rgillologists is what my student, Jackson, and I named ourselves as we dug clay at the farm all afternoon today.  Argilla is Latin for clay.  It was a fantastic day, with the scouring rush > blooming around us.  This was the plant that led Dom and I to finding the clay deposit in the fall of 2011.  As a marsh-loving plant growing where there wasn’t standing water visible, the hunch was that there was a shelf of clay below the top soil keeping it soggy.  Last year we dug our first harvest of clay at the farm, and today was the first day this summer that we revisited the site to dig some more.   It is a slow and laborious process, I find tools don’t work to claw the dense clay from the ground as well as just plain old hands.  That said, it is fun to climb down into a mud-hole, get extremely dirty, pry the magical dirt one tiny handful at a time from the hole, and know clay on this level.  At left you can see where the black top soil changes to clay and all of my claw marks.Jackson and I filled three and a half 15 gallon barrels today with clay.  I will try to fill another 4 or so next week.  That should situate us well to make all the bouja bowls for this fall and get me through the winter. If you want to get in on this mud-fest, email me at meyerfarmproject@gmail.com

I will leave you with one last picture of Jackson up to his knees in mud in his mud-hole:)  He said he may not have to visit the spa for quite some time now.