These are the monthly updates I send to subscribers. Only one random letter I’ve sent before is visible to non-subscribers on this website; to read the old letters, please join the mailing list. I write about the food forest — new growth, plant developments, animal and fungal sightings, and other exciting field notes. I also share prints-in-progress and give early access to print releases. Hope you can join!
Introducing Letters from the Forest
October 4, 2025
It’s been a while since I sent out a newsletter, so a surprise hello from our food forest to wherever you are! I’ve cleaned up the mailing list, taking out spam-sounding, bot-looking email addresses, which comprised about 1/5 of the list. I’ve since put a confirmation step for new subscribers to hopefully curb bot sign-ups.
The Food Forest now truly looks and feels like a forest. Mostly shady and cool, with areas where the canopy opens just enough to let some light reach the forest floor. Several people have visited and walked through the trees, tasting fruits and leaves, and a few have been lucky enough to see some of our fellow forest dwellers, like a Philippine Night Jar, a Philippine Sailfin Lizard, or, still a personal favorite, the somewhat-newly named Garden Sunbird (used to be the Olive-backed Sunbird, but that has been divided into nine different species). Philippine Coucals, Zebra Doves, Yellow-vented Bulbuls, Tiklings, and Chestnut Munias have nested in the forest as well. I am still waiting to spot a Garden Sunbird nest, which seems to be on the horizon since they’ve been checking out the Garlic Vine by our porch. Butterflies and Bubulis (skinks) are regulars around here, too. And where there are Bubulis, Collared Kingfishers aren’t hard to spot, too.
As for the plants, we’ve added a few since my last update, but really, it’s mostly about pruning now. At the top of my list of trees to prune are the Bani and Alagao. We’ve been harvesting some of our Black Java Bamboo, too, to replace several wooden planks on our engawa (a narrow deck surrounding the house).
Anyway, as I’m trying to keep this introduction short, that’s it for Forest Updates for now.
The latest thing we’ve been doing at the Forest is pulling prints! We launched Foot Forest Press, our little printmaking studio and library, nestled in the heart of the food forest. With this new development, every Letter from the Forest will have Forest Updates, as well as Studio Updates. Happy to have found a working schedule for my studio practice, so expect regular updates on this front as well.
From the Forest Life Series, a collection of relief linocut prints capturing everyday scenes in the Forest. This is a family of Zebra Doves nesting by a window.
Letters from the Forest will be sent every last Saturday of the month. The very first letter should be mailed to your inboxes on October 25th.
That’s all for now! Please feel free to forward this email to friends and family who may be interested in permaculture, food forests, or art on paper (hand-pulled prints!). Thank you so much for reading and for sticking around. Hope you can visit the Forest someday — and maybe pull your own print or two.