Hello Dear Readers,

A little news from the hearth of Tree Elbow where this morning we ate the last apple from the garden and cooked up the last of our tomatoes.

This week Meg recorded Patrick in the produce garden speaking about the valuable materials we gather at this time of year to tend the wintering soils.

Woody has started his own YouTube channel where he shows, teaches and inspires. He is currently editing a how-to video on converting medlars into fruit leather. This one on restoring an axe he found at the tip is one of our favourites so far:

Recently, we hosted a visit from Faith Mutheu who lives and works at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Faith is director of the Upendo Children’s Home, has recently studied permaculture and is looking to establish food gardens and humanure compost systems at the orphanage. Over tea we talked about humanure, grey-water systems, rocket stoves, chickens, bees and rites of passage.

We have been teaching on a number of online and in-person courses, and this weekend we are hosting our final house and garden tour until the springtime. What a beautiful and bountiful season! Prepping winter beds, saving seeds, filling our wood stores and the cellar so we can move a little slower over the colder months when the garden goes quiet, taking a break, like the cormorants on our local lake.