Herbal Energetics Class

at Healcrest Urban Farm
Thursday, May 29 from 6-8 pm

We’re going to learn about recognizing the six tissue states in the body and the corresponding categories of herbs. I’m pulling knowledge from Ayurvedic medicine as well as Southern US Folk Herbalism. Hopefully you’ll leave knowing more about specific indications and what herbs will work well for your constitution and body type.

We’ll spend the first hour tasting plants from the garden and recognizing the movement within our bodies and the second talking about the different energetic systems across the world.

IT IS A HOLIDAY WEEKEND!

TIME TO CELEBRATE!

This weekend we celebrate Spring; honor those who’ve come before us who make it possible to enjoy these times; and spend some time with loved ones!

We closed our work week Saturday morning with the last deliveries of TeaPops and Tisane to our market retailers and we’re all off in different directions to enjoy a 3 day weekend!

Maria and her son Savitur are spending the weekend relaxing, cooking, and visiting with family at the annual reunion in Ohio.

Suzy and her son Justice are enjoying a lovely weather weekend camping with friends and extended family in beautiful Western Pennsylvania.

Dana is visiting gorgeous Colorado to spend long overdue time with her Western family for her grandfather’s 80th birthday.

This past week the farm was graced and nurtured by a visit from the Soto family. Michelle had her parents and aunt working hard days building new gardens and tending to current ones. Now Michelle is off to Vermont continuing her studies in herbalism.

Meg remains in Pittsburgh to tend gardens, labor hard as a workhorse, enjoy food with friends, and hopefully bask in the amazing weather of the weekend.

Wishing you all a joyous weekend however you spend it. May it be FULL of sunshine filled laughs, delicious food, nourishing conversation, invigorating experiences, and
welcomed seasonal changes!

Family Time on the Farm

By Michelle Soto

This past week my family came into town ready to work on the farm!  Many of my memories of childhood involve helping my dad in the yard and in the garden.  Every spring we’d get a load of wood mulch delivered to the house and I would use my child sized shovel and wheelbarrow to mulch the rose bushes and the edges of garden beds.  I loved the smell of the mulch.  It smelled woody and alive and signaled that spring was here.  My dad’s biggest hobby was working in the yard, he’d come home every day after work, take a power nap, change into work clothes and spend the rest of the afternoon outside.  He’s the type of guy who only has ONE kind of grass in his yard, and absolutely no weeds.  Anywhere.

It was reminiscent of these afternoons to spend some days with him at Healcrest.  His assignment: tree stump removal.  And not just any tree stump.  A 50 year old black locust (he counted those rings during a break one day) which was in the middle of our newest garden.  While my dad worked on the stump, my mom and aunt weeded our garlic patch, which had mulched itself with garlic mustard plants.  They caught them all before they went to flower, and the garlic patch is vibrant and sending up what soon will be delicious garlic scapes.

Other areas of the garden are quickly growing as the days and nights are warming up.  The mints: lemon balm, peppermint, horehound, catnip, catmint, and chocolate mint are providing us with new herbs to harvest every week.  About half of our seedlings are moved into the greenhouse and awaiting transplant.  And of course, the lovely wild cherry trees are going to burst into bloom any day this week.

Till next time,

Michelle and the Farm Team

It’s a Weed Walk! This Sunday MAY 18th – 3 to 5PM

Healcrest is hosting herb walks and classes with Michelle!

We’re kicking off our season:
this Sunday MAY 18th – 3 to 5PM
It’s a Weed Walk!
to learn about the plants poppin out NOW that its spring!

We’re going to walk and talk about what’s growing now and what it looks like. Curious about how to harvest burdock to get the most out of it? Or simply want to know what burdock is and looks like? We’ll talk about medicinal uses, cultivation techniques, wildcrafting habits, and whatever you want. There’s going to be a number of these kinds of classes this year where we can visit the same plants in different seasons and growing stages and identify and use them is a variety of ways.

the walk and talk is $10 and our rain date’s set for may 20, 4-6.

Register Here let us know if you have any questions, 615-804-0064 thanks! and happy spring,

Wishing You All A Happy Mother’s Day

From all of us at Healcrest Urban Farm
Hope your day was FULL of family, friendship, and fantastic fun!

Spring Has Sprung at Healcrest Urban Farm!

Whew! Spring has sprung and we are seeing the evidence of that all over the farm!

The daffodils are in full bloom, the forsythia has one whole garden in a wash of yellow, the hawthorns are budding out the cutest little leaves, and our perennials are coming back from the intense winter hibernation we were all in.

Meg and Michelle have been busy tilling the ground in several gardens to get beds ready for the hundreds of plants we have started inside.  Many herblings are more delicate than vegetable starts so we’ll wait till after the last frost to plant outside.

We are orienting garden beds differently this year in one garden and are breaking ground the what we used to call “the knotweed field”.  Although it does have medicinal qualities: the knotweed root contains high amounts of resveratrol- the feel good chemical in red wine, we are striving to eradicate our pristine piece of land from this invasive creature.  Slowly, but surely.

Suzy has built a rain barrel system to catch rainwater off the roof of our shed so that we can water everything grown on the farm with water collected from the farm.

 

 

As usual, the chickens have the run of a garden during the day to dust bathe and sun themselves.

 

We will post soon about upcoming classes and volunteer days!  Here’s to spring!

Kick Off May with these Wonderful Events!

We’ve been busy at Healcrest. The season is moving with exciting momentum! Come and visit us!

This Friday night, taste some Burgh neighborhood nightlife along with delicious food and fantastic arts. At the block of Penn and N. Pacific, the street transforms itself to a fun street bazaar, where all are welcome. The Garfield Night Market is back! Come and let Dana and Maria serve you cups of tea and TeaPops at 6pm!

On Saturday we continue a festive tradition of May Fair! Bring the whole family for May-Pole Dancing, Crafts, Entertainment, and of course Refreshments! Join us at The Pittsburgh Waldorf School in Friendship for Spring family festivities from 11-4pm!

Cap off the weekend on Sunday for volunteer days at the Farm! Join Meg and Michelle in the Gardens at 11am-4pm for some hands on Healcrest Farm!