Teaching them how to add health, how to build their internal resistance, and how to grow resilience.
I give my patients the tools to thrive in their life. Guiding and coaching each one into living a life on purpose. In short, I teach people to become unmessable with. And I love it.
And yet…there’s more on my heart to do.
The more I had my hands in the dirt...the more emerging research there was about gut health. The more I saw how intricately intertwined we are with the earth (specifically the soil)...the more apparent it was to me that I needed to do more. I wanted to do more. It was in my DNA to do more. As I see it, we are a microcosm of the macrocosm.
What do I mean by this? Our biology, physiology, biochemistry, and PATHOLOGY are all a mirror to Mother Earth. When our INPUTS (food, air, water, and life choices) are added, our body will either thrive or break down depending on the quality/source of the inputs. When Her INPUTS (food, air, water, OUR life choices) are added, Earth will either thrive or break down. A farmer friend of mine once told me, “if you want to heal your gut, heal the soil”.
And he’s right.
With all my years of treating people’s gut health, it really boils down to this: Eat food grown in healthy soil. Know where your food comes from. And shake the hand of your farmer (or air high-five). If you follow these guidelines, it immediately eliminates the allergenic and addictive foods, processed foods, nutrient-devoid foods, frankenfoods, food-like substances, and allows you to follow the seasons as nature intended. It adds health. It sets you up to heal.
So, in this second decade of my practice, I’m turning to the healing of soil. No, wait... I am going to set my land up with the right inputs, with nature as my guide, so that the soil can heal itself. And with what I learn, see, feel, and taste, I want to teach, write, and blog about this to empower people, consumers, YOU, about WHY this matters so much.
Here on the farm we practice regenerative farming principles, holistic management (based on farming and ranching in nature’s image), no-till farming, and the cultivation of biodiversity. We use rotational grazing strategies to allow healing time for the grass; we raise multiple species of animals, as nature abhors MONOspecies; and every animal plays a key role in the health of the farm ecosystem. We never use pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, glyphosate (RoundUP), GMOs, or any other chemical inputs. The focus is soil health. Because with nutrient and microbe-rich, healthy soil, you produce nutrient-dense food.
Starting in 2021, Maple and Sage will host monthly farm to table dinners with the intention of not only celebrating what is coming off the farm that month, but to give diners a glimpse into how easy, simple, and mouth-watering local, seasonal food is. I have been doing dinners for years, and the feedback I continue to get is that people leave the table transformed.
And a final piece of the vision?
To wake up happy as a pig in shit because if you cut me open, FARMER falls out; and I have finally, after 35 years, given myself the permission to follow that dream. To breathe life into people. Knowing that dreams do become reality when you put vision, focus, and diligence in the pot.
And in five years from now, knowing that I faced the fears, hang-ups, doubts, breakthroughs and breakdowns, and the challenging reality of building a vision from a piece of hurting land, in the middle of nowhere Tennessee, with grit, determination, sweat, 1000 fails, and 1001 wins...which is why I'll keep going.
Here we practice regenerative and sustainable farming principles. We are dedicated to holistic management of the land, which is based on farming and ranching in nature’s image, using no-till farming and diverse cover crops. We use rotational grazing strategies to allow healing time for the grass, we raise multiple species of animals, as nature abhors MONOspecies, and every animal plays a key role in the health of the farm ecosystem. We follow nature’s laws. This means no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, glyphosate (RoundUP), GMO, or chemical inputs. The focus here is soil health. Because with nutrient and microbe rich, healthy soil, you produce nutrient dense food.
And with that, you heal.
