Cross Quarter Club: Midsummer Gathering 2023

In early 2022, I started a seasonal living club for gardeners and nature lovers here in York, Pennsylvania. We come together four times per year: at the height of winter, spring, summer, and autumn, to work on a project that connects us to earth and season. Each gathering is an invitation to pause and deepen into the season we’re in, try our hands at something new, and circle together in community. We are a welcoming and inclusive group for cis and trans women, and non-binary people (who are comfortable in spaces centering women’s experiences) of any age, race, religion, or sexual orientation. There are no entry or membership requirements to join. If you are feeling the call to live more mindfully with the cycles of nature and enjoy plants & flowers, then this is the group for you!

Our third gathering of 2023 was held on Sunday, August 6th at our favorite park pavilion in Yoe, Pennsylvania. This gathering was unique because we had our first-ever guest instructors leading our workshop! I am so excited about the doors this will open for Cross Quarter Club, to expand our opportunities for learning and connecting with local craftspeople who are doing amazing work! And thanks to our guest instructors, Irina Lawrence-Mathias and Jeri Robinson-Lawrence of Flying Fibers, this may have been my favorite gathering yet! We met at 4 pm and enjoyed a beautiful midsummer evening with our botanical eco-printing workshop, first harvest dinner, and a garden bounty share. Read on for the full recap!

Welcome & Introductions

Once everyone had arrived, we got started with brief introductions. As an introvert, I am not the biggest fan of icebreakers but I actually cherish this time for Cross Quarter Club! We kept it simple and just shared our name, where we’re from, and what we’re excited about this season — which could be something your growing in your garden, a new recipe you’re trying, something you’re doing, or a place you like to go in this particular season. I love hearing what everyone else is passionate about and I always walk away with so many inspiring ideas! Plus, this a wonderful opportunity for us to discover the like interests we have and similar projects we might be working on which provides ample conversation starters for later on!

Eco-Printing on Silk Scarves Workshop

Our workshop was led by the dynamic mother-daughter duo, Irina and Jeri from Flying Fibers Wool and Lavender Farm in Wrightsville. The table was loaded with all kinds of plants, flowers, nuts, and dried powders for us to use to eco-print our own silk scarves. Irina and Jeri gave us some background and general info about the bundle dying method and then led us through the steps of placing our botanicals, rolling and tying our scarves into bundles to then go into a steam bath for an hour, while we had our dinner.

Read my blog post: Flowers & Plants to Use for Eco-Printing

When it was time to reveal our finished scarves, let me tell you, we were literally squealing with excitement like little kids! You can see the pure joy on our faces as we each unrolled our creations. Everyone was oohing and ahhing and can’t wait to try it again! A huge thank you to our guest instructors for introducing us to the magic of eco-printing!

First Harvest Dinner

On the Wheel of the Year, August 1st marks the first of three festivals of the harvest season. We celebrated by sharing a simple, seasonally-inspired dinner menu dreamt up by me and my sister, Stormi Barona. On the menu was sweet corn zucchini pie, peach & heirloom tomato salad, broccoli barley & white bean salad, and homemade focaccia, with plum galette for dessert. You can look for a journal post with links for all of Cross Quarter Club’s favorite recipes from over the years coming soon!

A HUGE thank you to my sister, Stormi Barona for all the hardwork she put into cooking these meal for us, and my mom, Bonnie Jo for helping so much the day of the gathering!

The Sharing Table

The sharing table is a part of every Cross Quarter Club gathering. I always plan a theme that fits the season, so for the Midsummer Gathering we had a garden bounty share. Each person who attended brought along something to share from their garden or their favorite local farmstand. The sharing table was absolutely packed with fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers — such a beautiful sight! At the end of the evening, we all “shopped” the table to take home a basket full of fresh, locally grown, seasonal produce. This is my favorite sharing table tradition of the whole year!

Read my blog post: The Story of the Sharing Table

This was the seventh Cross Quarter Club gathering and my first event that has ever completely sold out. At this gathering, we had 28 participants total (including me and the two guest instructors) and of that number, 12 were first-time attendees. Participants came from all over south-central Pennsylvania, including York, Lancaster, Mechanicsburg, Gettysburg, Marietta, Windsor, Stewartstown, New Freedom, Mount Joy, Airville, Shrewsbury, Red Lion, Felton, Wrightsville, and even one (my mom!) from North East, MD. I am so thankful to each and every person who has helped spread the word about our club and the community we are creating together!

Thank you to Britt McCreary for taking these stunning photos of the day for us!