Abadiania, Brazil
For the last four years I have been spending a few months every year at a healing center in Brazil during the winter and rent a house with a lovely garden. Last year a friend, Walter Schroth, who has an inn called Pousada Caminho Encantado very close by, became an avid remineralizer and has remineralized hundreds of trees.
Mystic, Connecticut
My husband John and I couldn't be happier with our brand-new garden this year! It's not very big, but it supplies all the produce that we can possibly use. The vegetables are amazing and we give away basketfuls each week.
Barre, Massachusetts
August 9
I met Joanna Campe at the NOFA Conference 2008. I use Azomite in my garden along with my compost and have no need for fertilizers.
Judy Roylance
Fairmont, West VirginiaAn Apple Tree Story
Once upon a time, on a farm not too far away and not very long ago, there were five very old apple trees. Sadly, they had no apples. They had not had any apples for many years; no one knows how many. One tree was very tall; one was very wide; three were dwarfs. The first dwarf tree stood next to a forsythia bush which was too tired to put out any yellow flowers in April. The second dwarf tree would have had a lovely shape if it had had anyone to prune the suckering branches. The third dwarf tree stood near the hayfield and was very unhappy indeed.
Lyons, Wisconsin
Six years ago, 2001, I started gardening for the sake of improving my ailing health. I was determined to garden organically for the sake of food purity. Setting out with little knowledge and almost zero experience I had two very disappointing years of only fair yield and relentless insect attack.
Disillusioned, I then read up on some organic pest control approaches. Armed with a little non-toxic ammo I achieved less damaged produce. However it cost extra money and time and did not improve yield.
Spencer Brook Farm, Concord, MA
10/23/07
Tomatoes in full bloom and lush growth going through third flowering/fruiting cycle in MA. growing on soil that was last year not much more than low pH sand and gravel. A mix of rock powders was used to bring the plants to this state. Locally available granite schist, highly paramagnetic blacksand, high trace element spectrum summa minerals as well as high calcium lime and colloidal soft rock phosphate. None of the traditional fungus or wilt diseases struck or hornworms as can be easily seen by the lush growth and numerous fruiting cycles. Tomatoes grown on nearby soil were struck down by black wilt by mid August.
Click to enlarge images
Julie Rawson
Founder and Manager, Many Hands Organic Farm CSA, Barre, Massachusetts
Executive Director, Northeast Farming Association (NOFA)
After success with some small scale testing with Ashfield Stone last year, we applied Suma Minerals this year (2007).
I have had over the top harvests of sugar snap peas. Last week we harvested over 200 pounds of peas from about 420 row feet of plants that rose to 8 or 9 feet in height. The leaves on things like chard, beets, flat leaf parsley are stronger and more turgid than I have known them to be. There are many fewer old and ratty looking beet leaves than in the past. The cut flowers have more brightness to their hues than in the past. The petunias in the flower boxes are magnificent. Three days in a row when I woke up this week I woke up with a new sense of physical power that I have never felt before. I figure it is from eating the vegetables that we are growing here. Good stuff!