Greetings! Hope your planting and gardening is going splendidly this spring!

Just wanted to send out a quick reminder that this is the Last Chance to join us for our two organic workshops this weekend! The weather looks like it will be beautiful and it will be perfect for learning some new skills and info to make your homestead, small farm, or productive backyard even better!

On Saturday - June 7th:

The Art of Soil Building Workshop: Growing Tilth, a Sustainable Nutrient Base for a Garden of Abundance

10 am to 3 pm
This full-day intensive course will take participants through the building and growing of tilth (humus or really good growing soil). Going beyond the typical strategies of organic farming and gardening, students will take away a firm grasp of how to grow their own soil for a garden of ultimate production of any size.

Workshop Outline:

~The Bare Bones Basics: NPK/trace minerals

~SOIL AMENDMENTS: Amendments are quick fixes

~Composting - a great way to build biomass as well as diversity within the soil's biomass.

~The Four Main Types of Compost Piles we construct yearly at Midsummer Farm: Deliberate Style Compost, Free Form Style Compost, Biodynamically Fortified Compost, and Hot, Killer Compost

~Manure Management, Deep Bedding Method of Animal Keeping, "90/120 day rule"

~Veganic or Vedic gardening

~Using Compost: Top-Dressing, as a Mulch, and as a Tea.

~Herbs in your Compost Pile and Garden

~Sifting and Screening

~Staggering nitrogen-fixers - annuals, shrubs, trees

~GROWING SOIL - 60% of your growing space for the soil and 40% for your eating.

~Some of my favorite biomass plants (cover crops, green manures)

~Interplanting or Underplanting

~Mulching and Green Top Dressings

~No Till methods

~Biodynamics - the 500 Preparation - or Horn Manure

~Feeding Your Aerobic Micro-herd with Nutritive Garden Teas (manure, comfrey, nettle, alfalfa, kelp)

~Mycorrhizal Fungi - The power of symbiosis

~Wine Cap or King Stropharia (Stropharia rugoso-annulata)

Cost is $145.00 for the day. (Two people from the same household/farm can take $20 off the second person's tuition.)

You can register online by clicking HERE and paying through PayPal. Or you can send me an email RSVP by replying to this email and then bring a check or cash with you on Saturday. You must register or RSVP by 5 pm Friday, 6/6.

On Sunday - June 8th:
Backyard Organic Poultry Rearing Workshop
10 am to 12 noon
For anyone who has dreamed of walking out to your own chicken coop and collecting fresh eggs for breakfast, this course will guide you through starting up your own flock and in organic and natural rearing methods. This workshop is also very appropriate for people wanting to transition their flock to organic or learn some new approaches to solving problems organically.

We will discuss all of our secrets to Organic chicken care that we have discovered over the years. Chickens are wonderful stewards of the earth; and kept in proper conditions, chickens are valuable assets to the garden, lawn, and compost pile. They also provide backyard joy. They are easy to take care of, are not noisy or smelly, and are an important part of the Organic garden. (Please be sure to check with your town to make sure that chickens are allowed where you live.)

Cost is $36 by check / $39.50 online. You can register online by clicking HERE and paying through PayPal. Or you can send me an email RSVP by replying to this email and then bring a check or cash with you on Sunday morning. You must register or RSVP by 5 pm Saturday, 6/7.

After our workshop on Sunday, we will be uncovering the plant sale plants and seedlings. Feel free to come by between 12 noon and 1 pm if you need a couple extra plants! We still have lots of beautiful, certified organic tomatoes, basils, eggplants and peppers as well as herbs and perennials!

Best and thanks,

Mark and Barbara

Midsummer Farm

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Disclaimer

© Copyright 2014 Barbara Taylor-Laino, HHC / Barbara Taylor Health. All Rights Reserved. This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Barbara Taylor Laino is required.

This information newsletter is designed as an educational tool for better health. Recipes and information are included as examples for you learn from; they are not diagnostic or prescriptive. Everyone's health needs are different. This newsletter is not to be used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment of any health condition or problem. Any questions regarding your own health should be addressed to your own physician or other healthcare provider. The entire contents of this newsletter and the websites of Barbara Taylor Laino and Midsummer Farm are based upon the opinions of Barbara Taylor Laino, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author(s), who retains copyright as marked. The information on the www.midsummerfarm.com website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Barbara Taylor Laino. You are encouraged to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional.

Midsummer Farm Contact Info:
Barbara and Mark Laino
Midsummer Farm
156 East Ridge Road
Warwick, NY 10990
845-986-9699
info@midsummerfarm.com

Holistic Health Counseling Contact Info:
Barbara Taylor-Laino
Barbara Taylor Health
156 East Ridge Road
Warwick, NY 10990
845-986-9699
info@barbarataylorhealth.com

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