GO nakd FARM BOX | Page 37

Our family medicinal farm located on 5 acres of rich, un-spoilt goodness. We grow a variety of flavorful organic herbs, vegetables and fruits, to care for the health of the soil, we use cultural and holistic techniques that help to build soil such as minimal tillage, cover cropping, crop rotation, and compost production. The farm uses both manual and mechanical methods for cultivation. We use various methods of irrigation—each tailored to individual plant needs—including traditional water methods, flooding, drip irrigation, and overhead sprinklers. We have a small greenhouse on the farm where we produce seedlings for our medicinal-herb production. All of our medicinal herbs are harvested by hand to preserve the quality of the crops and conserve resources. We do mostly solar and air drying of herbs on the farm. To help with pest management and to increase wild biodiversity on the farmscape, we create insectary belts for beneficial insects. We make owl nesting boxes, worm boxes, bat houses, and perches for raptors. Everything we do is predicated on the idea that everything is interconnected. The earth, planets, wind, water, seeds, rocks, all animals of the earth and us human beings and therefore everything must be respected, prayed over, and worked with reverence to the holistic attitude of the Golden Rule ; "Treat everything the way you want to be treated because the divine consciousness exists within everything and everyone." One of our goals at nākd Farmacy is to create two native pollinator garden beds at the garden's entrance, to attract bees and other beneficial insects. Our goal is to cultivate up to 30 varieties of herbs, and use our garden as an outdoor classroom where community members, can learn about sustainable agricultural techniques and water conservation practices and about the nutritional and medicinal benefits of the herbs that they have helped to grow. We strive to balance our respect for the land and what it produces with our respect for those who work it. We do this by not only bringing a holistic approach to our growing methods but to the natural products we make, which include a full line of natural wellness and skin-care products of unquestionable quality and purity—all made with the organic medicinal herbs holistically grown on our farm. It is our mission not just to practice sustainable agriculture but to help sustain agriculture itself as a viable way of life, both now and into the future. We wholeheartedly believe that it is not about consuming the resources of the earth, but instead healing and protecting the very life forces that sustain our planet. Records are kept on all substances applied to the land and plants. All seeds are certified gmo free. We do not start our plants from seedlings at local agri shops. Our farm is a celebration of what I learned as child and continue to refine each day– a love for the land and the art of foraging. I hope one day this farm will be the centerpiece for education and events on sustainable farming and community food systems.