Dear Friends and Customers of Many Hands Organic Farm,
Everything I read about gut health and soil health extolls the prioritization of diversity in foodstuffs, underground, and aboveground. This Solstice week has been inspirational to me as we manage the explosion of vegetative growth, of our intended plants, but also of the beautiful plants (that some call weeds) that nature provides. I find myself almost wanting to put my ear to the ground to hear what the plants are telling us about how we can enhance the overall ecosystem abundance while gathering some of humankind’s favorite annuals. Meanwhile, here is what I serve Jack and me twice per day with juice to enhance that gut biome (3 times per day when easing Lyme out of the system).
We mix 2 heaping Tablespoons in juice (grape, apple, celery) twice per day
Start with a little jar of Fungi Perfecti mushroom powder
3.5 oz. each of Lion’s Mane
Turkey Tail
Cordyceps
Reishi
Chaga
Then in quantities that make sense to you powders of
Turmeric
Ginger
Cinnamon
Black pepper
Skullcap
Holy basil
Passion flower
California poppy
Yerba Matte
Eleuthero
Horsetail
Bee pollen
Hawthorne berry powder
Kelp
Angelica root
Milk thistle seed ground
Spirulina powder
Astragalus
Gotu Cola
Devil’s claw
Barley grass
Licorice
Dandelion root
Burdock root
Yellow dock root
These foods are a combination of support for immune function, kidney support, liver cleanse, inflammation, and nervous system calming. I am always adding more things as either Jack or I identify problems that we want to address.
A great email from a shareholder
CSA Update
Week six best guess at what you will get
- Purple Kohlrabi
- Lettuce – new crop of delicious greens
- Parsley – little bunches that we are weeding and mulching as we pick
- Strawberries – as much as I would like to quit picking them, at least folks early in the week will get them – perhaps a half pint?
- Sugar snap peas – eat the whole thing – raw, in salads, sautéed, etc. etc. I first bought this AAS winner in 1979 and haven’t missed a year yet – 8 feet all at the moment and still growing
- Peppermint, lemon balm, spearmint – one of these
- Chard
- Kale or collards
- Green Onions
- Beet greens – one more week of thinnings
- Fennel – this will be coming for awhile
- Small cabbages for larges
CSA still open
If you want to join the CSA but haven’t yet gotten around to it, it is not too late. Check the website for the weekly downwardly changing prices. https://mhof.net/csa-order-form/
Wow, did we bust it out this week. Anthony and Cathleen fixed another bird house so that we could divide our 300 little meat birds into three houses. Anthony spent a lot of time mowing all of our lawns and edges this week, just in time for a family get together this past week end. We are so excited that our son Paul from DC could come after 18 months separation and our daughter Ellen from England after 15 months away. We did get 4 leek and onion beds weeded, and awaiting mulch – 5 more beds to go. We also accomplished the weeding and mulching of two kale beds, thinning of 3 of our 4 beet beds, and cleaning up of our new lettuce beds – 3 of those. We are on a 2 parsley beds a day plan until they get weeded and mulched and did the same for the peppers. Potatoes get debugged every other day or so, and we got the hoop houses turned over – though 2 of the 5 lost their tops completely in the wind. So almost all five are planted to tomatoes, hot peppers, eggplant and melons. More lettuce and cabbage were put in also and we got the brooder house prepared for our coming turkeys on July 1. And we tied the peas for the third time – they are growing 2 feet per week right now. Maya noted Friday that she thinks we are going to be able to keep up with the weeding and mulching and that she feels relieved at that. Go Maya – another level of investment. We also hosted Juan and his dad and stepmom from Colombia this week and talked farming shop with Julian who raises sugar cane, beef and flowers. It is almost essential, it seems, that we who are out there working 8 hours per day take the farm on as a cause in order to keep up the energy that we put out racing hither and yon planting, weeding, mowing, mulching picking, tending of vegetables and fruits, and also on animal care and structures management. But the sun is with us now – ebbing from the Solstice and getting darker every day, allowing us breathing room.
Pasture raised, certified organic, and delicious! Pick up August 29 in Barre. Make sure you order yours before they sell out. https://mhof.net/organic-meat/
