Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex
I stumbled upon the anterior mid-cingulate cortex the other day and was fascinated by this knowledge. There are two of them, as a matter of fact, and according to Andrew Huberman, who has popularized education around this organ in the brain, they are our will center. In this video Huberman discusses tenacity – needed to persist under pressure, and will-power – needed to do or not do a particular thing. According to him we can grow our aMCC, but only if we regularly do things that we don’t want to do. Interesting food for thought. And a cool mouthful to share with friends. How is your anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex today? This podcast goes on a bit, and if you want to skip to the second hour, it will go into the aMCC –
https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/how-to-increase-your-willpower-and-tenacity
From now on I am going to muse each morning when I get up on what I won’t do today or what I will do today – that I don’t want to do
Expressing Gratitude this Week
Tyson Neukirch stopped by the other day and dropped off some old round bales of hay for us to use as mulch. I had to haggle with him in order to make sure I paid him enough for these 10 beauties. A true fellow farmer who knows viscerally how hard farming is and how difficult it is to make an economically adequate living, Tyson is a true treasure in our community. And not surprisingly, he grew up on a farm in the Midwest. How could I not love him?!
Bryan, Elenore, Candido, Tyson and Clare unload the bales
Videos
Myai pruning our hardy kiwi
Young layers for pre-order
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Join Next Year’s CSA
We have set prices for 2024 and are ready to receive your subscriptions for our summer CSA – running 22 weeks from June 3 – November 1. The fall CSA runs from November 4 – November 25.
Summer CSA:
- Large – $775 – $875; SNAP – $725
- Medium – $575-$675; SNAP – $525
- Small – $450 – $550; SNAP – $425
On March 1, we have raised $6779.98 Our Goal is $80,191. That’s 8.45%. – up .37% from last week.
Order your Summer CSA share here
I would like to particularly reach out to SNAP recipients at this time of year. When you sign up for a CSA share early in the spring and put together a monthly payment plan right away, it is relatively easy to pay for your entire CSA share by the end of the CSA season with your SNAP benefits. Give me a call at 978-257-1192 and we can put together your payment plan.
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Many Hands Make a Farm
We had a wonderful time in Royalston last Sunday. Invited by a very old friend from a 1985 NOFA/Mass workshop on the family cow, Kathy Morris, it was a great “old home” experience.
Here is a quote from our old friend Stan, also from the 80’s, on our book:
Julie and Jack,
Happy Spring, Bravo on you book. I enjoyed how you set it up, each giving your perspective on a topic. There were a number of gems and takeaways. So much good info for people starting out and for anywhere on the farming journey. Gezz I didn’t know about all the stuff that went on about covid/vaccines. Sure hope you have gotten some apologies. But maybe not. Haven’t heard too many ‘Geez, I got it wrong, sorry I wanted to . . .’Thanks for staying true. Anyway, I am going to recommend the book to everyone. ….. Take care have a great season. Stan
You can buy our book here.
Educational Resources this week
I came across the work of Tom Malterre this week. He is particularly impressed by the cruciferous vegetables and their ability to confer great health and actually have a positive impact on some of the harder diseases of civilization that our cultures suffers from in these times. Of course we raise many, many cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, kale, collards, radishes, turnips, etc.) in our CSA. Here is to your health. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmFnzc3oZ04 Here a TedX talk on the value of broccoli sprouts
Thirteen strategies to Limit your Heavy Metal Exposure
https://dreliaz.org/13-strategies-to-limit-your-heavy-metal-exposure/?utm_source=campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eliaz_feb24_nl_heavymetals&_kx=VHHjDK2XwIHehL2cydis51jg0Z7GwAqMO0uiUaYlYI0.Syeesf
Isaac Eliaz always has sound advice and information.
Episode 107 of the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast – Sustainable and Profitable Agriculture with Marty Travis
https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/episodes/episode-107-sustainable-and-profitable-agriculture-with-marty-travis/ Good things happening in my home state of Illinois!
Volunteering at MHOF
Another new working shareholder came on Monday. What a wonderful array of folks are showing up at the farm. Welcome, Becca!
Becca
Community Fridges
Thanks to Beth, Becky and Dale who donated this week. For the fourth year we are hoping to do some co-fundraising with the Worcester Woo Fridge https://www.woofridge.org/ which operates 4 refrigerators around the city for anyone who needs food. Historically we have delivered 14 shares for 26 weeks and we are setting a goal of 16 this year. That is a total of $9760. We now have in hand $2,198.46
We have an anonymous donor who will match our donations $1 for $1 up to $4,880. With this week’s donations our new goal for donations comes to $2,681.54
You can write a check to MHSC and send it to us at 411 Sheldon Road, Barre, MA 01005 or donate on line here. We are quite enthused about this match this year.
Emails from subscribers
Hi Julie and Jack,
Just read the newsletter and saw how you unload your cordwood.
MANY years ago I saw an ad for this product in the back of an Organic Gardening magazine (the old small format Rodale one).
It was $100.00 bucks which was a lot at the to me, but I took a chance. It is an incredible tool and they have actually replaced parts (for free) over the years. But we did buy a second when our truck bed size changed.
Anyway, I highly recommend it and it might save some of the helpers body parts!
Hugs,
S
https://loadhandler.com/
Wow, Sharon, that actually is pretty cool. I am not sure we will invest, but it is something to know about. I will share with others. Something to cogitate on.
Love, Julie
2024 Workshop Series
Here are the first two workshops – happening in March. You can find the others on the website here – https://mhof.net/events-workshops/
Natural and Low-cost Homestead Design
Saturday, March 23, 2024
9am-12noon with pot luck lunch
Price: $50-$100 sliding scale
Presenters: Jack Kittredge and Julie Rawson
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Ayurveda, Yoga, and Seasonal Cooking
Saturday, March 30, 2024
9am-12noon with pot luck lunch
Price: $50 – $100 sliding scale
Presenter: Jennifer Peck
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Jennifer’s Recipe of the Week
Roasted Garlic & Beet Hummus
Farm Doin’s
What an interesting week weather-wise. Monday and Tuesday were balmy,
Wednesday a full day of warm rain, bitter cold on Thursday, and still cold on Friday. As we turn the corner from winter to spring, March does bring a lot of wind and sunny cold, and the plants slowly come back to life – a wonderful time, with so much more light.
Throughout the week we worked in the pond field on the road edge and clipped, cut down, and hauled a lot of brush and firewood as we completely cleared off the wall of the brambles and the “high performing” grapes and bittersweet. Just another hour or 2 to finish that portion of our edges and walls – many more 100s of feet to go. This work will most likely come to a close in April, but has been a great use of our time this winter.
The Stetson folks are almost done with the kindling! Thanks
We finished up all of our pruning – grapes and hardy kiwi being our last to finish. And thanks to Myai for showing up again this week to manage us.
Jack, Matt, Danny and I went on a walk to look at our underground 3 part shock, electricity, water system to consider needed repairs and additions. This year we will extend our water and shock system into our pond field and save a lot of hauling around of hoses and shock wires (this for pig fence and maybe deer fence)’
We finished our organic certification application this week. After hours of reading about how to catch non-compliers and many questions about our compliance, Clare and I mused on the negative approach that this process focuses on. Too bad we have “Organic” in our name, or we would have dropped our certification years ago.
Tuesday, we got out the sprayer, put together our vegetative foliar recipe, and sprayed our hoophouse seedlings. Growth is beginning again in the hoophouses.
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We also took delivery of 10 round bales from Tyson and had fun rolling them off the truck.
Thursday, Reza, Majid and Noushin came to visit from WPI. They are putting together a research project to study soil moisture levels with drones. We had a great visit and learned some more about Iran.
Friday, we got out the bale chopper and tried to use it, but found quickly that it needs repairs. Dave Petrovick to the rescue. He will come back on Monday to make needed repairs. Gratitude here! Everyone should have Dave in their lives.
Julie
Stop by for a peanut butter ball!
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