A Weekly Update from Wayward Haven Farm
Notes from the Haven is a journal of what’s been happening around the farm and the work we’re doing to practice living well. As always, we welcome your comments, questions, or suggestions. You can find previous updates here, and you can follow the weekly reflections on living well over at From the Hermit’s Porch.
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This week’s Porch post: The Age of Identity; the Loss of Depth
Walking the farm at dusk, I felt the old reflex rise — the tug of “am I enough?” — and watched it pass like weather. Turning back to the world in front of me, the field widened. Presence returned. This is the practice: noticing the collapse, widening the field, returning again and again. If this resonates, there are paths here at the Haven that invite you deeper into this work.
Around the Farm This Week
Rain arrived this morning — more than expected, and more than we strictly needed — but welcome all the same. The forecast called for a tenth to a quarter inch; instead, thunderstorms rolled through and dropped several inches in a matter of hours. Some low-lying areas in the state are dealing with flooding, and the garden is a muddy mess as I write this. Still, the plants will drink deeply. After weeks of heat, the soil needed a long exhale. So far, it’s been a mild June as far as weather is concerned.
Ripe tomatoes made their appearance this week. There’s nothing quite like that first sun-warmed, outdoor-grown tomato of the season — the flavor is its own kind of arrival. We’re looking forward to the canned goods that will follow: salsa, sauces, juice, and more. Fresh red and green tomatoes will be available here at the farm for our Early Summer Gathering.
Jo has already canned a few pints of early salsa using our homegrown tomatoes, jalapeños, and onions. You can check out the What We’re Growing and Crafting page for more of what’s on offer this weekend.
The potato plants are blooming, and the corn has started putting on its first ears. For the potatoes, blooming means baby potatoes — perfect for soups or for cooking with green beans, onion, and maybe a little bacon. These small seasonal markers are part of the quiet joy of June: the way the garden shifts from promise to presence.
As we approach Juneteenth and America’s 250th, we’re mindful of the freedom we have and of the hard-won rights that many still seem to have to fight for. It’s a moment to remember that freedom is not a static achievement but a practice — something tended, protected, and renewed across generations.
Seasonal Note: Summer Solstice
June 21 is summer solstice — the longest day of the year, the high point of light before the slow turning back toward darkness. Here at the Haven, we try to mark these thresholds not with ceremony for ceremony’s sake, but with simple practices that help us stay attuned to the season we’re actually living in.
Here’s a practical solstice practice you can try, whether you’re here on the farm or at home:
A Solstice Pause
- Step outside sometime between sunrise and sunset. No need for a special moment — just a real one.
- Notice the light. Where it falls. How it moves. What it reveals. The evening shadows start getting a little longer now.
- Name one thing that has grown in your life since winter. Something small counts. Something quiet counts even more.
- Name one thing you’re ready to release as the year begins its slow turn. You don’t have to fix it. Just acknowledge it.
- Take one slow breath — in through the nose, out through the mouth. Let the breath mark the threshold.
This is the heart of solstice practice: an orientation for living well in the season. A way of saying, “I’m here. I’m paying attention. I’m part of this turning world.”