The Birth Tree

My daughter Jami

The last time my daughter came to visit she had a surprise for us.  She asked if we would be willing to plant a memorial tree on our farm using the placenta from her last child’s birth to place under the new tree.

My grandson Dax was born in Texas, so his placenta had to be frozen until the planting ceremony.

Truthfully I had never heard of this before and it all happened so very quickly that I didn't have much time to prepare. 

Afterward, I did a little research and found out quite a lot. 

There are simple ceremonies, eloquent ceremonies, and elaborate ceremonies performed to honor the placenta all over the world. 

Many cultures, including the Navajo Indians and New Zealand's Maori, bury the placenta to symbolize the baby's link to the earth.

Growing Your Own Garlic

Growing, Harvesting and Storing Garlic

It’s the end of March and I have the worst case of cabin fever I have ever experienced. We've had an unusually hard long winter here in Ohio, and all across the Midwest, with temperatures remaining well below freezing and even well below zero for long extended periods of time, ugh.  Usually our snow melts after a few days, but not this year. 

Gardening and seed catalogs are arriving in my mailbox nearly every week.  But most days, it’s almost too cold to walk down the lane to the mail box!

I am already planning the lay out of the vegetable garden and what I need to plant, one of which is garlic. We love garlic and I use it in many recipes and dishes.