Harvest and Spirit Collection
We are making a long-term inquiry into the harvest, as a practice as potent metaphor for connecting with regenerative and biodynamic systems in the environment. We view the harvest as one of the most natural and common intersections of nature and culture.
The Harvest
We began our research working in collaboration with gardeners from Montalvo’s Italianate Garden while in residence. We worked with various gardener friends and fellow artists in residence to harvest fall persimmons and winter citrus from the Italianate Gardens. Since then we have harvested from fruit trees and other edible sources in our own backyards and around the Bay Area.
We are beginning to grow our own spices and edibles to use in our various harvest projects. As an experiment during January 2015 while at Montalvo, we harvested the citrus crop, then spent the month creating a our own version of a biodynamics system where we used every part of the fruit to create a zero waste stream of production.
Hoshigaki (Dried Persimmon)
For several years running, from late fall to early winter, we have been adapting the Japanese practice of peeling, hanging, massaging and drying whole persimmons. Unlike sliced dried fruit that tends to be brittle and leathery, hoshigaki are succulently tender and moist, with concentrated persimmon flavor. We are also working to master the art of making wine from our persimmon harvest. Both the dried permissions and wine are offered when in season at our Chit-Chats as gifts from our practice.
Our hope is to cultivate a long-standing fall tradition with Montalvo's gardeners, who tend the persimmon trees there. For us, the harvest tradition is in many ways about the community that forms from tending the land and sharing in a process of collaboration--working and celebrating the fruits of labor together. Creating ongoing rituals and practices with emergent communities is a core aspect of our practice.
Spirit Collection (infused libations) From various citrus harvests, we employ different strategies of infusion (peeled, whole, quartered, suspended) using 80-100 proof vodka as a base. We are working to develop a finely-tuned array of distinctive flavors that come from the landscape by adding other organic ingredients to the infusions, i.e. coffee, herbs, sugar and spices. Mixing notes of time and place, each spirit is named to reference its unique qualities and associations, spliced from generative intersections of nature, culture and ever-changing topics of the day.
The Fieldworks Archive Collection, lovingly refered to as our Boozeum, is a bottled collection of all the flavors we have developed since 2015 when we began this project. Our archive has now reached 60 unique flavors that we have created and are offered for tasting through our Chit-Chats. Our current infusions include a variety of fruits, spices, and earthly edibles sourced from Bay Area backyards (including our own), local grocers and regional farms. At the heart of this work is sharing an experience of the land by offering tastes of our experiments as a starter to curated conversations.