About Us - Mountain Jewel

Mountain Jewel is born of inspiration and a deep love for the Earth.

Founded on the ethics and principles of Permaculture, we seek to embody and evolve a perennial agriculture for future generations. Drawn to the Ozarks for the incredible biodiversity, wild waterways, abundance of springs and mild climate, we are grounding the vision for a better world on our 18 acre homestead.

_mountainjewel_

Oȥαɾƙ Pҽɾɱαƈυʅƚυɾҽ Hσɱҽʂƚҽαԃ
:: 𝒸𝑒𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓃𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 ::

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Working with landscapes is an honor. Wild, feral and domestic mix in a dance of life. Soils, plants, fungi and souls commingle in abundant diversity. It is in this milieu that I find meaning. I plant trees because I need to. It is in my bones.
An unusually warm early winter has extended the fall planting season. We love to plant bareroot trees and shrubs after leaf drop to reduce transplant shock and give the plants a chance to settle in before resuming growth in the spring. We are planting out the results of this year’s nursery and are slowly seeing the landscape fill out with our plantings. Amongst the wild one are asian pears, apples, honey locusts, amorpha fruiticosa, blueberries, pawpaws, mulberries, raspberries, aronia, elder, serviceberries, persimmons, English lime, yaupon, Ozark chinquapin, blackberries and more.
Over the years we have cut, burned, ran goats and grubbed out much of this sloped old field. Slow and steady we go. Human scale is our way. As our ancestors before us did, we relate to the bioregion with feet on the ground and hands in the earth. We have started seeing vigorous coppice regrowth on hickory, oak & persimmons and a wide range of herbs have shown up. Birds alight on young growth and we are witnessing the slow shift from a neglected shrubby hillside to an abundant forest garden. We are willing and active participants in ecological succession.
With every tree that gets cut, we add to the soil food web. Every species we introduce adds complexity. We are weaving ourselves into the tapestry of such a beautiful bioregion and co-evolving with the land. We are Deeply grateful and honored to be able to plant trees and engage our ancestral instincts of stewarding land. This is what it means to me to be human.

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✨sauna✨ making a warm space is truly empowering. doing it with mostly earthen materials feels really good; connecting to our place and relationships. partition wall in process, nicho formed with one layer of earthen plaster. coming together and so thankful. with the beautiful temps this week we’ll be doing some plastering in the sauna room if you feel inspired to come lend a hand 🖐

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Today going out to squirrel hunt, immediately a huge hawk flies past with something in its talons. A big something. At first I thought it was a snake. But looking closer, I see it is a squirrel! As suddenly as I notice that, the hawk drops the squirrel from 40 ft. I rush toward the scene as the hawk screeches repeatedly circling overhead.
I came out today wanting to get a squirrel I can case skin for a little pouch. Last night I was reading how tough squirrel hides are and looking at inspiring photos of coats, hats, tunics, and bags made of them.

I canvas the area with no luck and conclude that the squirrel wriggled free and then ran to safety once it hit the ground. It’s a cold and drizzly, foggy day and most squirrels are cozied in their nests.

As I’m leaving I check the area again and just as I’m about to give up, a characteristic tail of a grey squirrel catches my eye hidden beneath the leaves. As I uncover it, surprised that I found it, I am amazed that the hawk had already torn the chest cavity open, eaten the heart and the right arm down to the shoulder.
Remembering the hawk’s cries as it circled and flew away, I am aware that as a hunting human I am stepping into this ecosystem with a very different relationship than I have in the past. It’s not hard for me to get food at the local grocery - or even to grow it for that matter, but orienting with the intention to take squirrels that are also the hawk’s fare brings another layer to it. It adds something to my relationship with the forest, an element of respect and conscious interaction.

The squirrel is already in my belly and the skin, a hole torn from the neck down to below the sternum is flesh free, brain rubbed and ready for softening. I get my case pouch and it will always serve to remind me of the powerful choice to enter the ecosystem as human as hunter.

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more than anything I love being a human of the earth. recently I read caliban & the witch and it hit home for me that our power comes from our relationship with the land and oppressors always take this away first. if we can grow our own food, strengthen through community, learn to subsist and take care of our own needs, we cannot be owned, bought, sold or told to want things. consumption is a chain. softening goat hide reflections.

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Water 💎 this gem drew us to the Ozarks. Whether it’s fishing, thoroughly rinsing a hide (1st pic), drinking, watering crops, bathing, playing, floating, wading, basking by it, worshipping, wondering... water in all its glory is inextricably linked to our human experience. Goodness what a gift of our Blue Planet 🌎 and is it any wonder springs were worshipped as the miraculous founts they are? Bubbling up crystalline from the earth! Many Ozark springs offer watercress year round, which helps brighten and offset the slower pace of the cold months. 🙏🏼

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Ini shot this beautiful young doe a few days ago. Giving thanks for her life as food for us and also for her hide. Tanning her hide is a sacred experience. I bucked the hide in a hydrated lime solution and, whether because of her young age or a proper solution, it was the fastest/easiest time I’ve had thus far removing the grain (which is a good morale boost for a beginner like me!) Now the hide’s in the creek today to flush the lime out. I do have her brain and if it’s still good (been in the shade for a few days still in the skull), it will be my first time literally brain tanning. They say most animals’ hides (except buffalo) can sufficiently be tanned in their own brains which completes this awesomely epic yet so simple and natural process that our ancestors knew and were proficient in. Glad to be intimately a part of it all- and aware of it.

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I love these woods and they love me too. The leaves in evening light surely bear tidings beyond words. Mid afternoon late Autumn days are for honing the arts of sitting and observation.

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Two windows installed on the sauna and 2 more to go • Concrete (with sawdust aggregate) sauna room floor poured during these 4 super beautiful no frost days! • Beautiful morning light at the house of trees. 💙 Lots of time to romp through the woods ✨

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Nuts don’t grow underground and aren’t usually animal based. Tiger nuts scoff at such remarks and buck convention. Also known as chufa or earth almond, the tubers of this Mediterranean sedge (Cyperus esculentus) have furnished fine meals for human and wildlife for millennia.
Providing fat, fiber and minerals in moist to droughty conditions, chufa is an important food crop and is the original base for horchata (a popular Spanish drink.) It is a truly delightfully nutty tuber boasting the title of invasive.

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“Practice resurrection” ; A favorite line from Wendell Berry’s Manifesto: the mad farmer liberation front... in this case keeping alive a rare one on the “forgotten” plant front. Skirret, sugar root, white root, crummock (sium sisarum)... a perennial tuber in the carrot family, it’s taste is a cross between carrot and parsnip. Very easy to grow. I divide up these root masses each fall, plant them out and harvest whole plants the following fall. A plant it and forget it self replicating plant. Incorporating perennial root crops may take some time (and a little extra scrubbing), but they’re a valuable addition to the edible landscape - with the added benefit of not needing to pamper the hardy roots. We have some for sale. Follow the shop link in bio.

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Thanks Drew for the hide! Calling all local hunters who don’t plan on using their hides!

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✨Stone Cooking Pit✨ inspired by Ayla in The Land of Painted Caves, we made a stone cooking pit today and put a deer shoulder in there wrapped in horseradish, comfrey and burdock leaves to steam and cook with yarrow, mugwort, lavender, and green onions. It’s been invigorating cozying up and reading the series (though the books could do without the weird relational drama) & I’ve been itching to experiment with many of the techniques Auel mentions in her books! A couple more hours til we check the meat, but I’ll be sure to share in stories how it went today.

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Tapping into the past and looking into the future, we seek to highlight this special Ozark bioregion while furthering the culture of sustainable food, edible forestry and local medicine.

Ini rambling in the summer harvesting wild foods

Our vision is to build on the unique array of species present and promote the cultivation of improved varieties of locally adapted plant stock.

As we establish food forests and experiment on our own land, we are building up experience and nursery stock to share with others. We are currently establishing a bioregional nursery to provide the genetics to impassion and equip many others to produce food, medicine and forest products in a honorable and sustainable manner. Check out our shop for our unique homestead products!

Wren with the perennial root, Skirret

We are Wren and Ini, a couple who met at an intentional community and saw a deeply shared vision in each other. We are committed to a lifestyle that fuses our ancestral past within a modern context while seeking to hold space for and encourage deep Earth connection.

As much as possible we let nature guide our actions, and as such we are in a constant state of learning. It’s our passion to educate, inspire and collaborate with likeminded people!