Well, we missed a September blogpost…but no harm..as there is a lot going on here and its the right time to discuss it with our fans and followers!
Our Kickstarter campaign is running strong. We encourage everyone to donate even a little bit towards the campaign and we are meditating like heaven that a large backer who loves Pittsburgh and urban farming and ultra-pure products and vacant land restoration and green space will come along and give us 50% of what we need – or maybe even 100%!! Please check out the great little video about the farm and consider backing
And the other big news…is that as the world gets to know our little tiny space in Pittsburgh, our product line is growing. Each year at Healcrest the space we have cultivated for herb production increases and the amount of product we can output increases. That in addition to serving more than just women – but the families they love and nourish – we have been expanding our line to include men and children in all capacities – from body care to internal wellness and whole food supplements. Also, in seeking to better align the products with the work and activity of Healcrest, we are making a name change to: The Healing Moon.
With Healing at our root and the moon as our evening guidance and the symbol of the female we continue on to nurture women and to include their loved ones in the people who can find health and wholeness in natural beauty and medicine.
Our Etsy site will redirect at either the Vital Mother Moon, VitalMoon or TheHealingMoon handle and in the next few months you will find a completely new and exciting website that has Healcrest, our blog, our info and The Healing Moon products and info in a 1-stop shop! Look out people!
So take care in the cold everyone, think of green grass, beautiful flowers and warming sun as we approach our introspective winter!
Ok Peeps! We are super excited over here at Healcrest Urban Farm!
We have brought back to a stronghold, Ms Dana Launius, formerly of Pittsburgh, a women goddess of world travel, sustainable project manager extraordinaire, food systems analyst and well, amazing bellydancer. She has arrived back to us via Portland, Oregon (our sister city) and is offering Burghers a Devi Dancing workshop.
Join us for beautiful breezy late summer Sundays at Healcrest as we dance in the grove under the old apple tree learning the ancient art of Devi dancing, yoga and goddess mythology! Light refreshments are served and you will see the summer sunset as we finish our time. Small tours will be offered if you want to know more about the farm as well.
You have the option of purchasing single classes or the full workshop. The final sunday, September 25th we will have an ending celebration, dancing and food – and hopefully a special performance by Dana herself – to inspire us to continue our beautiful goddess movements.
So here is an easy quick button if you would like to purchase online. Secure payments made though paypal and go directly to support the work of Healcrest Urban Farm!
Devi Dancing
Workshop 1, Sept. 4 $10.00
Workshop 2, Sept. 11 $10.00
Workshop 3, Sept. 18 $10.00
Workshop 4, Sept 25 w/celebration $12.00
Full Series $35.00
Full Series (student price) $30.00
**You can add a special message to let us know which workshop you are taking… Thank you!
Ok and even bigger news!!!
We are starting a Kickstarter Campaign on September 19th! Kickstarter is an online forum to match creative projects with angel investors! We are building a processing facility and classroom at Healcrest and your donation will be key.
PLEASE READ AND CONSIDER:
We must reach our goal of $20,000 to receive any funding
You can donate anything between $1-$20,000
We can exceed our goal!
You must pledge your support within timeframe/deadline
Supporting begins on September 19th
We will let you know when funding begins and give you the link directly to back us! There will be a great video on our project, pictures, images of our construction and site, etc…everything to show you the outcomes of our project
All backers funding over $100 will receive gifts for their support!
Its been an amazing journey in July with high temps, electrifying thunderstorms, sunshine tanning our skin and growing our plants up tall. The farm feels amazing – like you have stepped out of the City of Pgh and into a grotto of earthly delights – big flapping butterflies, crickets chirping, bees buzzing, flowers in blooms, grass soft under your feet, apples growing, berries sweetening! Oh we are certainly relishing in the summer months knowing here that soon enough we will cycle back through to our winter cold!
We are having an entire weekend of volunteer opportunity at Healcrest. Join us on Saturday or Sunday (July 30-31st) from 9am-12noon for general garden work. We are re-seeding some raised beds and the greenhouse, harvesting medicinal herbs and general garden bed maintenance. Its an easy three hours and we finish in time for trips to pool or finding cool rest in a shady spot.
Here is the RSVP form….please complete if you think there is a STRONG POSSIBILITY you will be coming this weekend!
For those interested permaculture, biodynamic farming and general eco-spaces, Healcrest is beginning to define itself as a Food Forest and a permaculture site. We have always been apt to allow nature to work its magic- keeping tree lines growing, incorporating wild, northeast herbs into food beds and pairing fruit & nut trees with the general landscape. We are not your traditional raised beds, straight rows, bare spaces – we are an ecosystem in the city, a place of green life. That said, we invite nature enthusiasts to visit us and share in the development of our natural resources.
Here is a link to the Permaculture Institute. They give a great description of Permaculture Food Forests and you can get a better sense of what we work towards here everyday at Healcrest.
Yarrow ** Anise (Chocolate, Mountain & Spear) Mint
Cherry (shrub and tree) Pears, Plums, and Peach trees **
Apple ** Apricot
Mulberry, black ** Hops, kiwi vines
Grapes (wild and cultivated) **
Black Walnut ** Blackberry brambles
As you can see, we are well on our way to permaculture, biodynamic, conservation space. Healcrest must continue to grow and develop as the City of PIttsburgh grows and develops. As houses go up around us, and young people fight the economic slump and stay in this great city- preserving an active, natural and healing green space will be asset to not only property values, but to the health & wellness of community. This is our mission. We are working to be a part of economic & community growth – not an opposition to it. Read on fans & followers, support and grow with us!
Of course, fans, some pics….for inspiration….we hope we see you tomorrow or Sunday!
The berry/herb garden...lavender, rasberries, blackberries, sage, Greek oregano...
We are starting to see a real abundance here at Healcrest. The greenhouse has produced deliciously sweet and crisp green peas, a lovely arugula and mesclun lettuce mix, dinosaur kale (that has now become kale chips) and really good-sized red beets, italian flat parsley and genovese basil – yum. With these beauties you can make an amazing pesto, blanched and seasoned kale (or the kale chips), steam beets or borscht and have an amazing salad on the side.
Lavender/Echinacea/Sage
My little helper has been doing an amazing job on our rasberry bushes. He has learned to pick the big red ripe ones and fill his belly. And when he tires of that, he finds the bucket I am dropping my picks into, and I find 1/4 of the bucket gone! Amazing he hasn’t turned into a rasberry by now!
So the farm at this time is a ton of work. The rain/sun combo makes it a lush jungle here – hard to believe we are smack in the east end of a major metro area. But with years now of planting herb and food seeds, we get enormous growth. Everything from bamboo, to mugwort, roses, chaste-tree, comfrey, columbines, apple trees, grapevines, mullein, bee balms, oak and maples, mulberry trees, blackberry vines – well we are in abundance but often fighting back the growth! The birds are in abundance, we see hawks and falcons, we have ground animals to keep out, snakes, worms, bunnies and deer. It was my dream to make this place a haven of nature, a sanctuary in the midst of the city. It is becoming that each year!
I am in great need of an arborist. So if anyone out there knows or is one, willing to donate some time to our urban farming endeavors – please contact us here by making a comment – or through our website – www.healcrest.com. We have an old apple tree that needs
Kale, basil, parsley
some major love and by the time it stops fruiting, I want to be prepared to give a major trim. We have new baby apple trees sprouting and our older-timer needs to share some space (and produce on some lower limbs – so we can actually reach the apples!!!)
So here are some great pics of our produce and other joyous times on the farm. Tomatoes, squash, okra, beets, asparagus, peppers are all following soon (you should see them in the late July/August post)
Like always, families, gardeners, and fellow Pgh neighbors are welcome to volunteer! Subscribe to this blog and you will get that automatic inspiration!
Any WWOOFers out there as well who want to rough it in Pgh – we have plenty of flat space for camping and could use the helping hands.
They are all growing tremendously at Healcrest Urban Farm in Garfield Heights, Pittsburgh!!
Spicy Salad Mix with Arugula, Cilantro and tender lettuces
Kale, getting ready for a thinning so it can have space!
Bamboo Leaf Harvest #1
We have several projects happening at Healcrest: Fence repair, compost application around fruit trees and grape vine, seedling transplants, tilling, and mulching!
This Saturday, May 14th we will have some great volunteers out from 9am-1pm! Please try and join us for some outdoor gardening at your local organic farm – there is major spring prep to be done and all are welcome!
We have two great pieces of news for our followers as well…..
We are partnering with a local flower grower, who will be growing on one of our spots at Healcrest this year! I will get more information on their business and do a blog post to let everyone know!
Also we have brought on a garden support person, Ms Annie Derek. She will be helping me out with some general maintenance and care of the farm, we get along smashingly and Negus Tafari loves her as well! I will also do a blog post on Ms Annie as well, once we get some pics of her!
Finally, we plan to sell a lot of our herbs wholesale/bulk on the website and to increase our overall web and community presence around the value-added products created from the luscious herbs on the farm. Healcrest is focused on these spectacular products and less on food production – if you want to eat our produce you have to put some back labor into volunteer time! You can support us best by purchasing your herbal, natural wellness products at www.vitalmothermoon.com or at www.vitalmoon.etsy.com!
We hope to see people out on Saturday for the volunteer day – coffee and healthy snacks on us!
The groundhog is a Pennsylvania thing, still attached to the pinnings of mother nature we stand firm in traditions of shadows & light, earth & sky. Today of all days feels a bit like spring. So is this why Phil said spring is coming! Just his feeling for today? Check out the Washington post commentary… http://voices.washingtonpost.com/compost/2011/02/groundhog_day_2011_results_spr.html
After a short break in California we feel rejuvenated here and the sun seems to have followed us back. I don’t mind the cold if the sun is resting on our cheeks. Feeling inspired by the ocean breeze and beautiful grounds with eucalyptus & jade, lavender & Rosemary growing with ease. We spent some time with chickens in the back yard & watching them lay their eggs.
I ponder the coming year for Healcrest & how we might make this space the oasis it is meant to be. Lively with people, home to chickens & other small animals, teeming with herbs & fruits & vegetables.
We are looking now at some small sources of funding to get the farm the infrastructure & staff it needs to bloom.
A fundraiser is being planned for early spring & any support we can gather would be exciting! Please let us know if you can play a role in helping to plan our spring event! Musicians, gardeners, marketing savvy peeps & all are welcome.
Here are some pics of southern Cali to warm your heart & inspire your mind!
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.
Crunchy numbers
The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 4 times
In 2010, there were 25 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 77 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 31mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was April 19th with 42 views. The most popular post that day was Programs.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, WordPress Dashboard, breathlessbeauty.wordpress.com, android-vs-ipad.co.cc, and worldofjah.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for urban farming, healcrest farm pittsburgh, urban farm festival, www.breathlessbeauty.wordpress.com, and gentian herbal.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
**You can add a special message to let us know which workshop you are taking… Thank you!
from the earth.
