The two photos below show unlabeled and labeled ariel photos of the Ceremonial Grounds! The photos will enlarge when you click on them for a better view. The view shows about a 4 acre space and the field used to be a hayfield that suffered from years of compaction and previous to that years of fruit farming, it was a field that was all peaches at one point, approximately 15-20 years ago. When we arrived it was all forest entangled with vines and prickly shrubs that one could not walk through. The vines were entrapping and damaging the trees. The field was poor soil and the hay produced poor in quality. Over a period of about 5-6 years it has transformed, step by step to the Ceremonial Grounds that you see below.
In the photos you see the various Bateys, Gardens and Conucos. The Ceremonial Grounds produce all kinds of fruits and vegetables and flowers for our sustenance. The long raspberry patch produces many raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, and also pollen for the near by Bees who live in the fruit orchard. We have found that the peaches here flourish. The Bees pollenate the fruit trees allowing a greater fruit harvest, and simultaneously produce wax and honey. We have apples, pears, peaches, cherries, walnuts, plums. The gardens also produce an array of medicinal herbs that we also use for spiritual baths and for the purification lodge. The purification lodge itself and fire pit (which together looks like a key) are surrounded by a circular garden of medicinal herbs, many of which are native to this area.
The Conucos are Taino style mounds of soil for planting crops. We tend to plant the squash plants in them. Right next to them is a fenced in garden that this year have produced many potatoes. We apply the practices of crop diversity and crop rotation to eliminate the need for applying chemical pesticides. The diversity of crops attracts beneficial insects and ensures that even if the insects eat one species, many more are available.
The Moon Batey or Moon Circle has a large Circular Garden around the actual Circle and Circular Pathway, and supports a wide diversity of flowers and herbs, as well as many flowering shrubs, including an array of butterfly bushes which attract the butterflies. Many birds find places to make their nests in the Moon Garden. The Moon Batey is surrounded by many trees, including flowering cherries, ginko, birch, magnolia, flowering pear. We have planted many trees which are slowly bringing diversity and shade to the Ceremonial Grounds. We released the vine-entrapped trees from the vines and this allowed them to undergo a strong growth over the last 5 years.
This has been a constantly shifting and changing process. And the Story of this process is vital to remember. We recall how the first thing we did in this "field" was put the horses enclosed in a one strand electric fence in the center. Their manure was the first fertility this field had seen in years. The area where they gathered to eat their hay and leave their manure became the center Garden, which began as a corn garden and transformed over the years many times in terms of design, to the form it is in now.
The central batey started as a roughly outlined circle with some River Stones. It was then filled in and then three gardens developed on its circumference, and finally last year trees planted all around it. The locust trees that have been planted directly in the garden beds help to "fix" nitrogen in the soil, increasing soil fertility. We have continued to use the animal manures and leaves to increase soil fertility.
The space where the purification Lodge is now, has gone through many changes. It began as a spiral garden planted with corn, then became a series of concentric circles planted with quinoa and amaranth (the amaranth self seeded and is still in that space today, coming back each year), finally it became the space for the Purification Lodge which had previously been higher on the hill where some herb beds now are.
The Moon Batey also began as a rough outline with River Stones. We then brought our work horse with his plow in to plow up the soil for the moon garden that surrounds the batey. As the years went by the Moon Batey took shape and now is a sanctuary for many birds and insects. In the forest to the left is the Women's Batey which cannot be seen because of the leaves on the trees. Further up from the Central Batey is the Bohio and two more Bateys in the Forest.
Down by where the Tobacco and Sage Garden now is there used to be a house many years ago. It was one of the homes of the African Nazarite Community. There is nothing left of the house, other than the stones that the neighbor took many years ago (before we arrived) to put on their home. That is another story.
Up in the top right corner are some of the animal fields and if you look closely in the nearest field, top right corner you can see the white alpaca and the dark brown llama hanging out.
This Ceremonial Grounds began taking shape at the same time as Anani was conceived and she has carried an active role in this whole manifestation. The Ceremony prior to her birth took place right within these Ceremonial Grounds, near by where the purification lodge used to be, and close to where her chickens now live. She has been hands on in all the gardens from time she was an infant who would always want to be right in the middle of the action. The only tradition and culture that she knows is this, which is a Living Spiritual Entity inside of her. She knows all about the various plants, what can be eaten, what can't. It is her "classroom" and it is her "library", her science "lab" and her gymnasium!
No comments:
Post a Comment