Mt. Folly Farmsoil, sunflowers and microbiome

Dear Friends,

There is a connection between the soil microbiome and our microbiome. As we focus on health, we’ve come across these new findings. For organic farmers who use nature rather than pesticides and herbicides to grow plants, including organic hemp for CBD, we are heartened to see this research going mainstream.

The human microbiome consists of millions of microbial communities in us, which are reflected in the soils in which we grow our food. A healthy and diverse microbiome may protect us from chronic diseases, such as Parkinson’s, MS, autism, memory loss, and different cancers.*

Here at Mt. Folly, one of the largest organic farms in Kentucky, we feed the soil, which then feeds us. We do this by making yards of compost and thousands of gallons of compost tea, by raising plants and animals on the same land, by growing diverse cover crops, and planting and harvesting varied crops.

Always on the look-out for diversity, sunflowers were a new crop this season, a happy experience.  Above is a video of the sunflowers growing, and then, from the seat of the combine, our sunflower harvest. Next, I’ve included a picture taken last week of me with a diverse (6 different plants) cover crop, which we’ll graze before tilling under or roller crimping next spring to build soil organic matter.

Hemp for Homestead Alternatives CBD is just one crop we grow at Mt. Folly, but one we love. Since it helped me recover from a serious horseback riding accident, I knew organic hemp grown in soil could pack a knock-out punch compared to chemically-fed sissy stuff.  I hope you get a kick out of a cartoon we published as we put Laura’s Homestead Alternatives CBD on the market.

Laura Freeman Signature

 

 

 

* This research is fairly new and includes several unappetizing procedures to correct weakened human microbiomes to stimulate immunity. As organic farmers, we’ve been feeding the soil for decades, and believe healthy soil makes healthy plants, so we are not surprised that healthy soil can make healthy people.  This well researched article summarizes the current thinking quite well. https://foodprint.org/blog/soil-microbiomes