PlayThink Movement and Flow Arts Festival, Berea, Kentucky

My kids just made me aware of this festival at Homegrown HideAways in Berea.
It is about movement, flow, healing, and is family friendly.
Think you might be interested in learning more?  Check out their website at playthinkfest.com.

If you know of any festivals or events that might be right along the lines of what the folks of the Garden may enjoy or learn from, please share those with us.

Merry Ostara!

At 6:45 PM today (Eastern time) we will be at the Vernal Equinox, thus beginning Spring!  Tomorrow is the first full day of Spring and we are expecting some beautiful weather to bring it in right.  Pagans in the Northern Hemisphere will be celebrating Ostara this weekend... And what an incredible start -- the Solar Eclipse this morning with the "supermoon"!

Much to my surprise when wandering across the web and needing to search for something, discovered a link to

It's International Day of Happiness. Join the party for a happy planet.

I found that very amusing.  

I was also recently introduced to the concept of keeping a gratitude journal.  The idea is to write down 5 different things each day for thirty days that you are grateful for.  Nothing can be repeated.  So, you end up with 150 items of gratefulness.  That is a challenge.  To pare it down, how about this:  Can you list 5 things you are grateful for today at the beginning of Spring?  If you reply in the comments, make sure that you do not repeat what someone else is thankful for...  

Start now!  :-)

Bright Blessings, my friends.

Vincit qui patitur.

Making Jelly from Fruit Juice

This past Monday, New Moon Circle, a group within the Garden, had a social time with jelly making. Seems we always end up with an abundance of fruit juice from commodities and other sources and needed to find a way to use it up so that no food goes to waste.

We used the half-recipe so as to make all our other ingredients stretch further.

Here are the measurements for the half recipe:

4 cups fruit juice
3 c. sugar
1/4 c. lemon juice
1pkg. powdered pectin

For a full recipe, use these measurements:

1 jar fruit juice (1/2 gal.)
6 c. sugar
1/2 c. lemon juice
2 pkg. powdered pectin

We made several flavors, but note that we did not use the lemon juice in the orange juice jelly.

1. Combine fruit juice, lemon juice and pectin in a large sauce pot. Stir over medium-­high heat
until pectin dissolves (about 20 minutes).

2. Mixture will come to a rolling boil. Stir in sugar and return to rolling boil (about 5 minutes).

3. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. (We discovered that some flavors needed to boil longer to start setting up a jell.)

4. Pour hot liquid into sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust caps. Turn upside-down while cooling 5 - 10 minutes.

5. Turn right-side-up to finish cooling and create vacuum in jar.

Full recipe yields about 10 half pints.


More information and inspiration can be found here:
 http://www.pickyourown.org/makejellyfromjuice.htm
and also here:
https://youtu.be/F88Pjnclos4


We have grape, cranberry, apple-cherry, apple-raspberry, orange, and apple-cranberry to sample and I think all of us are excited to try this again very soon!  Steph took some pics while we were stirring, so you may see our jelly making mugs on the intrawebs in the near future. :-)

Much love and hugs to you all. Mahalo!

Many Apologies

I am not sure how it happened, but our shortcut post email ended up out in the world and it got spammed... this in turn caused the nice folks who subscribe to our blog to get spammed.  And that is one thing we do not do, nor do we condone our readers getting junk mail.

So, please, forgive us.

Let me clear up the dust and I will happily share a jelly recipe with you!

Thank you for your patience and love.

Namaste.

Last Minute Reminder

Council meeting tomorrow 3 PM

Fellowship & potluck 5 PM

Everything happening at the Plantory.

Fellowship will be an activity -- Love and family will be teaching us how to make origami seed pots!

And we will also have a seed exchange.

As always, bring coupons to share, yarn/fleece/completed projects to donate, and dish/beverage for potluck.  :-)

Did I forget anything?

Any questions, please let me know.

Love and hugs to you all!

Vincit qui patitur.

Did you "Spring Forward"?

My goodness!  I can't believe it has almost been a month since my last blog post.  The weather and being trapped inside without transportation has taken its toll in many ways.  We are glad to announce that my car is fixed and most of the snow has dissipated.  Still feeling some of the winter blues, but fighting the good fight.

Hope you all properly sprang forward one hour on your non-automated clocks and did not miss any important appointments. If you are still feeling snowbound and cabin fever, you are in luck!  This coming Sunday, March 15, we will be having fellowship at the Plantory on 6th Street at 5 PM; potluck as usual.  Love and family will be sharing with us how to make origami seed pots to start our plantings and we will be exchanging seeds if you have any to share or need some.

As always, bring out any coupons you may have for exchange; and we are still taking donations of yarn, fleece, or handcrafted hats, scarves, and mittens for our homeless project.

Many of you may have received an invite in your email for our upcoming Beltaine celebration... if you feel your invite may have gotten lost along the way, please send a note to us with the subject line "Beltaine".

Spring is fast approaching, be sure to take a few moments to witness the miracle all around us. Namaste.

Vincit qui patitur.