Dandelion Sustainability Farm

Garden Gate at Dandelion

So here I am at Dandelion Farm. And what a place to start. This place is much more than a farm: it’s a highly accomplished, self-sustaining retreat, filled with truly inspired artwork.

Loren and Candace Stolley run Dandelion… or it runs them… or maybe a little of both. They moved up to Lower Lake, CA about 30 years ago to fulfill Candace’s vision of a spiritually-inclined retreat/refuge that would be a service gift to her community. They’ve got 190 acres of serene hill country and have built up not only their own house, but a meeting center, extra lodging for visitors and volunteers, and numerous artworks. But that’s all for the next entry, because the main priority here is WORK.

It’s the off season, and I’m the only volunteer. The weather is amazingly warm for December, but it won’t hold long, and there’s plenty to do while the sun shines.

Chanting Frog Greenhouse

Candace had me start in the greenhouse, which is big and lush and full of very happy plants producing gorgeous fruits. ‘Course they also produce a lot of leaves, and eat a lot of dirt. So mulching was the order of the day. Raking out the pathways, feeding the leaves back to the trees (with a hefty helping of hay to make them extra happy). And picking up all the little guavas that had fallen from the guava tree.

These little guys are awesome: you can just cut off the end and squeeze the pulp into your mouth, or eat the entire thing raw. Very sweet and a bit tart, and way more flavor than the guava juice I’m used to.

So I hung out with the trees for a while and made them all happy, and then it was time for some erosion control. For the uninitiated out there, that generally means seeding a bare area and then spreading hay to cover it. There’s so much bare ground here, and such good reason for it, that I’ll explain in a separate entry… let’s just say that I’ve wound up covered in hay every day since I arrived!

So far at Dandelion I’ve tidied up the greenhouse, spread that ol’ hay, done a bit of work in the garden, and even made an apple pie with Candace. Lots more to tell, including a proper display of the art! Come back in a couple days to see… and in the meantime, I’ll be here in my cozy room, or out working in the sun.

Sunrise from my window