Real Farmers. Real Food. In the Nude.

Calendar Cover 2019

I am pleased to announce that the 2019 Soil Sisters Luscious Calendar is not only here, it is now available to buy online at www.lusciousfarmers.com. It only took me 2 years (sorry about that 2018) to complete, but it was worth the wait. I managed to convince more than 23 local farmers to show me their fields, get in the buff, and let me photograph them in any number of glorious backdrops, and with the marvelous fruits and flowers of their hard work. I feel particularly proud this year, after giving birth to a human, and taking into account all the trials (and of course delights) of new motherhood, I still managed to make this calendar. I think in years past I have called this project a “labor of love.” Surely, it still is. Though I no longer use the word “labor” lightly, and instead will more aptly deem this a mere “exercise” of love. Let’s just say, I never felt like I was dying while I made this, or that the calendar was stuck at 7 centimeters and was never, ever going to make it out.

I could not have done this without so much help – mainly from my baby, for inspiring me to keep on creating the kind of world I want to leave to her (a world with vulnerability, creativity, joie de vivre, and the freedom to be naked in the mountain air), and to my husband, for taking care of said baby while I did my work, and helped me beyond measure with the trickier parts of editing, layout, and marketing, not to mention creating a website from scratch like the baller that he is. A thousand thank you’s to the farmers who went a little (or a lot) out of their comfort zone to let me find these beautiful images (and to those that were quite comfortable, all the same). I am so grateful to live in a county with such a spirited community of organic farmers. Our farmers are bad-ass – they do the daily work of coaxing food and flowers from the soil, work their butts off, and are passionate about taking care of our planet from the ground up. They do this each and every season, not often turning a large profit, but living a good life while at the same time feeding us all. So thank your local farmer (hey, you can get them one of these calendars as a token of your appreciation!) and enjoy looking at these sexy farmers in the coming year of 2019.

May your holiday season be bright, peaceful, and generous. May your upcoming new year be one of connection, compassion, creativity, and just the right amount of tasteful nudity.

Please visit me at www.lusciousfarmers.com to purchase the calendar as well as order individual prints! Thank you for your support!

With love,
Maisie

 

this past week i was in the sierras, backpacking with my sweetheart and a handful of dear friends in the mountains just north of yosemite. we hiked way further then we initially had intended, but it was well worth it. shooting stars, quiet lakes, sunsets from the tops of peaks, thunderstorms, camp fires, and always a barely palatable freeze-dried dinner to top off the evening. julius had his own backpack, a source of unending pleasure for me. i pretty much can just stare at him all day anyways, but with a doggie backpack on? completely mesmerizing. 

i swear i didn’t plan for us to be matching ($20 on amazon btw, i’m not extravagant with my dog. just mildly obsessed).
i swear i didn’t plan for us to be matching (backpack was $20 on amazon btw, i’m not extravagant with my dog. just mildly obsessed).

i have to admit, coming back home, i miss the mountains. i miss that feeling of having everything you need in one small pack, the freedom of not having to be anywhere or be anything other than an animal, walking through meadows and resting by lakes and eating snacks. i like not thinking about what i’m going to wear, because there is only one option. i like not having mirrors around. i like that cell phones don’t exist, and there is not even the chance that the chirping of a bird can be mistaken for the phantom ring of the phone. i like the simplicity of backpacking. nothing superfluous: just water, food, bedding, hiking shoes, and a backpack for your dog. obviously we had more things than that, but it’s the feeling of simplicity of which i speak. there is not a ton of choice. you look at the map with your friends, come to a consensus of where to hike, then hike. you talk some, but mostly you watch the grass and granite pass under your feet at a slow and steady pace, you hear your breath, slightly more labored at 9,000 feet, and you watch your dog try to pass the person in front only to get thwarted by the unfamiliar berth of his backpack knocking into trees and rocks. it’s a feeling of truly living, as if this were indeed the culmination of the evolutionary mechanisms designed to develop the human mind: to finally stop fretting over the bills, the kids, the relationship, and drop into meditative bliss. take a load off. except, in this case, put a 50 lb load on.

"what do we wish?--to be whole. to be complete. wilderness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separated from." - terry tempest williams
“what do we wish?–to be whole. to be complete. wilderness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separated from.” – terry tempest williams

now i’m back to the land of skittle-colored flowers, weeds going to seed, and dirty knees. which, don’t get me wrong, i am incredibly happy about. my first night home i stopped by my friend’s, and also my next door neighbors, for dinner. a collection of my favorite farmers were there, sharing in a just-roasted chicken from one of the many we’d raised together as a group this summer, corn on the cob with lobs of butter, baked potatoes with sour cream (and more butter), cucumber-tomato-basil salad, and fresh strawberries with cream. this was basically the opposite of what we ate on our trip, and i was unapologetically pleased.

so how is it that i can wax poetic about farm fresh food when a minute ago i was praising the austere beauty of being in the mountains, sleeping under the stars, and eating the grossest, not-quite-reconstituted pad thai of my life? 

it’s because, from instant oatmeal to the fresh cucumbers and everything in between, there is a lot to be grateful for. there are terrible things happening in the world right now, and here i am lucky enough to be able to eat, to walk, to do work that i love, and to turn on my faucet and have clean clear potable water come flowing out. i even have the luxury to go into the mountains, wave a magic pen in my nalgene, and have clean water appear there too. this is why the world is full of poetry. it is generous and it is good. sad things and painful things happen and we suffer. but in nature especially, peace is as accessible as we open ourselves up to seeing that it is all around us.

i’ll admit that this post was mainly an excuse to put my dog and his backpack on our website (since this has almost nothing to do with flowers). but i’m also writing to remember, and to remind myself, that whatever happens in a day – whether it storms and the night before you slept on pinecones and then this morning you mistakenly ate part of a pot-cookie and proceeding to trip your brains out for 8 hours (just a random, totally impersonal example) – that even if things seem uncomfortable or stressful, there is still the opportunity to affirm what is good. i could complain about my back or the food or the fact that i forgot my toothbrush. or i could close my eyes and listen to the wind going thru the trees and smile and say thanks for what nature gives us so freely. cold mountain lakes and luscious dahlias, black bears and preying mantises, purple carrots and golden beets, and of course, snickers bars and doggie backpacks.

julius in the lead
julius in the lead

sunset from the top of something tall

"climb the mountains and get their good tidings. nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. the winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms energies, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." - john muir
“climb the mountains and get their good tidings. nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. the winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms energies, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” – john muir

love, maisie

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