Summer Solstice Seasonal Living Guidebook
The Summer Solstice Seasonal Living Guidebook is a collection of my mid-Summer practices for the kitchen, garden, home and personal wellness. Creating the guidebook was a true joy. You will find it in the Seasonal Living Resource Library and detailed a bit more in the rest of the blog. I’d love nothing more than to hear you took up some or all of the practices and how they worked out for you! Leave a comment below or a post in our Facebook Group.
Click here to download your guidebook now!
Want to learn more about our style of seasonal living? Watch this whiteboard video!
Summer Solstice Seasonal Living: July Planting
The summer solstice is on June 21 this year. The day marks the apex of a 3-day period where the sun stands still (sol-stice = sun standing still) in the northern sky. By June 23, the sun turns and begins it southern descent in the sky toward the autumnal equinox. The wheel of the year turns, and the movement of the sun marks its seasonal shifts.
Here’s a handy depiction of the seasonal calendar from several cultural perspectives. The outer circle is Celtic. Then, we have the date, season, and associated holidays.
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Click here to download your Summer Solstice Seasonal Living Guidebook now!
It’s hot, hot, hot! Garden Planning
Hot, that’s what the sun means at its most northern migration. Any gardener knows that working outdoors in the summer months means the sun will reach a high point in the sky somewhere around 1pm and seem to hover there for hours, relentlessly beating down on anything not shaded by structure or tree. It’s time to be very thoughtful about what’s in your garden. You’ll need to both consider what can handle the hot and humid weather of the next 60-90 days, and what needs to be planted now to ensure adequate harvests come September.
Download the Summer Solstice Seasonal Living Guidebook to see my time-tested suggestions.
Sign up for the FREE Seasonal Summer E-Course!
Summer Solstice Seasonal Living: Harvest and Food Preservation
The June garden is prolific. It is the manifestation of all your intentions and efforts in March, April and May. When creating a seasonal life, it is important to be thinking about the subsequent seasons. What can you preserve today to ensure tasty and healthy meals in the fall and winter?
In addition to my time-tested suggestions in the Guidebook, here are some posts from the blog that will also help you preserve your mid-summer harvest:
My Best Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe
My Homemade Soda recipe, good for preserving any fruit harvest!
What to do with all the onions!!!
In Love with Summer
I absolutely love this time of year! The first half of the day is spent in the gardens. Then, I take a nice long break for lunch and rest. I end the day in the kitchen, cooking and preserving. I’m such a glutton for this time of year, all this activity is punctuated by trips to the farmers market and food co-op to see what’s on sale. This always leads to more time in the kitchen!
My kitchen is my sacred space. It’s where I go to meet myself in focused effort. I usually have my earbuds in, listening to a book or podcast. To keep things calm and organized, I pull everything I need for my project out in advance. Then, its a few hours of chopping, brining, drying, and jarring. Heaven…
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Pineapple and Sage Cordial made with in-season pineapple, my beautifully fragrant sage from my garden, and tequila. Ahh, kitchen time! (The recipe is in the Resource Library!)
Summer Solstice Seasonal Living: Journaling
Journaling is the best way I know to listen to my heart. It’s the only way I can hear that still, small voice that resides in my deepest self. It’s a daily practice for me. Journaling is also a seasonal practice. At each quarter and cross-quarter day, the days of the year that mark the turning of the season and then those that mark the mid-point of seasons (see image above) I ritualize my journal practice.
Sign up for the FREE Seasonal Summer E-Course!
Journaling and Mindfulness
For me, and perhaps for you, the best way to journal is to make it a mindfulness practice. Do this by securing a private space, lighting a candle, playing centering music, and adding something from nature to your desk or tabletop. You can begin by drafting questions to focus your journal time, or you can simply freestyle.
There’s a detailed journaling practice for the Summer solstice in the Guidebook.
These are my favorite journaling resources:
This post has affiliate links. When you make a purchase, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you. All proceeds go into the chicken feed fund. Ba-Gok!
Summer Solstice Seasonal Living: Creating an Altar
Altars don’t have to be woo-woo. They are not weird or out of the ordinary.
Altars can be intentional decorative settings on any flat surface in or around the home. They are comprised of symbolic items that can invoke a feeling, memory, or general state of mind. When creating this kind of seasonal altar, begin by taking a walk and gathering items that capture the essence of the Summer Solstice. Items like sunflowers, heart-shaped leaves from a redbud tree, a bundle of fragrant herbs, a bunch of daisies.
Then, identify where you will create your altar. I use the top of a curio cabinet in my office. Pictures of my altars are in the Summer Solstice Seasonal Living Guidebook, along with further instructions. Enjoy!
Summer Solstice Seasonal Living: Our Resource Library
The Seasonal Living Resource Library is a resource built for the Stony Ridge Farm community that has downloading resources to help you capture the flavors, feelings, and energies of each day of your seasonal life. The library is broken into four categories: food, garden, home, and wellness. It’s set up to mirror and deepen the blog content with how-to’s and what for’s.
You can think of the blog as the ‘why’ and the library as the ‘how’. It’s free and it’s for you! If you are not a member, why not?
What’s in the Seasonal Living Resource Library for the Summer Solstice?
So far for summer, the library has the following resources to support you in your seasonal journey:
- A list of must-have fermentation tools
- Rules of etiquette for your CSA/farm share membership
- A farmers market planner
- The June seasonal eating food list
- My version of the Dirty Dozen food list
- My version of the Clean 15 food list
- June garden planting schedule
- Directions for making seed bombs (a great activity with children)
- Stovetop potpourri recipes for every season
- June desktop wallpaper
- Cool Chicks downloadable bookmark
- Summer Party Planner
- Planner and journal guides
When you sign up for a membership in the library, you will receive a weekly email from me. Sometimes the newsletter is practical, detailing garden, kitchen, home and wellness tasks that should be tended to in support of your seasonal life. Other times, it is a reflection on current events from a seasonal point of view. I’m honored that people invite me into their inboxes, and a cherish the email addresses that are offered to me. I protect the privacy of every member, and never share my lists. The newsletter has a one-click unsubscribe, and anyone who joins can continue to access the library without having to continue receiving the newsletter.
Click here to download the Summer Solstice Seasonal Living Guidebook!
Summer Magic Blog Hop
If you enjoy the information in the post, please check out these Summer Magic offerings from my friends!
3 Secrets for Scrapping Summer
7 Tips on How to Improve Summer Body Confidence
Click the image below to learn more about the Seasonal Summer E-Course. Thanks!
Seasonal Living Resource Library
Become a pro in the kitchen and the garden!
Sign up for access to our exclusive Seasonal Living Resource Library. it's full of free downloads and printables to help you create your seasonal life. Supported by a weekly newsletter with original content for subscribers only!
You never cease to amaze me. You truly want nothing more than to share your love of healthy living with the world. I am just blown away at the number of resources you have made to help others like me become one with nature. This Summer Solstice post has everything one could possibly ever want or need to take hold of this summer season we are venturing into. Signing up for your free resource library should be a no-brainer! Plus you have that amazing pineapple recipe 🙂
Thank you for your kind words and for being a limitless source of support. If you make that cordial, I expect reviews and feedback! Don’t type while sipping, though.
I love this because my husband teaches Astronomy, so I’m pretty familiar with much of what you discuss, BUT on a technical aspect. You educate me in a more holistic approach. I love reading your newsletters and posts because of our extended vacation, we didn’t plant a garden this year, and I didn’t realize how much it centered me – I really miss it, so I live vicariously through you. The best tip I picked up was another opportunity to listen to audio books when in the kitchen. Never dawned on me although it seems so obvious now, lol. Thanks!
Thanks for your kind words.
I get so tired of the ramblings of my own mind that audiobooks are a real sanity saver. In the kitchen, in the garden, and on long walks.
I absolutely love every time I come to your blog! It makes me want to slow down and listen to the earth, listen to my body and just be. I can feel that there will be a time in my life when I can fully implement all your amazing ideas, but for now I’ll just do a bit here and there. Your ideas for fermentation are awesome! I have wanted to experiment with that for sometime. I can’t wait to try it and that pineapple in the jar, looks absolutely delicious! I don’t drink alcohol, but I wonder if it would still be good without! A virgin cordial! LOL! Thanks for sharing your ideas and talent!
Thanks for your kind words!
You can make an infused simple syrup.
1 quart water
1 cup sugar
1 pineapple, chopped
1 bundle fresh sage
Bring to a boil and then simmer for at least 5 minutes. The pineapple will release water, so feel free to cook it down to thicken the syrup if you like. You can add this syrup to teas and sparkling water. Decorate with a chunk of pineapple in the glass with ice!
Mmmmm, I think I know what I’ doing in the kitchen today!