How our food system has depleted over the last fifty years and the organic seed you can save.

On an organic farm in the Midwest resides a little twenty-something lady with a huge heart and mind. She is proof that intellect can indeed reside in the cutest of feminine faces. Introducing Betsy Goodman, organic farmer, seed saver, passionate historian, and environmentalist.

I arrived to interview Betsy well into a dark starry evening. After driving down winding gravel roads, I could see little except the shadows of hills and a cold clear night sky. I pulled into what appeared to be the correct farmhouse and out came Betsy. Is this where I confess that I still couldn’t see this hospitable stranger that had been so lovingly nominated for a feature? Only after walking inside am I greeted with a smiling young lady surrounded by hundreds of baby plants. Ascending to the second floor I found myself surrounded by soaring ceilings and endless windows. The moon greeted us as if to say welcome to the start of an amazing evening.

Betsy describes herself as a preacher. Food is Ms. Betsy’s religion and she “preaches the organic gospel”. She also preaches hard work. Her little frame farms three acres without the assistance of a tractor or machinery. Her tools are a shovel and her hands. “Everything needs personal attention”, she tells me. On the farm Betsy cares for, veggies are saved through the hard Midwest winters in a cold storage room. Yes, even the most frozen tundra can have root crops all season. I asked her what is easiest to save and her answer was quite a list! To start with imagine eating garlic, onion, cabbage, beets, and carrots. Not because you made a trip to the nearest grocery store because you walked to your cellar and chose from the bounty of your labor.

I asked Betsy how the urban granddaughter of a United States Senator became so interested in loving mother earth. Her story begins as a small child that admits to being afraid of nature. Until one day at the age of six, she discovered a creek and a tree. She sat next to the tree and listened to message of the water. She also heard her internal calling and had found her peace. Many years later, her beautiful sanctuary was destroyed and she knew that her life must be devoted to protecting the harmony she had found a decade before.

Betsy attended college at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, majoring in environment studies. Her second year in college she began working at an organic grocery and learned about herbs and eating well from the earth she so adored. During her senior year she met the man that would become her mentor. Like all things unexpected, her first introduction to the brilliant hippy that spoke of a Fairy Congress and becoming Friends with the Trees, was to wonder what twilight zone she had stepped into. And because as I always say life gives us messages, Betsy was offered her spirit guidance. One evening while walking home contemplating her future, she crossed paths with a fox. Rather than either of them departing, she describes the fox gently staying with her and “walking her home”. She felt compelled to look up the spiritual symbolism of her companion animal and learned they represent the entrance to the fairy realms. She needed no other coaxing. She completed school, turned down a corporate job and began to learn the art of organic farming and living in harmony with nature.

The journey of Betsy’s heart has brought her to a deeper knowledge of farming than she ever expected. The knowledge of history and the seed. Our seeds are our “right to real food”. They are also dying with conventional mono-cropping and GMO’s. So much of what has been passed down for generations, in the last 50 years, has become the sad sterile version of what was once bounty and beauty. Betsy has started a seed saving program at the Omaha Public Library and has become a proponent of our rights to save the abundance so willingly offered by nature. She is testifying in front of the state legislature to ensure our rights, and those of Mother Nature are protected. “It is our responsibility to uphold our food system”. Her emotion and intellect clearly shine through when she speaks of Thomas Jefferson handing out seeds to our ancestors and telling them that with the seed, community and health are always available. For more information on the different types of seed check out our Differences in Seeds Article.

When I asked about the modern practices of farming with chemicals she became sad. Our “bodies don’t want that”, she told me. The chemicals and GMO’s create autoimmune disease. This is something she knows first hand. Each time the neighboring farmers spray, her immune system shuts down, and her body reacts with what she tells me is “gut collapse and horrible headaches”. And in perfect LoveSelf fashion, Betsy reverts to her beautiful story of health and tells me “Loving life is loving yourself”.

Betsy and I have a question for you. What can you do today to support yourself and the small organic farmer that is only trying to save our health and the earth?

During our time together Betsy and I meditated with the earth and looked to the heavens. In her words we both know that it is time to live with “your feet in the mud and your head in the sky”.

Betsy in her organic health and abundance has given us her three ingredient green smoothie Enjoy!

The post A Tiny Organic Farmer, Fairies, and the Art of Saving a Seed. appeared first on LoveSelf.

Faith. A soil scientist. And plant research goddess.

On a quest for the love of mama earth, a journey of faith has taken place. And because we are so often our physical name and our spirit, I am honored to introduce a living embodiment of such faith, in both her practice and namesake.

Introducing Faith Reeves of the Sustainability Research Institute in Fairfield, IA.

Faith is an earth scientist meets plant research goddess. Or as she so humbly states “soil geek”. She transitioned from her southern roots to a tiny town in Iowa in 2009, yet her quest began much earlier. Faith describes a greater seeking at age 14. As her path unfolded she found herself working in the food service industry. Over the years her love for her chosen career had become bittersweet. How could she feel such kindness towards her guests yet also serve them the unhealthy standard American diet, knowing that neither the food nor alcohol being consumed served their body or soul? As a result of her realizations, she found herself on a new journey and began studying holistic medicine practices such as herbology and homeopathy.

As life is made of the turns we so often take, her new perspective led her to Iowa and the study of Sustainable Living at Maharishi University of Management. Her eyes light up as she describes the home she found in her new spiritual community. And because the path of joy is always supported, the story just gets better. Her “dream mission” came knocking and when the dream knocks, what can we do but answer.

Faith was offered a role at the Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), a non-profit arm of the Sky Factory in Fairfield, Iowa. The genesis of SRI is to research and develop sustainable practices in food system wellness.

The three acres Faith is bringing back to life were previously conventionally farmed. And yet you wouldn’t know it. Stepping on to her beautiful land you find yourself first greeted by a chivalrous rooster named Beaky (yes, he has a personality). Looking around you see happy chickens, naturally blue and green eggs, an incredible variety of vegetable ranging from Jerusalem artichokes to horseradish. The butterflies and bees have returned. Even a stunning fig tree has flourished in the middle of the Midwest!

Faith is the designer and co-creator of such abundance. Permaculture is her training and strong influence. Permaculture is a system of working with nature. For now know that every plant has multiple functions and is carefully chosen to enliven the soil and reinvigorate the earth to its optimal state. She is both farmer and researcher. In addition to tending her beloved farm, she spends several hours a week analyzing the soil. Complete with a microscope on her desk at home, Faith is nature’s true soil scientist. She speaks of a “conversation between plants and microbes”… and listening to the “energetic request ”. Faith and I spoke about the immune system of plants, minerals that need to be resurrected in starving soil that have resulted in nutritionally starving bodies, and living the work that you love.

I asked Ms. Faith what is her advice to us? She summed it up in one perfect sentence. “Look at the land as an extension of yourself’.

Well said and with total faith.

LoveSelf food for thought-  Did you know that healthy soil has the same microbes as a healthy digestive system? How does this resonate with you?

Faith and her fiance love to make kale chips from her garden. Learn how with this creative and healthy recipe of Spicy Kale Chips.

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