Real Life Garden Parties are Growing
Just like Mother Hulda's Garden! It's Real Life - live on scene!
“Grow together, eat together, thrive together” - Sophia Jackson
Our first hedge school adventure to the Heimveg property was back in June of this spring. Hedge Schooling is a concept we discovered from our friend Sophia of Mother Hulda’s Garden. Hedge Schools were a historical take on “outdoor education” in Ireland - where people restored education from State Sanctioned curricula and took it back into the possession of the community.
We have learned that Heimveg roughly translated means “the way home” and we engaged intimately with concepts and processesat Mother Hulda’s Garden a 3 acre garden plot within the Heimveg.
The children who attended the impromptu hedge school (ages 3 & 4) on the first trip were put in charge of helping re-plant the carrot seeds after the first round of seeded carrots did not yield on the first round. (YES 3 & 4 year olds can responsibly plant carrots with proper guidance).
A grown-up created a trench to the correct depth for seeding ; and the children helped place the seeds and covered them. The final touch was to sing “ommm” to every seed; something seen in the childrens movie Abominable where a Yeti can make plants grown when he hums. This theory that singing to plants is of course a well known wives tale that is also now backed by the studies of Dr. Masaru Emoto.
A month later on our trip back to Mother Hulda’s Garden, we were busy harvesting peas, squash and potatoes - the carrots were also coming along well! The children spent some time thinning the carrots so that they can grow “bigger and bigger!”
Mother Hulda herself is a character of folklore. In German she’s called Frau Holle, and Mother Hulda is of course the Anglicized version of her name.
Mother Hulda is a winter character known for shaking her feather blanket at the time of year in which we see the snow start to fall. Yet it begged the question, what would such a wise, beautiful crone do in the summer? She would garden, of course! And that is what is happening at Mother Hulda’s Garden.
Check out our friend’s substack to glean more wisdom about all things homesteading, from Germanic traditions and European folklore to the harsh realities of small scale food production. We have already learned so much from Heimveg and the food, work and writings coming from Mother Hulda’s Garden.
We hope you feel inspired by our Garden Party adventures at Heimveg and live locally join us in our signal chat!
If you live in the South Cariboo get in touch we hope you will visit one of our many amazing local farms.
If you live really anywhere else, all you need to start a Garden Party movement of your own is :
1. Grab a friend!
2. Call one of your local small scale farms and find out how you can help!
We are so greatful for our friends and farms!