. Those places have been under water for a long time. But I remember. I will always love this river. And Cord. Happy Anniversary Big.

Mountain Woman selfie.

He ate it for breakfast...

Up on Skyline Drive

Another magical find in the Rockies.

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Seed Gathering

10/30/2019

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The office

I wrote the below a few weeks ago and decided to post it now anyway - we have had more snow since and lots of sun and I did make it back up into the Forest - absolutely love it up there. Still squeezing tomatoes everyday and there is a growing pile of empty boxes in the front yard - I am making progress! So much to share - life is interesting and the work is sacred.

Well, seed gathering has been shut down here in the Rockies. October brought with it forests and roadsides full of seeds, the mowers didn't mow much and I have been bringing in seed samples for months. All of these seed samples will be grown and trialed here. There is a tight path to walk through the Seed Room and the house is a maze of ripening boxes of tomatoes. And cucumbers, and squash, and corn. Nowhere to sit. I love it like this but Mother Nature just made me pause. Light snows are fine, but this continued dumping is really messing up my chi. I will go after seed until the roads close or are impassable. Some years that's not until December. I will travel long distances to get something I saw along an old road to somewhere. Meanwhile, -4 is just not doable.
Yesterday, on my way home from shipping seeds to New York City, I jumped into the snowy ditch wearing shorts and long johns to get the beautiful red Penstemon barbatus that I could now suddenly see, backlit by the snow. I knew it was there but was going to have to scour the road cuts to find it. As I was driving, it all appeared before me and I had to turn around in 4WD and go back for it. So there is yet another bag of seed ready for the seed room.
Colorado is famous for erratic weather. When we are in it though, we think it will always be this way. We think the sun will never shine again. Or when it's hot, that there will never be relief. It will change, it will warm up, it will melt. And I will be out there again, nose to the ground, butt in the air.
I have been so blessed this season, even if it is cut short and my little 4-Runner can't make it into the National Forest roads anymore, I am equipped with more seed than I've ever seen. Last year's snow was magic for the wildflowers, food, trees and shrubs. While elk hunting, I gathered many tree seeds and shall grow them here. The Ponderosa's were just beginning to drop their seeds and I even got seed of the mighty Bristlecone Pine. It was heavenly.
Today the trees here are loaded with snow, it is very cold and the clouds are starting to separate already. The sun will shine, the snow will begin to fall in big 'woofs', and the melting will begin. The day before it started Wulfgar and I worked many hours to dig all of the potatoes and then to plant garlic into the freshly dug beds. The soil was just right, rich, warm and not too wet. Near the end of the day, Cord came down and helped which saved us - we were pushing dark and we were pretty tired. I fed them stew. And then it snowed and snowed and hasn't stopped. The garlic was a little late but the snow will insulate and it will be another great year for garlic. Snowy winters also mean mondo garlic. Ok some pictures of my tales of the Rockies.

From this....

...to this, in just a few days. Sun through the morning clouds, moon as the evening comes down.

I made it back into the Forest!

Lunch time in the Aspens.

A typical day at work.

Swirling Fringed Sage! Artemisia frigida

The seeds fell right in to the bag.

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Sasha's Altai Harvest!

10/13/2019

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Penn and Sasha's Altai in the snow.

I love Sasha. I wish I could meet him. I've already written Ode's to Sasha - but this year's harvest is just - rock and roll. The above pic is just about 1/4 of the Sasha Harvest. I grow Sasha with deep love. Love for the guy - Sasha - who developed and adapted it to the Siberian mountains and love for Bill McDorman for bringing it home to America for the mountain growers. I've grown Sasha's Altai for 28 years. It never disappoints. It's always delicious, prolific and so juicy.
I am busy squeezing tomatoes right now to ferment the seeds so I can get them ready for the 2020 growing season. It's joyful work. It's my favorite tomato so even though there are MANY other varieties all over the floor ripening in boxes, bags, trays, on the couch, on the table, under the couch - this is my happy time.
I asked Mother Earth to give us September to make up for June, (it froze until the 22nd), and many varieties weren't planted until the top of July - Sasha did what it does best - loaded up in a hurry. Thanks Mother - you gave us September.
The plants are small, other sellers consider it a determinate but I don't agree. I call it 'a small indeterminate', as Sasha blooms until frost. In the greenhouse I can string it up 6-7' tall. In the open, it grows compact and easy to manage.
Oh and that flavor! Mostly I am just making noises when I am taste testing it but I try and manage words like, 'perfectly balanced', 'smear-on-your-face-good', and 'Oooooooo' and 'aaaaaahhhh'. Did I say juicy?
I've done three photo shoots with those big, heavy bowls to get the exact right feeling I wanted, to show the world how much I love this tomato.
Having a harvest like this is jump-up-and-down happiness. I don't always have enough room to grow more than a few plants at a time but this year, Sasha got an entire 5' X 20' Bio-intensive bed with a half-open cover called, "The Sasha Bed." Yes, I grow Sasha totally in the open as well but the Sasha Bed was built specifically for this tomato. It's a half-greenhouse film, half-screened cover that does not have to be opened and closed every day in Colorado's intense sun as it breathes and traps warmth for the night. I only put Siberian tomatoes in it as the screen lets the cold in and they will freeze before other beds.
Planting Sasha en masse is such a joy!
I made the call just in time too - the big freeze didn't come right away - but a few small ones did, triggering the Wood Rats to start doing their evil. They like to line their nests with the tomato branches and if there are ripe or unripe tomatoes on them - so be it. They stole some significant varieties this year and really pissed me off. As soon as I see that, it's time to start pulling them in - ready or not. They all ripen perfectly in the house.
The mice tripped the live traps, ate the peanut butter and escaped, the Wood Rats high-fived them. They like the tomatoes better anyway.
Today is another wonderful day of squeezing all of my favorite varieties and many new and unusual ones too. I should be out hunting all day every day but I have to balance the harvest.
Happy Sunday - I hope you are posing with your tomatoes or lining them up and taking 'Tomato Porn' pics like I do.
Enjoy!

Penn and Sasha

First fermenting jars of Sasha. Notice the separation in the jar on the left - starting to mold....yippee!

The Sasha Bed - on the left. The other tomato bed is surrounded with pallets for wind protection with a hail guard over the top.

The Sasha Bed with one end open. First nips of frost - harvesting underway.

The Sasha Bed, covers propped open for watering. A rogue Brussels Sprouts grew amongst the tomatoes.

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Clouds In My Coffee

8/28/2019

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Such a morning!

Clouds in my coffee and....

This morning, I was up early watering and I kept getting hit in the face with clouds. Beautiful, cool, moist clouds on a day predicted to be sunny and warm. I love the mountains so much - especially when things like this happen. It was gone before I knew it and my day started and didn't stop until 12 hours later. But I had this. I carried this with me throughout the day.
I spent the morning at the Farmer's Market in Westcliffe, encountering friends and vendors. I have a cast iron dealer, a tamale dealer, a clean, lean Valley grown meat dealer, a CBD oil dealer, a Hippie Jelly dealer, a homemade pretzel roll dealer, and a peaches and cream corn dealer.
After that I joined Cord at the latest greenhouse in Silvercliff and was present as the building inspector came to give Cord the green light on the foundation. Of course, he was duly impressed with the quality of Cord's work. He builds strong and true and it all passed with flying colors. They will pour the foundation on Friday with our sons helping of course.
Cord then returned with me to the Farmer's Market - where he is considered a unicorn - a rare sighting - and he got to hug friends and talk shop and eat fresh, home-made jerky. (The salt is the 6th ingredient!)
Just before we left, some brilliant guy named Bill appeared on the street with a truckload of clean, SEED GROWN fruit! It was beautiful and perfect and inexpensive. By the time I was done there were cases of glory - apples, pears, Italian plums and peaches, beautiful, beautiful peaches. He was from Avondale and grew his 500 trees from seed so they adapt and are naturally selected - very little bug damage as they grow resistant to bugs and disease. We even graduated from the same high school! We wheeled and dealed joyfully and I came home with the motherlode and WAY too much to do.
We discussed making peach leather and he was so helpful. I have only made it on parchment paper and he told me his delightful method. He butters a large piece of glass, (like a sliding glass door size!), and then uses an industrial blender and pours the peach puree on the glass and spreads it out thin. He surrounds the glass with fine screen attached to wood and places another piece of glass over the top to keep out the bugs and for aeration. Brilliant! He was lovely and we loaded the car inspired.
After lunch, Cord and I hurried home so I could grab Wulfgar and take him to the dentist in Salida. I drove through the construction on the way there and he drove all the way back - (he's got a permit), while I gazed at the Arkansas River and the rocks and played John Denver all the way home.
For dinner we had grilled, clean, lean, Valley-grown beef burgers (on pretzel rolls except for me - lettuce burger), and grilled, clean, in-the-husk Peaches and Cream Corn. Oh my belly! I should be in bed but all I can think about are those clouds...

Took this with the flash - I'll fix it tomorrow!

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August in the Rockies

8/17/2019

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My favorite time to be in the garden - or just outside. The whole sky lights up and there is an aching beauty of hope that we're all gonna be alright. I feel the stress diminish on the breeze and become hyper aware of the birds and the silence. I am aware of my breath and turn in slow circles to take it all in. I should be making dinner but August in the Rockies means dinner's not ready until 10pm. Not exactly healthy so we stay up later digesting. One of my favorite songs on earth is the song of the coyote - always different, always hilarious, always joyful. Sometimes I am lying in bed with the cool, silky mountain air coming in the window and I hear them as I drift off to sleep. What would I do without them? The ground animals would take over our life. Coyote does good work.

Last night we ate the last of Joseph Lofthouse's glorious Maxima Squash mix. From last year! They were still as fragrant as a melon and the seeds were perfect. I will be offering this amazing squash Grex this fall. This is obviously a long storing squash as in the heat of August, and without a root cellar, they have stored perfectly. How I loved them. Another crop is coming on beautifully amongst the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. Since it snowed and froze throughout June, we will need September to finish many things and I am calling that in. I have talked to Mother and she assures me we can have September. Since our season is something like June 1 to September 1 - it is a lot to ask. But hope springs eternal. This squash went with beautiful Eggplant Parmesan, from eggplants I got from growers down below. Delicious! Comfort food! Color! Beauty! Ahhhh.

Cleome serrulata, to know it is to love it. In the apricot light of evening it glows and glows. In the morning it buzzes and buzzes with bees and other pollinators. This is the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant - it grows all around us here in the west - high and low. It is a glorious thing to see en masse. Another name for it is Stinking Clover - ha! The plant has a smell I have never noticed to be unpleasant as I strip the seed pods that burst into my hand each fall. Cattle and deer do not touch it but the pollinators are out of their minds with joy over it. It is called the fourth sister by some tribes, as they knew that wherever it grows, the bees come. That is why it is encouraged to volunteer in the Maxima patch.

Today on my early morning walk I was blessed with this image. Winterfat, backlit and glowing in the morning sun. I love this plant. Krascheninnikovia lanata, starting to bloom and blow my mind with it's wonderful luminescence. It greets me on my walk. Its medicinal properties are mysterious and wise and it beckons me to touch it and feel its soft power. I had to report this to you. It will be in full bloom soon and you will see it from the lowest desert all the way to the high high. A great textural plant for the perennial garden, it lives long and strong. In the bottom left corner of this image you will see the flowering tops of Artemisia firgada, Fringed Sage, another fragrant favorite. Our beloved Doberman Coco used to roll upside down and backwards in the new growth of this staple plant, cleaning her coat and perfuming herself with sage - she knew what's what. I put springs of it in my car to keep it fresh.
The Rockies are full of food, flowers and medicine - all coming and going as Mother decides. Each year is different and this year has been just amazing so far. Snow = Wildflowers! Thank you Mother!

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Rocky Mountain Summer

8/9/2019

5 Comments

It's been a while Mountain Types! I've been hiding in the woods for a bit - I like it here. Our Mothership Greenhouse Facility is ROCK AND ROLL! Although it's kind of a mess - it's still amazing. Nothing can touch these greenhouses - they perform like a dream come true. I am slowly getting my tropical fruit in - but was too late to purchase organic Guava and Bananas from the source I prefer. Meanwhile, Kava Kava is gorgeous, Ginger in bloom is a thing to see, lemon grass is wild and free, the Fig is growing with gusto, the orange tree has all new growth, the Lemon Verbena turned into a tree, Rosemary is holding it's own against the volunteer tomatoes and I had to use loppers to cut out the spent Broccoli and Cauliflower plants - whew! Pomegranate and Passion Fruit are waiting their turn to be planted.
My tomatoes need strung up, my trees need planted in the ground instead of growing through the bottom of the pot, I need to plant another round of greens and meanwhile seed happens in there all the time and then I can't pull it out until it's finished. It is magical in there - and the Seed Room - a safe place, a cool and quiet place. I retreat to it and sit in front of the fan I have in there to dry 2019 seed. The Rockies are full of wildflowers, there is rain every afternoon, we've dug trenches and installed a French Drain to divert flash flooding and this spring the Dream Team rebuilt all the outside structures that grow tomatoes. They also mounted hail guards over all of the tomatoes and squash growing in the open. Whew!
The picture above shows the ultra fast Candy Mountain Sweet Corn growing in front of the greenhouse - not only does the corn benefit from the water coming off the building but the corn and mulch cool the ground so the air moving in through the vents via natural convection is cooler than the air being pushed out the top vents. Sweet!
Notice how short the corn is and it is beginning to tassle! Candy Mountain gets busy putting on ears and they will come to fruition so fast I can hardly keep up. It was bred to grow short - only 5' but it often grows even shorter. It takes less water to grow short corn...
I am going to try to blog more - there is so much to share - soon pics of the seed room and the jars, jars, jars of seed on the wall - so beautiful.
Cord and Beau build Smart Greenhouses day and night, Wulfgar is helping me in the garden and acting and singing his butt off and Max is interning at a law firm and will begin his second year of Law School soon. They are all 4.0 students and they are all thriving and striving. Thanks for listening - I'll be back... Oh... more soon on Cord's Heart - he continues to live and love.

I think tassling is about as thrilling as germination....

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Carol Deppe Comes To Colorado For Mountain Seed School!

6/24/2018

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CANCELLED AS OF 8/15/18

Register For Mountain Seed School

Holy crap everybody Carol Deppe, Steve Peters and Panayoti Kelaidis are coming to teach at our Mountain Seed School Camp-out! this September 2-8! I am out of my mind. Seed School is a blast and a half anyway but Panayoti can tell some stories at the campfire, Steve can sing rock and roll with us and Carol is gonna teach us the OSSI FIGHT SONGS!!!! 6 of 'em! So it's just over the top. Let me tell you about these guys.

Panayoti Kelaidis discovered us. He brought us from the trees into the light. We teach because of him and Denver Botanic Gardens. He is our dear friend and brother. His delightful girlfriend Jan will come along with him and she is our wonderful friend too. Panayoti is a seed hunter, a world traveler, a water saver. He searches the world for high and dry plants that can thrive in our extreme climate. He is an alpine plant specialist which takes him all over the world searching for teeny tiny plants on top of mountains summited only by camel or donkey. South Africa, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Sweden and on and on he goes, coming back and blowing our minds with stories of his travels. Many of his most treasured finds are then added to the Plant Select program here in Colorado. These are plants that come from similar climates and can thrive in high and dry conditions. They are recommended for Colorado Gardeners and most importantly they are not water hogs!

Steve Peters was a guest teacher at the first seed school ever - way back in 2010. We followed him home to Santa Fe and made friends with his lovely wife Moria and just hit it off from day one. When we returned from Seed School - we hosted a seed symposium here in Westcliffe and Steve and Moria drove up from Santa Fe and taught at the event for FREE! That's Steve man, rock and roll. He is a DYNAMIC teacher full of experience and ideas. He is an upbeat, positive, solution maker. Steve grew for Seeds of Change for a very long time and now owns Seed rEvolution Now! We like him. You will too - sign up for Mountain Seed School and see what I mean.

And then there is Carol. We have never met but we feel like we have because of her books. Carol makes you feel like you can do this. One of her specialties is teaching beginners and there are often newbs at seed school. She is the best in the business it seems to me and I know there are other amazing seed rockstars out there but it's Carol Deppe! She has threatened to teach us her OSSI fight songs! The OSSI is one way we protect seeds from being patented and controlled. She will start off the week with genetics of course - and help us nail down the basics. As the week wears on, all we learn from Carol will be experienced and incorporated into our activities.

Mountain Seed School is a heavy-weight, comprehensive seed course addressing everything you need to know to bring seed, it's production, storage and growing, into your gardening universe. You do not have to be a professional to attend seed school, seed can be brought back into any system, from a potted tomato hanging out of a sky rise window to full scale farming operations.
Seed remembers and regional adaptation is the answer for the mountain people. This is how our gardens thrive. Seed learns and carries the information into the next generation, growing stronger and smarter every day.

Come and hang out with us for a week and soak up the seedy stuff. You will make lifelong friends and you will eat. I am on a Mission From God to feed you. You will eat well. Three, luscious, organic, mountain sourced meals a day. Plus more to munch on. It's my thang. I love to feed people and I go all out for Mountain Seed School. You will not be sneaking off to your campsite to eat something real or good. I will feed you.

Camping in the Rockies in September. Oh the skies, the dark, beautiful star-lit skies. Westcliffe/Silvercliff, Colorado is 9th in the world for Dark Skies, the first Dark Skies Community in Colorado and the highest in elevation Dark Skies Community of all. What does it mean? It means geographically our nights are dark, but it's also because we have shrouded our lights to direct the light onto the ground and not into the sky so we don't 'pollute' our beautiful Wet MountIn Valley with light at night. Star-gazing is big around here. We think everyone can see the Milky Way every night. Except when the moon is too bright. The week of seed school is a New Moon - bring your headlamp and prepare to see more stars than you ever have before.

43 acres of prime mountain real estate. That's our place. You can camp in the woods, in the open, on a bed of pine needles or in a 1,000 year old tree with an open-air sleeping platform. Piñon, Juniper and Pondies make up the multi-generational forest. You can bring your own camp and we also provide two wall tents and some extra cots for people who don't have their own gear. It is September in the Rockies, nights will be in the 40's. Daytime will be hot and sunny with occasional wild storms moving through.
Campers, Pop-ups, RV's, Vans and vehicles are all welcome to camp in here. Power is available. Facilities are provided.
The classroom is in the blacksmith shop and activities are held all over our property, in the Mothership Greenhouse, The Seed Room and the gardens. We travel to other seed folks, tour our seed library and hunt seeds everywhere we go.
Other guest teachers will drop by, Seeds Trust will be there, we will sing at the campfire every night and listen to stories and adventures while we eat. Cord will host a blacksmithing night and students can take a shot at forging if they like.

I really want you to come. Sign up, the course fee is incredibly reasonable and remember, it's Carol Deppe, it's Steve Peters, it's Panayoti Kelaidis! You're gonna like it. Oh yeah, and us too - come hang out with Penn and Cord for a week too...
See you there!
Penn

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Parmenter Mothership Greenhouse!!!

1/27/2018

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The Mothership

The Mothership Greenhouse!

So close, so close and yet so far.

When I last left you I was a sad little puppy when it came to progress on The Mothership. As if! The Dream Team comes in great waves, they all converge and knock out more than I could ever imagine and then they all go away. It's insane. Cord says we have about 10 days left on it but he can't do all 10 days in a row.
I am a patient person. I am tapping in deep to my resources to stay patient. It's been 3.5 years. Can't have it till I can have it. Can't have 70' of tropical food forest until I can have 70' of tropical food forest. Without ever using any fuel. I know this. I don't wring my hands. I wait. And use my magical powers to make The Dream Team converge. Here. At the same time.
Over the holidays they worked the entire time. I cooked and painted and cooked and painted and cooked. To Cord, Max, Beau and Wulfgar - you guys are the best. Thank you for your continuous work on this project and for making my dreams come true.

I AM IN MY SEED ROOM!!!!

This is the best part. Over the holidays - the Seed Room was finished. I put down flooring and began moving in immediately. 7 car-loads later (SUV) the piles and piles of seed in all of it's glory - was inside the room - breathing in and out.

I go to work in my Seed Room - like people do. Sometimes I carry a basket with my various items like Little Red Riding Hood and sing a song on the path through the trees as I walk along. I sip tea and clean seed or play John Denver and dance around the room while making labels. I am slowly putting my bulk seed into jars on the shelves on the wall. It is the most beautiful room I have ever seen. Getting to actually see my seed is something. I have a long way to go and the work is joy.

My cup runneth over.

Table and shelves are 16' long.

More shelves coming. Bookcases and tables and blinds and work stations are all coming. I'm filling seed orders everyday. Every bag or box you see is drying seed and will be condensed down to a jar. It is very satisfying work right now. A fourth long shelf will be installed at the top of the wall soon. The room is about 10' wide by 24' long and is off the north wall of The Mothership Greenhouse. There is a tile covered block wall on the other side and a concrete pad to keep it cool and steady. It is solid as a rock and so quiet and lovely. More pics to come as I get the room operational. What a thrill.

Inside a random bag. Showy Milkweed.

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SEED SEASON!!!

3/10/2017

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Mighty Mighty Northern Bush Pumpkin

Seeds in my hair, seeds in my pockets, seeds clinging to my bathrobe, seeds in the sink, seeds on the floor, seeds in the tub, seeds under the table, seeds on top of the table, seeds in bags, seeds in boxes, seeds still in the pumpkin, seeds in the cushions of the couch. Seeds. Did I mention it's seed season? Orders are rolling in, seed is flying out the door, the ladies at the post office are already starting their seed and no-one's had a proper dinner for months. Ahhhhh. As it should be.

And it's time to plan ahead for the seed I will grow this season. We will have a carrot crop, hopefully a cucumber crop, of course the mighty Northern Bush Pumpkin and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of trial tomatoes to grow out. Luckily I intend to live a long life so I can grow them all out. My trials this year are about "Earlies", "Dwarf's" and "Peach - or Angora" tomatoes. Super fun!!!!

NO excuses! It's time to rock and roll! Even though we are no longer experiencing proper winters to kill off bugs, disease and critters, we will still try to grow. Disease is coming higher and higher and so are the bugs. ORGANIC - NATURAL SOLUTIONS ARE THE ONLY ANSWER. If you don't already know this - please don't kill predators unless they are attacking your livestock - please? One coyote can take out 40 ground animals in one night. The fox and the bobcat will gobble up hordes of critters all night long. The mole hills and mounds and burrows trip up my horses and last year, one of my mares came in with a severely bowed tendon - which cost us the big bucks to heal her. Keeping the critters balanced is the name of the game. Mother Nature will cure it in a harsher way - too many means starvation and disease to wipe out clusters like we are experiencing. In all of these years, we have never seen ground animals at this level. 4 warm winters in a row will do it. So we need those predators to do their job every night.
Last fall - when the critters tried to move in - I came face to face with a wood rat coming out of my bread drawer! He was unafraid and looked at me as if I was intruding - we stared at each other as he sized me up and down. I said, "NO." He said, "We'll see." 45 minutes later he was live-trapped on the counter with peanut butter and after the guys took him away - I began the bleaching process. Such attitude.

Meanwhile - I better get studying up on tomato diseases - as they are coming! Last year a grower friend of mine got TMV - (horrors!) Tobacco Mosaic Virus and she had to ditch the whole lot - including the seeds. TMV will remain in the seed - what a loss! Tobacco kills tomatoes. No smoking tobacco around tomatoes, do not let smokers touch the plants or anything around them. I simply ask tobacco smokers to wash their hands with soap and water if they want to touch anything - I even provide wet wipes on tours. I don't want them to touch the door jam of my greenhouses as to not leave remains behind. No judgment! Just information. How many tobacco smokers have said to me, "Is that why I can't seem to grow tomatoes?!" Yes.

Cut it open to find a prize inside!

Scoop them out...

Rinse them off...

Spread them out to dry...

Greenhouse/Seed Room progress:
Holy crap it's slow right now. Patience is my middle name. I wait. Cord and Beau continue to build one greenhouse after another and try to work on ours 'in between' - which is really just an illusion. Beau works with Cord full time and goes to college full time - and commutes a lot. He studies on the road - I don't know how he's doing it. Cord is finishing one and lining up two more so his brain is complete.
Meanwhile - I wait, and dream, and pack the seeds back up in tubs every time I fill an order. Pumpkins are still rolling around the living room floor, tomatoes are still in bags everywhere and the couch is my office. My Seed Room awaits.
It's gonna be great.

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Penn Parmenter is a high altitude gardener, seedswoman and student of the earth. She is married to Cord Parmenter - an awesome gardener, gorgeous man and a master blacksmith. Together they own and run a sustainable greenhouse design company, Smart Greenhouses LLC and Penn grows seed for her seed business, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds. She is a mother of three sons and an outdoorswoman. Penn forages wild food, hunts big game, fishes, preserves, maintains a huge organic forest garden and occasionally makes dinner. At home you can find her in her greenhouses as well as in the wilderness - nose to the ground, butt in the air, trying to identify Colorado natives.

CANCELLED AS OF 8/15/18

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