Humming Grass Homestead

07/29/2022

05/19/2022

So excited and proud to have completed my Permaculture Certification through the Permaculture Women's Guild. If you are new to permaculture, or if you just want to check it out, link to the project below. This has been an exciting, challenging and fulfilling journey for me and I am forever grateful to have gone through this process. If you want to learn more about Permaculture, check out the permaculture women's website for more info. or feel free to message us here at Humming Grass. We always love to chat about earth care, people care, and future care. https://www.permaculturewomen.com/anndeutermann/ 💕🌎🌻🌞

04/20/2022

It’s that time of year…knotweed season! This invasive plant, now here in New Jersey is delicious! We harvested from a nearby park and tried it a few different ways: pickled, stir-fried and as a straw! Do you harvest knotweed? If so, what do you do with it?

01/09/2022

Elderberry magic! ✨ We froze our elderberry harvest this summer and just the other day Ann defrosted them and made a spicy infused honey-syrup. Added to a spruce tea this creates a powerful and delicious medicinal tonic for the cold months when our bodies are lacking in certain nutrients. These gifts from nature are now part of our seasonal remedies for mental and physical well being! 🙏🏻🌎💚

01/02/2022

Planted our Hazelnut shrubs from Plant Path Nursery today! Just look at the root system on that beauty! 💚 Putting plants in the ground was a wonderful way to start the year, and is one way to exercise reciprocity with the land we inhabit.

12/06/2021

We have been gathering our neighbors leaves from their huge pile and bringing them over to finish designing the garden beds in our front yard. This will be the first layer of a sheet mulch.
I have been talking with Aven about the seasons, why the trees drop their leaves and how they will help many creatures overwinter. I constantly remind him that everything is connected and that we are a part of these connections. He asked me today why people are blowing all of the leaves away and then he told me that he wants to put them back so that the bugs all have their blankets for the winter. 😍 When I said that allot of people just don’t understand the purpose of the fallen leaves he asked why… such a simple yet challenging question. He decided that we should tell people about the leaves and the bugs and then people would stop blowing them away. Such an obvious solution! If we just embrace the innocence and child-like wonder that our kids emulate perhaps we could solve many of the world’s problems. 😌🍂💫🐛🐞🐝🐜🦗🦋
What do you do with the leaves when they fall? Have you had this conversation with people? Do you live in a community where it is required to rake/blow them out of your yard? Do you despise leaf blowers like me? 😂

11/05/2021

First frost… ❄️

10/31/2021

Hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum repandum) on pizza! These mushrooms have a lovely sweet and earthy flavor. 😋 Gratitude to the forests for so much abundance! 🙏🏻🍂🍄

10/27/2021

Grew some oysters on straw recently!

10/14/2021

Sleepy bees… with stomachs full of nectar!

10/05/2021

We have been so grateful to forage and find all of the beautiful mushrooms this fall season…particularly the favorite has been chicken of the woods. Such an amazing mushroom and so delicious. Thankful for this amazing food source. For dinner tonight…burritos!!

10/03/2021

Found my first Hen of the Woods today!! 🍄💚

10/01/2021

Went to gather some beech firewood that was aging in the woods and discovered that it now hosts an abundance of turkey tail mushrooms! So I brought some of the logs back to the homestead for future harvest and I noticed that our innoculated shiitake logs have started fruiting as well! I didn’t expect these to produce mushrooms untill next spring… 🍄🍂🙏🏻

09/08/2021

So we have a pear tree… yay! Buuuut not the best shaped tree for harvesting as it grew long and thin in deep shade. Any guesses how Aven and I got these ones down?

08/26/2021

Aven and I harvested some turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) mushrooms from various logs on our homestead today. Also found a brave shiitake growing on one of our inoculated logs!

08/25/2021

This volunteer came out of a trash can that we were tossing pulled up plants into! There are actually two plants growing out of it, a globe squash is hanging out over the other side!

08/20/2021

Successful mushroom foraging adventure yesterday! Thanks Jullian Alvarez for coming along and guiding us with your expertise! We went in hoping to find Chicken of the Woods, and within 15 minutes of walking in I spotted this glorious shroom a couple hundred feet off the trail! Thank you Mother Nature for your gift, we accept with gratitude and reciprocity!

08/18/2021

Homemade sourdough with grains from River Valley Community Grains, tomato and sweet potato greens from our gardens, pink oyster mushrooms grown by Jullian Alvarez, egg and red onion from our local csa. Can’t get a more nutrient dense and local breakfast than this! Very grateful to have access to these excellent food sources! 🙏🏻 You may be able to find similar local sources of foods in your area, take some time to find them- it is a critical investment in your well being!

08/05/2021

Spotting some fat monarch caterpillars in our raingardens!

07/23/2021

Low hanging fruit! Prunus serotina, Rum cherry or Black cherry. I pulled up to a trailhead for what was supposed to be an Aven and me hike through the woods and… he’s asleep. A branch full of ripe cherries literally poked in through the car window as I pulled into the only shady spot here. Whats cool is covering the branches are some soon to be ripe wild grapes, all within reach! Right accross the road I found blackberries too!

06/17/2021

Prickly Pear blooms! Such a gorgeous flower!

06/09/2021

After seeing Robyn Mello’s little girl Zia chowing Currants, Aven has picked our bushes clean!

05/25/2021

Goodnight! 🐝🙏🏻

05/22/2021

Made a comfrey poultice today for me and my Mom. Mom has arthritis and I have a strained muscle on the top of my foot. Comfrey can be used to heal bruises, sprains, fractures etc. First I ground up the leaves in the immersion blender with a little water and psyllium husks. Then added it to the gauze pads and freezing until ready to use. So grateful to have this growing in our backyard!

05/19/2021

Harvesting okra seeds out of saved pods from last year’s harvest. Soaking them for 8-12 hours before sowing in the garden along with eggplant, sweet potato and peppers!

05/14/2021

Overwintered cover crops all chopped and dropped into our annual beds. We are leaving a bunch of vetch, rye, peas and clover in some new huglekulture berms and perennial beds. These we will save seed from for the next round. Also pictured here is some buckwheat coming up for a round of spring cover.

05/07/2021

I know we keep posting about these wine cap mushrooms but... HERES SOME MORE!! 🤪🍄 This one bed keeps producing these monsters! Now I know why one of the common names for Stropharia rugosoannulata is garden giant!

05/05/2021

A new inhabitant on our homestead! 🙏🏻💚🐢

05/04/2021

Converting ergosterol into vitamin D2 🌞🍄🙌🏻

05/03/2021

We planted some cover crops this past fall and recently these spectacular red blooms have come up. We quickly realized it’s the clover! So excited to be able to enjoy these beautiful flowers!