The Forest Path - April 2020
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Where to start with April? This was the first month in a long time that we didn’t hold any classes or programs here at the forest farm. The forest exploded into an expanse of green, the lambs grew bigger and fluffier, flowers appeared everywhere and we really missed having visitors here to experience it with us. We started these monthly photo journals at the beginning of the year, as much for us to have a visual record of our life and work here as for you, the reader, but it has come to feel even more important during these months of social distancing. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into spring at Cedar Dell.
Our babies were integrated into the pasture with the other big sheep. After a little bit of initial grumpiness, the older sheep are tolerating the babies bouncing around (and sometime on!) them. Eamon, shown above, is getting lighter in color and his horns are starting to grow, though you can’t really tell in this photo.
All of the sheep are really enjoying the spring greens! They are gobbling up all the fresh grass and tree leaves the they can get in their mouths. The lambs are eating grass now but still nursing as well. They’re so much bigger than when they were born!
Spring greens aren’t just for the animals! We’ve been enjoying wild edibles that spring brings as well. This month’s favorites were maple blossom fritters and stinging nettle pesto. We shared both recipes here on the blog and don’t worry - the nettles don’t sting anymore once they’re cooked!
Flowers are everywhere! The bright pink salmonberry flowers are a beautiful pop of color against the new, spring green. Some are already starting to turn into berries but it will still be a while before they’re ripe for eating. Last month there were just a few yellow violets but now there are large clumps along the trail in the woods.
Trillium flowers are the darlings of springtime around here and we never get tired of admiring them. These little candy flowers below don’t taste like candy but they are edible! We’ve been adding them to spring salads. The plant with the red-gold leaves is our smokebush plant. The leaves will be more green later in the season but right now their color is just gorgeous, especially in the morning sunlight.
Inspired by the colors of spring flowers, I’ve been dyeing a lot of fabric and embroidery floss using a rainbow of natural dyes. While I greatly miss spending days with kids in the forest, this newfound time has led to more opportunities to create color.
I’ve dyed more than 15 colors of silk embroidery floss, all created with natural dyes. You can learn more about my dye process and what I used to create some of these vibrant colors in this blog post. If you’re interested in using some of these for your next stitching project, you can see all colors currently available by clicking here.
Plant dyes aren’t just for silk! I’ve been putting everything I can into the dyepots and these cotton fabrics show the range of colors that can be achieved through nature. it’s such a fun process and I’ve been using these scraps and small pieces for stitching projects as well as creating some colorful bundles to offer up in my online shop.
We’re busy growing things too. We have somewhere around 50 Japanese indigo seedlings to put into the ground and our vegetable garden is struggling a little since our pesky sheep Flint broke into it twice and ate the pea seedlings and trampled everything else. Most plants, like these cute radish seedlings seem to be bouncing back okay. The jury is still out on the peas though.
