Tag: Health

Managing Pain on the Farm: A Tool for Farmers

by Brie Weisman, Maine AgrAbility Aches and pains seem just as much a part of farming as seeds and soil, whether we work with hand tools, or spend long hours sitting on a tractor. Farming can be demanding work, with tasks and hours that simply do not respect the traditional 9-to-5 work model. Many farmers

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We’re in This Together: Words of Wisdom from Russell Libby

By Tim Nason Russell Libby wrote editorials for The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener during 1993 and 1994, when he served as MOFGA board president, and from 1996 to 2012 as MOFGA’s executive director. Most of the editorials targeted a specific topic, such as the use of persistent pesticides; the increase in toxins in our

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Calendula Beautiful and Useful

  Calendula offers season-long blooms for pollinators, and its flowers are edible and medicinal. Photo by Mary McAvoy By Joyce White There are so many reasons to plant a big bed of calendula, Calendula officinalis. It blooms until frost for cut flowers and medicine, it isn’t fussy about where it’s planted, pollinators like it, it

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Using Cured Cannabis Flower

Figure 1 – Weighing flower for decarboxylation. Note the 62% moisture packet in the bell jar container, and tart cherry concentrate. Figure 2 – Molds ready to receive gummy mixture.  Note the eye dropper with the mixture. Figure 3 – Cooking gummy mixtures By John Jemison University of Maine Cooperative Extension Soil and Water Quality

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How to Make Cannabis Salves

Making cannabis salves requires just a few ingredients. By Roberta Bailey Photos by the author As cannabis has become legal and more readily available, people are embracing its uses. Slowly, we are coming back to a plant that was our ancient medicine. We’re relearning its delicate secrets, its diverse strengths. Cannabis has so much to

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Harvest Kitchen Turmeric for Flavor and Health

Turmeric grown by students at the Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast and entered in the 2018 Common Ground Country Fair Exhibition Hall. By Roberta Bailey High tunnels have changed the cycles of Maine’s local food systems, extending our live food harvests to year-round bounty. Along with cucumbers, greens, sweet potatoes and tomatoes come the

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Buckwheat

The author’s mother in a field of buckwheat at the author’s grandfather’s farm in Canaan in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of Joyce White Buckwheat grown as an alley crop in a young orchard at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center. English photo By Joyce White When a neighbor extolled the health benefits of buckwheat, I

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Kitchen Herbs

Cabbage, garlic, rosemary, sage and thyme – just some of the kitchen herbs and vegetables that promote health. English photo By Roberta Bailey As farmers, gardeners and overly busy people, we barely make time to feed ourselves well, let alone truly nourish and support our bodies. Our lives are a constant juggle of making time,

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Herbs Called Adaptogens

Oats. English photo By Joyce White Plants known as herbs have been a part of healing the body, mind and spirit for most of known human history. Cultures have differed, stresses have differed, but the use of plants for healing as well as for food has remained constant through time. The brain, it was previously

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West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis in Maine

State develops plan for possible spraying By MOFGA Staff Arboviral diseases are transmitted by arthropod vectors such as mosquitoes and include Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile Virus (WNV). Because EEE and WNV have been detected in Maine, the Maine Legislature directed the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (MDACF) and the Maine

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