The sweet smell of golden plums cooking in a pot with a warm undertone of cinnamon and cardamom fills the air. It is jam making day at Songaia! With the help of other volunteers and community members, we all huddled over cutting boards to process several boxes of plums, cutting into quarters to work around the pit. Taking turns watching the timer, stirring the pot and measuring out sugar and other ingredients, we all worked together to make about 35 jars of jam. Throughout the season, I h ..read more

I have seen so many different types of beetles these past few weeks. I’m thinking of getting/making an ID book for reference. I’d love to be able to learn more about different types and be able to identify them. ​ We went to the Beacon Food Forest (I want to live as a frog in their swamp potatoes it was such a cute spot and if I was a frog I wouldn’t need to think about money and oh gods why am I not a frog but I wouldn’t have thumbs and that would be a ..read more

Would Old McDonald really have a farm without animals? Who would cluck cluck here and cluck cluck there? All jokes aside, the chickens of Songaia play a vital role in their community. These birds can provide up to 3 dozen farm fresh eggs per week! All of the chickens are dual purpose breeds, meaning they can lay eggs but are still large enough to provide meat averaging about 5-7 pounds. The hens typically produce eggs well up until they are 5 years old. At that point, productivity decline ..read more

​I didn’t know what to write about and mentioned that fact to my dad. He asked me what the first three things I noticed at Songaia were. I started off with the way the light lands, and how it makes me wish I were a better painter so I could capture it. Then the softness of the petals on the many, many, flowers, and of course how hot and sweaty I was. My dad told me I could just write about that. I’m not particularly interested in writing about being sweaty, so that leaves the l ..read more

It all starts with this. The foundation of a healthy soil is teeming with life. Thousands of earth worms slither through the decaying foliage, feeding off food scraps from the kitchen. Nothing goes to waste at Songaia. Looking at the second principle of permaculture, all energy is captured and stored for later use. The other interns and I learn from Reuben how the vermiculture bin works: what the worms eat, how much bedding or fine carbon material they need and how much water. They like r ..read more

Me, Izzy, and Julia at Mount Rainer. It was a challenging hike, but the viewpoint was so worth it! The mountains were surreal, and you could see strips of bare rock from the collapse of previous evergreens. Mt. Rainier National Park Zucchini, green beans, potatoes, and tomatoes Me and the interns usually start our mornings in the Garden harvesting. It has been so cool to be able to see all the changes in the garden. These are most of the main vegetables we harvest every morning! I really enjoy digging for potatoes, it feels like I’m digging for gold. I’m amazed by how many beans the rows ..read more

Isabel, West, Julia, and Joanna make Kombucha On this day me and the interns learned how to make kombucha from West and Brian. To make kombucha you need sugar, black tea, and a SCOBY to start the fermentation process. SCOBY is a thick, slimy cellulose disk, that houses the bacteria and yeast. The SCOBY feeds on three things tea, sugar, and water. It is sometimes called the ‘mother’ because it can continuously replicate itself and create ‘babies. These babies become the layers that grow on top of the SCOBY and can be used to brew a new batch of kombucha. The yeast’ living on the SCOBY are nee ..read more

During the garden tour I looked down to see to a small bee had landed on my jacket. I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by this tiny creature, as it used its appendages to gently wipe off the pollen encasing its furry body. The garden tour continued, and I carefully walked to the next row Anita was showing me and the other interns. I was cautious not to make abrupt movements with my arm. To my surprise the small animal did not fly away, but instead seemed to burrow in the crease of my jacket, almost as if it were content. I remember being in awe of its glossy see-through wings, and vibrant yell ..read more

The adorable Daisy Daily harvest goes wild! In the months leading up to this internship I never really pictured what my time here at Songaia would look like. I don’t know if I had any expectations either, I just knew that I would be doing some gardening and learning about permaculture. I also knew that because this is the first thing I am doing out of college I wanted to use this internship as a period to work on myself and prepare for the “real world.” Reflecting on these past four weeks my time here at Songaia has already been more than I could have imagined. Not only have I learned so m ..read more

​Like many an intern before me, I’m up in a tree. 2022 Intern Byrd (me!) in a pear tree by the Forest Garden 2017/18 Intern Mistydawn in a cherry tree 2019 intern Matt Jernigan restoring an old apple (?) tree. 2017 Intern Joey pruning the Weeping beech tree 2016 Intern Jacob picking cherry blossoms for tea 2021 Intern Reuben...not in a tree...but close enough. Picking grapes with Piglet Laura and volunteer Amina. I can hear Mary–friend of the fruit trees–down below; I can almost feel her cringing as I step on a branch that creaks beneath my clunky boots. But the cluster of appl ..read more