Sabbath for the Cusp of Spring

Today is the start of my sabbath - for a couple of days at the end of my week I step out of the fray, and regroup. We are on the cusp of spring, and I want to take time to prepare myself - body, mind, and spirit.

My perfect sabbath is a celebration, a holiday. I keep it holy with my attitude: I don't rush, complain, or worry. Everything I do has a flavor of peace. I schedule some work, but it's work I find fulfilling, or uplifting. Simple is a great word to describe my ideal activities for the sabbath: Simple tasks, simple foods, and an undemanding schedule.

1. Brainstorm for Spring

2. Practice a Reverent Way of Being

3. Make bread

4. Plant greens and milkweed

1.  Brainstorm for Spring:

The Spring Equinox is coming in a couple days and I have a few practical and contemplative preparations to make: I want to prepare projects to share with my grandson, plan my next gardening projects, and set some intentions for this new phase of the year.

Today I will take a moment to write down some wild and fun projects, goals, and themes for the next season of my life.

2. Practice a Reverent Way of Being:

My practice is to adopt a Reverent Way of Being for the days before each turning point of the year, which is to say I will be respectful and humble, and use a discipline of speech and thought that I find difficult to maintain for long periods of time.

Specifically, I will be impeccably honest, and tell no little fibs. Also, I won't gossip or say (or even think) anything negative about anyone. I will keep my temper and exhibit a calm presence. I find it useful to practice being virtuous for a couple days at regular intervals throughout the year!

4. Make bread: 

My heritage is Anglo-Saxon, and my ancestors grew oats and rye, and wheat for bread. (The bread grains of the masses were oats and rye; wheat was harder to grow, and therefore only available to the rich). 

For my ancestors, bread was a symbol of wealth, hunger, war and peace. ("If they don’t have bread, let them eat cake..."). Even though bread is still a staple food, it is so easy to buy a loaf (in a plastic bag) that its value is taken for granted.

Today I'm going to re-start my old habit of baking loaves of multi-grain bread at least once a month on the sabbath. I use my kitchen aid mixer to save my shoulders, and a 7-grain cereal.

I think I'm also going to plant some oats or maybe rye this summer, and harvest a little bit of the grain, and use some home-grown straw to make my harvest doll. The ceremony of growing, harvesting, and eating the grain will help me reconnect to my roots, and to the land.

5. Plant greens:

It's about 6 weeks before our last spring frost, so this is when to start a bunch of hardy greens indoors. These three are all from the Brassicaceae (mustard) family along with cabbage and broccoli, and they are all vulnerable to the same pests: aphids, cabbage worms and root maggots, flea beetles, slugs and whiteflies; I need to remember to spread them out around the garden when I plant them, to prevent the pests from having such an easy time jumping from one plant to another. 

Planting near onions can help deter cabbage maggots, and rosemary, sage, thyme, coriander or nasturtiums will help keep flea beetles and aphids away. Brassicaceaes also grow well with beets, bush beans, chamomile, cucumber, dill, garlic, marigolds, mint, nasturtium, and potatoes. Avoid grapes, pole beans, tomato, strawberry, and calendulas.

Kale (Brassica oleracea) is a cool-season leafy vegetable (really just a cabbage that doesn't make a head), native to Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean, and the Greeks were growing several varieties by the 4th century BCE. It's best to plant kale in either early spring or late summer, however, late summer plantings produce higher quality, because kale is enhanced with a light frost and can continue to grow even after a light freeze.

Bok choy (Brassica rapa), is also a member of the mustard family, and is native to China, specifically the Yangtze River Delta area, where it was likely bred from native wild brassica species growing in the area around 3,500 years ago. It's a cool-weather crop that you can plant in the early spring and again in the fall.

Collards (Brassica oleracea) are one of the most cold tolerant plants of all, and are better planted in the fall. In the spring, you can set out plants 3 to 4 weeks before the last frost; in late summer, plant 6 to 8 weeks before the first frost for fall and winter harvests.

Milkweed: It's also time to plant the milkweed seeds that have been in the refrigerator since mid-February. I'm going to plant two 6-packs, and give away any extras I get. Note: Milkweed needs light to germinate, so surface sow them! Milkweed can be planted outdoors after the danger of frost has passed and the seedlings have grown around 1-5 inches high.​