Oak Hill Farm

06/06/2023

Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) is seeking applicants for a position at its Heritage Farm headquarters in Decorah, Iowa, offered through the Iowa COVID-19 Recovery AmeriCorps program. This IEDA AmeriCorps position will help maintain SSE’s display gardens, hiking trails, and historic orchards; engage visitors in SSE’s nonprofit mission to save and share open-pollinated seeds; and work to enhance self-guided tours, staff-led educational tours, and overall educational programming. Must start by June 19, averaging 30 hours/week for a total of 300 hours. For more information, visit https://www.seedsavers.org/jobs.

05/29/2023

Maybe next week 😌

05/29/2023

05/29/2023

People are becoming more interested in locally grown food and are making an effort to create that connection. :)

05/27/2023

You guys!! We have bees!! Our first hive is adjusting to their new surroundings well. Tomorrow, we'll put their frames into the new super and we'll be on our way. If we get lucky, we'll have two hives by fall. Next year, we'll be able to use, and maybe sell, our own honey and beeswax!

05/20/2023

Vandana Shiva of Delhi, India, is a world-renowned environmental thinker, activist, feminist, science philosopher, and writer. And Seed Savers Exchange is pleased to announce that this summer, she will also be one of the keynote speakers at our 2023 Virtual Conference, “Seed the Future: Grow Something Good,” July 21-22. In 1982, Shiva founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology, an independent research institute that addresses the most significant problems of ecology of our times, and two years later, Navdanya (“nine seeds”), the movement in defense of biodiversity and the contributions made to the climate, environment, and society by small farmers. "Whatever happens to seeds affects the web of life,” she says. Register today at https://registration.socio.events/e/2023sseconference!

05/07/2023

Keep paying it forward, whenever and however you can.

This wild Kingfisher's grandparent, I found in the garden, nearly dead, some years ago. Nursed him back to health, and set him free. The next morning, the family swooped down, past me, in gratitude.
A couple of years later, I awoke to find the next generation, a parent of this bird, waiting for me on the terrace, his wing seemed broken. I picked him up and examined him. He never flinched, and stared deeply into my eyes. A thorn had locked his wing from operating. I pulled it out, and set him free. Without fail, he passes my window every day at the same time, crying out to me.
This baby, sat in the tree, eye to eye with me, then flew directly to my hand, and sat there for several minutes, before flying away.
Intuition, compassion, good intent, those essences of love, was all we had. Pure, unspoken.
An energy that has no end, and passes silently onward, much further than we can imagine.

05/06/2023

Tipton County Master Gardeners Lawn and Garden Expo

04/27/2023

Great suggestions!

Perennial veggies grow back by themselves year after year… They’re more nutritious too because you don’t need to disturb the soil to replant! Somewhere along our human evolution we decided to make growing food more difficult than it needed to be, choosing and breeding varieties of vegetables a...