When April comes with softly shining eyes,
And daffodils bound in her wind-blown hair,
Oh, she will coax all clouds from out the skies,
And every day will bring some sweet surprise, --
The swallows will come swinging through the air
When April comes!

When April comes with tender smile and tear,
Dear dandelions will gild the common ways,
And at the break of morning we will hear
The piping of the robins crystal clear --
While bobolinks will whistle through the days,
When April comes!

When April comes, the world so wise and old,
Will half forget that it is worn and grey;
Winter will seem but as a tale long told --
Its bitter winds with all its frost and cold
Will be the by-gone things of yesterday,
When April comes!

-Virna Sheard

SIGHT

March and April have brought a welcome transition from winter to spring. Almost all of our trees and bushes are blooming and regaining their leaves, which means a world of colors- from the deep purples of the Judas trees to the whites and greens and pinks of cherry blossoms and peach trees. We've also been enjoying little yellow birds who have been eating lots of seeds from the ground as well as cranes perched on the pond's edge.

HEARING

We have enjoyed the morning songs of many birds, owls, spring peepers (southern frogs), howling winds, rains, and wooshing of leaves being swept away, only to be replaced with new growth. We have also been in the season of Lent, so this time has been filled with much more silence, reflection, and services at the monastery we attend.

SMELL

Nothing smells like the promise of a future harvest as much as the smell of tomato leaves from tomato seedlings that linger in the air. I don't think I ever noticed what tomato plants smelled like before this, but they sure are getting me excited for our garden!

TASTE

Thanks to my mom who sent me a batch of fresh California Meyer lemons from my aunt and uncle's backyard, sweet lemons have filled our kitchen from lemon curd, candied lemon peels, and dehydrated lemons. We've also enjoyed sourdough chocolate chip cookies, sourdough pancakes, sourdough bagels, Orange Shrimp & Celery Salad, Lemon Ginger kombucha, Triple Berry kombucha, and Spiced Pear kombucha.

TOUCH

This month was a big indoor seeding month as we planted sunflowers, melons, and herbs indoors including lavender, rosemary, oregano, french, english, and lemon thyme, and sage. I have continued tending to my tomato seedlings which are growing quite large now, and we will hopefully be planting them outdoors next week!

Outdoors, we planted peas, lettuce, carrots, onions and Mizuna mustard in our raised garden bed. In our lower "market" garden, we planted all of our onions (around 300 onion plants) and two varieties of potatoes (Yellow Finn and Purple Majesty) last week. This week we will be planting sugar snap peas, three varieties of lettuce and four varieties of carrots.

Ephraim has been really into woodworking as he is creating our gates to the market garden completely from scratch. More to come on that.

Καλή Ανάσταση (Kali Anastasi=Blessed Resurrection),

With love from The Rusu's at Saint Basil Farm

Holistic Nutrition Counseling

Do you have health goals you want to reach this year? I'd love to help you reach those with one-on-one consultations or health coaching. Please don't hesitate to call or text me at 925.315.7032.

It is a privilege to support you in your health concerns.