Frog Belly Farm

My eating habits have followed a path of evolution that has led to a deep appreciation and respect for the small farm.  I want to share it with everyone I meet.  I want everyone to have the blessing of deeply healing, humanely raised, truly nourishing food.  The small scale, family farm is the healthiest way to eat, and the healthiest relationship to our food - local and organic and honored.  I feel truly a part the cycle of nature and life force.  How can we take nutrients from animal products produced in suffering and abuse?  We become what we eat, which is in that case, suffering.  And how can we absorb the nutrients from plant material that has been shipped all over the world in refrigeration; grown from genetically modified seeds and sprayed with chemicals, in soil treated with chemicals?  We can't.  I feel this urgency to share these simple, yet crucial bits of information with all of us who have so much choice in what we buy and consume.  I think there are so many people suffering, unaware.  But this is a time of awakening.

Lita and I are so unbelievably fortunate and blessed.  We both landed jobs on a beautiful, small, organic farm.  Frog Belly Farm  is producing for more than just their family - they offer CSA shares, though it is still follows the humane and local model of the family farm with only a handful of staff.  We couldn't have asked for the universe to steer us in a better direction.  The couple who own this wonderful place are peaceful and enlightened.  They weave a magic web of healing plants and animals that is held together with love, care, and patience.  The lovely apprentices and staff who work the gardens and tend the animals are seriously saving the world every day, as our comrade, Zach said so well over dinner the other night.

My Uncle Patrick left Connecticut with his family to live his own dream of the family farm in Vermont, and that dream also planted itself in my heart.  I watched him tend animals and plants as a beautiful guardian of Gaia and I have always wanted to do the same.  I am overflowing with gratitude to be part of this with Lita and to learn how to make our vision a reality.  We are always dreaming our vision awake.  So I wish beautiful dreams for every being.

Melanie recently posted a new section on the website about "how we grow."  I want to share it here because it is a great guidance on "how to eat."

Blessings to all Beings.

Love,

Rica

 

How We Grow…

We never use genetically modified (GMO) seed, feed or animals

We employ both organic and biodynamic methods, however we are not certified

We never use pesticides or herbicides of any sort

We never use any growth hormones

We use herbal remedies (tinctures, bach flower essences, and herbal preparations) in our animal care

We use organic kelp as free choice mineral for our animals

We know the story of the foods grown here and encourage those who are nourished by it to know them as well

We love what we do

We have a deep reverence for life and death (animal and plant)

We understand that all we harvest and eat is metabolized into everything we are

We understand that our bodies and spirits are a intricate culmination of the stories of all the plants and animals that live and die here

We celebrate the miraculousness of what this dear farm provides for your and our family

We are dedicated to sharing the story of agriculture

We are honored to provide vital, local food to our community

We are forever grateful to all things that make Frog Belly Farm sing

Raising food, being a part of the constant exchange between us and the plants, soils and animals is such an honor. We are interwoven in this circle of life. We eat these plants and animals, and this action creates our flesh, bones, bodies, and spirits. Out of great respect for all that is living we never bring anything GMO onto the farm, nor do we use any chemical pesticides. What we love to do is create all our farm inputs here, we use our cow, goat and chicken manure to create our luscious compost piles that we tend to with love and prayer so that it made feed the garden and give all those dear seed the foods they need to be who they are.

These plants, when harvested, give their dear lives to become food for our community, our animals and our soils. I love to think about how all the spirits of these dear plant and animal beings live their next lives as apart of our bodies- which inspires us to live well to continue the beautiful being-ness of all these plants and animals. It is the death of all these things that give us and all our loved ones life. How incredibly outstandingly miraculous it all is. When we do need inputs from outside the farm we source certified organic as much as possible and if for some reason we can not find certified organic we then find a small local producer who can certify that he grew his crops without the use of pesticides and herbicides or GMO's (often these small producers don't have the $ to get certification)

Working with all these animals and plants brings with it such reverence for life. To honor that we hold celebrations at the Solstices (December 21st and June 21st), the equinoxes (March 21st and September 21st) and the four midway points in between (Imbolc February 1st, Beltaine May 1st, Lughnasadh August 1st, and Samhain October 31st)

Imbolc - A celebration of Growing and renewal, and prayers for all the animals who are soon to give birth and seeds soon to sprout

Spring Equinox- A time when the light and dark are in balance brings a celebration of Spring and New Life

Beltaine- A celebration of the Fertility of the farm in the gardens, animals...

Summer Solstice- When the daylight is the longest and the Sun will begin waning from this day on, here we celebrate the sun.

Lughnasadh- This is a time to celebrate the marriage of the sun and the earth and to celebrate the harvest to come

Fall Equinox- A time to celebrate the bounty of harvest and again the light and dark are in balance

Samhain- A time when the milking begins to wain and we celebrate all our ancestors and pray for the life ahead

Winter Solstice- this is a time of death and rebirth of the sun, we celebrate the darkest night of the year with light.

We live daily with life and death, this brings with it so much grief and awe, but these emotions are felt by all of us who tend to this farm. I truly believe that since in all the deaths and births this grief and delightedness are felt it makes for more vital foods, the story of the plants and animals are known and shared. Because we are a small farm we walk through all of it sometimes with sadness and tears and sometimes with smiles and excited-ness, in this energetic exchange we give these plants and animals lots of love, intention, time, and in turn they give us their lives so that we may be nourished well. Bless this dear farm in all its magnificence small and large- from seed to sunshine to love to dirt to growth to hands to feet to bees to the moon and to all that lives and dies.