The Three P's of Little Farma

Four summers ago a bamboo-like grass swept through the flower beds surrounding the new house we had bought in the country.  I don't like pulling green and growing things including weeds yet the sudden spread of whatever this was alarmed me.  By day's end, I had five extra large plastic bags of some grassy weed with which I didn't know what to do. 

A few days later I dropped in on Jay at Burgess Falls Nursery and mentioned my weed bags.  Jay said as long as the weeds didn't contain seed I could place the bags in an out of the way place and eventually have compost.  I did and forgot about them.....until this year.

Recently I needed some compost and remembered the bags.  I don't know why I was surprised, as Jay's tips are usually right on, but I opened one of the bags and just as he said I found, smelled and saw dirt.  To smell and see with my own sensory self the piles and piles of green grassy things I had collected, then forgotten become rich, granular soil was magic to me.  It's popular to say 'Believing is seeing' but in this case seeing and smelling was believing for me.

There's something rich about being involved in the making of one's own compost, dirt and more recently mulch.  It's all about the process and experience. Neither are found in depth through opening a bag of dirt bought from a store (though I'd be dishonest to suggest I've not bought bags of dirt from Jay, Tractor Supply and the Co-op in the last few years).

Little Farma values process as well as the cultivation of presence and patience.  I don't know about you but I've spent a lot of my life being episodically present, not continually showing up, but going through the motions day in and day out just to get things done.  Something about getting my hands dirty has helped me become aware of my inner presence as well as my relationship with Earth.  Something about this process has taught me patience when I wasn't even conscious of being taught.  Something about this process heals me.  Yes, when I am not in a good place physically, emotionally or mentally I can go outside and within moments of getting my hands in the dirt something shifts literally within me. 

I'm not suggesting everyone should quit their medication and resort to digging in the dirt.  At times medication is necessary(and I don't want to put myself in a position of getting sued).  But I do wonder what experiences might open up emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually for people if they reached for a trowel or spade instead of pills.

Little Farma values presence, process and patience as well as turning the soil.  It's good for the soil and soul. 

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 20 November 2012

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

Little Farma, Local Love - Kale in the Country and Cancer

 "Make food your medicine and medicine your food." -Hippocrates, The Father of Medicine

"Make love your medicine and medicine your love." - Dawn, The Good News Muse

Recently on a country field trip to a local hardware store, a nearby farmer's market caught my eye.  Baskets of freshly dug potatoes and bags of turnip greens got my attention.

I walked over to find the bags were filled with kale. Kale?!  I was elated to find kale in the country but even more so to hear the story of how this particular kale came to be.

This Smithville farmer, Jeff Cantrell*, shared with me that a local friend approached him and asked if he would grow kale for her to purchase.  She had cancer and wanted it for her juicing machine.  He in turn has grown loads of kale for her and to sell too.  (By the way, Jeff's kale was much more vibrant than my photo portrays.)

One of the sales people asked what I do with kale. I originally started putting it in soup several years ago.  Now I saute it with scrambled eggs, stir fry it with veggies and dry it with salt and olive oil to make kale chips. Most times I don't use recipes though they abound.**  Cooking to me is based more in art and experience than following a recipe. I do what feels right and is colorful.

This is the same reason I eat kale. It feels right and is beautiful.  I had no idea it's such a great food until later when I searched it on-line. (Kale's an anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant with more iron than beef, more calcium than milk and more vitamin C than spinach.)

I walked away that morning from the Smithville Farmer's Market with kale, potatoes and hot peppers but more importantly I walked away filled with love, joy and wonder.

How beautiful that as trees become barren and skies tend toward gray that kale's green leaves appear.  How beautiful this local man is participating in a friend's healing.  How beautiful that green, the color of growth is the color representing the heart's energy center especially since hurt hearts are inclined to resist the growth that comes with re-opening. 

Hippocrates the Greek physician considered the Father of Medicine said, "Let food be your medicine and medicine your food."  I would add, "Make love your medicine and medicine your love, especially loving the local."  

Little Farma is about local love, local love of nearby land growing foods for local folk like this farmer does for his friend.

Love the local and heal the land and yourself.

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 16 November 2012

dawn@imaginetheshift.com

* Thanks to Jeff Cantrell who I've since learned is the president of the Smithville Farmer's Market. Thank you for talking with me that day and more recently for giving me permission to share your name in this story. 

 **  14 kale recipes from "Cooking Light."