Cross Quarter Club is a creative seasonal living club for gardeners and nature lovers based in York County, Pennsylvania. Founded in the winter of 2022 , CQC cultivates spaces to come together, slow down, embrace the season, learn something new, and just to be. There are no entry or membership requirements to join. Our events are rooted in the neo-pagan Wheel of the Year, and we affirm that living in close connection with the rhythms of the natural world is part of our universal shared heritage as humans. CQC is a secular, welcoming, inclusive group for women and non-binary people of any age, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Our second Midseason Gathering of 2024 was held on Sunday, May 5th at the pavilion at Yoe Park in Yoe Borough, Pennsylvania. Our workshop this season was was a plant walk and spring tonic oxymels led by Calyx Liddick from Northern Appalachia School of Herbalism. As always, we enjoyed a spread of seasonal snacks and drinks and our cherished Sharing Table tradition. Read on for a complete recap!

Welcome + Introductions

Once everyone had arrived, we took a moment to ground and orient ourselves in the season with a short reading from Fiona Cook’s lovely book, The Wheel of the Year: An Illustrated Guide to Nature’s Rhythms. Beltane is situated at the halfway mark between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice and is tied to the themes of light, the blossoming fertility of the Earth, and the coming of summer.

Next, we took a few minutes to get to know each other! As an introvert, I am not the biggest fan of icebreakers, but I cherish this time for Cross Quarter Club! For our introductions, we share our name, where we’re from, how we spend our days and one thing we’re excited about this season. I love hearing what everyone else is passionate about, and there are always interesting connections that come from taking this time to learn more about each other.

Plant Walk

Next, Calyx led us on a plant identification walk through the field and wood’s edge at Yoe Park. They introduced us to a number of wild plants that are commonly available in our bioregion in spring, giving insight on the energetics, historical and cultural context, and medicinal applications for each plant. Attending a plant walk with Calyx is an eye-opening experience, to the abundance and generosity of the nature all around us. It is evident the deep reverence and care with which Calyx approaches their work, and it was a gift to be able to share this with the Cross Quarter Club community. Through Northern Appalachia School of Herbalism, Calyx is doing incredibly important and revolutionary work. Read their Mission Statement below and learn more about Calyx’s educational programs and offerings, here.

There is a spark inside all of us; a vitality that inspires us to make the world better for having been in it. We can make the choice to tend to that spark and kindle a flame; to contribute to the beauty and goodness of the world, or we can let it go out. Our mission at the Northern Appalachia School is to tend that fire inside others and help transform and return our local ecosystems and its inhabitants to a state of vitality.

The health of the land and the health of its people are intimately intertwined; you cannot have one without the other. The premise of nature-deficit disorder indicates with diminishing time spent in nature, our physical and mental health is declining. How strange a time we live in, to think of nature as something other than ourselves. It is not merely connection to nature we have lost; it is connection to our true selves.

What we strive to do is to help others reintegrate into rhythms of nature; to learn to listen again to the land and to our own bodies. To connect to plants on a deep level, and re-awaken the ancestral knowledge within us so that we can live as stewards of the land instead of contributing to its destruction. 

We have seen first hand the healing that can be accomplished through working with plants-some of which has been accomplished through consuming them, and much of which has not. The rise of interest in herbal medicine has illuminated a place of weakness-we are still approaching plants as a resource to be taken from the land; a commodity. We must step away from consumerist herbalism and return to our roots by developing relationships with our bioregional plants and the land from which they come. 

The land is our teacher, our ancestor, and our home. It is calling us back.

Oxymel Workshop

After our Plant Walk, we returned to pavilion where Calyx led us in a workshop on making our own Spring Tonic Oxymels. They had a selection of dried plant materials (Marc), including several of the plants we had just met on our walk for us to combine with vinegar and honey (Menstruum) to create herbal tonics to support us in this season. We learned so much, and it was a joy to share in this activity together!

Seasonal Snacks + Drinks

A beautiful spread of seasonally-inspired snacks, baked goods, and drinks has become a Cross Quarter Club tradition! Starting this spring, we are collaborating with Christie Altland from Head Space Studio on the food. She has a real knack for creating delicious and intentional foodscapes! On the menu this spring was an assortment of charcuterie, loaded hummus, a simple spring herb and greens salad made by Christie Altland. Dessert was delicious strawberry-chamomile cupcakes made by my sister, Stormi Barona.

Read: Cross Quarter Club’s Favorite Recipes

The Sharing Table

We conclude each Midseason Gathering with The Sharing Table, where we put our club values of reciprocity and community care into practice. Each person is encouraged to bring 1 item for the table, but it’s not a transactional thing — it’s no issue if someone doesn’t have anything to share, just like it’s no issue if someone has an abundance to share! Everyone gets a chance to “shop” the Sharing Table before they leave.  Our official theme was a plant and seedling swap, but other items have always been welcome too. More and more we are leaning into this practice, bringing whatever we have to share, whether that’s books, plants, produce, homemade bath & body products, a favorite recipe, or home decor items. The Sharing Table really is an evolving ritual we have created together and something that I really treasure and enjoy!

Read my blog post: The Story of the Sharing Table

Thank you to Misha Dennison of Woodland Floral Design Co. for creating this lush and colorful spring arrangement to decorate the table! Also, thank you to Anya Peters of Hedgerow Photography, who is capturing all of our Midseason gatherings this year. You’ll notice in the photos we have a new club banner, crafted by Dusty Pennants! This is all thanks to a Bloom Grant that we received from the York County Economic Alliance. Thank you to the team at YCEA for believing in what we are doing here with Cross Quarter Club!