August 4, 2025
Ah, August at Last
I know there is a bit of consternation out there, having heard through the grapevine, that we are going out of farming in 2026. And as I pointed out to Tyson Neukirch on Friday, who works at Mt. Grace Land Trust, most of my farmer age-cohort has long since retired, but it is not in the cards yet here. Jack is using both arms again and I am almost able to walk up and down steps one foot at a time. Most importantly, that ugly month of July has left us. It left with a gift of a long and steady rainstorm and then a change to cool nights and sunny beautiful days. The first week of August is always a harbinger of the wonderful fall weather to come, even though we will still have days and perhaps weeks of hot weather. But the back of the oppressive heat and humidity is almost always broken by now.
So, July was particularly ugly this year what with health issues, unrelenting heat and high humidity, almost no rain, and animal depredation at night. And it did one thing – to confirm, and I am putting it in print – that the farm will be smaller next year – not gone. As a matter of fact, I think that the best way to gracefully age must be to slowly, as needed, cut back, while still keeping a strong hand in the world, and being of use to those around us.
Gratitude this week
Jim Gusha was our hero this week. When he got to work on Monday, the tractor was down, the Subaru was sitting dead in the pond field, the truck wouldn’t go into gear, and the van was still in the shop. Jim got busy and figured out how to fix the tractor, and put a temporary fix on the truck. In the end we had to call Billy Payne at Quabbin Auto and get the Subaru towed, but Jim towed it from the field to the edge of the road with the tractor, to make that happen. Then he went on to do a thorough mowing, trimming job on the solar panel area with the help of the Stetson kids. Jim is only here one morning per week, but he works miracles while he is here!
“Little House on the Prairie” Redux
by Jack Kittredge
The “Little House” series is 9 books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder about growing up as a child on homesteads in the Midwestern and Prairie states a century and a half ago. When our four kids were still quite young we would read a chapter to them each night at bedtime. Even though 3 were boys, in their make-believe they would gladly take on the roles of Laura, her older sister Mary, and the younger Carrie and Grace.
Wilder didn’t write these books until she was almost 70, but her memory was sharp, her honesty impressive, and her descriptions of places and events perfect for the imaginations of our children (from as young as 4 to as old as 12 or so). Laura’s capacity to build a nightly drama around the simplest of daily happenings and bring it to a warm and heartfelt conclusion – often with a gentle lesson about work, kindness, or responsibility – made us all feel a tad uplifted afterwards.
We finished reading the last of the books probably 35 years ago now, and had lost touch with them. I was informed the other day, however, by a Washington Post article, that the series had gone out of favor. The reason? Racism.
My only memory of Laura describing an encounter with Native Americans was once early on when the Ingalls had moved to an isolated frontier location in a part of Kansas which had been “Indian Territory” but was newly opened to white settlement. Ma and Pa had become quite sick and Laura and Mary were too young to manage. Members of the Osage tribe, despite being displaced by whites, nevertheless looked in on the family and helped them.
But Laura does mention other whites who believed “the only good Indian is a dead Indian”. Apparently that mention was enough to bring the American Library Association in 2018 to determine that the series includes: “expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness.”
If Laura had herself shared such attitudes I don’t think we would have been so attracted to her story. But to report and enable discussion of such a feeling among others seems important to understanding the forces shaping the history of American settlement. That children’s books should be censored for accurately describing difficult realities seems like shooting ourselves in the foot. Do we really want our youth to grow up so ignorant?
Prejudice and hate still rule affairs in much of the world. If we want to dispel the ghastly results of allowing them license, we first need to admit their existence.
My Reading Adventures
This week I started Metabolical, a spicy book by Dr. Robert Lustig, who pulls no punches regarding the status of a medical/pharmaceutical complex, present and past. There is some juicy history of nutrition gone wrong with some of what seem to be favored players, like John D. Rockefeller (turns out he wanted to find a market for his coal tar, so why not put it into patent medicines). Featured was Weston A Price, the hero dentist who spent some years visiting and studying indigenous cultures to find out why we Americans had such rotten teeth with small misshapen jaws, and why seven indigenous cultures had wide mouths and straight, perfect teeth. And then there were the Kellogg brothers who got us started on boxed cereals. Dr. Lustig brings it back to sugar and processed foods of all sorts, including grains, fruits, and oils. His gig is that we have to support the gut biome and the liver, and health will follow. This book is very irreverent, and also packed with scientific information. A must read.
An Offering by our Personal Trainer – Heidi Shortis
An 8-week transformation class I’ll be running in September. This class will give you all the tools you need to build healthy habits and reach your health goals. Proven strategies for fat loss, live online and recorded classes, recipes, resources, handouts, and weekly check ins. We’ll explore new health topics each week and get tips and strategies to help manage all aspects of health and wellness.
Class will be Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm via Zoom 9/10 to 10/29 with an optional intro class on 9/3
Starting in September I’ll be offering a live online kid fitness class. This will be for kids age 4 to 12, functional movement with jumping, hopping and dancing.
Reach out if you have any questions!!
Thank you!!!!!
Heidi Shortis
lunafitnessandwellness@gmail.
2025 MHOF CSA
Large share week of July 28
With the beautiful rain of Thursday night, it seems we might be back in business again on the farm. We have been ultra diligent working to set up the farm for the second half – August 1 to the end of November. And now that we have rain, we can see the fruits of our labors. We need to do some more weeding, much mulching for fall crops, some more planting, and rest easy that we have done good work.
Coming this week
- Arugula
- Summer savory
- Beautiful beet green thinnings
- Summer squash and zucchini
- Cucumbers
- Basil
- Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower
- Lettuce
- Chard
- Beets
- Flowers for flower shares
- Green beans
It is not too late to get a flower share for the end of the season
Send us a check for $100 and you can get one of these for the next 8-10 weeks
Farm Doins
Besides fixing vehicles and picking and packing the CSA, we were able to get two beds of carrots planted on Monday. We had left one of the beds in process the previous Friday, and were happy that it rained a little bit over the weekend. Carrots are finnicky, especially pelletized carrots, because the clay coating has to break down before the carrots can start to germinate.
As with many of our Tuesdays of late, we prepped and planted some more fall crops. This includes getting rid of the growth that is lingering in an old bed of crops, and then making rows and planting. Of late with the very dry weather, we have been spending hours with the hose too, to ensure that the plants make it. Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and beets made it in.
Watch Part 1 & 2 of Julie talking about our no-till efforts turning over our beds mid-season. She also talks about the benefits and challenges of a no-till system
Watch on Facebook
Watch on Instagram
On Wednesday, we hosted some old friends from a youth program in Springfield, run by my former colleague Anna Gilbert-Muhammad. Besides picking up the hay from the west field,
we harvested our ripe blueberries, moved the turkeys outside onto the front lawn, reweeded, and then mulched — with the turkey litter — our blueberries and black raspberries. We also weeded and tied our tomatoes in the west field to get them ready for their big debut.
During the hot afternoons of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we spent some time making garlic powder from our garlic “seconds.” We had an interesting conversation about how many value-added products are actually made from stuff you can’t sell in its raw form!
Piper came to work with mom Marj on Tuesday
On Thursday, aside from being extremely grateful for the fact that it rained almost all day, we realized the young turkeys would not do well in the upcoming 2 inches of rain, and strung heat lamps out onto the front yard in their house and made them a nice cave to sleep in with a big tarp over their heads. They loved it. And the tarp has been going on every night with the temperature dropping into the 50’s.
Friday is often our most favorite day on the farm as we look back on what we accomplished, put together our smallest CSA (and thus easiest), And tie up loose ends. We received 50 cute little layers in the mail to assure our egg supply for 2026,
fixed the drip tape in the hoophouses, and did some bed prep for a last planting of basil and tulsi.
Saturday found Natasha, Justin and I doing chores, catching up on blueberry picking, spreading 55 gallons of wood ash on the recently harvested west field hayfield, topped off by Brendan and Jack changing the RO filters on our water system. Justin and I shared a bunch of extra seedlings with Marissa, and mowed and cleaned up in front of our seedling show room at the front of the Clare house.
Work going forward should be busy, but manageable as the days continue to get shorter. I ended the week with a kaleidoscope of memories of good times with dogs, Breezy the cat, pigs, chickens, turkeys, untold numbers of human beings and thousands of vegetables all manifesting their own version of the good life.
Julie
Our happy pigs
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.