This Week On The Covenstead: Planting More Giving With Your Help

13 bunches of 13-stems of Chard readied to be donated.

Harvest, eat, harvest, preserve, harvest, donate, harvest, plant, go, go go!!!

That’s how it feels today and I have a dentist appointment on top of all of that. And writing needs to be done, and there’s some plants that need moving, and my knee is acting up. But I wouldn’t change this Land partnership for anything! Especially because it felt really good to drop off another huge box of a Witch’s dozen bundles (13 bunches of 13 stalks 🧙) of Swiss chard to our local community food bank. 

My point of contact there said the chard goes super fast, and is well loved. I was bummed we couldn’t bring more eggs this week because there was drama in the barnyard, but things seem to have settled down (I swear the chicken and ducks were affected by this partial lunar eclipse last Thursday!), so hopefully we’ll have eggs to donate next time.

The food bank we primarily* bring our harvests to deals with a population of people who live in a food desert, meaning this community has limited access to affordable, nutritious food, especially fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy options (although the term food access inequity is more accurate). There’s a 7-11 that is the closest thing to a market there and not much else. Additionally, many of these residents and are food insecure, meaning on top of having little access to even a small bodega-type market, let alone a grocery store, they do not have consistent, reliable access to enough meals. I know and love this neighborhood well, too. It’s inclusive and full of hard-working families. 

It’s not lost on us that we donated this harvest in a recycled box to a commercial farm plagued by food-borne illness problems.

There’s a good chance we’ll be donating green beans and squash in the coming month as well (see attached photos). So, thank you, you help make the world a better place by supporting my work here. 

This year’s pumpkin patch. There are some giant carvers in there.

We have a couple of different squash patches this year. One is strictly for carving/seed pumpkins. They are huge — like the size of Yoga balls. Supporters in the In The Witch’s Garden and above will likely get seeds for your own gardens next year. Here’s hoping the critters and weathers let that happen. Additionally we have a patch of butternut, pie pumpkin, delicata, and acorn squash. Our hope is these winter squashes will be shared as well as feeding the Witch and her kin.

So many squashes coming up!

Early morning operations briefing with the flock over coffee & scratch. Their job is to ‘weed’ & ‘amend’ the soil in the raspberry patch.

All of August I was posting everything publicly (if after patron-early access); For September, we’ll be returning to paid tier content schedule. But if you’re only a follower and don’t want to miss out, don’t worry, there will be fun stuff for you, too. Thanks for being here, and we’d love to have you join us #OnTheCovenstead – it’s a witchcraft learning community, but also one that aims to give back.

In the next month for the tiers coming up, here’s some short vignettes regarding what I’m working on for y’all:

At The Garden Gate: Come Chat In The Discord & Bee Kind Shenanigans

Front-Porch Sitting: A Vinegar Problem & Why It’s Good; The Rebirth of the Witch Activist

Under The Willow: Formatting New Rune class; Moon-day Readings

In The Witch’s Garden: Diversity in practice & Wild Covenant

At The Witch’s Table: Preparing for the Equinox & Intuition-Magic Axis (new pathway class) 

Dream Circle: Overcoming Excuses in Dream Recording

Studio Squad: Prompting Creativity & Planning Imagination Dates

A big basket of freshly harvested tomatillos and squash blossoms

Harvest creations this week look a lot like just feeding the covenstead. We harvested our first table grapes harvest on Sunday, and I got some more this morning, which we’ll eat likely tomorrow. I also harvested tomatillos and squash blossoms, for which will be lunch in the form of quesadillas. New recipe, so I’ll likely share how it goes with y’all. And the golden raspberries and strawberries gave us our elevensies snack! As our covenstead’s landscape matures, these harvests will grow and be shared freely as well.

These seedless beauties are so yummy. The leaves will be used in pickling.

A modest if not delicious berry harvest.

As a reminder, my books are open for dream interpretations & Rune castings. There’s always a discount for paid tier patreon members, so if you need that code again, let me know. In the meantime, this lovely Under The Willow resident, says hello.

Hang on little spider guy.

A spider on a volunteer daisy which lives under the willow.

*We also donate regularly to one food bank that helps more rural families, as well as another that’s main clientele are houseless (our donations here tend to be more monetary).