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 Happy New Year to All!
2015 marks our 10th year farming and our 10th year as a certified organic farm! And as anniversaries and new years tend to inspire, we are making plans for all sorts of upgrades to our small farming business: including new products, new events, a new CSA style, and new types of learning opportunities at Midsummer Farm this coming year!
We are planning and outlining a variety of new workshops and courses on herbalism, organic gardening, permaculture, holistic health and nutrition, cooking, and more!
We are also going to start launching some free videos online on these topics, and these videos will be available on our brand new website that is scheduled to launch March 1st!!! We are very excited about our new site, which will include all sorts of great information, tips, recipes, and be all fresh and beautiful and easy to navigate!
I have also finalized our newsletter topic list for 2015. And my next
newsletter later this week will have an article I'm currently working on all about Thistles: growing, eating, and using medicinally. I'll be covering artichokes and cardoons, which can be tricky to grow around here but worth the effort as well as the medicinal sentinel of the herb garden, Milk Thistle. For our Plant and Seedling Sale this spring we will have 4 different artichoke varieties to choose from!
Winter is always the time when farmers spend the most time planning and plotting out the upcoming growing season. We are gathering up all the input and requests of our customers and using that as a jumping off point. We are going through seed catalogs, and as always, we are planning a huge number of new plants and seedling varieties for our 2015 Plant Sales. New Plant Sale Products will include things such as white strawberries and strawberry-scented mint, ginger plants you can grow for their pink shoots in your compost pile, started fig trees, 3 different crested ferns, an alluring new primula "P. cortusoides primadiente rose," and many many more! We are so excited!
And please feel free to let us know if you have a variety or type of vegetable, herb, native perennial that you would like to see us grow or if a variety you purchased in previous seasons did particularly well or not so well for you! We're very interested!
Survey! Help us Plan and Evolve!
We want to make big changes at Midsummer Farm this year, and we want to start focusing and planning these changes by listening to our customers. And so we have set up a survey! If you have a couple minutes and wouldn't mind providing some insights to us, we would greatly appreciate your feedback! Just click link below and fill out what you like:
Our first online survey ever!
We are always wondering and worrying what our customers are thinking about our products, and we want to build our educational opportunities in ways that grant our customers their wishes!
Intensive Herbalism Courses
We are excited also to send out a reminder about our two Intensive Herbal Courses that are both starting this January. (Please note the change in Start Date for our Living with Herbs Course - it is now starting on Saturday, January 24th.)
Either of these courses will start you on your way to integrating herbs into your daily life and making your life and your family's lives more vibrant and healthy. Learning how to use and grow herbs would be a great New Year's Resolution and may help you accomplish other resolutions you have been making!
These two herbal courses are set up differently - the approach to using herbs is different and the content is also different so you could sign up for both and really intensify your herbal learning. Our Building a Sustainable Herbal Apothecary is 5 full-day sessions and approaches herbs according to what they would be used for. And our Living with Herbs Course is 12 full-day sessions and approaches herbs in chronological order - an herbal year... propagating, sowing, growing, harvesting, storing, making of products, and how and why you would use the herbs.
More info on both courses can be found by scrolling below...
Visions and Revisions...
Over the past 10 years we have gone through a hundred indecisions and a hundred visions and revisions (Prufrock reference...couldn't help myself!). This farm has evolved and revised itself over these years, and we are so happy about where we are now and so excited about where the next 10 years will take us.
We are also super thankful for everyone who has read these newsletters, supported us as a customer or student, and for just being a part of our farm and a like-minded colleague and friend.
All the very best wishes to you and yours for a fabulous 2015!
~Barbara and Mark
Midsummer Farm
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Building a Sustainable Herbal Apothecary Course
I truly adore herbs - both growing and living with them in my life and using them in cooking and in healing medicines. I use many herbs on a daily basis for both nourishing and well-being and overall health, as well as for solutions to problems and to heal.
I find myself constantly amazed and mystified by the power and usefulness of herbs, and I cannot believe that more people don't use them as I do and as I have been using them for over 20 years!
This Building a Sustainable Herbal Apothecary Course
is so exciting to me because I get to share how I use herbs with people, something I love doing!
I have designed this course in 5 day-long intensive sessions each with a specific focus on a major area of human health which will give us a jumping off point and a focus for each day's class. Scroll down for outline of sessions...
Each session will focus on various categories of herbs but also on using and growing herbs. You'll learn how to make teas/decoctions vs tinctures/extracts vs salves/oil infusions, and you'll learn what the differences are between them.
And so once you have completed the course, you will have a thorough understanding of what herbs to turn to for general health and preventative nutrition, for healing medicines, and for well-being on a variety of levels. Your household will have this power within it - you'll have an apothecary you can turn to - whether it is in an herbal medicine cabinet or in your garden or both.
You can, after taking this course, consider yourself as a fledgling herbalist and start spreading the important and useful and effective knowledge and info to all your family and friends!
In this intensive course, you'll be building your own herb-based household health plan, as well as your own herbal medicine cabinet, beauty spa, and emotional well-being resource. Along with delving into natural herbal approaches to healing and vital health, each session will also involve how to grow and maintain a plentiful and abundant herb garden as well as how to harvest, store, and make use of the herbs you grow effectively. Winter is a great time to plan and experiment with what herbs you will want to grow in the spring and plan for your herb garden. See full outline below...
Empower yourself and Naturalize your household with 5 Intensive All-day Classes!
Classes run from 10 am - 3 pm
We're offering two different sessions of this course - one on weekdays and one on weekends:
Weekday (Thursdays) Session Dates:
Thursday, January 29th, 2015 - Liver Cleansing Detoxing, Gut and Bowel Health
Thursday, February 12th, 2015 - Anti-microbials (anti-bacterials, anti-virals, anti-fungals), Colds and Flus, Respiratory Health
Thursday, February 26th, 2015 - External Healing - Skin Health
Thursday, March 12th, 2015 - Anti-inflammatory Herbs, Bowel-disorders, Bug Bites, and Allergies
Thursday, March 26th, 2015- Hormone Balancing, Digestion and Metabolism, Stress
Weekend (Sundays) Session Dates:
Sunday, February 1st, 2015 - Liver Cleansing Detoxing, Gut and Bowel Health
Sunday, February 15th, 2015 - Anti-microbials (anti-bacterials, anti-virals, anti-fungals), Colds and Flus, Respiratory Health
Sunday, March 8th, 2015 - External Healing - Skin Health
Sunday, March 22nd, 2015 - Anti-inflammatory Herbs, Bowel-disorders, Bug Bites, and Allergies
Sunday, March 29th, 2015 - Hormone Balancing, Digestion and Metabolism, Stress
$485.00 per person
Price includes materials, herbs, handouts 
OUTLINE
The below outline provides a focus for each session, but much more will be covered as the course evolves....
Session 1)
Liver Cleansing Detoxing, Gut and Bowel Health
HERB FOCUSES: Milk Thistle, Dandelion, Mucilages, Burdock, and more.
USING: Teas (water decoctions), Tincturing (alcohol-infusions)
FOOD FOCUS: Raw Food Salads, Herbal Juices
Session 2)
Antibiotics, Antivirals, Antifungals, Colds and Flus, Respiratory Health, Infections, Sore Throats
HERB FOCUSES: Garlic, Echinacea, Marshmallow, goldenseal, thymol, baical skullcap, elecampane, oregano, and more.
USING: Syrups and lozenges
FOOD FOCUS: Broths, Soups
Session 3)
External Healing - Skin Health, Cellulite, Varicose Veins, Cuts, Burns, Bruises, Dry Skin, Wrinkles, Chronic Skin Issues, Sunburn,
HERB FOCUSES: Calendula, Violet, Yarrow, Arnica, Comfrey, Self Heal, Umbelliferae family, and more.
USING: Oil-infusions, salves, lip balms, ointments, poultices.
FOOD FOCUS: Seeds, Roots, and Spices of Umbelliferae family
Session 4)
Anti-inflammatory Herbs, Bug Bites, and Allergies
HERB FOCUSES: Licorice Root, Pain-killers, nettles, plantain, tumeric, chickweed, feverfew, meadowsweet, and mints.
USING: Variety - bringing them all together.
FOOD FOCUS: Green, Chlorophyl Rich Recipes
Session 5)
Hormone Balancing, Digestion and Metabolism, Stress
HERB FOCUSES: Nervines and Adaptogens, Oats, Kelp, Tulsi (Holy Basil), Skullcap, Lemon Balm, Motherwort, Red Clover, St. John's Wort, Blue Vervain, and Raspberry Leaf.
USING: Variety - bringing them all together.
FOOD FOCUS: Herbal Cocktails, Chickpea and Cannellini Bean and Herb recipes
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Living with Herbs Year-Long Intensive Course  An Herbal Year at Midsummer Farm~The focus of this course is Living with Herbs - familiarizing yourself with using them and growing them and integrating them into your daily life. Classes will be intensive - Covering a wide range of herbs and usages.
This is a great course for someone who wants to make the most of a current herb garden, for someone who wants to take his/her herb garden to the next level, or for someone who is starting from scratch and wants to build the ultimate herb garden. I know many people who have an instinctual drive to collect herb plants for an herb garden, but then just don't make the most out of the herbs' presence in their lives - this course addresses that - providing lots of inspiration, information and experience. This course is also great for someone who doesn't have a herb garden, but who wants to use herbs regularly.
Classes are from 10 am to 3 pm. Intensive coverage, with bits of 'downtime' during the day to socialize and draw in the garden as well as making lunch and snacks together
12 sessions: 6 Fridays, 6 Saturdays: PART 1  Session 1: Saturday, 1/24/15
Session 2: Friday, 2/13/15 Session 3: Saturday, 2/28/15
Session 4: Saturday, 3/14/15
Session 5: Friday, 4/10/15
Session 6: Friday, 5/22/15
PART 2
Session 7: Friday, 6/19/15
Session 8: Saturday, 6/20/15
Session 9: Saturday, 7/11/15
Session 10: Friday, 8/14/15
Session 11: Saturday, 9/26/15
Session 12: Friday, 10/9/15
Cost:
Part 1 only: $450.00
Part 2 only: $450.00
Both Parts: $845.00
Fee includes supplies, snacks, and lunches (that we will make together).
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at info@midsummerfarm.com Once you register, I'll send you 2 of my favorite herbalism books - so you can start focusing right now and be inspired and ready for the first class.
Classes will take place at Midsummer Farm in Warwick NY (156 East Ridge Road, Warwick, NY 10990) and will move about the farm during the course of each session from the greenhouse to the kitchen to the garden beds.
Outline of Areas to be Covered: Growing herbsSeed starting and propagation Designing the garden areas and your backyard's herbal culture Companion planting / and combining herb and vegetable gardening / Herb neighborhoods Growing with essential oil content and medicinal quality in mindBiodynamic principles Permaculture and farmscaping The colonial dooryard garden and exploring other traditional and creative herb garden structures Pairing herbs, harvest-time, planting style, use, etc. En masse plantings for using herbs in bulk or selling herbs Annual, Biennial, and Perennial methods Forest and Shade plantings Natives Container Gardening Greenhouse or conservatory herbs Deepening our connections with plants Pollinators, beneficial insects, native insect habitats Techniques for weeding, planting, spacing, watering, soil development and maintenance, composting, animal partnerships, protecting the garden Selling herbs and micro-farming herb businesses Once you've taken this course, you be more than able to design, plant and harvest from a wonderful personalized herb garden.
Using Herbs
In different formats in cooking Dried, powdered, simple syrups, fresh as flavor base as well as a bright addition to end of recipes Making herb centered dishes - pestos, green sauces, etc Baking, desserts, herbal sorbets Salads, salad dressings, vinegars Succi (Herb Juices) Beverages Harvesting and preparing with cooking in mind Storing and freezing The health benefits of eating super foods
Cooking with herbs and preparing seasonal food in your herb garden is particularly fulfilling.
Types of medicinal herbs - categories and families
Study of 100's of herbs from Agrimony to Yarrow
Harvesting time varies for each herb and varies for what you need to use it for
Drying / tincturing
Salves and Lip balms
Ointments
Teas- nourishing and healing
Simple syrups
Pets and farm animals
Sanctuary tonic allies
This will be organized by season for harvesting specific herbs.
I am so excited about teaching this season-long course. It is going to feel so great being able to spend time focusing on herbs and working with a group of people who also love herbs!
You can register by downloading our
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Upcoming Workshops at Midsummer Farm!
You can register for a workshop by visiting our website, and either downloading and mailing in a registration form and check or through our PayPal option. You must register in advance; I will send you a confirmation email a couple days before the workshop.
 Backyard Organic Poultry Rearing Workshop Sunday, January 25th, 11 am - 1 pm
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. 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.)
This is one of our most popular workshops, here is an outline of topics we cover:
- Preparing ahead - coops, fencing, tractors, runs, etc.
- It is extremely hard to break habits in birds!
- Pasture-Raised vs. Free Range
- Predators
- Roosts for sleeping
- Nest Boxes for laying
- Deep-Bedding method for Composting within the Coop | Cleaning | Composting of fowl manure
- Resting of Runs - cover cropping (mustard, grains, clover)
- Chicks vs. Pullets
- How to care for chicks
- Choosing Breeds - Winter-hardy vs. Mediterranean | brown vs. white egg layers
- Roosters or not ?
- Incubating your own chicks
- Feeding - what is Organic Feed? GMO free? Soy free?
- 'Alternative' poultry forages
- Supplements for chicks
- Effects of what the birds eat on the eggs - "Omega 3 high eggs"
- Cholesterol myths and eggs
- Calcium - oyster shells, eggshells, dark leafy greens, other Calcium sources
- Granite Grit and ranging
- Problems to be Prevented - common parasites, diseases, issues, etc
- Chicken First Aid kit
- Dust baths
- Older Birds in the Flock
- Heat in Summer and Winter cold
Workshop takes place at Midsummer Farm |Cost is $36 ($38.50 online)|
Registration closes 1/22/15
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Disclaimer
© Copyright 2015 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.
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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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