“Working together in the bush, sawing and cutting and stacking the wood
for winter, is a return to simplicity.
The feel of energies bent to a task and seeing it through is the stuff of community, and a realization of how much we let slip away to technology and the speed of things. Reach out, leave the keyboard, be with people-that’s- spiritual”
-Ojibway Richard Wagamese
Thanks to Laurie for sending this one along. I suspect that she thought of us because we have been doing so much wood these days. Of course, we are using chain saws, tractors and wood splitters, but we have been experiencing a lot of special community on the farm this late winter. It has been particularly heartwarming for me to see the Stetson School boys learn how to make and keep bonfires going, and really become adept at running the wood splitter and stacking wood carefully on a pallet.
Our most recent pile of wood
It does harken back for me the 25 or so years that our family “did wood” together here each year, about 15-19 cords, with an old Ford 9N, a repurposed manure spreader, a chainsaw and axes and mauls. The wood splitting contests alone were worth the price of admission!
Farm Education Materials
I forgot to publish this recipe last week along with the seed starting video.
Seed Soak Recipe
To enhance germination and get seeds off to a strong start. From Advancing EcoAgriculture’s Nathan Harmann:
10 parts water
1 part seacrop
1 part rejuvenate
3 parts seastim
a wee dash of mycogenesis or biocoat gold (at least 1 gram per pound of seed) – add this only at soaking time
And soak seeds in that for, yeah, about 4 hours. If it’s a seed that desires a much longer soaking time, I would start with plain water, or with just the seacrop added, and then finish with the more robust seed soak.
Expressing Gratitude this Week
This week I am especially thankful to the board of directors of the Many Hands Sustainability Center who met on Saturday for our annual meeting. Ed Stockman, farmer from Plainfield, Dave Petrovick, farmer from Barre – both founding members of the board, Mary Fierro – long term customer, retired activist social worker from Worcester, and John Wilson, newly elected board member from Worcester were in attendance along with Jack, Clare, Jonathan and me.
We discussed MHOF’s relationship with providing food for those of limited means, recurring donations, adding in a significant feature to our education around sustainable building, employment for at-risk youth, and broadening our reach through YouTube. Watch for more highlights of the above here. And thanks to all of you who support us in our educational work through the Many Hands Sustainability Center.
Farm Videos From Last Week
Promo for our longer running chicken management video that you can watch on YouTube, link below
The bottles of yellow oil on the supermarket shelves are labeled heart-healthy, but they are in actuality damaging for our health (and the heart). Sally offers guidance on the problem with seed oils—and what to cook with instead.
Sally Fallon is a long-term hero of mine. I have to say that if you do anything to change your diet, get rid of seed oils (except for coconut and olive oils) in your diet.
Dr. Talks Microbes and the Brain Summit musings
Wim Hof, who is fast becoming famous for his cold showers and breathing programs, is a man on fire with his message regarding taking your own mental and physical health into your own hands. His wife committed suicide by jumping several stories to her death and he went on a very interesting journey to consider how to deal with depression. He is all over the internet and worth a visit there. Here are some quotes from his session that I particularly enjoyed.
“A happy man does not go to war.” “Take a damn shower.” And “Get high on your own supply.” This refers to stimulating your happy chemicals – gaba, dopamine, serotonin, etc. – naturally.
I already shared that Jack and I are working with daughter Ellen to clear up our gut permeability and challenging symptoms by working with MicroBiome Labs. We are in process and I will report back to you in a couple of months. But I encourage anyone to contact MicroBiome Labs, who is led by their super intelligent CEO Kiran Krishnan, to do this work. There are a number of online videos and podcasts with Kiran that can further illuminate what they have to offer.
I have heard 3 or so talks with Isaac Eliaz, neurologist of many decades, discussing galectin-3 and the Survival Paradox, which keeps so many of us these days in autoimmune dysfunction. If I were to advise anyone to do a simple thing for health, it would be to buy some Pectasol (modified citrus pectin) and take it as a supplement to be the first activity to address autoimmunity. He has a book by the name of “The Survival Paradox” that I will get and report back on later. Listening to this man puts one in immediate calm – an advanced soul for sure.
Join the 2023 Summer and Fall CSA
We have about 60 shareholders signed up for 2023 and are looking for about 150 in order to meet budget. Now is a good time to take the leap to upgrade how you eat and how you feel. Sign up today. Information is at the link below.
Thanks for keeping that CSA application investment coming!
We are able to make the finances work here by working with volunteers who “sing for their supper” so to speak, receiving a large share of produce for their efforts, and undying appreciation and pats on the back. Right now we are taking working shareholders on M and W from 8-12 with lunch, eggs, and applesauce. Come and join us.
This week’s working shareholder highlight: Stu is definitely our mouthiest working shareholder, but of the recent crop he is the longest standing. And we love him!
Stu enjoying a bit of breakfast before work
Retired District Chief Stuart Howe
Working Shareholder
Stu has been with us since 2020 and comes to the farm each week because of the eggs he gets, usually a dozen. He enjoys the people out here – he has met a lot of nice people. Julie doesn’t ask anything of us that she doesn’t do. It is good exercise, sometimes too much. But if you just sit around and do nothing you end up being dead, so he does other volunteer work that also keeps him busy. He enjoys doing carpentry with Jonathan, and what he doesn’t like is making decisions about picking shares. He had to do that all the time with his job. Weeding is fun (Stu is one of our top flight weeders!). He also thinks we made a good choice in hiring Jonathan.
Ways to Donate to MHSC
Many Hands Sustainability Center – our farm non-profit
Community Fridges
We have been donating food to this elegantly simple project in Worcester whereby four refrigerators are stocked with fresh produce from volunteers, and those in need shop for free at these locations. We have received a few Community Fridges donations this year. We have raised $1,350 so far.
To provide 14 summer shares this year there will be a total need of $6650. The WCF folks will attempt to raise “their” half, and we will raise our half – $3325. Here below is their promotional material. If you would like to donate to us directly, write a check to MHOF. If you would like to donate to them directly, here is the link – https://opencollective.com/worcestercommunityfridges/projects/csa-fundraiser
Thanks in advance for your generosity.
Workshops at MHOF
Pruning and Managing an Orchard Trees, Grapes and Small Fruit
Saturday, April 1, 2023
10 am – noon followed by potluck lunch
This is a hands-on event. We will supply tools.
Price for workshop: $25-$75. Register here.
Building and Using a Chicken Tractor
Saturday, April 22, 2023
10 am – noon followed by potluck lunch
Many Hands Sustainability Center
411 Sheldon Road, Barre, MA
farm@mhof.net
978-257-1192
Pasturing poultry gives your birds access to the extra nutrients only Nature can supply best. Yet how do you protect them from predators out on grass? A well-designed range-house “tractor” offers security from hawks, owls and four-footed varmints.
Each year we raise 500-600 birds in these “tractors” on pasture. Two people feed and water the animals and move their range houses by hand every day to fresh grass. We will be moving some for this workshop presentation, as well as building one so you can get up close and learn how it is done.
Monday we raced around to get ahead of the storm that came on Tuesday and dumped 18”. We got a lot of wood harvested and split and stacked, but ran out of time. Clare got it all out of the snowbank on Wednesday so that it could melt, and Friday we finished the week’s supply, filling up another one of our outdoor makeshift wood piles.
We have now called all of the 2022 and 2021 shareholders to invite them back to the CSA, with mixed results. It is always good to hear what customers have to say, even when it is not what you want to hear!
Jonathan is almost finished grouting the bathroom. We will definitely have an “opening” once it is grouted, has a new coat of paint, and we have cleaned up all the grout dust!
We made progress in the hoophouses weeding (not all done yet) and replanting where things were not well filled in.
Check out this beautiful arugula
We had a really good time, but then found lots of ticks on us after we left the houses
Chickens enjoyed the chickweed, after Dingo determined it was not for dog consumption
Seedlings are up in the greenhouse. We will whisk them out to the yellow hoop house on Monday to keep them from getting leggy.
Good thing that we will have another big storm this week to stave off the early spring rush a bit longer. But it is inevitable and it is coming fast. Though we got all of our fruit tree pruning during the non-winter winter, we got cut short on finishing up the chipping, and can’t complete all of our small fruit pruning until the snow is gone. Now is a good time to take stock, and cram all the most important pre-season work in while there is still time. Good luck to all of us as we narrow in on April 1 – the date I always use as a touchstone for having my act together.
We are focusing on two new supplemental home brews – one is the lactobacillus aerated brew that I mentioned back in December – issue December 5, 2022 – Bubbly. Email me if you would like a copy of the recipe. The other will feature comfrey, my favorite herb. Here is the recipe that Clare researched.
Comfrey Tea for Foliar Feeding – March 2023
This is a homemade fertilizer to enhance the recipes we are using made from AEA products utilizing what we have in good quantity growing on the farm- Comfrey! We already dry it for tea and salves and feed it to poultry throughout the season. Comfrey is high in nutrients to benefit annual and perennial plants. Comfrey is low maintenance, has beautiful purple flowers that attract pollinators and other beneficial insects, has many uses on the farm, and is nutrient rich; namely it is high in nitrogen, protein, micro and macro elements.
Recipe for 55 gallons of comfrey tea:
Based on Jerry Brunetti’s recipe in his book The Farm as Ecosystem
20 lbs. of fresh comfrey leaves
10 lbs. of compost or worm castings
4 oz Epsom salts
10 lbs. organic blackstrap molasses
1 oz sea salt
5 gallons organic milk
Ferment in a vented container (a piece of screening over the top), and stir daily for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, strain and use in drench and foliar recipes. 3 or 4 oz per gallon of water. I would store this in your walk in as it will go bad.
Jerry Brunetti also uses nettles, Japanese knotweed, and alfalfa for making fermented plant teas. It is extra beneficial to combine the different plant ferments. We will be adding plant teas to ingredients we buy from AEA. However, if you want to enhance your plant tea, add liquid fish, seaweed extract and humic acid after fermentation.
Expressing Gratitude this Week
Gratitude goes to a new friend, Kelly, who did some energy work on me and got my organs draining and my aura all repaired after a rough encounter. I can share her contact info with you, if you are interested. She’s good!
We start thousands of seeds here in a very limited space and grow them all out with no additional heat other than the sun. We have come to this method after decades of experimentation and a lot of wasted time.
Jonathan explains step two of our lactobacillus tea brewing
March 14 – 21, 2023
This is free, though you can pay something to get the talks for your files. There are a lot of renowned speakers on the list. I highly encourage anyone who is concerned about cognition, or depression or diseases of the brain to sign up for this. https://event.drtalks.com/microbes-and-mental-health-summit/speaker-schedule/
Annual Soil Regen Summit: Collaborating with Nature
March 14-15, 2023
Exploring a diversity of topics including Soil Biology, No Till, Cover Crops, Compost, Rhizophagy, Reforestation, Permaculture, Nutrient Density, Deep Bed Farming, Animal & Human Health and many more… https://www.srs2023.com/
NOFA/Mass Monthly Roundtable Calls
The first Monday or Tuesday of each month – 7:00-8:00pm
These calls rotate between min-till and agroforestry. https://www.nofamass.org/nofa-events
Book Review
The Energy Codes – Dr. Sue Morter
I just finished this book. It is one of many that I have read on how I can work with my body systems to be more centered and healthful. There is a lot of homework here for the serious student of energetic self-care. I like her references to moving from the protective self to the soulful self. Lots of good food for thought.
Join the 2023 Summer and Fall CSA
We have about 50 shareholders signed up for 2023 and are looking for about 150 in order to meet budget. Now is a good time to take the leap to upgrade how you eat and how you feel. Sign up today. Information is below.
I am delighted to report that this year, in large part because of a surge of new members to our new site at Chase Hill Farm in Warwick, we are able to stay current with the unending onslaught of large bills at this time of year for fertility, seeds, liability insurance, workers comp, certification fees, etc. Thanks for keeping that CSA application investment coming!
I challenged Dave and crew over this assertion, just so you know. He promised to reach out. Actually, light (2″ tillage) is not very harmful as far we can tell, but I think the moldboard plow was the reason soil carbon plateaued for decades at Rodale. That O2 activates the organic matter-eating bacteria and respiration releases it back into the atmosphere. We have some data on vegetables with no-till, and it took 3 years for the soil to recover, and then it outperformed the tilled. However, the cover crops I saw planted in the winter were not that successful in the research, and I would posit like in a large farm no-till corn production system in AZ we found no real yield decrease when multispecies covers were planted. We have other research projects really showing us the very same thing. Actually, I think if I were to transition my farm to organic I would use no-till + multispecies cover crops and 10% normal fertilizer in the first year, then drop all fertilizer, and I think we would so no yield drop in most cases. The same farm in AZ showed a higher yield in year 1 with 15% fertilizer app vs 100%. How about that?
There are two problematic disturbances to soil microbiome – tillage and chemicals. No-till farmers are working that angle, and most organic farmers are working the other angle. We in regenerative are working both angles for farmer profit, soil health, water infiltration, climate change, and nutrient density. I wish the organic people could get over their bashing of conventional and vice versa. There is too much work to be done. Thanks for your comments and challenge.
“Thanks for the letter, Tim! As I’m sure you know Julie and I are now not with NOFA anymore (we split with them and they with us over response to the pandemic) and are focused on building our own farm.
I do try to stay up with carbon issues and appreciate hearing of your findings about tillage and how it can be reduced without use of herbicides. Dave is certainly fighting the good fight supporting the use of living soil on organic farms, and I don’t envy his situation in the marketplace fending off hydroponics. But I wish he didn’t feel it necessary to defend or obscure the use of tillage.in organics. It just confuses the issue that I think needs to be our focus.
With regard to your findings about light tillage of 2″ or so not being very harmful in terms of loss of carbon from the soil, I’d love to hear why you think that might be true — is it something unique happening in that soil profile, is the impact just below the threshold of detection, or something else? I would like to understand the process better. If there is more to know about what is happening and why I would love to learn it.
I hope things are working out with you and the others I hear about at Chico. It seems like it would be exciting to work with regenerative ag peers and I’d love to be a fly on the wall listening to your discussions!
Thanks again for writing. — Jack”
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“Jack, I do not have research data on that, I have observation and common sense. When we plow or deep till we are breaking up all those fungal networks – critical networks. They can restore themselves very fast when not destroyed by catastrophic tillage. Secondly, I was surprised to see no erosion in my fields, but since the past season’s crop residue was mixed in with the 2″ tilling, it was a bit like a mulch. So I still got great percolation – that 4.5 inches in 15 hours filtrated down. Amazing. And the aggregation, wormholes, and air spaces below the 2″ were all still in place. Thus, observation and common sense.
We still have much to learn.
Tim”
–
“Thanks, Tim. That does help me understand your findings. Stuff that makes perfect sense if you think about it.
Are you talking of 4.5 inches of rain? That is incredible! I mean the rain, not too surprised by the great percolation in undisturbed but living soil.
We too are finding very healthy effects on soil moisture — both absorption and release — from our changes in soil practices.
If you have any sort of newsgroup that you routinely notify of research, activities and discussions about soil, carbon, tillage, etc. I’d love to be on the list!
Thanks again for the explanation. — Jack”
Working Shareholders Always Welcome
Pretty soon the weather won’t be iffy and it is a good time to come and get your feet wet as a working shareholder. Feel free to contact me to give it a one morning trial (Monday or Friday) to see if becoming a working shareholder is right for you.
This week’s working shareholder highlight is for Leslie who just signed on to work with us 2 days per week and she does a crackerjack job of managing our monthly payroll submissions to the government and our tax forms too. Never ask her to stand around – Leslie is happiest when she is busy!
Leslie Stambler
Leslie started working on the farm in February 2021 to get outside and as a sort of respite from life challenges. Shortly after, she brought along a few friends who continue to volunteer on the farm; and she also became a pick-up location for the CSA. Good health and wellness is important to her and the work on the farm gives her physical exercise outside that she enjoys. “Working on the farm is my therapy, I feel part of the family and inspired by Julie to be more creative.” Leslie explains.
Ways to Donate to MHSC
Many Hands Sustainability Center – our farm non-profit
Community Fridges
We have been donating food to this elegantly simple project in Worcester whereby four refrigerators are stocked with fresh produce from volunteers, and those in need shop for free at these locations. I had a good meeting with Maria Ravelli of Community Fridges. They are in for next year and will be fundraising on their end to keep this enjoyable partnership going. We have received a few Community Fridges donations this year. We have raised $1,350 so far.
To provide 14 summer shares this year there will be a total need of $6650. The WCF folks will attempt to raise “their” half, and we will raise our half – $3325. Here below is their promotional material. If you would like to donate to us directly, write a check to MHSC. If you would like to donate to them directly, here is the link – https://opencollective.com/worcestercommunityfridges/projects/csa-fundraiser
Thanks in advance for your generosity.
Workshops at MHOF
Pruning and Managing an Orchard Trees, Grapes and Small Fruit
Saturday, April 1, 2023
10 am – noon followed by potluck lunch
This is a hands-on event. We will supply tools.
Price for workshop: $25-$75. Register here.
Building and Using a Chicken Tractor
Saturday, April 22, 2023
10 am – noon followed by potluck lunch
Many Hands Sustainability Center
411 Sheldon Road, Barre, MA
farm@mhof.net
978-257-1192
Pasturing poultry gives your birds access to the extra nutrients only Nature can supply best. Yet how do you protect them from predators out on grass? A well-designed range-house “tractor” offers security from hawks, owls and four-footed varmints.
Each year we raise 500-600 birds in these “tractors” on pasture. Two people feed and water the animals and move their range houses by hand every day to fresh grass. We will be moving some for this workshop presentation, as well as building one so you can get up close and learn how it is done.
As we still have a lot of snow on the ground, we have been doing a lot of wood management. I took four chains in to be sharpened on Saturday from the past week! There is an ever mounting pile of wood to be split that we will have to prioritize on Monday before the next storm comes in. We have been picking away at the southern stone wall of the west field, cutting wood, cleaning up brush and burning brush as we go.
Paula and Laurie at the woodpile
Also, this week we took some time to harvest and cut up our 80 36-inch oak logs (3-4” in diameter), get them stacked, brush cleaned up, and the trees around the mushroom yard de-vined. Friday, we double tasked a bit and moved the remaining 5 bags of leaves that were in those woods down to our holding area in the west field.
Loading up bags of leaves for transport
Additionally, we started 65 10’ x 20” trays of vegetables, filling up our attached greenhouse. And we took the remay off of the hoop house crops and started the process of replanting where needed.
We have some nice lettuce
And spinach
At the end of the day on Friday we were able to finish all of the blueberry pruning and get a good start on the blackberries.
Jonathan pruning blackberries
Dingo protecting Skippy from a big shepherd named Fritz who came to visit
https://mhof.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/logo.jpg00Christy Bassetthttps://mhof.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/logo.jpgChristy Bassett2023-03-13 06:00:492023-03-13 09:13:27There is so Much to Do!
Clare went off to England and Scotland with daughter McMillan and was gone from the farm for 2 ½ weeks. She had a good time, and we missed her. She came back on Thursday. Clare has been with us for 15 years now, and her being gone only reminded me of how much a pleasure it is to work alongside her. Though I am quite efficient and happy and productive when she is not here, everything gets that much easier when we do things together. At this point of the season we are always certain that it will be the finest year yet and that all of our plans and goals will fall into place seamlessly. One of her salient features is her unbounded optimism and positive perspective on things. Today I celebrate my great fortune, and the farm’s fortune, that Clare expresses so much of her life energy here.
Putting together daughter Ellen’s annual seed order birthday present
Expressing Gratitude this Week
Matt Korn joined us last fall as a working shareholder. He is by far one of the quietest people I have ever met. And one of the most steady and hardworking folks too. When asked for a bio for the website, he returned this work of art –
“After several years of passively participating in Community Supported Agriculture, Matt decided to take a more active role, and volunteered to be a working share holder at MHOF in 2022. He has a growing desire to be more self-reliant and self-deterministic concerning the quality and origin of the food he eats. Due to his constraints of time and land, working at MHOF provides him with a “loophole” to achieve this goal. Trying to be a better steward of the land that he inherited from others before him and will someday leave behind, Matt is applying the principles of regenerative agriculture/landscaping he learns, to transform his small, urban “lawnscape” into something more beneficial to the beings with whom he currently shares it. Hopefully his neighbors will be inspired to do the same. His time spent on MHOF has become a therapeutic respite from the challenges that modern life sometimes gives us.
Originally from Pittsfield, MA, Matt now lives in Worcester and works for the city as a firefighter. He makes a home with his wife, Meghan, and their two Shar Peis, Saki and Mo’i.”
Matt Manhandling a big piece of frozen woodchips
Farm Videos From Last Week
Pruning blueberries – come to our fruit workshop April 1
Is There a Master Switch for Disease? with Isaac Eliaz, MD
I think this guy is the real deal. Worth the over an hour of listening.
Healing Your Mouth and Gums with Dr. Al Danenberg
Here is a periodontist with some very strong opinions about what to put on your teeth and in your body.
Join the 2023 Summer and Fall CSA
We continue to have excellent sales of the CSA shares for 2023. We are itching to get back in the fields, but must wait another month at least. Until then, back to the pruning and perennial management.
We would love to receive your CSA application. Check out all the details here:
Sliding scale – For those of you who want to support a more affordable share for others, you can pay the top of the range. And for those who are of more limited finances, feel free to choose a lower number.
Delivery/handling fee – Trying to make our Paypal options as manageable as possible, we have decided to fold delivery /handling into the share price.
Here are the rates for 2023
Summer large – $750-$850
Summer medium – $550-$650
Summer small – $425-$525
Fall – $170
SNAP pricing
Summer large – $700
Summer medium – $500
Summer small – $400
Fall – $160
SNAP customers reach out to Julie to set up a payment plan.
We have trifold brochures. We can send you some, or email the master for you to print. Be in touch. We also have 8½” x 11″ posters.
Emails From Readers
To Till or Not to Till Responses
“I love this! I shared the trailer to the symposium to our IG account because I felt like it was addressing an issue that has been bugging me for a while, that no till conventional is more climate friendly than organic. Although I believe that no till is the ideal, no till conventional using glyphosate and other toxic chemicals is more harmful than thoughtful tillage in an organic system. It is similar to my frustration with the “regenerative” farming movement. You can call yourself climate friendly if you don’t till in a conventional context and you can call yourself regenerative if you don’t till and pasture animals, but are buying grain for your pastured animals that is raised on farms using conventional chemical agriculture practices. Ben” (farmer)
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“I like a good debate. I hope Dave takes you up on your offer. What you are doing over your years of experimentation is incredible and groundbreaking. I so enjoy your continued enthusiasm and always find inspiration in your newsletters. Enjoy your snow day, Linda” (farmer)
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“Thanks for covering this important topic with your subscribers Julie and Jack. I’d like to offer free tickets to the symposium for all your subscribers by giving them this link. It is really important to attend first to understand what we are saying and then join the conversation. Would you be willing to share this with them? Otherwise, I’ll have to explain what we cover over and over again. Session 2 dives in really deep to production practices.
DISCOUNT LINK: www.eventbrite.com/e/508207872427/?discount=SOILGROWN
Looking forward to your reaction after session 2. Linley” (from Real Organic)
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“Hi Jack and Julie. Sorry I have been slow getting back. Symposium week is a very busy time.
Your responses to my response opens a long conversation. Lots of questions. The suggestion that all tillage is always wrong is too extreme for me. Tillage has been used by ALL human cultures since we began scratching in the dirt to plant the first seed. Sometimes we used fire. Sometimes we use animals’ snouts or hooves. Sometimes we used sticks or forks or shovels, sometimes we used discs and plows, at first pulled by us, then by oxen, then by horses. I have done all of these except fire. The suggestion that we can grow all of our food without any tillage is a wonderful challenge. I say go for it if you can. The suggestion that all tillage is a mistake seems like a mistake. But again, if you can find new ways of doing it, go for it. I know that you are experimenting and teaching as you go. I am not against reducing or stopping tillage if you can figure it out. I AM against replacing tillage with herbicides, which is the dominant tool in no-till agriculture at this point. I have been no-till for some years in our greenhouses, although in recent years I have been experimenting with returning to annual tillage as a way of improving the growth of our crop. The results are not clear or consistent. A complicated world under the surface. I am not advising anybody to follow my example one way or the other.
When I look at thousands of years of tillage in places like China, I see an organic system that was clearly sustainable. Like me, you have read Farmers Of Forty Centuries. It was one of the first books that I read on my organic journey. Right at the beginning. In recent years China’s traditional practices have been abandoned for chemicals, and the land and the people have suffered as a result. My Chinese friends are often desperate to find real organic food. We have been approached to see if Real Organic Project can help them. I am not sure we can. They will need to create their own homegrown movement if they can. But I offer this example from King’s book as a reminder that tillage has proven it can be done well and over long periods of time when done in conjunction with green manuring and composting. This has been demonstrated in many indigenous agricultures before the invention of plastic. When tillage is practiced without green manuring or animal manuring, it is reliably destructive to the earth.
Whether crops can be BETTER grown without any tillage is a question that has not yet been answered. Certainly, some farmers HAVE answered this to their own satisfaction. You are growing great crops without tillage. So is Bryan O’Hara, and a number of others now. I have seen and tasted Bryan’s beautiful crops. They are delicious. And I have seen and tasted Eliot Coleman’s beautiful crops grown using skillful tillage. They are delicious. It would be a privilege to be fed by either farm. And many others as well. I do not find it in myself to make a dramatic statement that tillage is good or bad. It can be very good. It can be very bad. Many people who have tried no-till have had serious problems. I hear about them all the time. It is possible that these problems will be solved over time. I don’t see why they can’t be. But many are having great success WITH tillage, improving their soil, and growing fantastic crops.
I have no desire to fight about this. I am not against no-till. I am against practicing chemical no-till and attacking organic farming in the same breath. I am sure that many who do so believe in what they are saying and practicing. I am not calling them liars. I am just disagreeing with them. The corporations that sell them those herbicides are a different matter. I consider them to be a cancer upon us. The vast majority of the acreage that is “no-till” in this country is sprayed with an herbicide. That is just the truth. General Mills has pledged to take a million acres “regenerative.” Walmart (not to be outdone) has pledged to take 50 million acres “regenerative.” It sure as hell won’t be organic.
May the organic no-till revolution prosper. Just be nice to your mother. Best, Dave” (from Real Organic)
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“Thanks, Dave, for writing back. The one pledge that I took 46 years ago, was to not use chemicals on land under my care, and similarly no chemicals in my body, though I did take one course of anti-biotics 2 years ago for Lyme, then did a massive search for nutritional alternatives to build my personal system. It has been a long journey since that moment in 77 when I had my first garden on my own. I tilled in some format until 2014 and then have been working toward a different paradigm since – thanks to Graeme Sait, learning as I go. I find it interesting that John Kempf, a guy who I think it would be really wise for you to interview, a mentor of mine in the search for how to grow the best nutritious food, doesn’t even discuss the issue of tillage. He instead focuses on plant health. Of course I, and I suspect you, were trained that it is all about the soil.
I appreciate John’s approach (CEO of Advancing EcoAgriculture) because when I follow it, I find that my vegetable quality, fruit quality, livestock quality, and soil quality (by standard measures of cation exchange, base saturation, soil organic matter, etc.) has improved dramatically. For me it is about a hybrid approach of staying within the parameters of certified USDA organic, certified Real Organic, being as no-till as possible, and also using practices that maximize photosynthesis which drives food quality.
I would never say that all tillage is bad. As you note, tillage is always a matter of degree, and when I use my hoe to prepare a bed, I am performing some tillage. My personal checklist for treating the soil under my stewardship includes things like keeping live roots in the ground as many days of the year as possible, growing a diverse system, using animals in rotation (including pigs that disturb the soil surface), adding amendments to the soil and through foliar feeding, utilizing indigenous microorganisms, thick mulches, cover crops pre, during and post season. Every year I fall short of my goal, but hope (and innovation) springs eternal in the farmer’s breast!
Dave, I don’t think anyone – or perhaps very few – who attends Real Organic seminars believes we should use chemicals in agriculture. I do believe that amongst the tillers, black plastickers, tarpers, no tillers, composters, mulchers, IMO users, etc., there is a hunger for more information and discourse around how to better treat mother nature while farming, and also raise the highest quality food possible. On top of that, we would all like to make a living at it. I just think that you miss an opportunity when you rail against the word regenerative and that your time would be better spent highlighting the folks who continue to innovate successfully under the umbrella of organic. Additionally, we can learn from those who consider themselves regenerative, biological, permacultural, biodynamic, etc., etc., because there is incredible innovation in all these sectors.
When I watched the trailer for the Real Organic Symposium, I felt that I was given the option to choose between organic tillage or regenerative with chemicals. Again, going back to John Kempf, he has used the tactic of educating very conventional farmers to use biological inputs to improve their bottom lines. Hard core chemical users are switching to organic methods because they work for them. Many of his clients have lost family members to cancer, and that has been a catalyst for them to change their ways. Many wonderful innovations are happening under the heading of regenerative. Let’s reach “across the aisle” and see what we can learn from each other. I think that most all farmers truly want to do good in the world. If we can talk to each other and learn from each other without judgment we can “be the change we hope for in the world.” I grew up on a conventional farm in a conventional farming community. I guess I really understand those folks, viscerally.
Remember the playground? “He hit me first.” I suggest that we sort through all of the rhetoric and roosterish behavior and turn the other cheek while opening our full consciousness to all the amazing possibilities out there for us to learn how to better provide food for others while regenerating the environment. As I noted in my first email to you and Linley, I would love for you to come and do an interview with us here at MHOF. We are doing some cool stuff and learning as we go. Julie”
–
“Hi Julie. I agree with all that you write until the end. It is true that very few who support Real Organic would support the use of chemicals, but believe me that many of our supporters are very confused about the term “regenerative.” They have heard regenerative advocates get up at organic conferences and “shame talk” organic farmers who till. They genuinely question whether all tillage is evil. And those regenerative advocates tend to leave out the part about widespread use of herbicides in “regenerative” agriculture. For one anonymous example, a leader of the “regenerative” movement tells me privately that he grows, buys, and eats organic food, but will never say so publicly because it would undermine his reputation with the midwestern farmers he is trying to persuade to use less chemicals. I appreciate his dilemma, but I don’t appreciate it when the story gets hopelessly muddled in public. If we built the organic brand as a label to be trusted, we would create a market powerful enough to move those farmers. More than anything they want to make a living.
This confusion has been cultivated and enhanced by large corporations, and they have been remarkably well-paid for doing so. They recently got most of the $3 billion USDA giveaway. I know that some of the organic NOGOs got a small part of that as well. But imagine if the USDA had set a billion dollars aside to research and encourage organic farming? Then the world starts to change for the better. For many years I farmed on my farm, raised my kids, and ignored what was happening outside of Vermont. I was wrong.
I think that if silence worked, we wouldn’t have over 70% (probably MUCH higher) of certified organic eggs coming from egg factories. As with the milk. Vermont has lost a third of its organic dairies in the last 5 years. So has California. Retail milk sales have not gone down, which means the missing volume of milk is coming from the new CAFOs. And all the stores and distributors are happy with the “quality.” This is not just an economic issue for the farms that are pushed out. It is a question for all consumers about what “organic” means. If there was transparency in the marketplace, Lady Moon and Many Hands would always beat Wholesum. Butterworks would always beat Aurora. Your problem would be how to meet market demand. Their (Wholesum and Aurora) problem would be how to convert to real organic. Organic would be a stronger and more trusted brand.
We don’t live in isolation. I respect anyone’s decision to stick to their farm and feed people the best that they can. But I would urge them to respect those who are working for change on a larger scale. We only do this together. Honest conversations are not divisive. They are the starting place for change. The issues we are dealing with are complicated. Real Organic is trying to allow them to be complicated and to still approach them. I suspect that we agree on almost everything. Certainly, I support your work and your choices. Best, Dave”
–
“Hi Julie and Jack,
Loved the MHOF Newsletter with the expert and PROVEN no till experience and wisdom -highlighted against all too familiar and glaring dismissiveness of known truth. It is unfortunate that Dave does not realize the no-till cat is too big to be put back in the bag! Your great work at educating, educating, educating has not just created a ripple effect….but a large looming wave, as anyone who: has spent time at “the farm” over 4 decades (in various/numerous capacities and workshops), read even a few pages of The Natural Farmer through the years (and passed it on), attended NOFA conferences/workshops year after year and shared what they learned with friends, family and colleagues- knows all too well!
The vital Carbon sequestration within the soil associated with No TIll, are now KNOWN facts and actively discussed between backyard gardeners, elementary, highschool and college (under-grad, grad and post grad) students, government and world leaders- in large part because of your efforts. Rest assured, our family, like countless others I am sure, will continue to do our part-fighting with our no-till efforts – and remain committed to pass along all that we have learned (and continue to learn) from you! This wave will just continue to gain momentum. It cannot be stopped. The “Real” Organic Project folks are not REALLY living up to the mission within their own name, though there is always the possibility to reclaim integrity…Best, Kim” (gardener, former working shareholder)
Working Shareholders Always Welcome
Pretty soon the weather won’t be iffy and it is a good time to come and get your feet wet as a working shareholder. Feel free to contact me to give it a one morning trial (Monday or Friday) to see if becoming a working shareholder is right for you.
Ways to Donate to MHSC
Many Hands Sustainability Center – our farm non-profit
Community Fridges
We have been donating food to this elegantly simple project in Worcester whereby four refrigerators are stocked with fresh produce from volunteers, and those in need shop for free at these locations. I had a good meeting with Maria Ravelli of Community Fridges. They are in for next year and will be fundraising on their end to keep this enjoyable partnership going. We have received a few Community Fridges donations this year. We have raised $1,350 so far.
To provide 14 summer shares this year there will be a total need of $6650. The WCF folks will attempt to raise “their” half, and we will raise our half – $3325. Here below is their promotional material. If you would like to donate to us directly, write a check to MHSC. If you would like to donate to them directly, here is the link – https://opencollective.com/worcestercommunityfridges/projects/csa-fundraiser
Thanks in advance for your generosity.
Workshops at MHOF
Pruning and Managing an Orchard Trees, Grapes and Small Fruit
Saturday, April 1, 2023, 10 am – noon followed by potluck lunch
Few things agricultural give you as much joy and satisfaction as a bountiful crop of healthy fruit. Yet it takes a few years of time and steady effort to achieve these results. Make sure that time is well spent! Learn how to manage and prune tree fruit, berries, and grapes at our Spring workshop. We have 100 trees in our orchard and produce apples, pears, peaches, paw paws, mulberries, grapes, blueberries and raspberries every year. We will discuss our fertility management practices and share our foliar and drench recipes. This is a hands-on event. We will supply tools. Cost: Sliding Scale: $25-$75 per person. Register here.
Other Upcoming Workshops
Building and Using a Chicken Tractor – Saturday April 22, 2023, 10-12 followed by potluck lunch; $25-$75
Growing Shiitakes Mushrooms on Logs – May 15; 10-12 with potluck lunch; $25-$75; Jonathan and Clare to lead
MHOF vegetable production intensive (all day) – June 10; 10-3 with pot luck lunch; $50-$100; Clare and Julie to lead
The Permaculture Farm and Agroforestry hedgerows – June 24; 10-3 with pot luck lunch: $50-$100; Jono Neiger to lead
Cooking with your CSA share – July 22; Clare and Julie to do this one. 10-noon with complimentary lunch; $25-$75
Food preservation – September 16, Julie, Clare and Jack; 10-2 with pot luck; $50-$100
With so much snow and an underlay of ice on the ground, we returned assertively to cleaning up areas of the farm of trees and brush that are in some way blocking sunlight. Dan had taken down a bunch of trees on the south wall of the west field on Sunday, and Jonathan started cleaning them up with the help of many on Monday. We burned a lot of brush, cut up firewood and brought it back and started splitting. We spent a lot of time on the ground, falling down many times on the very slippery snow over ice underlay! And on Friday we finished cutting down all of the trees that resided to the east of our home orchard. More fires and more hauling of firewood. As can be seen in the photos, the weather was fantastic both days.
Friday, we also worked on our tans while Leslie and I pruned our annex blueberries as Clare delivered several loads of wood chips there for mulching. Over the week, Jonathan picked away at the bathroom, getting the famous toilet put in on Thursday and suffering a lot of personal discomfort getting off old grout. Thank you, Jonathan!
Next week we start some seeds and our lactobacillus brew.
https://mhof.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/blueberry-pruning.png314500Christy Bassetthttps://mhof.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/logo.jpgChristy Bassett2023-03-06 06:00:152023-03-05 20:40:20Clare is Back
Jack received this trailer from the Real Organic Project for their upcoming annual seminar, watched it and then wrote to Dave Chapman, the founder of the Real Organic Project.
As in any cohort of people, organic farmers debate a lot about whether it is better to till or not to till. We at MHOF sold our rototiller in 2014 and have been retraining ourselves to farm without tillage, after being big tillers for over 30 years. Here is the email conversation –
“Hi Dave,
I was excited to see that you were having this symposium until I watched the trailer. No question that chemical no-till operations are trying to pose as regenerative. But I saw no effort to recognize the value of organic no-till methods.
There was a lot to say careful tillage on organic farms has happened with some carbon build-up, but none to suggest even careful tillage releases carbon. Also I’m sorry to see the pooh-poohing of the overwhelming research outlining the underground carbon transfers between plants and microbes which has emerged recently.
What we need is a clear statement that tillage has been a necessary evil and we are working to stop it without using toxins. Trying to make this black and white (we do no evil, only good) is an error which will catch up with us in the end. Let’s be honest and fight on that battlefield, which is our strongest. Lots of work is being done to replace tillage in organic operations. — Jack Kittredge”
– “Hi Jack. The trailer was just a very brief glimpse into a very complicated conversation. We have over 50 hours of interviews that we have condensed into about 3 hours. The second session will definitely go into experiments of lo-till with the mid-scale organic farmers in California who have been working with Chico State. We were not able to get into all the trials in small-scale organic no-till. I did interview Bryan O’Hara for the series, but I did not get good footage of him in his fields.
You describe tillage as “evil.” Perhaps it is, but I have serious doubts about that. Not to say that organic no-till isn’t a wonderful system when it works. But I would not describe Eliot Coleman’s tillage as evil. I understand that you are not calling Eliot evil, but I am no longer convinced that all tillage is bad for the soil. Certainly, tillage can be part of a system of soil building that leads to an increase in soil life and organic matter. I know that some disagree with this perspective, but the notion that one point of view is “right” and the other is “wrong” seems like a dangerous place to start any conversation. I actually think that the symposium is an effort to stop making this conversation so black and white. The research on carbon in soil is confusing and often contradictory, to say the least. There are different points of view. We tried to include several no-till academic advocates who ended up declining to participate at the end. We tried to get Tim LaSalle, but again, it just didn’t work out. Please don’t judge the symposium before you see it. I am sure that there will be many who disagree with much of what is said. That is what makes it a discussion. May it be a respectful conversation.
Dave”
–
From Jack –
“Thanks for the quick reply, Dave. I wasn’t sure I had your email address right.
I quite agree we don’t want to start calling each other names yet! And no, I wouldn’t call Eliot evil. But I do think as a thought leader he missed an important opportunity to address carbon loss and tillage when he reissued his book a few years ago and failed to even take the topic up. We don’t have time for any more failures to face uncomfortable truth, whether from oil companies or high tillage farmers.
You really are not convinced that tillage is destructive of soil carbon? Why do you think nature abhors uncovered soil? It is one thing to admit that tillage is a problem and we need to find alternatives. That is honest and productive of research and experimentation. But to try to confuse the issue, or downplay the problem, or claim it is not there is tobacco company behavior. Please don’t take the Real Organic Project there just because folks naturally resist change. We need leadership in this fight.
I’m glad you checked with Bryan and Tim and the Chico people. Their work needs more publicity. I know your involvement with this really started over hydroponics, not carbon. But if we want to fight for soil-based organics, let’s be talking about building the healthiest soil to do that in. – Jack”
–
I sent a response back to Dave after this last email from Jack. No response yet. Julie
“Hi folks,
If you would ever like to interview us here, I would be happy to go into great detail about all that we have learned since we sold our tiller in 2014. We bought a ripper and used it for a couple of years after that but are giving that away this year. We are very excited about how we raise excellent vegetables on 2 acres, also an acre of tree fruit and some small fruit, along with 6 pigs, 250 meat birds, 100 turkeys, and 100 new layers each year, and in an intricate flow. We are certified organic and have been since 1987, probably one of the longest farmers in the country to be certified. And Real Organic too, of course. We use a substantial amount of mulch – going back to Ruth Stout. And we also use state of the art Advancing EcoAgriculture sprays. We are getting back into fermented lactobacillus sprays a la Graeme Sait this year.
I don’t have all the answers, and am each year trying new things and learning more about how to dance that intricate dance. Bet we are no till and believe in it because it has brought us great dividends in quality, quantity, longevity of plants, diminution of disease, etc.
I do think that the spin on your trailer was one of juxtaposing no till with glyphosate against tillage and organic, and I think that was a leading and unfortunate spin.
I am a practicing no till organic farmer and would love to be highlighted by your organization.
Thanks, Julie”
–
We encourage reader responses which we will reprint here. I think controversy, especially among colleagues who are operating in the same world, can be so instructive for all concerned. Julie
Expressing Gratitude this Week
Jack has been working assiduously to write a grant to the State EEA – Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and got it sent off this week. We have been using a 1930’s walk-in cooler since we started the CSA 32 years ago, and 7 years ago the coolant that it uses became unavailable. This grant award would save us around $20,000 to buy and install a new one. Fingers crossed. Thanks, Jack, and to Maria Ravelli of Community Fridges for the letter of support.
And then there is Melissa Brown, working shareholder and music friend who is so buff and such fun to work with because she always puts her all in.
Looking for inspiration? Fred’s voice quality alone does the trick. Jack and I have had some connection with Fred over the years. He is a real gem. His book Nourishment is well worth the read, and it has come out in an abridged fashion on audiobook – slimmed down without all the detail of the 155,000 word written copy.
John Kempf – Forget soil, focus on plant health instead
Lots of good food for thought here. I think he would say that the conversations at the top of this newsletter are somewhat irrelevant! https://youtu.be/JDdWZ_-j97k
Join the 2023 Summer and Fall CSA
We continue to have excellent sales of the CSA shares for 2023. We are itching to get back in the fields, but must wait another month at least. Until then, back to the pruning and perennial management.
We would love to receive your CSA application. Check out all the details here:
Sliding scale – For those of you who want to support a more affordable share for others, you can pay the top of the range. And for those who are of more limited finances, feel free to choose a lower number.
Delivery/handling fee – Trying to make our Paypal options as manageable as possible, we have decided to fold delivery /handling into the share price.
Here are the rates for 2023
Summer large – $750-$850
Summer medium – $550-$650
Summer small – $425-$525
Fall – $170
SNAP pricing
Summer large – $700
Summer medium – $500
Summer small – $400
Fall – $160
SNAP customers reach out to Julie to set up a payment plan.
We have trifold brochures. We can send you some, or email the master for you to print. Be in touch. We also have 8½” x 11″ posters.
For Sale
Pork for Sale
We will have relatively very little pork available in 2023 because we are cutting back on the number of pigs we are raising. Please get your orders in early to get the best selection. Regular style ribs are already sold out.
We have a limited number of cuts available from our 2022 pigs.
Roasts – 3-4 lbs. each – $12/lb.
Sliced Bacon – $18/lb.
Hams – in the 3 lb. range – $18/lb.
Emails From Readers
Hi Julie,
Thank you for the pork and it was fun to hop in yesterday. This is the
link to this cool stuff working with the earth energies. Electroculture
gardening
Hi Katja,
I think we will try this out in our potato field, placing one on the edge of our potato field far enough away for the other end of the field. It will be curious to find out if there is a difference in growth or yield.
Pretty soon the weather won’t be iffy and it is a good time to come and get your feet wet as a working shareholder. Feel free to contact me to give it a one morning trial (Monday or Friday) to see if becoming a working shareholder is right for you.
Ways to Donate to MHSC
Many Hands Sustainability Center – our farm non-profit
Many kind folks have been making an annual donation to the MHSC (read about it here – https://mhof.net/many-hands-sustainability-center/) since 2007 through the present. This goes into our general operations of the MHSC and usually helps pay for hiring an outstanding Stetson School student. Recently the MHSC has helped with funding the publication of this newsletter which utilizes significant resources to publish each week. If you are interested in donating to special programs that help make our high quality food available to folks with lesser means, you are welcome to donate to these two programs below.
Community Fridges
We have been donating food to this elegantly simple project in Worcester whereby four refrigerators are stocked with fresh produce from volunteers, and those in need shop for free at these locations. I had a good meeting with Maria Ravelli of Community Fridges. They are in for next year and will be fundraising on their end to keep this enjoyable partnership going. We received our first Community Fridges donations this year. Thank you, Becky, this week. We have raised $1,350 so far.
SNAP support
SNAP recipients are encouraged to use SNAP and Healthy Incentive Program funds to purchase a MHOF CSA share. We work with around 20 of those customers each year and provide a slightly discounted share to these folks. A total of $1,000 in donations will help us defray the costs of providing this assistance to these valued shareholders.
Workshops at MHOF
Pruning and Managing an Orchard Trees, Grapes and Small Fruit
Saturday, April 1, 2023, 10 am – noon followed by potluck lunch
Few things agricultural give you as much joy and satisfaction as a bountiful crop of healthy fruit. Yet it takes a few years of time and steady effort to achieve these results. Make sure that time is well spent! Learn how to manage and prune tree fruit, berries, and grapes at our Spring workshop. We have 100 trees in our orchard and produce apples, pears, peaches, paw paws, mulberries, grapes, blueberries and raspberries every year. We will discuss our fertility management practices and share our foliar and drench recipes. This is a hands-on event. We will supply tools. Cost: Sliding Scale: $25-$75 per person. Register here.
Other Upcoming Workshops
Building and Using a Chicken Tractor – Saturday April 22, 2023, 10-12 followed by potluck lunch; $25-$75
Growing Shiitakes Mushrooms on Logs – May 15; 10-12 with potluck lunch; $25-$75; Jonathan and Clare to lead
MHOF vegetable production intensive (all day) – June 10; 10-3 with pot luck lunch; $50-$100; Clare and Julie to lead
The Permaculture Farm and Agroforestry hedgerows – June 24; 10-3 with pot luck lunch: $50-$100; Jono Neiger to lead
Cooking with your CSA share – July 22; Clare and Julie to do this one. 10-noon with complimentary lunch; $25-$75
Food preservation – September 16, Julie, Clare and Jack; 10-2 with pot luck; $50-$100
Monday was another beautiful spring day and we were able to do some significant clearing out of bittersweet in our home orchard. It became clear to me as Laurie and Melissa and I worked, that there is a substantial underground network of bittersweet in that orchard. We trimmed it from where it was growing up trees, and then cut it back in a 4 foot radius under each tree. Later we will have to stay current with mowing the roadways to slow down the volunteers that are coming up all over the orchard floor. It was educational to spend the time to really see how it works and the strength of conviction that it has to grow and thrive. Oh that we could all have the tenacity of invasives in the service of humanity!
Stu and Jonathan made more progress on the rock pile/tall trees that are blocking sunlight on the east side of that orchard. We also had some fun cleaning up the north edge of the barn and also picked up a bunch of errant rocks and took them to the rock pile at the back of the south field, finishing with reorganizing our lumber pile.
Stu enjoying a bit of breakfast before work
Jonathan showing off our new bale chopper
Look at that nice stack of wood
Thursday Jonathan wasn’t able to get here due to the icy weather, so more desk work for me.
Jack and visiting dignitary David Yarrow discussing resonance, electroculture and other esoteric concerns.
And then on Friday we were finally plunged into winter with ample snow and ice and strong winds. I was a bit relieved, actually, that we are getting some winter. We chipped a bunch of those trees that we had so carefully cleaned on Monday, but had to stop when we got the hill because it was too treacherous. We then returned to the rock pile and Jonathan took down some more trees while Matt and Leslie and I cleaned up after him. They all went on to split wood while I entertained a couple of students from WPI.
Matt Manhandling a big piece of frozen woodchips
Leslie hauling wood. Note the poor peach tree that took it in the chin when an errant tree fell on it! Sorry, Clare.
https://mhof.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/IMG_3100-1.jpg314500Christy Bassetthttps://mhof.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/logo.jpgChristy Bassett2023-02-27 06:00:172023-02-26 23:08:02To Till or Not to Till
On Friday we started the tarping process on the farm. For those unaccustomed to what this might mean, it is a practice of laying down silage tarps on garden soil and holding them down with sandbags for a specified amount of time to kill the vegetation (cover crops) below them so that when they are removed, one can plant without having to disturb the soil. It is a great process whereby the vegetation is killed slowly and worms move in and reproduce rapidly and leave the area covered with castings, providing us a nice layer of fertility to enhance our planting success.
When we unrolled our first tarp in the pond field (where we will be planting onion sets hopefully on April 3, 4, and 5), we found out why we had been smelling apple wine. As it turns out, some enterprising individuals had harvested a sizable number of apple drops last fall and inserted them into the rolled up tarps for safe keeping. The tarp had been resting on the edge of the field that houses a lot of apple trees. We find supplies of winter feed all over the farm. Last fall when cleaning up the third floor of the barn, we found a metal tube completely filled with acorns.
I have great respect for the hard work that the woodland and field creatures accomplish, especially during their harvest season and putting by for winter. I hope that they were able to make use of most of those apples before we unceremoniously hauled them away!
A bunch of apples appeared as we unrolled the tarp
Expressing Gratitude this Week
John Wilson has been a working shareholder with us for the past 2-3 years. Whatever he turns his hand to, he does with excellence. He let it out of the bag almost a year after he had been working with us that he is indeed an excellent carpenter. Since then, we rarely see him in the field because he is working closely with Jonathan on the latest carpentry project. Recently one of our MHSC board members retired and Jack and I asked him to take over Sharon’s position. He said he was honored to join the board. I imagine an uptick in the projects and accomplishments of the MHSC with John in our midst.
Joan Howe has been a faithful meat customer of ours for many years. She has taken a special interest in our collaboration with the Community Fridges project in Worcester and this week made a sizable donation to this project. Thank you, Joan for making this investment!
Farm Videos From Last Week
Last Sunday Dan, the master of the brush fire, helped us burn several years of brush near our home orchard
Thanks to the folks who are signing up 4 months in advance. Never too early to sign up! The prices are in place for 2023 now. Prices below for your convenience.
Sliding scale – For those of you who want to support a more affordable share for others, you can pay the top of the range. And for those who are of more limited finances, feel free to choose a lower number.
Delivery/handling fee – Trying to make our Paypal options as manageable as possible, we have decided to fold delivery /handling into the share price.
Here are the rates for 2023
Summer large – $750-$850
Summer medium – $550-$650
Summer small – $425-$525
Fall – $170
SNAP pricing
Summer large – $700
Summer medium – $500
Summer small – $400
Fall – $160
SNAP customers reach out to Julie to set up a payment plan.
We have trifold brochures. We can send you some, or email the master for you to print. Be in touch.
Podcasts from the outside world
Cellular Communication – The Key To Fixing Chronic Complex Illness
with Eric Gordon, MD
I was interested in his thoughts around “using it or losing it” with our physical bodies and specific parts of our bodies.
What lessons can we learn from the traditional diet of Mongolian people?
Mary Ruddick shares knowledge based on research and her experience in Mongolia and how we can benefit from following their example. I found this podcast quite interesting. A great look into rural Mongolians and their lifestyles
Proceedings from Advancing EcoAgriculture’s Annual conference
Worth a listen
For Sale
Pork for Sale
We have a limited number of cuts available from our 2022 pigs.
Roasts – 3-4 lbs. each – $12/lb.
Sliced Bacon – $18/lb.
Hams – in the 3 lb. range – $18/lb.
Working Shareholders Always Welcome
Joining this team assures you a warm place in the MHOF community while also giving you a weekly excuse to stretch your muscles. Working shareholders in January and February are welcome Monday and Friday mornings from 8-12. Come at 7 for breakfast and stay afterward for lunch.
Ways to Donate to MHSC
Many Hands Sustainability Center – our farm non-profit
Many kind folks have been making an annual donation to the MHSC (read about it here – https://mhof.net/many-hands-sustainability-center/) since 2007 through the present. This goes into our general operations of the MHSC and usually helps pay for hiring an outstanding Stetson School student. Recently the MHSC has helped with funding the publication of this newsletter which utilizes significant resources to publish each week. If you are interested in donating to special programs that help make our high quality food available to folks with lesser means, you are welcome to donate to these two programs below.
Community Fridges
We have been donating food to this elegantly simple project in Worcester whereby four refrigerators are stocked with fresh produce from volunteers, and those in need shop for free at these locations. I had a good meeting with Maria Ravelli of Community Fridges. They are in for next year and will be fundraising on their end to keep this enjoyable partnership going.
We received our first Community Fridges donation this year. Thank you, John and Chris! We are hoping to raise $4165 this year.
SNAP support
SNAP recipients are encouraged to use SNAP and Healthy Incentive Program funds to purchase a MHOF CSA share. We work with around 20 of those customers each year and provide a slightly discounted share to these folks. A total of $1,000 in donations will help us defray the costs of providing this assistance to these valued shareholders.
Workshops at MHOF
Pruning and Managing an Orchard Trees, Grapes and Small Fruit
Saturday, April 1, 2023, 10 am – noon followed by potluck lunch
Few things agricultural give you as much joy and satisfaction as a bountiful crop of healthy fruit. Yet it takes a few years of time and steady effort to achieve these results. Make sure that time is well spent! Learn how to manage and prune tree fruit, berries, and grapes at our Spring workshop. We have 100 trees in our orchard and produce apples, pears, peaches, paw paws, mulberries, grapes, blueberries and raspberries every year. We will discuss our fertility management practices and share our foliar and drench recipes. This is a hands-on event. We will supply tools. Cost: Sliding Scale: $25-$75 per person. Register here.
NEW ADDITION:
The Permaculture Farm and Agroforestry Hedgerows
Saturday, June 24, 2023, 10am – 3pm with potluck lunch
With Jono Neiger as our workshop leader we’ll first look at Many Hands Organic Farm through the lens of permaculture and whole systems design looking at the farm as permaculture in action. We will explore, and literally dig into, areas of the farm to see how the complexity of soils, water, vegetation, microclimates, and more are interwoven and incorporated into farm management. Finally, we will look at specific field edges to see how they might become multi-functional hedgerows. We’ll walk through hedgerow design- looking at specific edges, identifying trees species, installation, and management strategies.
Hedgerows are an agroforestry strategy the goes far back into human landscape management- where trees, shrubs with other plants are employed and orchestrated to function in many ways. They can function for windbreaks, fuel, fodder, pollination habitat, carbon sinks, and much more. These field and farm edges provide an opportunity to separate and interconnect parts of the landscape. Design and planning of hedgerows is both simple and complex and a chance to diversify the farm.
Jono Neiger is a founder and agroforestry planner at of Regenerative Design Group Cooperative, in western Massachusetts with 30+ years of professional experience in agroforestry, permaculture, ecological land and site planning, conservation, and restoration. He holds a B.S. degree in Forest Biology and a Masters in Landscape Planning and Design and authored The Permaculture Promise. He operates Big River Chestnuts, a chestnut agroforestry farm in Sunderland, Massachusetts.
We continue to do tidying up jobs on the farm and this past week we burned a lot of old brush and added all of our fruit tree prunings to it. We started taking down a number of trees that live on a rock pile at the east edge of the home orchard. They have been shading those trees for years and their removal will open up more sunlight. Then we systematically split the wood and set it aside for next year’s wood supply for the house.
Perhaps Chuk gets his dramatic nature from his mother
Monday, we finished pruning both orchards. And Clare went off on a trip to England. When she gets back, we will start on all of the small fruit, planning to be completely done with pruning by April 1. Clare writes every day and seems to be having a great time!
One of pushes now is to get the orchards all chipped (a solid ring of wood chips around each of our trees) and we accomplished 20 trees on Friday. Matt learned how to run the tractor and was doing a quite credible job of it by the end of the morning. Turns out he drives big firetrucks around Worcester, so is a natural for the job.
Skippy was doing her own patrolling work while we chipped
Many thanks to the chickens, ever our companions when we are out working, for helping us weed under the trees
Tarping has begun. We will leave the early ones on until the first week in April when we start to plant our earliest vegetable crops. In the past the tarping has been rather frustrating with tarps blowing away over and over again. But with practice we have learned just how many sand bags to put on each one, and how full they must be. Practice makes perfect! We forgot to spray the soil with our rejuvenate and spectrum blend before putting down our first one, but will remember henceforth to apply this spray to help digest the vegetation under the tarp and turn it into plant accessible fertility.
Matt bringing the tarps and sandbags over to the pond field garden
Rolling out the tarp
Tarp and bags in place
On Thursday John Duke showed up and brought us two 50 gallon olive barrels that we will turn into brewers for our lactobacillus fertility brew.
John explaining to Jonathan his brewing equipment
Jack taking in John’s wisdom around composting and microscopy
On Friday, Dave came over to do some work on our woodstove to plug the air leaks in the back. We think it is all fixed now. Thanks, Dave!
And Jonathan spent a lot of time in the bathroom cleaning grout.
https://mhof.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/IMG_0251.jpg314500Christy Bassetthttps://mhof.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/logo.jpgChristy Bassett2023-02-20 06:00:282023-02-26 22:54:10Tarping and Apples
