September

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SEPTEMBER 

Ah, September — the great harvest month. Nature exhales after summer’s abundance, the community returns from vacation, studios and clubs reopen, and the deep rhythm of autumn begins. The second and largest harvest of the year is already underway. From Labor Day onward, the air fills with the busy work of canning, preserving, drying, and putting away the bounty.

Everything is ripe — on the vine, in the orchard, and on the trellis, all are farm and garden fresh. The tomatoes are so plump and juicy one is tempted to eat them like an apple from a tree. The sad thing is fewer and fewer people have that experience. At the PEACH breakfast, lunch, and dinner are not only affordable, every meal is delicious.

September also carries a profound historical and spiritual weight. It is the season we witness the long transformation of the Roman Empire — its slow fade, its pagan roots, and its metamorphosis into the early Christianity. Through the Parsifal saga and the celebrations of St. Michael and St. George, we follow the arc from the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah through the development of the Western Christian Roman Empire and the formation of the Byzantium as we almost touch the formation of what we will soon call Europe.

As we experience the days growing shorter we are reminded that at the center of the darkness lies both the light of the spiritual world and the returning light of nature.

 

 

 

Harvest Blessing — 

Domine, sana vulnera terrae,
Lord, heal the wounds of the earth,

Et lumen tuum infunde in tenebras nostras.
And pour Your light into our darkness.

In misericordia tua invenimus pacem,
In Your mercy we find peace,

Et in gratia tua reparatur anima nostra.
And in Your grace our soul is restored.

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Harvest 

September brings the garden to its full crescendo — our second and greatest harvest of the year.

The tomatoes hang heavy on the vine, the peaches are soft and fragrant, and the beans, peppers, and cucumbers overflow the baskets faster than we can eat them. It is abundance verging on absurdity. Yet we know in six months the garden will lie frozen and bare — unless we preserve it.

This is the season of preservation, weeks of: canning and drying, breaking down and sealing up. Cooking, blanching, cutting, pickling, creating tinctures, wrapping herbs, drying spices, storing roots in the cellars. We Following ancient rhythms: setting the horns, turning the compost, covering the fields, and putting beds to rest. The animals are turned loose in the garden for their own Thanksgiving feast.

We have a wonderful variety of trees and shrubs on the property from conifers to hard wood maples, birches and oaks, a small orchard full of apples, cherries, pears, and plums. There are briars and spirals, vines and tubers, rhizomes and bulbs. We pick the fruit for canning and freezing when it is ripe during the harvest months, and tap the maples in the late winter, cooking and bottling the syrup outside in early spring.

The honey collected, the silk gathered, and the worms roam free in the now near empty gardens. One Last Harvest to go, for the cold crops, the stinkies: broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, and mind an onion, potato, a turnip or two, pumpkins, black corn, delicate green gourds and cold blood beets, least ye forget to let seed and collect the last carrots for the horses to inherit.

The old gives way. Time alters all.
And new life blossoms from the ruins. — Friedrich Schiller

 

 

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“Canning is the art of preservation at the peak of freshness.
Canning is a science, a math, it’s organization, and at the very end,
in order to know, if you got it right, it’s music.” -Grandpa

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Autumn Canning 
Preserving the harvest, preserving the future

There is a moment in late summer, when the garden reaches its peak. There is more food than one household can consume, more than can be given away, more than the earth itself seems capable of producing. Yet, soon the garden will be frozen and bare. The abundance will be a memory. Winter will come, and with it, scarcity. This is the paradox of the harvest: too much, and then too little. Feast, and then famine. Unless we learn to preserve.

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Canning
Where and when did it start?

Preservation is one of humanity’s oldest and most essential skills. Our ancestors dried meat in the sun, buried root vegetables in cool cellars, fermented cabbage into sauerkraut, salted fish, smoked game. They learned to stretch summer’s abundance across winter’s lean months, to carry the harvest forward in time.

But it was not until 1809 that a French confectioner named Nicolas Appert discovered the method that revolutionized food preservation that we now call, canning.

Napoleonic Canning: In the 1790s, the French government was desperate to feed its armies during the Napoleonic Wars. Soldiers were dying not from battle wounds, but from scurvy and malnutrition. Fresh food spoiled within days. Salted meat was barely edible. The army needed a solution. In 1795, Napoleon offered a ₣12,000 (franc) prize, a fortune at the time, for a reliable way to preserve food for his armies during his long campaigns.

French confectioner Nicolas Appert spent fifteen years experimenting. He tried sealing food in glass jars, heating them in boiling water, testing different temperatures and times and for all his efforts he did discover a method that worked. He sealed the food in glass jars, boiled them to create a vacuum, this method preserved the food inside for months and years. Even though he did not fully understand the science of sealing and heating the bottles, and why his method worked so well. It was fifteen years later that Louis Pasteur proved through the science of microbiology that heating  the bottled in hot water – sterilization, putting the food in closed bottles and heating them to create a vacuum killed the bacteria that solved the problem of preserving food.

Nicolas original method simply used wide-mouthed glass bottles, champagne corks sealed in wax, and a water bath.

In 1809, he presented his findings to the French government, that he had successfully preserved meat, vegetables, fruit, and even milk in sealed glass bottles. The food remained edible for months, even years. The government awarded him the prize and published his book, The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances for Many Years.

Appert’s method was simple: place food in a glass jar, seal it with a cork and wax, and heat it in boiling water for a specific amount of time. The heat killed the microorganisms that caused spoilage, and the seal prevented new ones from entering. It was, in essence, the same method we use today.

But Appert’s discovery was more than a technical innovation. It was a a major philosophical and technical shift. For the first time in human history, ordinary people could preserve food safely and reliably, without salt, without smoke, without fermentation. They could seal summer in a jar and open it in the dead of winter. They could defy time itself.

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The Tin Can

Just one year later, in 1810, Englishman Peter Durand patented the tin can. Glass jars were fragile and broke easily during military transport, so Durand created a more durable solution using tin-plated steel. This is where the word “canning” truly comes from.

Ironically, while tin cans revolutionized military logistics, home canners eventually returned to glass. Glass is safer (no risk of hidden rust or metal leaching), reusable, and lets you see the beautiful food inside.

The tin can became the king of industrial and military preservation, while the glass jar became the heart of the home.

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Ball Brothers and the Democratization of Preservation
Appert’s method spread quickly across Europe and to America. But it was expensive and fragile. Glass jars were costly, corks were unreliable, and the process required skill and patience.

In 1858, an American named John Landis Mason invented the screw-top jar with a rubber seal—the Mason jar, which remains the standard for home canning to this day. And in 1880, five brothers in Buffalo, New York—the Ball Brothers—began mass-producing these jars, making them affordable for ordinary families.

The Ball Brothers understood something profound: preservation was not just a practical skill but a form of security, independence, and resilience. A family that could preserve its own food was less vulnerable to market fluctuations, less dependent on distant supply chains, less at the mercy of forces beyond their control.

By the early 20th century, canning had become a cornerstone of American domestic life. During World War I and World War II, the government encouraged home canning as a patriotic duty. “Victory Gardens” sprang up in backyards and vacant lots, and families canned their harvests to support the war effort. Canning was not just about food; it was also about self-sufficiency. A family that could fill its own pantry, was less vulnerable to shortages, and more secure in uncertain times. It created a sense of resilience in the community, canning was not only a way to preserve food, it became a way of life..

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The Science and Method
Canning works because heat kills microorganisms—bacteria, yeasts, molds—that cause food to spoil. When food is heated to a high enough temperature for a long enough time, these organisms die. And when the jar is sealed while still hot, no new organisms can enter. The food is preserved in a state of suspended animation, safe from decay.

There are two main methods of canning:

Water Bath Canning – is used for high-acid foods—tomatoes, fruits, pickles, jams. These foods are naturally acidic enough to prevent the growth of dangerous bacteria like Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism. The jars are submerged in boiling water (212°F) for a specified time, which kills spoilage organisms and creates a vacuum seal.

Pressure Canning – is used for low-acid foods—vegetables, meats, soups, beans. These foods require higher temperatures (240°F or more) to kill botulism spores, which can only be achieved under pressure. A pressure canner is a specialized pot with a locking lid and a pressure gauge, allowing the temperature to rise above the boiling point of water.

The process is precise. Each type of food requires a specific temperature and time. Tomatoes must be acidified with lemon juice or citric acid. Jars must be sterilized. Lids must be new (the rubber seal degrades after one use). The headspace—the gap between the food and the lid—must be exact.

But the process is also forgiving. Once you understand the principles, canning becomes intuitive. You learn to recognize the sound of a jar sealing (a soft pop as the lid is pulled down by the vacuum). You learn to check the seal by pressing the center of the lid (if it doesn’t move, it’s sealed). You learn to trust the process, to trust the science, to trust that what you have preserved will endure.

What We Preserve, and Why
In our community, we can tomatoes and peaches, green beans and pickles, jams and salsas. We gather in the kitchen on warm September afternoons, peeling and chopping, filling jars, tending the canner. The work is hot and messy and exhausting, but it is also joyful. There is something deeply satisfying about seeing rows of filled jars cooling on the counter, their lids popping one by one, the summer’s abundance sealed and safe.

But we are not just preserving food. We are preserving a skill, a tradition, a way of being in the world. We are teaching children that food does not come from a grocery store but from the earth, that abundance requires work, that preservation is an act of foresight and care. We are building resilience, self-sufficiency, and community.

In September we are connecting to a long lineage of preservers—Nicolas Appert and the Ball Brothers, yes, but also the medieval monks who copied manuscripts by candlelight, the Byzantine scribes who safeguarded Roman law, the Irish monks who carried classical learning through the Dark Ages. All of them understood that preservation is not passive. It is active, intentional, urgent. It is the work of keeping the light alive.

This is why we can in September. This is why we teach this skill, practice this art, pass it down to the next generation. Because the harvest is abundant, but winter is coming. And if we do not preserve what we have, it will be lost..
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Canning as Metaphor
Canning is more than preserving food. It is an act of hope and defiance against decay. Just as Nicolas Appert sealed summer into jars, and the Ball Brothers made that skill available to ordinary families, we seek to preserve something even more precious: a culture, a set of skills, and a way of understanding the world. We are not merely putting up peaches and tomatoes. We are carrying the light of Western civilization forward into an uncertain future. Preservation is never passive. It is urgent, intentional work. It declares that what is good, true, and beautiful can endure — if we are willing to do what is required.

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Early Christianity Through The Dark Ages

Throughout September, October, November, and December, many of the events and topics in the lecture series cover pre-Christian Celts as it seeps into Rome, developing what is known as the Medieval Period. Often called the Dark Ages, we experience this darkness during the seasonal changes, as nature falls asleep into winter.

From the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, Christendom spread into the South and Western edges of the Roman Empire. With the crowning of Constantine the Great, 310 AD, he became the first Christian Emperor of Rome, creating what we now know as the Holy Roman Empire. As the power of Rome began to fall, in 376 AD, the Celtic Barbarians defeated Rome once and for all. Yet, despite Rome’s defeat Theodosius The Great, 379 AD to 395 AD, emerged as Emperor of Rome. He solidified Christianity, pushing forward Constantine’s dream of making Constantinople the seat of Christendom. His religion spread seeping throughout all the Celtic lands, thus converting the Barbarian tribes in the north to Christianity, and find ourselves at the door just short of Charlemagne.

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HISTORY Timeline 
Cultural & Historical Foundations Outline
Roman Empire, Classical Antiquity  – Early Christianity 1 AD – 400AD
Decline of Rome, The Rise of Christianity and the Byzantium, Early Christianity & Medieval Transitions

• The Pax Romana and the height of the Roman Empire (27 BC – 180 AD).
• The persecution of Christians and the resilience of the early Church (64 – 313 AD).
• Constantine the Great — the first Christian Emperor. (306AD to 337AD)
• Theodosius I — Christianity becomes the law of Rome (379 – 395 AD).
• The Gothic Wars and the Fall of the Western Roman Empire (376 – 476 AD).
• Augustine of Hippo — his life, his theology, his enduring legacy (354 – 430 AD).
• Byzantine Preservation — Justinian I, the Hagia Sophia, the great legal code (527 – 565 AD).
• The Irish Monks — how the classical world survived the Dark Ages.
• The Early Middle Ages — Goths, Vandals, Franks, and the slow formation of Europe (400 – 1000 AD).
• Charlemagne (748 – 814 AD) — continued in October.

  

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Parsifal
The Legend of the Holy Grail 
Mythic / Spiritual / Symbolic
There are stories that live in the heavens and on the earth, that belong to no single time or place but echo across centuries. The legend of Parsifal is such a story. It is a bridge between the pagan past and the Christian future, between the Celtic mysteries of Arthur’s court and the medieval quest for the Holy Grail, a cup still sought after. It is a tale of innocence and awakening, of suffering and redemption, of the pure fool who becomes the healer-king.

Richard Wagner, in his final opera, gave this legend its most profound expression. He set it not in the historical Middle Ages but in a timeless realm where myth and spirit intertwine. The story he tells is not merely about a young knight’s journey; it is about the transformation of consciousness itself, the movement from ignorance to compassion, from self to service, from wounding to healing.

We tell this story in September because it mirrors the season’s own journey. Just as the equinox marks the turn from light to increasing darkness, Parsifal’s tale marks the turn from innocence to knowledge, from the bright garden of childhood to the shadowed temple of suffering. And just as we preserve the harvest against winter’s scarcity, Parsifal preserves the sacred—the Spear, the Grail, the possibility of redemption—against the forces of decay and despair.

This is the story of Parsifal, the pure fool, who asked the question that healed the world.
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Eschenbach’s Parsifal
The Question of The Grail

It is recorded that the Holy Grail was none other than the sacred chalice bound by Christ Jesus at the Last Supper — that solemn final meal which He partook with His Apostles whilst yet inhabiting His human and material form, ere He was given over to arrest, to crucifixion, and to the suffering of earthly death. At this most holy of tables, the bread was given as the substance of His spiritual body, and the wine as the living blood thereof; and in the offering of these He charged His Apostles, avowing, “Do This In Memory Of Me.”

When he was crucified on the cross, a Roman soldier took his spear, stabbing him in the side. As the blood flowed from his body to the earth, Joseph of Arimathea placed the chalice under the wound to collect the spiritualized blood. As the blood flowed from the wound and touched the ground, the earth shook. It was then consecrated and spiritualized with the blood of The Christ. The significance of this act was the fulfillment of the new covenant, redemption for man, and the forgiveness of sin, the promise of eternal salvation was now fulfilled.

The chalice Joseph collected the blood of Christ in became known as The Holy Grail. The Spear that pierced his flesh, releasing the spiritualized blood, was called, The Spear of Destiny. However, both the cup and the spear have a much longer history and connection, which is discussed during the lectures.

“If unfaith in the heart find dwelling, then the soul it shall reap but woe;
And shaming alike and honour are his who such doubt shall show,
For it standeth in evil contrast with a true man’s dauntless might,
As one seeth the magpie’s plumage, which at one while is black and white.
And yet he may win to blessing; since I wot well that in his heart.
Hell’s darkness, and light of Heaven, alike have their lot and part.
But he who is false and unsteadfast, he is black as the darkest night,
And the soul that hath never wavered stainless its hue and white!.”
– Wolfram von Eschenbach

Of the medieval tale as set down by Eschenbach, there exist sixteen books in full. The rendition employed at the PEACH draws principally from Wagner’s Parsifal, itself derived from several sources of which Eschenbach’s poem is foremost; and from these varied tributaries the following retelling is woven, preserving what is most essential in each. Yet it is above all for its question of compassion that the poem endures in the memory of mankind.

In Eschenbach’s telling, the question is put thus: “What ails thee, my King?” Wagner, approaching the same mystery by way of its remedy, frames it otherwise: “How do I heal thee, my King?” In the version that follows, something of both may be discerned. It should further be noted that many of the adventures attributed to Parsifal by Eschenbach were thereafter employed by Wagner in his opera Tristan and Isolde. A fuller treatment of these matters awaits the reader in the January lectures on the Great Mysteries and in those delivered at Easter. It is the contention of this writer that the mysterious voice — that ethereal messenger within the opera — is none other than the swan.

Self-Renunciation, Reincarnation, Compassion
Through long ages men pondered the fate of the Holy Grail, that vessel which had once contained the spiritualized blood of Christ Himself. As legend doth relate, both the chalice and the sacred weapon were withdrawn from the terrestrial world, borne aloft into those high celestial regions beyond the sky, there to be kept and preserved in the charge of the angels. With the removal of the Holy Grail and the Spear of Destiny from the physical world, the spiritual sight of man began its long diminishment; those thaumaturgic faculties — the ancient powers of wonder-working — which had descended through generations from time immemorial, commenced their slow extinction. The mysteries of blood and of sacred lineage, the living knowledge of the stars, the healing powers of the antediluvian ages — all these gradually ceased. In their stead arose the dominion of abstract thought, of individual independence, and of reliance upon the material world alike for healing and for communication.

Yet the ancient knowledge was not utterly extinguished; in certain elect souls the great mysteries continued to burn, made manifest through dreams and visions vouchsafed to those whom posterity has called Initiates. Of these, one stood pre-eminent: King Titurel, the Noble. Upon the heights of Montsalvat in northern Spain, there was bestowed upon him, through divine vision, the foreknowledge of the Holy Grail — that cup which conferreth everlasting life. The angels of Heaven charged him with the keeping of both the Holy Grail and the Spear of Destiny, and laid upon him a sacred duty: to raise a Temple of the Holy Grail, and to establish an Order for its protection. These elect guardians were henceforth known as the Knights of the Holy Grail, bound by solemn oath to chastity and devotion, their lives consecrated wholly to Christ. To King Titurel himself fell the daily celebration of the sacred mass; and as he elevated the Grail during the holy sacraments, a violet light would descend from the heavens above, a dove would come to rest above his crowned head, and all the Order, receiving from his hands the host of everlasting life, would be made new in body and spirit, filled with profound reverence for the works of the Lord.

The story of Parsifal has its true beginning in the death of King Titurel, and in the passing of his sacred duties to his son, Amfortas. Yet ere his father’s death, this prince-in-waiting had already descended into an arrogant and perilous darkness. By an abuse of the Temple Oath, he took up the Spear of Destiny as a weapon of war, intending thereby to vanquish a certain sorcerer; but through trickery he was undone — the spear wrested from his grasp, wherewith the magician dealt him a wound to the thigh before vanishing utterly from sight. Thus did Amfortas return to the temple bereft of the sacred weapon, only to discover that his father had passed from this world and that the burden of kingship had already descended upon him.

In this hour of grief and transition he found, moreover, that the wound in his thigh would grant him no respite from its anguish; and as time revealed to him what darker intuition had perhaps already whispered, he came to understand that it would not heal — not, it was believed by many, until the Spear of Destiny should be restored. Suffering without surcease, he was yet compelled to continue his holy duties as Keeper of the Grail; and as his torment endured, the fair lands about the temple and the temple itself fell by degrees into decay and ruin. Upon the burial of his father, a prophecy was uttered — that one alone could deliver the Fisher King from his affliction and restore the temple to its former glory: “Only a Pure Fool, chaste and enlightened by compassion.”

Who is Parsifal?
Parsifal was the son of a knight of King Arthur’s court, raised in the depths of the forest by his mother, far removed from the knowledge and clamor of the wider world, in a state of pure and untouched innocence. His tale constitutes a singular bridge between the old Celtic and Arthurian mythologies and the emerging Christian world of the Middle Ages. In October we shall repair to King Arthur’s court, acquaint ourselves with the Knights of the Round Table, and follow their quest for the Holy Grail.

The story of Parsifal turns upon his early encounter with the wounded kingdom of the suffering King. There he comes to know two figures of singular power and mystery: Kundry, that wild and cursed woman who is at once helper and tormentor; and Klingsor, the dark sorcerer who sets himself in opposition to the Grail and all that it represents.

Through the trials of his journey, Parsifal passes from a naïve young lad, through the fires of temptation and the dawning of spiritual consciousness, until at last he becomes the healer for whom the land has long and desperately waited. Parsifal is, in its deepest nature, a drama of compassion, of suffering, and of redemption — and his story, with its many resonances, shall accompany us throughout the turning year.

What is Parsifal?
Parsifal is the quest itself — the sacred task reserved for that one whom prophecy had foreseen: “Only a Pure Fool, chaste and enlightened by compassion,” worthy to heal the Fisher King and restore the temple to its former glory. It is the narrative of a desperate mission entrusted to the chosen, encompassing initiation, the fall of the Grail King, and the promise of a redemption long foretold.

Lecture: 3rd Friday
Opera: 3rd Sunday

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Augustine of Hippo
Doctor of Grace
Historical / Earthy / Human struggle

Where Parsifal is the figure of the mystic quest — the pure fool moving outward through enchanted forests and wounded kingdoms toward a sacred object held aloft in light — Augustine of Hippo is something altogether different, and in many respects altogether more familiar. He is the man who moves inward; who wages his quest not across a landscape but within a soul; who must pass not through trials of chivalric courage but through the far more grinding trials of intelligence, appetite, and pride, before arriving at last at the one threshold he had spent the better part of his life refusing to cross. That he crossed it at all is the miracle. That he left so precise and searching an account of why it took so long is his singular gift to posterity.

He was born in the year 354 in Thagaste, a modest town in the Roman province of Numidia — what is today the northern coast of Algeria — the son of a household divided against itself in the most fundamental manner. His mother Monica was a woman of ardent and unwavering Christian faith, possessed of that particular quality of devotion which does not merely endure but pursues; his father Patricius was a pagan of the old Roman sort, concerned with this world’s arrangements rather than the next. Between these two poles Augustine grew, inheriting from his father a formidable restlessness of intellect, and from his mother something she would spend years waiting to see him acknowledge — a hunger of the spirit that no merely worldly satisfaction could appease.

He was, by every account, brilliantly gifted; and it is the peculiar misfortune of the brilliantly gifted that their very abilities furnish them with more compelling reasons for delay. As a young man he turned with enthusiasm toward Manichaeism, that elaborate dualist philosophy which held the universe to be a theatre of perpetual warfare between the principles of Light and Darkness, and which flattered its adherents with the suggestion that their sins were not truly their own but the work of the darker power resident within them. For Monica, who had consecrated her son to Christ in her prayers before he was old enough to form an opinion upon the matter, this was an affliction scarcely to be borne. The breach between them grew until it became, for a time, a complete rupture — she would not receive him at her table, nor admit him beneath her roof. Augustine, the prodigal philosopher, found himself cast out not in disgrace of conduct alone, but in disgrace of belief; a condition at once more wounding to his pride and more instructive to his conscience than he would readily have admitted.

Yet Monica did not abandon him to his wanderings. She wept, she prayed, and she dreamed — and it is in that dream that we may perceive, if we are so inclined, the hand of a providence more patient than any merely human resolution could sustain. A figure of light appeared to her in sleep and bade her take comfort; she was to reconcile with her son and accompany him to Milan. This she did, with the characteristic practicality of one accustomed to trusting her visions and acting upon them without delay.

Milan in the late fourth century was a city of considerable intellectual vitality, and it was there that Augustine encountered the man who would prove the most consequential influence of his middle years: Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, theologian, orator, and one of the commanding minds of the Latin Church. Augustine came to him initially as a student of rhetoric comes to observe a master of the craft — with a professional admiration carefully insulated from any personal application of what he heard. He was not, he assured himself, seeking conversion; he was studying technique. But Ambrose was not a man whose words submitted easily to such quarantine. The Christian faith, encountered through so powerful an intelligence, began to present itself to Augustine in a form his own formidable mind could no longer dismiss.

From Manichaeism he had by now moved on to the refined speculations of Neo-Platonism, which offered him much that was beautiful and not a little that was true — an incorporeal God, a hierarchical cosmos ascending from matter to pure intellect, the soul as a wanderer in search of its eternal home. It brought him to the very threshold of Christian understanding and there, with exquisite philosophical cruelty, left him standing. For Neo-Platonism could show him the destination; it could not provide the passage. It could illuminate the good he ought to pursue; it offered no power by which a man so accustomed to pursuing other things might be made capable of pursuing it. It was, in Augustine’s own later formulation, a philosophy that could discern the country to which one ought to travel, but could not furnish the road.

The road, when it came, came without warning, in a garden.

It was the summer of the year 386. Augustine, then thirty-one, was in Milan, engaged in one of those prolonged interior crises which to the observer appear as inaction but are in truth the most exhausting form of labour a human being can undertake — the labour of a will at war with itself. He had known for some time what he ought to do. He had known it intellectually, had argued himself toward it from every philosophical angle his considerable abilities could command, and yet had remained, at the last, incapable of the final surrender. It is to his eternal credit that he did not pretend otherwise; in the Confessions he would later record his famous prayer of that season with a frankness that has never ceased to unsettle its readers: “Lord, make me chaste — but not yet.”

On that afternoon in the garden he withdrew, in an extremity of distress, beneath the shade of a fig tree. And there, from somewhere beyond the garden wall, he heard the voices of children at play, singing a phrase that fell upon his ears with the force of a command: Tolle, lege — take up and read. He returned to the manuscript of Paul’s letter to the Romans which lay where he had left it, opened it without choosing his place, and read. What his eyes fell upon, in the thirteenth chapter, was a single passage concerning the putting off of darkness and the putting on of Christ. He read it once; and in that moment of reading, something — the resistance of years, the elaborate philosophical scaffolding erected against exactly this conclusion, the last proud remnant of a will that had for three decades preferred its own authority — gave way. “A light of certainty,” he would afterwards write, “flooded my heart.”

He was baptized by Ambrose at Easter in the year 387. Not long thereafter, the death of Monica — who had lived precisely long enough to see the fulfilment of the prayers of a lifetime — called him back toward Africa, and thence to Hippo, where he would in due course become bishop, found a monastery in his own house, and enter upon the most productive decades of his long life. The Confessions, composed in his early forties, gave Western civilization its first great autobiography — and simultaneously its most penetrating account of the theology of grace, the doctrine that would bear his name across all subsequent centuries. The City of God, written in the shadow of the sack of Rome in 410, provided Christendom with its most enduring framework for understanding the relationship between the earthly order and the divine. He wrote, he taught, he argued, he organized, he corresponded across the breadth of the Latin world, until his death in the year 430 — in the very year, as it happened, that the Vandals laid siege to the walls of Hippo itself.

We remember Augustine in September because his life was enacted against the long, slow fading of the Roman world — that vast ordering of civilization whose passing none who lived through it could fully comprehend, and whose consequences none living could wholly foresee. He stands, in his way, as a figure of the harvest: one who gathered what was most vital and most true from the richness of the classical inheritance, and pressed it into forms durable enough to survive the long winter that was coming. The Confessions and The City of God did not merely record Christian doctrine; they gave it a shape, a language, and a depth of psychological penetration that would nourish the faith through the centuries of uncertainty that lay ahead.

And perhaps that is why, placed alongside Parsifal, Augustine speaks to us with so peculiar an intimacy. Parsifal’s journey is one we may admire from without — it belongs to the realm of symbol and archetype, of swan and spear and luminous cup. Augustine’s journey is one we recognize from within. His delays are our delays. His arguments against surrender are arguments we have made ourselves. The garden at Milan is not Montsalvat; it is any quiet place where a long-resisted truth has finally, irresistibly, had its way.

Lecture: 3rd Friday 7PM

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Autumnal Equinox – (September 21 or 22)
The Autumnal Equinox is one of only two days in the year when day and night are equal. Twelve hours of light, twelve hours of darkness. The scales are balanced. But it is a fleeting balance, a threshold. The very next day, darkness begins to grow. The light changes. The air changes. Even the garden feels different — the wild abundance of late summer begins to quiet. Our ancestors knew this moment and regarded this threshold as sacred.

They tracked it with stones and shadows, The Druids created circles with the stones to capture and witness the sunrise on the equinox. They gave careful observation to time long before clocks existed. The Greeks honored Demeter and Persephone, the mother and daughter whose separation brought winter to the world, and of the Archi, it is the Angel Michael that governs this season, and while under the Gnostics he takes the form of the lion.

They understood that this was not just a date on a calendar — it was a turning of the world. Like out ancestors, we still feel it in our bones. There is both celebration and melancholy in the air — gratitude for the harvest, and a quiet awareness that the season of gathering is coming to an end. This is the time to pause, to give thanks, and to begin the patient work of preserving what the summer has given us.

However, the movement of the seasons is best spoken or written through poetry. The changing of the seasons is not one simple moment in time, though through science we have figured out that exact moment, and we recognize these four days by the ringing of the bell – just one ring when the universe says, now. We even have an appointed bell ringers for this occasion, won by lottery.

 

An Autumnal Blessing 
In a letter to his friend John Hamilton, 19 September 1819, regarding his final poem, To Autumn: Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness…

“How beautiful the season is now–How fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it. Really, without joking, chaste weather–Dian skies–I never liked stubble-fields so much as now–Aye better than the chilly green of the spring. Somehow, a stubble-field looks warm–in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me so much in my Sunday’s walk that I composed upon it.” -John Keats

 

A Community Within The Community
Those in our nature and pagan community gather in the garden and embrace the new season according to their beliefs and rituals. Our Pagan brothers and sisters celebrate this season through what is called Mabon; the Autumn Equinox, Sept 21 through the 23.  This is also known as the Pagan Thanksgiving and Second Harvest.

It is the time when there is a balance between the light and the darkness, like all thanksgivings there is a richness in gratitude this time of year.

Between the 21st and 23rd – there are nature walks, the colleting of autumn foliage: acorns, pinecones, dried leaves to decorate the home and for craft making. Of course there is root pulling and apple picking and apple pie making, lots of cooking and of course apple cider and apple wine. Home remedies are produced using the foods collected and dried, and best of all is the a potluck feasts to honor the season’s bounty and abundance.

Lastly, it is also a time for garden and farm clean-up in order to make ready for Winter. There is a lectured offered on this celebration by the Asatru Community. What they do and how they celebrate. This is offered by their Goði. If you are unfamiliar with the distant part of our history, this lecture is a great opportunity to find out and explore our northern European ancient past.

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The balance between the day and the night, the dusk and the dawn, the gateway into the darkness.

“Summer has ended!” Father bear said,
“In yonder tree hollow, I’ll make me a bed.”
“Summer has ended!”* said all the gold weeds,
So softly sighing they scattered their seeds.
“Summer has ended!”* the hurricane cried,
Hurling and whirling, harsh rains high and wide.
“Summer has ended!”* said fiery King Sun,
“My flame must grow fainter, then fade out to none!”  –Anonymous

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Medieval Harvest Dinner & Festival
September 25th
The Great Secret
The Medieval Harvest Dinner is the culmination of September, the grand celebration that closes the month and honours the abundance of the earth. It is a feast and a performance, a gathering of the community and a spectacle for the senses.

I can’t decide, the food or the play? This is such a great dinner event and the theatrics are so engaging and fun. I’d like to list every detail of this event, but I don’t wish to spoil it for those who have not yet, attended, and each year there are new and more wonderful surprises. It’s all part of, The Great Secret.

Why do we call it “The Great Secret” because we do not reveal the details in advance. Those who attend are asked to come with open hearts and curious minds, ready to be surprised, delighted, and transported to another time. But we can say this much: There is fire. Great bonfires blaze in the fields, their light flickering against the darkness. There is food— roasted meat and fresh bread, vegetables from the garden, cider and wine. There is music—fiddles and drums, hurdy-gurdies and bagpipes, songs that echo across the fields.

There are horses, their riders in medieval costume, galloping through the firelight. There is a dragon, terrible and magnificent, a damsel in distress, and a hero who rises to save her. There is a flaming dessert, carried in procession, its flames dancing like the bonfires. And there is laughter, and wonder, and the sense that for one night, we have stepped out of the modern world and into the medieval, into a time when the harvest was a matter of life and death, when the community gathered to give thanks and to celebrate, when the turning of the seasons was marked with ceremony and joy.

The Medieval Harvest Dinner is not just a meal or a performance. It is a ritual, a blessing of nature and a way we honour the work of the harvest, the abundance of the earth, and the whole community that makes it all possible. It is a reminder that we are part of a long tradition, that the festivals we celebrate today are the same festivals our ancestors celebrated centuries ago, that the rhythms of the natural world connects us to the past and to the future. And it is a secret, because some things are too precious to be explained. They must simply be experienced.

What a way to spend the evening. Now, nay, I’ll say no more!

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To Autumn
By John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run…

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The Order of the Evening
The Welcoming Doors open — the hall fills, the fires are lit.
The Norse Blessing — Our Asatru brothers and sisters open the feast.
The First Table — A Disturbance in the Field.
The Second Table — Something Wicked This Way Comes.
The Third Table — If we survive.
A Procession of Fire.
The Children’s Blessing of Thanks.
The Passing of the Sword.

The Medieval Table
In the Middle Ages, a great feast was eaten with the hands. This is that feast. Expect roasted goose meat — bread torn from the loaf, vegetables from the harvest, cider and wine poured freely. Water bowls and linen towels are provided for the hands. Use them. Bibs will be provided. Wear yours. This is not a suggestion.

After the Garden Blessing, we open the dinner with a glass of mead, and drink to the Autumn Harvest. Cheers!
Appetizer — Peasant Tray: Brie, Smoked Goud, Sharp Cheddar, and Comté with  apples and a glass of Mead.
The Pottage — parsnip, leek and thyme soup, served in bread bowls.
The Bread — dark harvest loaf, torn at the table.
The Goose — roasted, with pan dripping sauce.
The Vegetarian Harvest Pie — mushroom and root vegetable, for our meatless guests.
Roasted rosemary potatoes.
Carrots and beets — roasted with honey and thyme.
The Salad — three leaves, capers, green olives, red onion, sunflower seeds, vinaigrette.
The Cheese Board — aged cheddar, soft chèvre, honeycomb, dried fruit, and fresh blackberries, if no frost arrived.
Something Sweet — candied walnuts, dried figs, marzipan.
The Flaming Dessert — Baked Alaska, carried in procession.
Apple Bread Pudding  — walnut, raisin and figs.
Safer Than Water  — Cider and Wine throughout.

What to Wear
Come ready for an adventure — not a dinner party. Medieval costume is warmly encouraged, but casual is fine, our best white shirt is not. There will be fire. There will be food eaten with bare hands. There will be smoke, and cider, and in all likelihood something unexpected from the direction of the field. Leave Sunday best at home. You will need a shower when you get home. This is a promise and a guarantee.

A Note for Those Who Have Been Before
Each year brings new surprises. Each year the dragons are more terrible, the hero more daring, the flaming dessert more spectacular. Even those who think they know what is coming do not know what is coming. The Great Secret holds. Do not spoil it for others.

Practical
Date: Saturday, September 25th
Doors Open: 5:00 PM
Tickets: $50 per person, $35 for member.
Limited seating. Multiple evenings available.
Reserve early — this feast fills quickly.

In the afternoon before the feast, the community gathers in the garden for the harvest blessing — a prayer of thanksgiving for what the earth has given, a prayer of hope that what has been gathered will carry us through the winter, a prayer of remembrance for those who came before us and those who will come after. It is a simple thing, and a profound one. The evening that follows is neither simple nor quiet — but it begins here, in gratitude, in the last light of a September afternoon.

 

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Michaelmas
September 29th
10AM – 4PM

The Feast of Saint Michael – Quis Ut Deus
Seven days after the equinox falls the feast of Saint Michael and All Angels — Michaelmas — the warrior archangel’s day, arriving precisely when darkness has begun to gain the upper hand. It is a defiant feast, deliberately placed.

Michael stands at the threshold between light and dark, between the ordered world and the chaos beyond it, and does not yield. In the old agricultural calendar, Michaelmas marked the true close of the harvest — accounts were settled, contracts renewed, the last of the season’s labour reckoned and rewarded.

Michaelmas, has been marked as one of the great festivals of the Christian calendar. It celebrates the triumph of good over evil, of light over darkness, of the archangel Michael defeating the dragon and casting it into the abyss. There are a number of events that take place. The earliest is the Archangels Michael expelling the devil from heaven, we will lean later where he lands on earth.

In medieval Europe, Michaelmas was a major holiday, marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of autumn. It was said,  “He who eats goose on Michaelmas day, Shan’t money lack or debts pay.” The season was usually a time of economic plenty during the harvest, and whilst preparing the spoils for winter. It was also the time for settling debts, renewing leases, and electing officials. If you were late with what you owed a goose often held your debt at bay. One thing was certain, it was the time for celebration—feasting, dancing, and games after the long days of summer and working and gathering in the fields.

Today, we celebrate Michaelmas as a festival for children and families, an outdoor gathering that captures the joy and energy of the season. St Michael, Arch-Angel Mi-chi-el, is the Angel of the Age. He is the harvester, separating the wheat from the chaff. To the children, he is personified by St. George who slays the dragon, good always triumphs over evil. To the adult, he is the eagle, the warrior, protecting and preserving the good. He, is always depicted with his sword or spear, transforming thoughts and deeds, from the center of the earth to the heights of the heavens. The child will sing,

“St. Michael is our soldier,
his sword shines in the sun,
he’ll help protect God’s children
till all the wars are won.”

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The Aster — Flower of the Threshold

The aster blooms at Michaelmas, and not by coincidence. Its name comes from the ancient Greek *asteria* — star. It flowers precisely when everything else in the garden has finished, the last colour before the frost, the earth’s own lamp held against the coming dark.

The legend tells that the aster sprang from the tears of Astraea — goddess of justice, whose name too means star — it is said that she wept when she looked down from the heavens and found no stars reflected in the earth below. It is said that where her tears fell the flowers grew. And so at the season’s edge, the earth answered heaven with its own small lights.

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“The Michaelmas Daisies, among dede weeds,
Bloom for St Michael’s valorous deeds.
And seems the last of flowers that stood,
Till the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude.”

Asters also symbolize love, loyalty, wisdom, light, and power.  There is a Lore that since the flower looks like a star that stars are to be wished upon, so many tell their wish or dream to the flower and then give it to the person they would like to share that dream with, but it is said that you must never tell your wish to anyone or it will never come true.

The aster is also a native flower throughout Europe. It expresses faithfulness and is the symbol of eternal love. Asters are also friends to bees and butterflies long after the other flowers have gone. They only fall back long after the first frost or the first snow. They are among the last living things in the garden standing.

The white aster is the flower of the Archangel Michael. During this special and iconic time of the year we also experience meteoric iron showers,  we can see them trail at night, they are called shooting stars, you may wish upon them as well. These meteoric showers begin in late August and build throughout September. This is the time of year where the Sword of Michael gathers its luster. The iron dust falling from the sky and lands upon the metal this event reinforces the strength of his sword.

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The Goose
In Medieval England September was a time of the fatted green goose. It was also the time to settle debts and if you were late a goose went over well to keep the landlord happy, for a while. During the Renaissance under Queen Elizabeth I, she was dining on Michaelmas evening with her Lord Steward, Sir Christopher Hatton, when she received the news that the Spanish Armada had been sighted off the English coast. Quickly she sent her navy to attack. Word came the Armada was defeated. There was much merry making and drinking  – and she was just happening to be eating goose and promptly declared it was lucky to be doing so, thus making it an official act to eat Goose on Michaelmas!

Of course, this story is what is called, anachronistic, for you see the Spanish Armada fell in July, of 1588, not September its demise was due to  great English naval tactics, strategic blunders on their part, and devastating weather. They were outgunned and outmaneuvered, the Spanish fleet was ultimately forced into a disastrous retreat around the British Isles, losing half its ships and thousands of men to storms and starvation.

So you see it is not a true story, however, it is a story that has lasted over 400 years. How exactly the tradition developed means little after gracing the Michaelmas table for over 400 years.

Regardless of how you embrace the legend, our celebration arrives today in chili pots. And due to our methods of preservation, the full roasted bird awaits the veterans well past the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude at Martinmas.

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The Michaelmas Festival
With a slight chill in the air, Michaelmas is our last family outdoor festival for the year. The celebration takes place in the fields and woods surrounding the community — a full day of running, creating, eating, and wandering.

As the autumn winds blow, emerging from the hills come Kite Masters. They test the winds and smell the air. Then by a string they bring forth this tailed creature. It tries to break free, untamed, it wishes to fly chaotically, full of tumult and pandemonium, it longs to follow away with the wind. The Master holds taut the string, the creature spins, twirls, bobs and dances until it finds the rhythm and symmetry between the earth and the sky. Once tamed by the master it floats above, effortlessly, and if it had its way, it would dance forever with the wind. Once the master has had his fun, it calmly returns the creature to the ground.

Run & Play
Kite Flying — all ages
The kites are up and the sky is full of colour. Learn to build and master this paper and string.

Squirrel Run — you must be this tall, this high, right about here, and weigh enough, but not too little.
Can you out-run a squirrel? Probably not. Try anyway.

Playground — all ages

Hut Building in the Woods — ages 7 and up
Find your materials. Build your shelter. Leave no trace.

Bow and Arrow — ages 9 and up
Targets set in the meadow, instructors on hand. Learn to draw a bow properly before you loose an arrow.

The Obstacle Course
Ages 5 and under must have a guardian at all times. Drowning is not allowed.

First, collect your treasures from the field: a stone, a stick, a leaf, a pine cone or acorn. Remember where you have been. Complete the course and there is a reward waiting.

1. Toss the stone — three throws: close, not so close, far away.
2. Walk the crab — run the spiral three times on all fours like a crab.
3. Balance the beaver — walk across the creek on the log. Do not fall in.
4. Jump the frog — stone to stone across the creek. Do not fall in!
5. Duck like a duck — under the string, over the string one foot, over the string two feet — three times.
6. Climb the mighty mountain — bales of hay, to the summit.
7. Fly the flying squirrel — across the deep ravine and safely home.
You have FINISHED the Course!

Bring your treasures to the Muffin Man and trade them for a fresh muffin and a cup of cider.
Did you lose your treasures whilst adventuring? Find the ginkgo tree. Bring three fallen fans for the fairy elf. That will do.

Arts & Crafts
– Face painting — choose your animal, all ages.
– Autumn crowns — maple and oak leaves, ginkgo berries, pine cones, acorns — all ages.
– Aster crowns and chains — all ages. Pick your star flowers from the prairie, acres of them, learn how to weave the flowers.
– Banner making and overhead tunics — ages 4 and up. You are a knight. Look like one!
– Tissue stars and transparencies — ages 7 and up.
– Swords and shields making — ages 8 and up (materials fee applies). The woodworkers have made simple but sturdy swords and shields. Children may take them into the woods or the prairie for mock battles — reenacting the story of Saint George and the dragon, which, by end of day, they will know very well indeed.

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Sit & Listen
-The Puppet Show — Little Red Cap. This is the classic Grimm tale in its original form — since the tale is darker and wiser the story is told in a very matter of fact way. A link to this version of the story is above and available at the festival table for families who wish to read it together at home. All ages.
-The Play — Saint George and the Dragon As the sun hangs low, the children’s theatre takes the field. All ages.
-The Autumn Blessing — to close the day

 

Cook & Eat
All ages. You will need teeth.
– Create your own dragon bread — shape it, bake it, eat it.
– Dragon pizza.
– A bowl of chili — vegetable or goose chili, made from the harvest.
– Bread and apple pudding.
– Apple picking, in the orchard — taste the first warm cider of the season.
– Spicy apple cider, pear and currant soda.
– As always, strolling musicians, join them in songs about Michael, autumn asters and the dragon!

 

The Edible Woods Walk there are 3 walks  11AM, 1PM 3PM,
Guides lead walks through the woods, pointing out wild mushrooms and berries, teaching children and parents to recognize what is safe to eat and what is not. This is knowledge that was once common. It should be again. At the end of this walk we make our way to the Orchard.

 

The Pumpkin Patch & Orchard
Choose your pumpkin. Take it home. There is also a demonstration of how to bake a small pumpkin whole for pumpkin pie — simpler than you think, and better than anything from a can. This  begins at 12:30PM and 1:30PM

 

The Play — Saint George and the Dragon. shhh… listen…
At the end of the day, as the sun hangs low and the shadows lengthen, the children’s theatre performs the story of Saint George and the Dragon. It is a simple play, but powerful. 2PM

Saint George, the brave knight — shield in one hand, sword in the other, cape thrashing like a kite in the mighty wind — faces the dragon that has terrorised the village. The dragon is fierce and terrible. It breathes fire. But Saint George does not falter. He makes the sign of the cross. He raises his sword. He strikes the dragon down.

The village is saved. Good triumphs over evil.

The children cheer, parents applaud, the message is clear: even in the face of darkness, even as the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer, courage and faith must prevail. This is not merely a play. Watch the child who plays Saint George. Remember their face. They have been chosen, given charge of this duty for a reason.

The Passing of the Sword
At the close of the day, when the play is done and twilight approaches, something happens that those who witness it do not forget.

The adult Saint George — he who carried the sword at the Harvest Dinner four nights past — returns to the field. He approaches the child who has played the role today. He takes the wooden sword from the child’s hands. And it becomes metal in his.

The child who received the charge of that sword at the dinner felt its weight. To him this is no longer a part, it is destiny. This child has been given something sacred and real. A responsibility that will travel with him through the months ahead, through the festival of autumn and winter, and through the turning of the year. He and others like him will stand at the All Hallows Fest, Martinmas, and all winter celebrations, carrying something the other children who see him will one day carry. When those children see his appointed duty he will become a beacon to them, and as a reminder to those who once stood in his place of the duty that they too have been given charge.

Whoever holds this role holds it for life. Twenty years from now they may stand in the same field, on this same evening, and place the sword in the hand of a child who looks up at them with the same wide and trusting eyes ready to take charge of their duty.

This is how knights are made. This is how a community keeps faith with its future.
Please, do not tell the child in advance what is coming. Let them come to their own realization.

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The Autumn Blessing
Brave and true I will be,
Each good deed sets me free.
Each kind word makes me strong.
I will fight for the right;
I will conquer the wrong.
Earth grows dark and fear is lurking,
O Saint Michael, Heaven’s knight,
Go before us now and lead us,
Out of darkness, into light.

 

Autumn is the season of ripened fruits — that which was sown is now reaped. The trees dress in their true colours, and all of nature begins its long, deep sleep. But man, in his thinking, begins to wake. His power of thought grows sharper as the days grow darker. As the cold winds begin to blow, we have our swords and our shields to keep us safe, and our capes to keep us warm.

The unexpected frost will come without announcement — a killing night in mid-September or perhaps not until October, but always sooner than expected. It is the season’s final and most honest word.

Gather what you can, while the gathering remains possible.

See you in the field.

Date: September 29th
Hours: 10AM — 4PM
Location: The fields and woods of the community
Dress for the weather. Wear something you don’t mind getting muddy.
Asters will be blooming in the prairie. Bring something to carry them home in.

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Devil’s Day
blackberry harvest
When the Devil was cast out of heaven by the Archangel Michael, he fell to the earth. As he fell, he left a trail of ice in the shape of a serpent behind him. This was the first frost.  Landing, he tumbled into the bramble of a briar. The fruit on the briar immediately turned black. As he pried himself loose of the thorns, he turned and cursed the berries with his spit. The berries began to swell, some froze, some grew mold, some of them filled with maggots. This is why you never pick and eat blackberries after the first frost. Be wise lads and lassies, there is no set date for the Devil’s Day, it only comes with the first frost, when picking blackberries do it before the first frost, and when the sun is shining fully and on the briar. -Eliza Loon

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Friday Spaghetti Dinner
St Joseph Autumn Friday Meal – Spaghetti Dinner
4PM-8PM. Factory Hall.

St. Joseph Friday Spaghetti Dinner is a wonderful community tradition. Beginning in September, Friday evenings gather the family, neighbors, members, and guests together at the Swan Factory. Our large hall has plenty of room and tables to bring all the local folks together.

Every Friday in Autumn we serve a delicious homemade family style spaghetti dinner, with rich tomato sauce, savory meatballs, and parmesan cheese. Dinner includes: salad, bread, coffee, tea, milk, juice, and a homemade cookie. For A la Carte items, beverages and desserts will be available at an additional cost.

Music is provided by Banjo Cat and Fiddle De Dee, Guitarist JW Malaki, with occasional special guest Kylan Elliot Gieseking on the piano, and let’s not forget Fun-time Jim Welks will bring his concertina. Join us for a lovely dinner and music night out with family and friends.

You may responsibly bring your own bottle of wine.

Dine-in and carry-outs are available.
You may pre-order for carry-outs using our Spaghetti & Meatballs Dinner Pre-Order Form.
The pre-order deadline is Wednesday 5PM.
Adult Meals $10.00
Child Meals $5.00

Volunteers
Join us every Thursday at 3PM in the cafeteria to help roll the meatballs, wrap silverware and set up the hall and kitchen.
On Fridays, we need waiters and a dishwasher from 4PM to 8PM.
On Friday, we also need help cleaning the hall starting at 3PM and again at 8PM.

If you plan on helping, please make sure to contact the volunteer coordinators so they can plan accordingly.
Please, leave your name, phone number, along with the duty and shift you prefer to work with the wonderful cooks from St Josephs. All Volunteers are entitled to a free dinner.

All Proceeds support St. Joseph’s Kitchen, Sports Programs, Father & Sons camping & skilled events.
We are a non-profit organization, donations are always welcomed – tax forms available.

Please join us for Dinner every Friday evening, from 4PM until 8PM in the Swan Factory Hall.
Spaghetti, tasty meatballs, good company, and a bottle of your own.

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Yearly Friday Night Dinner Calendar
~September through Thanksgiving – Spaghetti & Meatballs Dinner, Salad, Italian Bread, Cheese, and Cookie.
~Advent through The Friday Before Ash Wednesday – Chicken Chili, Tossed Salad, Sourdough Bread, Cheese, and Pie.
~Ash Wednesday through Good Friday – Fish, Tartar & Lemon, Coleslaw, Rye Bread, and Custard.
~Easter through St Johns Tide – Chicken or Veggie Soups, Salad, 12 Grain bread, and Brownie.

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Looking Ahead
The Christmas Play is coming! — and it begins now. Theatre Club opens rehearsals this month for the annual Christmas Medieval Play. New and returning cast members welcome. Children’s parts available. If you’ve ever wanted to be on stage this is your moment. Sign up at the Front Office starting September 1st, or contact the director directly.
Contact: Anatoly Bergman & Patrick Manda — [phone/email] — Rehearsals begin [October]. 

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SEPTEMBER SCHEDULE
Most of the PEACH is closed from August 15th through Tuesday after Labor Day

The PEACH Community is closed on Labor Day
September is the harvest month — nature’s great exhale after the abundance of summer. The community returns from vacation, the studios and clubs reopen, and the rhythm of autumn begins. The second and largest harvest of the year is underway. Canning, drying, preserving, and cleaning up fill the weeks between Labor Day and Michaelmas. The Autumnal Equinox marks the turning, and the Medieval Harvest Dinner & Festival closes the month in celebration. Welcome back!

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I. Festivals & Celebrations
All participants check in with Club Leaders the day before each event at 4PM. Potluck Dinner at 6PM.

Devil’s Day: “Sep, reminder of harvest, radio stories, or folklore (e.g., blackberries bitter after frost).”
Weekend Canning and Drying. Breaking Down and Sealing Up.

Autumnal Equinox — September 21st  – September 21st or 22nd. Gathering in the Garden to the Woods at the Turning.
Harvest Blessing: “Last Sunday [See Spiritual].”
Harvest Festival Choirs: “Sep 21st [See Fine Arts > Music].
Gathering in the Garden to the Woods at the Turning. At the hour, at First Dawn, and at First Twilight, the Bell is rung 12 times. Tours at 10AM, 2PM, and 4PM. Must register. All skill shops open and on display.

Harvest Festival Dinner — Time: Last Weekend in September, 6PM – 9PM. Topic: Royal Huntsmen, St George and the Dragon, Dinner, Eat Like it’s 476, 800, or 1066! Medieval Harvest Dinner & Festival — Last Weekend in September Medieval Harvest Dinner & Play: St George and the Dragon 300 AD.

The Great Secret. Meat and drink, theatre and song, fire, horses, beautiful costumes, a dragon, a damsel in distress, a hero, a flaming dessert, and the hurdy-gurdy. Nay, we’ll say no more! See schedule for dates and times.

Michaelmas — September 29th – Outdoor Festival for children and parents. Kite flying, horseshoes, relay races, archery, pony and donkey rides, goat feeding, egg gathering. Woodworkers create swords and shields for children to sand and paint. Hike in the edible woods, apple orchard walk, pumpkin picking, pumpkin pie demonstration. Star flowers in the prairie. Warm pretzels, bread pudding, spicy apple cider, pear and currant soda, strolling musicians. Concludes with St. George and the Dragon performed by the children’s theatre.

(tied to harvest, radio stories, or folklore, e.g., blackberries bitter after frost); members submit stories to celebrate imagination.”

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II. Clubs
*All Art Classes and Work Studios reopen after Labor Day. Welcome back!
Clubs resume after Labor Day unless otherwise noted.
No Shop September 1st through Labor Day.
Members, Studio at will unless noted.
Studio access: 24/7 for skilled members only; general arts members use regular hours with appointment, time banker required.”.

IIa. Fine Arts
— Rehearsals resume for Medieval Harvest Festival. Dance, Theatre, and Music preparing for the September festivals and the Autumnal Equinox gathering.

Dance and Movement Club — Time: 24/7.  Topic: Skilled Members. Location: Dance Studio Northwoods.

• Focus: Rehearsal, Event – Medieval Dinner Dances, [Prokofiev]. S, 2PM-4PM & R, 7PM-9PM.
• Practice: Traditional Dance:. S, 1PM-4PM.
• Couples Dancing Lessons: T, 7PM-8PM. S, 4PM-6PM.
• Ballet & Stretching: T, 4PM-6PM.
• Personal Dance Studio: Specialty Dance – M-W, 1PM-3PM, 3PM-5PM. Sign Up.

Film & Photography Club —

• Film Work – Time: F, 7PM. Klint Art Building Theatre.
• Film Friday – 8PM. Topic: Hitchcock.  Saturday Matinée 2PM. Theme: Depicting Early Christian and Medieval films. Location: Klint Art Building Theatre.
• Film Class – Time: D, 3PM.  Questions. Topic: 8mm, Monthly Studio Work. Meeting 1st Sunday 3PM–6PM. Location: Lower Level – Klint Art Building.
• Photography –  Time: Studio – Open 24/7 to members. Topic: Dark Room. Studio Dark Room: 8AM -10PM newbies. Location: Lower Level – Klint Art Building.
• Photography Classes – Time: D, 4PM-6PM. Topic: Box Camera & Intro B/W. Location: Lower Level- Klint Art Building.

Music Club —

• Concert Band Performance Rehearsals – Time: T–W–R,  4PM–9PM. Topic: Harvest Festival. Royal Huntsmen. Lower Level – Klint Art Building.
• Epic Concert Ban – Time: Friday 7PM – 10PM. Topic: Sight Reading. Lower Level – Klint Art Building.
• Choir Performa Rehearsal- Time: T–W–R,  4PM–9PM. Topic: Harvest Festival. Royal Huntsmen. Lower Level – Klint Art Building.
• Choir Rehearsals – Time: R,  7PM–9PM. Topic: Practice & Warm-ups. Chapel.
• Chamber Ensemble – Time: M, 7PM–9PM. Topic: Rehearsals & Sight Reading. Lower Level – Klint Art Building.
• Wind Ensemble – Time: T, 7:30 PM.  Topic: Rehearsals & Sight Reading. Lower Level – Klint Art Building.

Music Performances — 

• Concert Band –  Time: 2PM to 4PM Labor Day. Topic: Summer Afternoon Labor Day Patio Concert, Americana.
• Harvest Festival Performance –  Time: Friday September 25. 4PM–9PM. Topic:  Hunting Horn, Bugle, Trumpets, French Horns. Ancient Instruments. Contact: Dr. Spyros Poieo.

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Painting — Time: T, R, 2PM – 5PM.  Topic: Oil & Gouache. Location: Klint Art Building.

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Theatre —

• Harvest Theatre Club — Time: T–W–R,  4PM–9PM.  Topic: Harvest Festival; St. George and the Dragon. Gym.
• Oberufer Theatre Club — Time: M- F, 6PM-8PM. Topic: Sign Up 15 September – Oberufer Rehearsal Christmas Medieval Play Preparation.  Location:  Theatre – Klint Art Building.
• Theatre Roman Circus wrap-up. Time: Saturday 3PM–5PM Location: Gym. 

Theatre Performances — 

• Harvest Festival Performance –  Time: Friday September 25. 4PM–9PM. Topic: Harvest Festival; St. George and the Dragon. Gym.

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IIb. Folk Art
— Autumn collecting season begins in earnest. Wool washing, natural dyes, basketry materials gathered. Papermaking continues. Nature field trips posted on the bulletin board and online.

Bakers Club — Time: Monday: 4PM. Topics: Jam, Preserves & Pickling. Location: Cafeteria.

Book Binding — Time: Saturday Classes 9AM–Noon. Topics: Fabrics, Binding with Glue. Apprentices – W-R-F, 10AM–4PM. T, Farmer’s Market, 10AM-4PM. Location: Big House.

Cordwaining — Time: Saturday Classes, 9AM-Noon. Topic: Intro to Tools.  Apprentices Hours W-R-F, 10AM–4PM. T, Farmer’s Market, 10AM-4PM. Location: Bog House.

Culinary Arts Club — Class I – Time: 2nd and Last Wednesday, 10AM–Noon. Topic: Jam, Preserves & Pickling. Class II – Time: 2nd and Last Wednesday, 1PM–5PM. Topic: Pickling & Cheese. Community Canning. Location: Cafeteria. No Solo Studio

Folk Arts Clubs — Time:  M-W-F – 9AM- Noon. Topic: Craft Class – General meeting and orientation for the folk craft season held the week before the Autumnal Equinox. Location: Klint Art Building.

Field Trip – Time:  F-S D 9AM-Noon. Topic: Nature collecting field trips. Collecting & Brewing –  Making of plant pigments and natural dyes. Silk & Wool Washing. Cording & Basketry materials gathered. Dates and times posted online and on bulletin board. Location: Meet-up at the Skilled Shed.

Sewing Club —  Time: M–W 9AM–Noon, and at will. Topic: Quilting continues. Creating, mending, and fitting of costumes for Medieval Harvest Festival. Location:  Klint Art Building; top floor and Mom & Tots Patio Room.

Stained-Glass — Time: S, 11AM-2PM & W 5PM-7PM.  Topic: Lamps, Windows, Individual Creations.  Location: Swan Building 4th Floor. No Solo Studio

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IIc. Skilled Art
Skilled Arts — All shops reopen after Labor Day. Stonecutters continue through September. Ceramics, Glassblowing, Blacksmithing, Woodworking, and Printmaking resume regular hours.

.Blacksmithing — Time: T,W, R, F, S 9AM–4PM. Journeymen Only. Topics: Fire, Forging, Ventilation, Tools & Practice. Saturday Class 1PM–4PM. Iron forging demonstrations last Friday of month 4 PM to 6 PM. Location: Studio Buildings. No Solo Studio.

PEACH Farm & Garden Club  — Time: Sun up till sun down – Topics: September 1st Farm meeting 7PM. Monthly Schedule Location: Farmer’s House

• Check-in —  Harvest work,  Farm and garden work intensifies with the harvest. September is the second and largest harvest of the year. All hands welcome for harvest work.
• Ground Walkers – 3 volunteers rotate, 7 elders backup. Follow List, check for Distress.
• Ongoing daily care essentials & animal care. Morning and afternoon chores at the crack of dawn. Location: Barn & Busy Triangle.
• Every Tuesday, Farmer’s Market in the parking lot 10AM–4PM through October. If weather is harsh, vendors move to the gym.
• Check schedule for impromptu guest speakers. Topic: List [Farmer & Admin Sec].
• Perma-forest Farm, Animal & Land restoration – Topic: Seeding, State of the land.
• Gardens: landscaping – Berry picking, Straw cover, mix Compost.
• After Harvest – Straw cover, mix Compost.
• Knotting, & Whittling – After Dinner. Location: Farmer’s House.

Glassblowing — Time:  M, W, 4PM-8PM. F, 2PM-6PM. Topics: Class – History Lecture, Tools, Expectations, Safety. Studio Hours – Experience & Demonstration by appointment.  Topic: Basic Glass Techniques. Location: Swan Factory. No Solo Studio

Masonry & Mosaic — Time: Between 8AM and 7PM. This is not a traditional club, more of an apprenticeship.  Topic: The Art Building floor project, and going out on jobs with Kip. — learn by doing. Location: Mason’s Shed,  Job site,  Klint Art Building, & Small Office Next to Swan Building .

Pottery  & Ceramics  — Time: T & R, 1PM-4PM.  Topic: Pinch Pots, Slab, Wedging, Kneading, Slip. Location: Studio Buildings. Wheel-throwing Demonstrations last Friday of month 4PM to 6 PM.

Printshop & Printmaking — Time: T, R, 9PM-Noon. S, 9AM–Noon. Topic: Wood Cut: Tools & Brayer. T, 10AM-4PM Farmer’s Market. Location: Printer’s House, Post Office, Farmer’s Market. Gutenberg-style printing Demonstrations last Friday of month 4PM to 6 PM.

Woodworking —Time: W-F, 1PM-4PM.Topic: Building, Drawing, Design, Layout, Carving. Location: Studio Buildings.

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IId. Educational Art
Book Clubs — There are a number of Books Clubs within the community based on topic, genre and age. The Weekly Book Club is held in the Great Room in front of our beautiful stone fireplace. For smaller Book Club groups, there are several available meeting rooms, as well as, the library. Please check with the Scheduling Office. We ask that participants please clean up after their meeting, replacing chairs, wiping tables, sweeping and vacuuming, so that all is clean and orderly for other group meetings in the future. Book Clubs may form several groups and meet more than once a week. Check the Book Club Schedule in C&K.

• Book Club – Adult — Time: R, 7PM. Topic: Classic Novel Brother’s Karamazov. Location: Lobby. ALT-Locations: Administration, Solon, Cabin & Library Buildings.
• Book Club for Tots — Between the ages of 3 and 7 — Time: 2nd and 4th Sunday at 2PM.  Topic: Fairy Tales told by the puppet troupe. Location: Mom and Tots Room.
• Book Club for Children -Between the ages of 8 and 11 — Time: S, 2PM Topic: 1 hour of reading out loud in the Administration Building Lobby by the fireplace.
• Book Club – Teens — Time: F, 4PM. Topic: Lord of the Rings. Location: Library Conference Room. ALT-Locations: Administration, Solon, Cabin & Library Buildings. Book Clubs may form several groups and meet more than once a week. Check the Book Club Schedule in C&K.

Business Club —Time: Adv. M-W, 3PM. – Beg. M-W, 4PM. Topic: Need Help with Math? School Work, Book Keeping, Taxes, Grants.  Location: The Cabin.

Father & Sons Club — Time: M, 7PM-9PM. S, 10AM-4PM. Topic: Skill Animal Husbandry and Gardening continue. Harvest work. Archery, Fishing, Sailing. Meetings Monday 7PM. Location: Farm & Admin. Free Speech Conference Room.

Goethean Science — Time: S, D. 9AM – Noon. F 7PM – 9PM Topic: Week 3: How Goethe’s Theory of Metamorphosis Arose. Week 4: How Goethe’s Thoughts on the Development of the Animals Arose. Week 5: Goethe’s Writings on Organic Development. Locations: Dance Studio In the Woods & Lecture Hall 1. Members only with exception.

Home Life Club — Office Hours: T, R, 10AM-Noon. Group Meetings  – Time: 7PM, 2nd Wednesday of each Month. Topic: History of Parenting.  Location: The Cabin.

Lecture Series — History of Western Culture – Topics: History, Art, Philosophy. Location: Lecture Hall 1. Theatre, 1st Floor Conference Room. Lunchroom, Swan Building. Cabin in the woods. Art Studio – Klint Art Building Conference Room 5th floor. Chapel.

• History of Western Civilization — Time: 7PM, 1st and 3rd Wednesday. Topic: Part I—First Council of Nicaea, Roman Emperor Constantine I, 325 AD. The Celts Pre-Christian through 376 BC. Farming, The Harvest. Equinox.  Location: Lecture Hall I – Admin Building. Speakers: Professor James Burke & Alexander Archiver.
• Art History of Western Civilization — Time: 7PM, 2nd and 3rd Mondays. Topic: Early Christianity through Early Medieval; Pagan & Christian Art Evolution. Location: Lecture Hall I. Admin Building Speakers: Professor Knestor Jackdaws & Alexander Archiver.
• Philosophy History Of Western Civilization — Time: 7PM Friday. Topics: End of Rome to Christianity. Constantine, Augustine, Early Church Fathers. Location: Lecture Hall I. Speakers: Alexander Archiver & Keith Woods.
• Religion & Spiritualty Series— Time: 7PM, 1st Sunday of the Month. Topic: The Esoteric Mission of Michael. Location: Chapel. Guest Speaker: Rev. Bergmann.

Mom & Tots — Time: M–W 9AM–Noon. Topic: Regular Schedule Outside Water and Sandbox Play, Baking, Nature Walks, Storytime.  Location: Admin. Building Play Room & Patio.

Writer’s Club — Time: 2nd Saturday 1PM–3PM.  Topic: Foundation seasonal short story: physical descriptive detail, feeling of the season, senses, includes a memory, and the “just-then” element.  NOTE: Members submit stories to celebrate imagination of the Season & Harvest.

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III. Sports & Movement
All sports resume after Labor Day unless otherwise noted.

Dance Studio In The Woods — Open to all performers at various times. See Dance Club Schedule.

Father & Sons — Archery, Fishing, Sailing. With permission others may join. See Schedule and Itineray.

Field Sports, At-Will— Tennis, badminton, softball, hiking, camping, fishing, biking, snow shoes, cross country. Summer equipment available M–D 8AM–6PM. Please return all Equipment to the shed when finished. If something is broken please report it to Nancy Dean,  Rev. Graham or Father Tim.

Roman Circus Rehearsals — Saturday Afternoons 3PM–5PM, ages 12 and up. Wrapping up for the season.

Softball Teams— June through Labor Day. Tuesday 4PM ages 12–16. Thursday 4PM mixed ages and picnic. Thursday 7PM men’s softball. Field & Gym. Adult Softball can go past Labor Day.

Spatial Dynamics — Saturday mornings. Tiny dancers 9AM–10:30AM ages 6–9 and 12–15. Ages 16 and up 11AM–12:30PM.

Sun Walkers — Daily, 10 minutes before sunrise. Chapel Door.

Yoga — Dance Studio In The Woods. Independent Group. M–F 8AM–9AM.

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IV. Spiritual
Services – Sundays 7 AM, 10AM,  Noon. 
Holiday Service very check 
Note: Yearly Schedule Link via Admin: Nancy Dean.

Ásatrúarfélagið Magnus Hjaltason – Asatru.
Reverend Thomas Graham – Lutheran.
Father Timothy Meadows – Catholic.
Reverend Rosemary Bergman – Christian Community.

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V. Administrative
All offices closed August 15th through Labor Day
Regular Business Hours, 9AM–5PM. Meetings, Thursdays 2PM, Conference Room.

Office of the President — Contact Nancy Dean for scheduling and appointments.

Community Events Committee — 1st and 3rd Weeks, Thursday 1PM, Library Room 1.

Elder’s Club & Guardians — Thursdays, 4PM, Conference Room. Potluck dinner.

Festival & Seasonal Events Calendar Committee — Members meet M–W–R, 9AM–Noon (by appointment), Festival’s Office, Library Room 2. All participating leaders meet the night before each event at 7PM for updates and last-minute changes. Potluck Dinner at 6PM (in the cafeteria).

Guardians — First Thursday of the month, Noon  4PM. Lunch served in the Conference Room.

Maintenance — Regular hours. Leave a phone message, fill out a form at the Post Office, or contact online. Emergency number for after-hours only.

Residents — Residents are asked to keep a watchful eye for any problems or emergencies and report them to the police if necessary, but always notify maintenance immediately. If it causes you worry, it is not a burden — we want to know. Please use common sense, do not put yourself in harm’s way. Never speculate — report as many physical and factual details as possible, including numbers, times, and dates. We want everyone who lives, works, and visits our community to remain safe and always feel that they can enjoy our community without Eris or Discordia (strife or discord).

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VI. Businesses
Note: Most businesses resume regular autumn hours after Labor Day.
 All Businesses are Closed Mondays – Some Closed on Sundays.
The PEACH is not automated, it is a People Orientated Community [POC]. Please, keep that in mind and call first to see if the business is open or in attendant. Note; If we are here a person will answer.

Bicycle & Ski Co-Op — Summer Hours: T–W–R–S 10AM–6PM. F 10AM–10PM. D 10AM–4PM. 24/7 Emergency Bicycle Repair Box.

Café Four Seasons — Summer Hours: T-W-R 11AM–8PM, F-S 10:AM–9PM. Saturday Morning Farmer’s Breakfast: 8AM-11AM. Sunday Brunch: 11AM-2PM.
September Menu: Harvest Bounty. Lunch 11AM – 2PM. Dinner 4PM-8PM.— Appetizers: Peasant Fair – sliced Apples, Farmer’s Cheese & Fresh Onion Bread. Harvest Delights: Toomuchofthis & Thisagain?. Salads: Tossed or Kale, Beet, & Cottage Cheese w/Mustard Dressing, Chopped Red Onions & Walnuts. Dessert: Everything Apple. Refreshments: Apple, Lemon & Bancha Twig Tea (hot or cold), Apple Cinnamon Soda, Cinnamon Coffee, w/ honey & cream, and a slice of apple. Breakfast: 1 Goose Egg, 3 Soldiers, and Scones with fresh butter and a side of blackberry and currents preserves.

Charlotte “Lotte” Gallery — Library Hours 9AM – 5PM. S, 9AM – 2PM.

Daughters of Asclepius Apothecary — Store Hours: T,W,R,F,S.10AM- 6PM. Services: Field Trips and Preparation. S. 9AM-3PM. Home Visits & Delivery: 11AM-4PM. Closed Sundays & Mondays.

Daughters of Asclepius Clinic — Clinic Hours: T,W,R,F. 9AM-3PM. Closed Sundays & Mondays. Home Visits After, 4PM (appointment only). Closed Sunday & Monday. Lecture : August 1st, 7PM – The Art of Medicine and Healing, Rafael.

Four Winds Co-Op — Summer Co-Op Hours: T-W-R-F-S 9AM–9PM. D,11AM–4PM.

Four Winds Co-op Bakery — Summer Co-Op Bakery Hours: T-W-R-F-S 7AM–2PM, D, 7AM – Noon.

Farmer’s Market — Tuesday 10AM–4PM, Circle Drive through October. Gym if weather is harsh. For a table call the Farmer’s Wife.

Fensalir Thrift Shoppe — Summer Hours T–W–R-F-S 10AM–4PM.  Closed Sunday & Monday. Drop-offs by appointment. 10% off with any theatre ticket. Also See Table at Farmer’s Market.

Mason & Mosaic —Irregular Hours, CALL. Always M–D 8AM–7PM. Closed all Holidays. Masonry, Walls, Penny & Mosaic Floors.

Musicians — Many people ask us about our strolling musicians. Folk, Classical, Solo, Duet, Piano, etc… They available for many special events. Contact Nancy Dean in the office for direct connection to our instrumentalist and entertainers.

Post Office — Regular Hours M–F 9AM–4PM. S 9AM–Noon.

Print Shop — Monthly Newsletter.

St Crispin’s Cordwaining —Hours W–R–F 10AM–4PM, and by appointment. Tuesday Farmer’s Market 10AM–4PM.

Swan Glass Factory — Summer Hours: M–F 9AM–4PM. Closed Lunch Noon–1PM.

Tè Chay Tea Room & Confectionery — Summer Hours: T-W-R-F-S, 2PM-10PM. D, 11AM-9PM. Feature Menu: Apple Pie, Lemon Ice, Custard with Fresh Fruit.

• • Tè Chay September Events: In The Closet: Chess Boards, Backgammon, Mancala, Hounds and Jackals, Hnefatafl, Scrabble, Cribbage, Go, Chinese Checkers, Tarot.
  • Bookshelf full of Poetry and Short Stories, available at all times. Sit in the Tea Room or out on the porch. The Tea Room is self-order, but we serve.
  • Tuesday 6:30PM till close — Chess, 6 tables. Contact: General Chief.
  • Wednesday 8PM till close — Live Open Poetry, 6 tables. Contact: Emily Dickinson.
  • Thursday 6PM till close — Candlelight Conversations, 12 tables. Contact: Staff.
  • Saturday [TBA] — Conversation With The Author, 10 tables. Contact: Silvia Zelts.
  • Sunday 11AM–2PM — Musical Trios, Duets, Solo. Contact: Staff.
  • Sunday 2PM–4PM — Trivia, 10 tables. Contact: Greg Smith.
  • Sunday 4PM–6PM — The Stoics are back.
  • Sunday 6PM–9PM — Epic Poetry Reading: Iliad and the Odyssey, Beowulf, Gilgamesh.

Vidar & Seshat Book Binding —  Hours W–R–F 10AM–4PM, and by appointment. Tuesday Farmer’s Market 10AM–4PM.

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VII. Community Events
Labor Day will not effect any of these Events.

Labor Day Members & Guests Only Picnic — 10AM – 7PM. Nothing scheduled. Come hangout, bring a picnic, sports gear, equipment shed is open. 1st floor Art Building bathrooms are open. Members and Guests only. 

Contra Dancing & Potluck — Saturday, 7PM–10PM. Continues through Thanksgiving Weekend. Location: Gym or Swan Factory Lunchroom.  Member’ and Guests only. 

Chapel — Sundays & Holidays. Services Information: Newsletter, Chapel Reader Board, and The Front Office. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Eurythmy — Friday, 10AM-Noon, Movement. 1PM-5PM, Curative (appointments only). Dance Studio in the Woods.

Farmer’s Market — Tuesday, 10AM–4PM. Location: Circle Drive, Admin Building, or gym if weather is harsh. Open to the Public Without Distress.

LD District Rep — 9/15  at  7PM – 9PM. Local District Representative. Hour 1: State of the wider Community. Hour 2: Questions and Answer. Location: Lecture Hall 1, Admin. Building. Open To All Local Residents. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Sun Walkers — Daily, 10 minutes before sunrise. Meet at Chapel Door. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Sunset Watchers — Daily, 1 hour before sunset. Meet at Track Stands. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Yoga — Monday, 10AM-Noon. Location: Dance Studio in the Woods. Open to the Public Without Distress.

 

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VIII. Resources & Classes
All Educational Resources resume after Labor Day.
Members & Guests only, with exception.

Family Education — Family Gardening at will. Home & Community Walk-in Wednesdays 4PM–9PM.

Art Fundamentals 2-D — Time: T, R, 4PM – 6PM.  Topic: A 6 week course offered twice a year. Covering Hands-on Elements and Principals of Art. Location Arts Building 4th Floor – September 15 – October 24 & March 15th – April 24. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Goethean Science — Friday 7PM-9PM, Lecture I. Goethean Science — How Goethe’s Theory of Metamorphosis Arose. How Goethe’s Thoughts on the Development of the Animals Arose. Goethe’s Writings on Organic Development. Locations: Lecture Hall 1.

History Lectures — History of Western Civilization: Early Christianity through Early Medieval. 1st and 2nd Wednesdays 7PM. Lecture Hall I. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Languages — Study at will. Audio in Library. Independent meet-ups at the Tea Room. Study and practice, Celt & Greek. W, 9AM – Noon.

Library & Charlotte “Lotte” Gallery — Hours: M through R 9AM – 5PM. F 6PM  S, 9AM – 2PM. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Mosaics — Outdoor and indoor marble work continues through September with Master Mason Kipling Scott. Contact Kip, or see schedule for dates.

Newsletter — Hours: M–F 9AM-Noon. Monthly Newsletter: Released Weekend of the 15th. Quarterly Newsletter: Released September 20. Submission Due: 1st Monday of the month. Volunteers Welcomed.

News & Radio — Music and books based on season. Broadcast LIVE: Autumnal Equinox gathering Live Reporting. Medieval Harvest Festival Live Reporting. Radio Show Schedule  Open to the Public Without Distress.

Philosophy Lectures — History of Western Civilization: Early Christianity, Augustine, Neoplatonism. Fridays 6PM. Lecture Hall I. Film follows at 8PM in the Theatre. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Radio — Chapter A Day — September: [See Addendum] – (tied to harvest, radio stories, or folklore, e.g., blackberries bitter after frost); members submit stories to celebrate imagination,: Open to the Public Without Distress.

Salon Rambouillet — Submit need of this room for the year by Labor Day – 1st come 1st served. If there are conflicts please resolve them amicably. Contact Nancy Dean in the Office.

Strolling Musicians — Throughout September, strolling musicians play old and familiar tunes. Grace them with a few sovereigns if you can. Available for birthdays, anniversaries, and just-because. Places you can hears them and where they are most welcomed: Chapel, Swan Factory at Lunch, Dance Studio In the Woods, Art Lobby, Admin Lobby, Elder Building, Tea Room, Café, Kindergarten, Happily Walking the Grounds.

Spiritual Wisdom — Pagan, Christian Groups, Junto Club. Michaelmas Chapel Service September 29th. Check schedule. Open to the Public Without Distress.

Studio — Open to all members based on skill level and attendant present.

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IX. MISC — Announcements
Outside & Inside Organizations News & Hosted Events
~Catholic Church — PASSED –  Italian Friday Night Dinners — Beginning this autumn, Friday evenings in the cafeteria. Suggested donation. Bring your own wine. Open to the public. Sign up through Home Life Club.
~Paper Bluegrass Fest — PASSED – 3rd Friday and Saturday in August [note for next year’s planning]. Printer’s Members & Guest Event. Community welcome by invitation. Contact Albert Kirchner.

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X. Addendum — What’s New, Proposal, Updates, Topics
What’s on the agenda? Get informed early.

Proposal – Prepper Store. “The Sutler” (zoetelaar)
Update – Mission Statement.
Updates – UP Expansion — Long-Term SEEDS Community Goal.
Proposal – Basque Shepherd — Community Recruitment Goal.
Ongoing – University Partnership & Academic Credit Goals.
Update – Guardian Selection & Governance.
Update  – Time Banking.
Update  – Volunteer Guidelines.
Topic – Our Foundation Relationship.
Ongoing- Community Outreach & Partnership Goals.
Updates – Theatre Development Goals.

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End Note
September is our deep breath after the long summer. The harvest is in, the canning is underway, the studios are humming again, and Michaelmas reminds us that the good always triumphs. Welcome back, everyone. There is, as always, never nothing to do at the PEACH.

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Short For Day of the Week — M T W R F S D
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Living Pan-European and American Cultural and Heritage Community Center

 SEEDS Projects

 SUBSCRIBE STAR

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EMAIL: peachcommunity yahoo.com

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