Yellow for the sun god, the daffodils, the rich egg yolk, and the finches. Yellow for the sweetest babe who this crib coverlet will envelop for years to come. ✨🌀
“Not knowing when the Dawn will come, I open every Door.” Emily Dickinson. 🪻here’s some glimmers of life lately— magic in between the grief of what’s happening here and across the world.
Tomorrow in Berea! ✨ Hi friends, I’ll be weaving tomorrow afternoon at the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea, KY 1-4pm as part of a traveling exhibition called “Power of Place”. I’m excited to share the overshot weaving tradition I carry, talk about my mentors and family connections to the craft, and spend the afternoon holding threads. I hope you’ll stop in if you’re able! 〰️〰️
Life has been very full since coming home from Japan. I jumped straight back into work and taking care of the animals on the farm, and now that things have finally thawed out after the big ice storm it feels great to sit back down and write about some of our experiences.
When I got back home my Aunt Nancy told me that I should be filling a journal with our travel memories because later in life I’d want to look back and remember it all. It feels hard to imagine forgetting these memories and experiences, but I know she’s right and that a few decades of life will fill these mental cupboards up quickly. While we were traveling I kept my pocket journal as close as possible to scribble down little sayings or noticings along the way, but I’ll admit that even with those notes and photos it feels very far away now. I plan to share more over the coming weeks about our fiber, food, and craft adventures so I hope you’ll stay tuned her for more of that. For today’s update I wanted to celebrate a friendship that was made this time around with Reiko-san and her partner Takuya-san, who graciously hosted us during a stay around Lake Biwa in November. Read more on my Substack through the 🔗 in my bio
Happy new year! 2025 was a doozy in some ways and epicly magical in so many others. I think it’s so important that we keep searching for the cracks that let the light in, so I’m hoping to spend more time focusing on the magical this next year. I’m catching up on writing about our adventures in Japan and hope if you’re interested you’ll check out my Substack! My recent post is about traditional foodways and our time making Kasa with @mareecraftjapan . Link in bio to read more 🔗✨
Micah and I were fortunate to spend a few days in Shiramine, a small village located in Ishikawa Prefecture with a very rich history of sericulture, dance, agriculture, and architecture. While there we learned how to make traditional Kasa, handwoven hats made to protect from sun, rain and snow using hinoki wood. Check out Micah’s write-up for our experience with @mareecraftofjapan making these hats. As someone interested in both textiles and agriculture, I was so excited to learn that there’s a long history of silk production and natural grains (more on this in a forthcoming post) in Shiramine. Silk has been an important part of Shiramine’s economy for centuries. Read more about this tradition and peak at a few historical textiles from the Hakusen Folk Museum in my recent substack post!
Not long into our stay in Taimagura, we learned that Masahiro-San and Mitsiyuki-San were from Osaka. It’s a long and beautiful story about how they ended up in Iwate (maybe for another post) and while they carry strong mountain traditions of where they landed, they’re still Osaka at heart. Fortunately for us this meant trying some homemade Osaka soul food, Takoyaki. More about this delicious comfort food on my Substack - link in bio. 🔗
Handwork, craft circles, gift giving, and purpose. 🧶 I wanted to share a little bit more about some of our time in Taimagura, especially because we were surrounded by people who love to work with their hands. Whether they are making delicious food for their guests, preserving food for the winter, making barrels, baskets, sewing, or knitting, handwork is a big part of life. Coming from a place where handwork has value (even if not mainstream) it felt refreshing to be tucked in a mountain by a river with people who also value the slowness of handcraft. Read more on my Substack! 🔗 in bio
Food As Poetry ✨ I was so inspired by all of the incredibly delicious foods we had while in Taimagura a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to share some of them with you. Some featured local mountain foods while others were a fusion of cultures. Food here is seasonal, of place, and poetically built for an experience that is not just delicious but hits so many senses. I just posted a Substack about our food experiences while in Taimagura - it’s a long one, but mostly pictures! Link in my bio to read more 🔗
This week we wrapped up a nourishing stay at Field Note, in Taimagura, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. It’s hard to describe this magical place, a mountain area with a rich forest, spring water, rare birds, and the sweetest people, the only two families left in Taimagura.
Field Note started as a dream by Mitsuyuki Okuhata in the late 80’s to create a place where guests could experience mountain life. Thanks to his vision, and his family, Youko-San, and Sho (and his brothers), it has became an oasis of sorts for so many. Their home was a cozy mountain retreat for us with delicious home roasted coffee and food, and a daily soak in their handmade barrel tub made by his brother, Masahiro-San, who Micah studied coopering with over 11 days.
While at Field Note, many guests came and went. Some visiting the area to see Sho perform a traditional dance, the Suetsumi Kagura. Others, a trio of older men on an onsen journey, a knitting group, and locals attending a workshop hosted by Field Note on nut processing. Another guest, Ai Ikuhisa, was also visiting for the week as part of an internship to learn and experience some of the homesteading practices there. Ai quickly became a sweet companion and helped translate for us along the way.
We were fortunate to be able to visit Chiho Abe, Masihiro Okuhata, and their daughter Yui daily, just a short drive up the road past the hunter’s house, the river dam, and the neighborhood fox. While Micah was taking his coopering class with Masahiro-San, Candace and Ai visited with Chiho-San and Yui, making sweet treats, candles, hoshigaki and crafts. (More photos from these visits in a forthcoming post!)
Micah’s 36th birthday fell in the middle of our stay, and both families helped make the day so special - he even had 2 cakes and very creative candles to celebrate the day. Yui made a carrot cake with cream cheese icing and at Field Note they baked Ganzuki, a traditional Iwate cake made from walnuts and seeds named for its shape, which looks like geese(gan) flying towards the full moon(tsuki).
There’s so much to say about Taimagura, certainly too much for an Instagram post. We hope you’ll keep an eye out for our Substack entries!
Yesterday we made more Hoshigaki, a traditional method for preserving persimmons. These will be outside for a month or so, while they slowly become preserved and sweeter. There’s been a lot of bear activity in northern Japan, so we hung these higher. I’m so grateful for @chiho.abe.taimagura@mscy___ and @nanbuokemasa for showing us again! We’ve had so much delicious food while traveling, especially in Taimagura with Chiho-San and Yui, and at our host’s mountain lodge, Field Note. Excited to share more over the next few days!
