From the Farmhouse Table: April 2026
Renewal
Happy Spring to all of you, subscribers of this blog and supporters of Hedgebrook!
I’d be remiss to start this blog post without first offering gratitude and huge thanks to all of you who joined us in person and virtually at our most successful Equivox to date in honor Nancy Nordhoff’s life. It was an impressive and heart-warming gathering of Hedgebrook alumnae, supporters, and members of the Nordhoff family.
Today, I write these words fresh from a walk at Hedgebrook Farm. As I wandered through woodland paths, bird song accentuated the fresh spring air and moss glowed electric green under my feet. Out in the big meadow forsythias throbbed yellow! yellow! yellow! And in the garden, the deeply lobed leaves of cardoons are already jostling for space near the deep-rose tender stalks of future peonies pulling upwards through the wet ground. Spring and its message of renewal is everywhere at Hedgebrook.
Ten springs ago I was preparing, for the third time, my residency application. In late fall of the same year I received a letter of acceptance. When I arrived for my residency the following summer I brought with me a memoir draft. This coming fall, my memoir, The Flowers Along the Way, will be published by Northwestern University Press. I left Hedgebrook with a heart full of gratitude, a cleaner draft, and a more solid understanding of what I wanted my book to say and do.
As in springs of years past the residency applications are open. If you are a writer and never applied for a Hedgebrook residency, or someone who has unsuccessfully applied before, I encourage you to do so! We move through life putting one foot in front of the other. If we stay open to it, good and unexpected things may come our way.
May you enjoy these days of renewal wherever you are. May the return of the light offer you sustenance and hope. And may we see you at Hedgebrook Farm in the near future.
Claudia Castro Luna
Alumna and Interim Executive Director