Conscious Creation

April is “go time” in the gardens here at Alpenglow Farms. Exponential growth is almost mind blowing as the cover crops are waist high overnight and all the neighborhood birds are competing for air space as the songs vary in intensity and frequency. Calendula and red poppies are popping up in new spots and the fruit trees have since flowered and are ready to start producing their gifts. It always feels like it comes so quick; gardens and grasses so tall and thick, and spring songs echoing through the forest and mountains. I’m so grateful for the stillness and the hush of the past winter season, the only sounds being the wind and the rain, and the waters rushing through the springs and creeks. It gives all us beings a minute to catch our breath before we begin anew.

Spring time comes with moments of adrenaline and excitement; and I know lots of people outside the world of weed experience that internal power that mimics the environment’s external shift. More sun means more warmth and daylight, and there is this vigor that exudes and exemplifies an aliveness for life. For me it’s like how I would feel before a cross county meet, a track race (I did hurdles and the mile), or before I went on stage (I danced for years and loved every minute of backstage, the hot lights, and the eyes of the audience). That’s how kicking off the season feels to me. The seeds are soaking and popping, the starts (baby plants) are cozy in the mud room, and our homemade soil is being transported to our nursery greenhouse where those wee little ones are getting ready for life outside the sanctuary of heated mats and shelter.

It’s a beautiful journey really. Life. Ours of course, but life inside the context of nature. Lots of folks are intimately entwined with the starting of seeds, planting, tending, and harvesting. But lots of folks are not. This is obviously for a variety of reasons and circumstances, and though I am a bit biased, there is something very important and ancient within the realm of birthing and then witnessing life. One doesn’t need a farm or even a garden to experience such things, as ideas, projects, and creations of all kinds are too a birth of sorts. But I was lucky to conceive children when I wanted them, to have perfect pregnancies and births, and then to have the opportunity to nurse and raise my daughter’s. I was able to both experience and witness life inside me, life next to me, and now life beyond me. It is a gift of epic proportions to carry the seed of conception into a beautiful baby so loved, watch them grow and bloom in their own unique way, and then venture out in the world. And though children and cannabis are very different things (LOL!) we too are nature and a part of; so human life and plant life known in the way I have known it for over two decades is comparable for me. Let me tell you how.

Every year Craig breeds certain cultivars for the seeds. Farmers all over the world do this to some extent, and most farmers/gardeners everywhere save the seeds of plants they love. They do this because they want life (in particular life of the particular plant) to continue. In the world of cannabis farming, you consciously create a plan for the year/s ahead and in that plan you rehearse and then formulate what you hope your harvest to be; i.e seed to sow. Conscious creation requires stamina as it takes sustained energy for a seed to fully mature. If one’s lucky, there is lots of living that happens between birth and death, and lots to learn along the way. Craig and I transform our dreams into tangible outcomes and we begin with those beloved seeds made in nature by nature. We soak them for a bit and wait till they pop (when the little “tail” appears!).

We next take that little life and make it cozy in beautiful soil and love it up with light and some heat. Seeds are already alive; they just patiently wait for the right spark to ignite them, and when they set off they strive to push up through the soil and when they do, “BOOM!” Those baby beings are so excited I swear they are saying “Look at me! I’m here! I’m so happy to be here!” I remember that with my little ones. So bewildered to initially be here in this strange new world, so loved by us, and day by day so ready to experience all the life around them.

It’s so cool watching kids grow, and it’s also pretty cool watching a garden grow. It’s magical really. Spring soil on the homestead is fertile and lush; prime time for the conception of new life. But timing is a very important part of the process. Seeds will sprout almost anywhere (think of the cracks in sidewalks!), which is a testament to LIFE.

But conscious creation is intentional, and deliberate, and when an arrangement is done on purpose it aligns with a specific sort of awareness. You want to see both the start, the succession, and the end success. So when those seeds that became starts are ready for the world outside the sanctuary of us, off they go; usually around May 15 depending on the cultivar. If we are depping that strain, we will harvest mid July and then replant (“set it and forget it”).

But with full terms, we have about six or so months to watch those beloved plants we nurtured from seed to mature. Those upcoming summer days under the Southern Humboldt sun are incredibly hot and long, and for a minute it always looks like very little is happening in the gardens. But just like the spring cover crops, overnight those knee high plants are 8ft and we are hoping they won’t get much bigger. They will.

I LOVE being a mom and I loved every minute with my kids when they were growing up. Yes, I often looked forward to the three B’s (bath, books and then bed) but the saying is true; “the days are long and the years are short.”  And though I love being a mom more than a farmer, the time in the garden is just as fleeting. There are moments in motherhood that are overwhelming and relentless and there have been times throughout these decades of farming I have felt the same. So much to accomplish before you even start (how is that even possible?!?!), so much life to keep alive during the season, and such careful careful care when it’s time to harvest. And in the end we willingly let all that love and hard work we formed and nurtured go. Raising a garden and a family in a purposely planned way is very different from force or control; it is choosing to create life while knowing in the end it’s not your own. It may have come from me, and been loved by me, but it does not belong to me. And when I think about it deeply (as I am doing now while I write this), it makes me realize how beautiful and brave families and farmers are. Putting all their dreams into something outside them without a guarantee it will work. But when you give it all you got, grant grace along the way, and trust the detours and delays, chances are the farmer and the family will succeed.

Happy Spring planting! May this springtime energy grant new life and new creations in all our little worlds.