Ducks Love Smooth Bedstraw (Galium mollugo)!

Chickens love it too!!

As we integrate sanctuary ducks within our perennial food system, we practice working with natural succession (the natural progression from grassland to woodland). In our case, hayfields are becoming pollinator pastures combining flowering perennials alongside trees and shrubs. We're seeing smooth bedstraw begin to emerge more widely in this shift. Graziers and dairy farmers apparently DON'T like this plant in their hayfields (along with milkweed), and the plant can become somewhat invasive until succession wins out. However, the plant contains 19% protein, and animals can be trained to eat it. See this article, “Bedstraw is a Nutritious, Resilient Forage” from On Pasture for more information: https://onpasture.com/2016/08/08/bedstraw-is-a-nutritious-resilient-forage/?fbclid=IwAR06lNSqq1ltDDyNykl9Ju4fj-6K6i7tPOYeH8-A1cnIi-I3hx3GcT5byns

We encourage the shift from pure grass/legumes to a grass/legume/forb mix--which excels at feeding pollinators, establishing a fungal network conducive to trees, and makes it easier to establish of orchard trees (due to decreased competition with grasses). For anyone who has tried, it is very labor-intensive to establish young trees in grass. 

We have also discovered that ducks LOVE to eat bedstraw. This plant is simple to harvest and transport, and they also eat it within the orchard.  So, a win-win for our system and the ducks. 

Ducks dip greens in their water bowls and strip the leaves from the bedstraw, leaving only the stems.

Comfrey and bedstraw are abundant now, and perfect food for ducks!

Here’s a link to a great write-up about a close relative of this plant and its human-medicinal and edible benefits.

Coyotes in Vermont

An excellent letter by a Vermont deer hunter confronting the Vermont hunting community about its random killing of coyotes. Time to create a new wildlife culture in Vermont  

Article appears in the Times Argus. Photo by John Hall, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department

Farming with wildife: Pruning fruit trees

Rabbits have nibbled the bark from this fallen apple branch. If possible, it’s best to prune fruit trees in stages over the winter months (leaving the cuttings around the trees on top of the snow, and especially during the coldest days) to provide food for the resident animals. In turn, they leave their droppings right near the base of your trees, and they are less likely to girdle younger trunks. When you approach food systems from the perspective of feeding the resident wildlife, new mutualisms emerge. It's a new perspective we're occupying more and more all the time--when you consider habitat and feeding patterns of the multiple species that occupy your biome, and you put those first, the benefits soar--just like prioritizing feeding the soil in organic management. The goal is to prove the concept in human food systems, which is what we're interested in resesarching. Anyone else out there who is researching this approach, please be in touch.

Rewilding Agriculture at SHO

Rewilding Agriculture, or Wildlife-Assisted Permaculture, is a fundamental stewardship philosophy at SHO Farm/Sanctuary at SHO.

Most regenerative or wholistic farmers use livestock to cycle nutrients in their systems.
We are deeply immersed in researching and developing how to partner with our resident wildlife to achieve the same nutrient cycling.

This winter we’ve been delighted by daily visits to the farmstead by a deer herd of 10. This photo captures 4 of them foraging in one of our apple orchards, taking advantage of the 42 degree temp, low/no snow cover, and easier access to high quality calories. In return they will leave an abundant supply of fresh, high quality fertilizer.

SHO's Melissa Hoffman Testifies on Behalf of Vermont's Coyotes

Coyotes in the apple and blueberry orchard at SHO Farm

Yesterday, The Vermont Commitee on Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife heard public testimony to change Vermont's existing law which allow coyotes to be killed 365 days a year, night or day, and to outlaw coyote killing contests which are still legal in Vermont. Here's a copy of my testimony, which describes our experience with this incredibly valuable and cherished resident of SHO Farm. Please note: SHO does not support killing animals for food when there are other ways of healthfully meeting our food needs. The organization for which I was testifying does not oppose subsistence hunting. 

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Thank you Chairman Deen and  Committee members for this opportunity to speak with you, and for your consideration and work in addressing the issue of coyotes in our beloved Vermont. 

My name is Melissa Hoffman, speaking on behalf of the Vermont Coyote Coexistence Coalition. I originally moved to Vermont in 1994 to start an organic vegetable farm, and I currently live in Huntington, steward 1300 acres abutting Camels Hump State Forest, and make my living on and from the land. My wife is a national conservation expert and land planner.

I want to highlight and elaborate on a few points from Commissioner Porter's report, which was clearly assembled with much effort.  

It’s important to emphasize the multiple values and benefits to a wide swath of Vermonters, of managing coyotes NOT solely according to population numbers, but according to population STABILITY, focussing population management on the family group in any given territory, especially when assessing hunting impacts on coyotes.

For example, stable coyote groups greatly benefit orchardists and vegetable farmers like myself by keeping the rodents in check, by consuming fruit drops, and by propagating the fruits in our system via their scat.

Stable groups are also are far more valuable to livestock farmers than are UNSTABLE groups, because stable groups protect their territories from marauding juveniles, resulting in less predation on livestock.  

Stable family groups better transfer learned avoidance behaviors and fear of humans to their young, and when combined with effective coexistence and hazing strategies create even more valuable stability in the human-coyote relationship. 

Stable groups better teach young where and how to hunt their natural prey, and they breed according to available natural food supply. 

Stable groups are more liable to keep to themselves, maintaining their innate and PREFERRED avoidance of humans.  

Freely and randomly killing coyotes destroys all of these stability benefits for EVERYONE.

Thus the importance of focussing on the QUALITY of the coyote population and not simply the numbers of animals when creating policy. This distinction alone is sufficient to warrant a limited coyote season and the elimination of killing contests.

This brings me to my final point.  

Those defending hunting in general tend to invoke the "bad apple” argument to both marginalize and explain some individuals’ fervent and often grotesque coyote persecution. We must grapple with the fact that these bad apples should be measured by their impact and not only their numbers.  Law and policy most often shapes itself around those who tend toward the margins of behavior, not those who live, and in this case hunt and recreate outdoors respectfully. The impact of the coyote hunter is indeed inordinate,  amplified by an inherited, mistaken, irrational dedication that they are righteously protecting deer and other game species (along with pets and children) by ’shooting every coyote they see.’ No amount of ‘education’ or information seems to reverse their conviction in their own motives. Thus policy needs to step in. The fact that these people can also kill coyotes 365 days a year, do so casually in the course of hunting other animals, and do so through coyote killing contests further skews and enlarges their impact. 

To  further arm this particular group with the logic that, and I quote from Porter’s report: “the year-round hunting of coyotes may actually contribute to the saving of coyotes” represents a head-scratching twist of mental gymnastics that I hope we all recognize for the schizophrenic and irresponsible statement that it is. Indeed, it pours gas on the fire of those who falsely justify coyote killing as somehow providing a public service—a conclusion that the main body of Porter’s report itself contradicts. 

It’s fair to say that hunting CAN be a part of an important well-thought-out conservation vision that benefits all of us—even wildlife as a totality--but in the case of an open season and with killing contests, as the majority of the report itself outlines, this is clearly not the case and our policy should definitively and swiftly adjust to reflect this truth. 

Link to Louis Porter's Coyote Report, cited in this testimony: http://www.vtfishandwildlife.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_73079/File/Hunt/trapping/Vermont%20Coyote%20Population%20Report%20to%20Legislature-2018.pdf

Experiments in Wild Probiotic Ales, Meads, and Kefirs

This photo shows my two latest kefir-meads made with sorghum syrup instead of honey. Healing ginger-turmeric beer with a kick, and cherry cola with a kick! These two different water kefirs contain eleuthero root, milk thistle seed, *chaga, *reishi, *dandelion root, *turkey tail, *turmeric, ginger, maple, *birch, *japanese knotweed root, teasel root, *apple cider, cherry juice, *schisandra berry...amongst other ingredients. *=grown or wild-crafted at SHO.

By Melissa Hoffman, Permaculture Food Lab at SHO Farm.

I was researching lyme disease and its coinfections in Stephen Buhrner’s excellent work this past week, and my reading drove home an important point. I suffered with CNS (central nervous system) and chronic lyme for over 15 years that has resolved for the most part, with some lingering systemic weaknesses. Both Shawn and I work outside much of the time, and the potential for lyme infection has grown in our home state of Vermont. 

Many of the ingredients that Buhner recommends in his protocols are called ‘adaptogens’ that gently and non-toxically help moderate stress, support adrenal function, cleanse the liver, and even help the depression often accompanying lyme or other chronic illnesses. Some even help prevent lyme infection. Adrenals are taxed in many chronic illnesses, as they were with Shawn in conjunction with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Her healing protocol called for adrenal support and stress mitigation--which is exactly what adaptogens help accomplish. Many people can benefit from these gentle, supportive plants, especially at a time when our systems are metabolizing so much--just from being alive in our current environment. Our life conditions call for a re-evaluation of the elements that nourish us on a daily basis. I think we also need expand the question: What is food? 

I’ve been making probiotic water-kefir beers, meads, and ales for a long time, using ingredients like chaga, turkey tail mushroom, roasted milk thistle seed and dandelion root—to make a beer-like drink that’s also tonifying, providing gentle support for the body’s immune system. I don’t like taking supplements or extracts unless treating something specific, and I seek instead to integrate non-toxic amounts of the plants and fungi permeating my home biome into foods, broths, beverages, as central flavor and health-enhancing elements. 

Hawaiian red turmeric grown in pots at SHO

Japanese knotweed, for example, is an invasive plant where I live. We have a patch of it growing on our farm, away from traffic. Not only are the young shoots edible, but the root is central to Buhner’s lyme and coinfection protocols.

We live in increasingly toxic times, especially in areas prone to tick-born infections. Why not include these valuable ingredients in the beverages we love, in our daily cuisine, thus blurring the line between food and medicine? 

I simply make a 'wort' or strong tea in an 8-quart pressure cooker, using about a quarter cup of ground chaga, toasted dandelion root, ground milkweed seeds, turkey tail, eleuthero root, japanese knotweed root, reishi (smaller amounts since its antibiotic properties will diminish water kefir probiotics). I taste the tea for balance, and add other herbs like ginger or turmeric to taste. I often add a strong infuion of hops if I want to make an IPA-like water kefir. For those of you familiar with making water kefir or komboucha, you add the wort to the first fermentation liquid, and then bottle in swing-top bottles for teh 2F  (second fermentation).

Some information from Stephen Buhrner about japanese knotweed, polygonum cusupidatum:

"Polygonum cuspidatum’s constituents cross the blood-brain barrier, where they exert actions on the CNS: antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, as protectants against oxidative and microbial damage, and as calming agents. The herb specifically protects the brain from inflammatory damage, microbial endotoxins, and bacterial infections. Knotweed enhances blood flow especially to the eyes, heart, skin, and joints. This makes it especially useful in Lyme and its coinfections as it facilitates blood flow to the areas that are difficult to reach to kill the organisms. It is a drug and herb synergist, facilitating the movement of other herbs and drugs into these hard-to-reach places when taken with them. It is also extremely effective for treating coinfection-initiated inflammatory arthritis. Its most potent constituents are the resveratrols, emodin, and polydatin. The plant root is so high in resveratrols that it is the main source of the supplement throughout the world.”...

…"The plant compounds in knotweed easily move across the gastrointestinal mucosa and circulate in the bloodstream. They cross, as well, the blood-brain barrier. Some 131 patents have been granted in the U.S. on the herb and its constituents for treating a variety of conditions, primarily cancer, inflammations, and neurodegenerative diseases.” (Buhner, Stephen Harrod. Healing Lyme Disease Coinfections: Complementary and Holistic Treatments for Bartonella and Mycoplasma (pp. 216-217). Inner Traditions/Bear & Company. Kindle Edition.) 

As we face a changing climate, multiple chemical components in both the environment and in consumer products that impact indoor air quality—and virtually every aspect of our lives—shouldn’t we be incorporating these kinds of protective, non-harmful substances on a regular basis? It’s time to think holistically, preventively, and to make use of the valuable gifts all around us, in plants, fungi, growing wild, and often unnoticed in our own back yards. Japanese knotweed, when harvested away from heavily-travelled and salted roads, is invasive in many parts of the U.S.

I’ll be teaching a class on how to use these components daily in brewing tonifying, probiotic no-to-low alcohol kefir-ales. This is information more and more of us need to learn. The same information can be used to make beverages with higher alcoholic content, even stocks used as a backbone in daily soups and sauces. 

NEW!! Here's a link to the class...scroll to the bottom of the page. 

An inner position: refusing to exploit others, a teaching beyond veganism by Ren hurst

Photo by Ren Hurst

This video by our friend, former horse 'whisperer' Ren Hurst, goes beyond veganism to describe a relationship to animals that requires great self-responsibility. Consider this a spiritual definition of veganism, or as describing a powerful path towards a non-expoitive relationship with animals and each other. Ren is the author of Riding on the Power of Others, and the upcoming Animal Kin: Restoring Connection to Wild Wisdom.

Springtime birth.

The banner video chronicles a robin nesting right outside our window in the kiwi vines that climb up the side of our house. Robins will raise up to 3 broods of chicks in one summer, adding vital nutrients to adjacent plants and fruit trees.