Journal
at the fair
Phoebe, Andrea, Jason and I are all settled into Unity, Maine getting ourselves ready for the Common Ground Country Fair which begins tomorrow morning. The weather in the next three days looks to be beautiful, the food delicious, the people most wonderful, as always. If you're headed this way, we hope you'll stop by to say hello! We'd love to see you.
~amandaIntroducing :: GATHER
We hope you're savoring these last precious days of summer as much as we are here. It's hard to believe that in only a few short weeks we'll shift into a new season yet again. Hot apple cider, cozy wool sweaters and vibrant autumn colors, we'll see you soon.
And speaking of shifts into the new, we're delighted to share that our latest installment, ISSUE 7::GATHER, is fresh from the press and now making its way to subscriber mailboxes near and far. If that includes you, Hooray and Thank You! If not, worry not, there's still time to subscribe and receive this new issue. It has quickly become one of our most favorite, and not just because, as a subscriber bonus only, it includes a poster of the cover with the theme word in artist Nikki McClure's distinctive script!
But inside you'll also find thoughtful essays and reflective art, and-- as a result of your feedback from our reader survey--a bigger than ever before Hands section, with plenty of patterns, projects and recipes to keep our hands busy as we head into the season ahead. But don't just take our word for it, pop on over for a peek inside the pages now....
Survey Wrap Up :: And the Winner Is...
So when we sent out our Taproot survey a little while back we thought we might receive a handful of responses, and we were okay with that. Any insight is appreciated insight after all. But we’re here to tell you that in the end we received nearly 2,500 thoughtful replies full of invaluable ideas and suggestions and we could not be more grateful.
A few things we learned...
- The majority of you are between the ages of 25-44
- More than 60% of you live in rural settings or small cities of 100k residents or less
- Over 80% of you save your issues for 6 months or more
- Nearly 60% of you share your issues with 1-3 people and spend 2-3 hours reading each issue
- Most of you would like to see more DIY projects within the pages and new items like illustrated greeting cards, notecards and calendars in our Print Shop (we hear you!)
misadventures in homesteading :: bee school (or be schooled)
Ah, misadventures in homesteading. We all have them, right? In homesteading, in parenting, in life, in anything we put ourselves completely into - whether new at it or not (but especially, of course, when we're new at it). The best we can do, I think, from these little bumps in the road is to brush ourselves off; get back up and at it, having learned a thing or two; and commiserate with those beside us, laughing all the while. We have to keep laughing at ourselves.
And so it is this week, that I bring you some recent lessons I've learned after one particularly exciting evening in my garden. A schooling straight from my bees...
1. Despite my comfort around those darling honeybees, simple little precautions really always should be taken. And perhaps, when I'm operating a ridiculously loud lawnmower later in the day when all the bees are home, I should not get so close to the bees so as to accidentally "bump" into their hive, thereby shaking their house and freaking them out. (A natural reaction for anyone who's home has just been shaken, yes?) Obviously, grass clippers are the 'right' answer here, and if you had asked me how to trim the grass in front of the hives one week ago, that would be the answer I gave (and clearly not the advice I followed in that moment when I was in a hurry to get the job done).
2. in a hurry to get the job done is not a recipe for success.
3. If one has a feeling the bees might be upset, which is then followed by a large number of bees flying around nervously, plus one is not wearing any protecting gear? Perhaps it is best to back away from the situation. Calmly but promptly. Ignoring it and continuing on? Maybe not so much.
4. It would be best in that situation, once one decides to leave the scene, not to freak out, nor run straight forward through the middle of said nervous bees. Wearing a black skirt and a black tank top. With no veil. (Ahem.)
5. And even if one mistakenly does do all of that, and then looks down to see herself covered in bees while beginning to be stung all over by the defensive team of bees feeling (rightfully so) under attack? Well. At that point, it would not be a good idea to quickly remove the shirt over her head, inside out, thereby putting all those bees that were just on the shirt into her hair. Her long, thick head of hair, where those bees could quite likely get even more confused, defensive and oh my goodness, completely trapped.
Ah, so many lessons learned in just five minutes! To my credit, I suppose, after all of those mistakes (so many!), there were a few things I then did right. With help, I did get all of the bees out of my hair, and then removed all the stingers we could find. I treated all the stings and myself with apis mellifica and honey (it does really help with the stings). When I started to feel "funny", I took an antihistamine. Then when I felt nauseous, dizzy and my breathing felt constricted, I sat with my son's epi pen and waited for the ambulance to take me to the hospital. There, with gratitude and great embarrassment at the predicament I was in, I partook in all the lovely quick modern medicines that do good things in such a situation, waited the reaction out and tried not to beat myself up too much, nor think about the feeling of all those bees trapped in my hair (I will never forget that feeling).
To be very very clear, I do not want to do a public disservice to the gentle, lovely honeybees of the world with my tale of foolishness. I assure you (see the lessons above!), this particular fiasco was 100% operators error. (Please don't take away my apiary license!) It's said that only one percent of honeybee stings result in anaphylactic shock. And just because I had such a reaction this time, it's only a little bit more likely that it will happen to me again. I've now learned my lesson(s). And now, I've got some apologies to make to a few thousand little cute and fuzzy creatures. Yes, I'll be the one in the garden by the hives, wearing a veil, and giving thanks to those honeybees for the schooling they gave me.
~amanda
Making the Pages
Taproot contributor and submissions editor Meredith Winn shared with us this photograph of artist Stephen Pullan at work creating his next illustration for us. We're grateful for a little peek into his process, and eager to share with you the final results in our next issue, GATHER!
~amanda
hands :: recipe testing
We take our editing job at Taproot Magazine very seriously. Oh yes. Despite the fact that our recipes arrive thoroughly tested and ready for the pages, it never fails that I feel obligated to give them another run myself. Ahem. Not really at all - it's an absolute delight and total perk, I'd say, to get the sneak peek on the goodness that is to come. Such as this recipe by longtime contributor Ashley English to be included in the pages of our upcoming issue, GATHER. My family quite enjoyed it for dinner tonight. For the second time this week. Yum.
~amanda
Squambound
Squam Art Workshops
Art Fair
Holderness, NH
Saturday, June 8, 7:30 - 10pm
. . . .
Our bags are packed, and we're (almost) ready to go. Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire is where we're headed for Squam Art Workshops, of course. On Saturday night, everyone is welcome to attend the much-loved Art Fair there - for directions, a list of vendors and more details, visit the Squam website. There's also an open-to-the-public Ravelry Revelry celebration on Saturday afternoon if you'd like to make a date of it (those details can be found here). Jason and I will both be at the Art Fair on Saturday night with back issues of Taproot and giclee prints from our pages and artists. If you're there, please do stop by to say hello and tell us what you think of the magazine, or what you'd like to see from us in the future. It's a pleasure to connect with you in person. We hope to see you there! ~amandaHands :: Homesteading Math
Currently, on our little family homestead, we are feeding:
9 only-sometimes-laying laying hens
10 dominique chicks
5 black australorp pullets
6 silver laced wyandotte pullets
44 freedom ranger pullets
Which, if my math is correct, totals 60 birds. And...we just bought our first dozen eggs in almost three years.
Sometimes the math of homesteading doesn't always make a lot of sense. So we laugh, try to plan better for next year, feel grateful for the local farmers who have enough eggs to sell this season, and remember that soon enough we'll be back in the business of eggs, and with it, the joy of all the scrambled eggs, quiche, fritatta and boiled eggs we could wish for.
~amanda
the work of Nikki McClure
I couldn't help but photograph and share with you the synchronicity of the morning activity here in our home. My son Harper with a family favorite book in his hands, Mama, Is It Summer Yet? by Nikki McClure. And me, beside him, with the first round page proofs of our next issue, number 6, WATER....with cover art by none other than Nikki McClure. What a delight it is to feature her work on the front of our magazine (I do declare WATER to be my favorite yet), and what a delight is in store for you inside the pages of this issue, too.
~ amanda
DREAM, in the wild
From our end, there's such a feeling of anticipation in the window of time between sending an issue off to the printer and seeing it in the hands and homes of readers. The first sighting of an issue out in the world is a particularly exciting moment for us, each and every time. Our friend Elizabeth Duvivier snapped this view of a bookshelf at Brown University - the first spotting of DREAM in the wild!
We hope your copy is in hand soon too, and that you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it!
~amanda
A Taproot Gathering at Squam
Cheesemaking! Rocket stoves! Packbaskets! Poetry! Photography! Thrift shopping! Natural Fiber Dyeing! Farm visits! Papercutting! Oh my....we could go on and on with all the wonderful offerings that have been pulled together from our East Coast Taproot contributors and the Squam community of teachers for our first ever Taproot Gathering at Squam. Classes during the day, a beautiful environment in which to enjoy and relax, and evening activities to keep you entertained and engaged. Oh! And let's not forget the food! All our meals will be lovingly and locally prepared by Bread and Butter Catering, the latest project from Josh and Katie of One Fifty Ate and Pocket Brunch fame.
Our Gathering will be happening September 11-15th in Holderness, New Hampshire and you can now find all the nitty gritty details over on the Squam website. Registration opens on April 8th, giving you lots of time to mull it all over and plan and prepare for all the goodness that's sure to happen there.
We hope you can join us!
from Providence
I'm just home from a whirlwind trip down to Providence, Rhode Island where all sorts of Taproot dreaming and doing happened. Elizabeth and I put some final and exciting touches on the Taproot Gathering at Squam, I chatted with contributor Christine Chitnis about the good things she's cooking up for future issues, and I spent some time with illustrator Phoebe Wahl, just months away from her RISD graduation. It was a delight to see more of her work in person, including these sweet creatures (above) brought to life in three dimensional form. I traveled home with a big box full of Phoebe's prints for our Print Shop, now signed and headed next to Vermont where they'll be packed and shipped out to you very soon!
~ amanda