Our Weekend at Three Graces Farm

We spent the weekend at Three Graces Farm in Sonoma County, in the middle of wine country, although the farm is most definitely not a vineyard. Why were we there? To spend time with Indigo and Elena, Roger's daughters (and incredibly lucky me, my step-daughters). I highly recommend checking out their website because these three women (the kids and a friend) are doing the serious work of starting a farm from scratch.
I mean scratch: an outdoor kitchen; no electricity; no potable water (a well that can be used for dishes, watering the garden, etc); a newly drilled well, but not yet pumping; no internet.

It was absolutely grand being there. We slept in a yurt that had a view of the starry sky. We used the composting toilet and the shower that drained into a gray water system. It was primitive and futuristic at the same time. Now that's a trick of our era, isn't it?
Indigo had friends visiting from the city who had come to build her an outhouse. They spent much of Saturday in that endeavor, and as the sun was going down it was loaded onto the old pickup truck and hauled almost to its destination. Some more digging of the hole was in order before it could be planted.
Elena showed us around the farm and introduced us to the pigs and goats. They have plans for raising heritage pigs and for producing dairy products from the goats' milk. They have an already-productive garden and space to grow a ton more. I should have photographed the huge pile of kale I cut for Saturday night's feast, but instead I've got a pic of the puffball that Roger found on the way to the creek Sunday morning. This puffball was featured in our breakfast feast a short while later.
Three Graces Farm is extremely hard, endless work. But you can't imagine what it's like to eat a gourmet Indian meal that has been cooked in this beautiful outdoor kitchen. Or to sit with young people who understand what they are doing and why.

Mostly Roger and I don't have much hope for the future, but when we spend time like this with young people who have this profound and deep understanding of the earth, we actually begin to feel a small hope stirring.