seiko-udoku

[seiko-udoku]

Yellowstone & Grand Tetons! 覚えている一週間でした！

[seiko-udoku]

Feeding time, come rain or shine! 👨‍🌾🌦🐐

[seiko-udoku]

Maypole festivities and fun!

[seiko-udoku]

A brief look at Singing Frogs Farm in Sebastopol, CA. I’ll spend the summer and fall season working, learning and living on-site. The holistic approach to no-till farming and regenerative agriculture that they’ve taken and demonstrated in these 3 acres of valley bottom land in the center of wine country is hard to ignore when you bite into their complexly flavorful vege or sink your hand into the soft, sweet-smelling soil and pull out a handful teeming with earthworms, mycorrhizial fungi and all of the vital elements that make for a healthy, local and sustainable model of production and lifestyle. More to come!

[seiko-udoku]

A quiet, lovely stroll through Annadel State Park in Santa Rosa. The scent of orange blossom flowers filled the air and wild turkeys provided an amusing soundtrack.

[seiko-udoku]

wale no keia la, e komo mai : only this day, welcome (or “be mindful and present”) // profound words from a keychain found on the sidewalk as I wandered the steep residential roads overlooking Waikiki Bay. in transit from Tokyo to San Francisco, here’s one afternoon and a brief glimpse into this glossy postcard paradise. most memorable were the fish tacos, local avocados, feral chickens and diversity of semi-arid island species of flora. the beaches and luxury hotels juxtaposed with the WWII bunkers from which Diamond Head looks out also gave the experience more dimension. 明日の朝に海で泳ぐのが楽しみです！

[seiko-udoku]

A warm spring stroll and sweet potato picnic in Koishikawa Botanic Gardens. Another few weeks until the cherry blossoms fully burst into bloom and swarms of bumblebees and enchanted tourists are inevitably drawn to the sweet, floral aromas that drift on lazy, lingering currents through the crowded and bustling streets.

���まざまの事おもひ出す櫻かな // samazama no koto .. omoidasu .. sakura kana // how many, many things .. they call to mind .. these cherry-blossoms!

[seiko-udoku]

日本に帰った。先週は夏、今週は冬です。先週ヤギを搾乳し、週東京の込んだな地下鉄に乗る。人生は時々奇妙です。

We're back in Japan. Last week it was summer, this week it’s winter. Last week we were milking goats at dawn and this week we are riding the sardine-can subways of Tokyo, trying to act as respectable citizens before we can retreat to the fields and mountains again to seek inspiration. This modern life is sometimes a strange teacher and reluctant companion.

“Dwelling here and now in this reality, letting go of all the accidental things that arise in our minds, is what I mean by ‘opening the hand of thought.”

[seiko-udoku]

The first week of twenty-nineteen brought to us swift change and new opportunities. What now comes to mind from the past few whirlwind days: morning ferries, talks about compost preps and grafting eggplants, zazen under pine trees, Pernod on rocks and Nigerian folk rhythms, afternoon reservoir swims, popcorn and beer with Lukas, broadforks and blood-moon mandala gardens, Japanese stone gardens and silent art films, natural dyes, forced goodbyes and now at PEACE Permaculture Farm - milking goats, eating plums with kids and fighting off aggressive roosters. And still four more weeks of fun and learning in Australia!

[seiko-udoku]

Endless blue horizons, wind shaped rocks & trees and plenty of summer sunshine on our Christmas Day trek along the southern coast of the Mornington Peninsula. We've been missing the comforts of winter lately, but a beautiful day out on the trail renewed our spirits and reminded us of how lucky we are to be here!

[seiko-udoku]

Christmas CSA from Transition Farm! 🎄🍅 Roast veggies, fresh salads & slow sunsets that bring 2018 to an end and remind us of how much we've seen and been a part of this year & of the inspiring folks we've met and are so grateful to now call our friends, teachers and partners in shaping a more sustainable future. Here's to another year of dirty hands and clean food! トランジションファームのクリスマス野菜ボックス！ 体も心も暖かくなるような彩りの野菜満載。 夏の長い1日の最後にゆっくりと沈んでいく夕日を眺め、今年1年起こったことや出会った人々のことを思い出す。 本当に素敵で刺激的な多くの人たちと仲間として繋がれたこと、そしてまたも来年土にまみれて体が喜ぶ食べ物をつくっていけることに、チアーズ🍾良いお年を！

[seiko-udoku]

Our introduction to beekeeping, and what a fascinating and educational experience it was! Suiting up, starting the smoker, cracking the boxes to peek inside and check the descending honeycombs and trying to remain calm and be as least intrusive as we could while changing out dripping, waxy frames for new ones and checking for hive beetles and wax moths. All went well and the hives seem healthy - lots of drones investigating us and worker bees coming and going, some carrying brightly colored ‘pollen pants’ and others moving the collected pollen among the combs to feed the developing larva. Honeybees exhibit the virtues of symbiotic and holistic collaboration at a level that we can only begin to comprehend! What better than to finish by pressing some of the fresh comb for raw honey and keeping the nicest comb to sell to CSA customers when they pick up their fresh vegetables on Friday. Ah, if only photos could capture the sweet and complex aromas in a mouthful of just-pressed raw honey - herbs, flowers and tea tree. It’s truly a food medicine that nourishes the body and the soul. Thanks, bees! 🐝

[seiko-udoku]

"Like multitudes of people all over the world, we are seeking a good life - a simple, balanced, satisfying life style. Like them, our aim is to lend a hand in shaping the planet into a homelike living place for successive generations of human beings and for the many other life forms domiciled in and on Mother Earth, her lands, and water."

[seiko-udoku]

12月に入って夏日が増えてはいるものの、朝夕の気温差が20度近く、相変わらず天気が変わりやすいモーニントン半島。30度越えの昨日は、開始を2時間早め朝６時から収穫開始。午後２時には終了。今週も色とりどりの野菜たちがマーケットスタイルでお客さんをお出迎え！ CSAというシステム。日本の有機農業の「提携」という概念をモデルにし、アメリカで始まったシステムで、オーストラリアでも徐々に増えている。3ヶ月や半年というように、予め定めた期間の野菜代としてメンバーが前払いをし、その収入を元に農家がオペレーションをし、できた野菜をメンバーに提供。消費者も共に農家（農業）を支えていく。 ここの農家では以前は宅配形式をとっていたけれど、自分たちの負担が大きかったことと身近なコミュニティーに限定するため、金曜日のみメンバーが農場へピックアップする形に変更。もちろん去って行ったメンバーもいるけれど、本当にCSAを理解し続けてくれるメンバーと環境への負担が減ることを考えると、とてもいい選択だなと思う。

[seiko-udoku]

Transition Farm in Mornington Peninsula, where we’ll stay for three months to work and learn more about biodynamic soil building methods and CSA supported, low-input organic growing methods on a 2.5 acre market garden farm run by a Aussie/American couple and a few seasonal helpers, just one hour south of Melbourne along the coast. It’s been a busy week settling in and getting used to long days in the field and under the sun - weeding, seeding, transplanting, pruning, making soil blocks, harvesting & washing fresh greens - but it’s already proven worth the long journey from Japan and we’re so grateful to find ourselves working alongside such wise and inspired folks. Stay tuned! Yours in mud, Casey & Yuka

[seiko-udoku]

In Transit: 岡山 -> 大阪 -> 奄美大島 a quick stop through paradise to visit Yukashi's sister -> 大阪 -> 東京 -> 千葉 ten days of silent Vipassana meditation -> オーストラリア for three months to work and learn at an organic CSA farm! 忙しいけど楽しみ！

[seiko-udoku]

Autumn Bounty gifted from the Highland Forest; or, mornings spent foraging for fungi and a surprise visit from Mamushi-san (third one I’ve dealt with this month!) // この地域にはマムシがたくさんいます。マムシに会った時自分もマムシもお互いに驚いた。

Harvested from the field: bitter gourd, cucumber, melon, okra, habanero and plenty of snap beans Plucked from the trees: loads of persimmon, chestnut and sansho (citron pepper) Pulled from the earth: fragrant, umami bolete mushrooms of all size, color and texture that can be lightly pan-fried with oil and soy sauce or slowly reduced and flavored with spices to make a mushroom sauce, as I did above; firm, slimy shimeji mushrooms found in clusters and enjoyed best in miso soup; and my favorite: puffy, marshmallow-like noutake (means ‘brain mushroom’ in Japanese) that can be sautéed into delicious morsels resembling fried mussels; plus a new discovery: a black jellied kikurage that is apparently best prepared as a sweet dessert, which we’ll try tonight.

🍄 Mushroom season has begun!🍄

a seasonal kanshi poem from eighteenth-century Zen Buddhist monk, Ryokan Daigu:

After walking for a time, I reach the pavilion; / The sun sets behind the western mountains. / Willow leaves cover the little garden; / The pond is cold and the lotuses have faded. / Persimmon and chestnut trees, ripe with fruit, shade the path. / Along the bamboo fence, crickets cry incessantly; / Light filters easily through the pines and oaks - / Summer slowly changes its face.