Thawing

It’s time for a Valentine Treat…and SEEDS!

This has been an unusually cold and snowy season for us here in the mid-Atlantic region of the country. Snow typically comes and goes, but the big storm that covered much of the country last month left us with single digit temperatures and glacier like conditions that have persisted for weeks. Every step outside has been taken at our own peril. We’ve given up on shoveling. A hammer and a chisel is more like it. Someone has even coined the term “snowcrete” to describe the level of frozen-ness that has engulfed us.

This week, however, it has crept above freezing for a few hours here and there and the icy surfaces are beginning to give. Beautiful wet, muddy ground is showing up in patches. And below the surface, seeds are starting their journey up towards the light.

Yes, it’s time for SEEDS! We’re getting so excited about the new garden season around here and we know many of you are too. When shopping for seeds, we can highly recommend our friends at Pinetree Garden Seeds (listen to our conversation with Melissa and Jaci here) and we invite you to use the code DIRTPGS20 for 20% off your first seed order with them. Also, look for our Planting By the Signs gardening calendar coming back in March!

Lots of things are happening in this season of thawing. Some of you will be happy to hear that we’ve been recording new episodes of The Good Dirt podcast which will be going live in the next few weeks. If you’re as excited as we are about digging into more good dirt this spring, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast on your preferred listening platform so that you get all the new episodes as they drop!

Also, Mary will be launching a Slow Living Through the Seasons Cohort in March, with bi-weekly zoom meetups to discuss not only what slow living means to us in this moment, but all the questions, ideas, practices, books, recipes—any and all of the things that we can address as a community to cultivate a joyful and restorative way of living for ourselves and for the world.

If this sounds interesting to you, please let us know here (if you haven’t already done so) and we’ll be reaching out in the next week or so with details and sign-up information. We’re so excited to hear from all of you who have already responded to this invitation!

And finally, to help hasten the winter thaw, we offer you this recipe for a heart warming, homemade (no plastic wrapping!) Valentine treat that has been a Lady Farmer favorite for years. Nothing beats this rich, dark Chocolate Ganache Cake as a gesture of love to yourself and your dear ones. Enjoy!

~Mary and Emma