News from Reevis Mountain School

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News from Reevis Mountain School

December 2010
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A Division of the PAAK Foundation, an Arizona 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Peter Bigfoot, Founder and Director / Patricia Busnack, Office Manager and Editor

In this issue

Coming Events

Winter Count Primitive Living Skills Rendezvous

Oriental Acupressure Class

Useful Plants Class

Wilderness Survival Class

Nature Retreat at RMS

Off-Grid Living Class

Stone Masonry Class

What We're Growing, Harvesting, and Eating

It's snowing - half an inch on the ground so far, and it looks like it could keep on all day. There's a stiff cold wind and Reavis Mountain is lost in the gray. Last night it stormed - heavy rain, lightning, and wind - but the yurpees feel surprisingly safe; they seem to do a jujutsu with the wind, bending it around them instead of putting up resistance. Still, none of us slept much, with all the racket, and wondering how the ducks, turkeys, and cats were weathering the storm.

Emerging in the morning, we found it snowing little white mothballs, of what felt like styrofoam. It bounced softly on the ground, squeaked under our shoes, and would press together a little like clay. We said, is this what we've done to our environment, that now it snows styrofoam?

First thing we did in the morning was gather pecans. A lot had been knocked to the ground during the night, and with a dusting of snow it was easy to find them. We gathered about twenty gallons before breakfast. Now we are settling in to a snowbound day - Peter and Patricia working on one of Peter's books (more about that below), Jonathan and Nicole cracking pecans.

Nicole is visiting for a couple of weeks - she was here about two years ago, for six months, and it's wonderful to have her back. (Nicole took this picture of the bobcat, right outside the kitchen door! It's been seen several times in the past weeks, including twice with a hen in its mouth!) We are also very happy to have Jonathan still with us, and we appreciate enormously his good company and assistance.

With Nicole and Jonathan's help, Peter and Patricia have had time this month to work on the Book of Ancient Natural Remedies. Peter is doing another round of additions and revisions, and Patricia is copy editing and indexing the book. We are aiming to have copies printed in time for the Oriental Acupressure class in early March. The book is the text for the class.

We've also started producing two new tinctures. Gringo's Revenge is a parasite remedy containing holocantha (Crucifixion Thorn) and algerita root. Brown Recluse Remedy contains chaparral and black walnut. This is the same formulation as our Restricted Respiration Remedy, and we've found it works very well for both purposes.

After a long search for a source of affordable organic feed, we are very excited and relieved that our local feed store is now carrying an organic line. We are still mixing our own scratch from whatever organic grains we can find at a good price, and we're also now purchasing layer crumbles and turkey grower.

Peter made several manure runs this month, to lay in sufficient fertilizer for the spring, in case we get heavy rains and can't get the dump truck out for a while. We have been getting manure from a dairy in Gilbert for over twenty years. We need about four loads each year - eight tons! Manure runs are sometimes an adventure, though, in our 1972 International Loadster. Last week, it took Peter twelve hours to get to Gilbert and back, as he had to stop four times to make repairs on the truck.

This year's excellent persimmon harvest is over, which brings us to the quietest part of the year in the garden and orchard. For the next two months, we will be enjoying and marketing winter squash, steaming greens, root vegetables, and lettuces from the greenhouse. We also have loads of pecans from a bountiful fall harvest. Plenty to eat and some to sell, and the pecans are the best quality we've had in twelve years!

Lately, we've been delighting in something of a new discovery. For years we've had a tree in the orchard that produces what we've been calling persimmon berries. They are a purple fruit about an inch long, with a tiny calyx just like a Fuyu persimmon. They readily dry on the tree into what looks like a large raisin. We call them persimmon berries because the tree was supposed to have been a persimmon, but it makes these tiny fruit instead.

In the past, we've just enjoyed these fruit as an occasional snack, but given that they come at the same time as the persimmons, they've generally been neglected in favor of our favorite fall fruit. However, we've finally noticed that these persimmon berries are really delicious - especially cooked, in stews, biryanis, or baked goods. Their flavor is subtle and complex, savory-sweet, perhaps a combination of plum and grape, but earthier. With a little research we learned that they are actually Chinese date plums, Diospyros lotus. This tree is often used as a rootstock for Hachiya persimmons. The past month, we've been harvesting lots of them and eating them out of hand or adding them to grains, dutch ovens, and soups - delightful!

With astonishment we stand toe to toe with the new year. The past 12 months brought gifts of generous harvests, wonderful interns, and much good work accomplished ... and we are excitedly anticipating the arrival of a new crew of interns in January, and then a busy spring schedule of classes and events. As always, we wish you joy, peace, and love.

For more information (and pictures!) about the farm, Peter Bigfoot's herbal remedies, and classes and events, please visit www.reevismountain.org.

Coming Events

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