Book Review - Woman Powered Farm

Woman Powered Farm
Audrey Levatino
The Countryman Press 2015

When a colleague sent me a link to this book and said she thought of me when she saw it, I had to learn more. I was intrigued knowing that there is a new trend now with women in farming and changing the face of agriculture and food. But I found that this book is much more; it is an actual how to guide for getting things done on the farm.

I was raised in a city and although my Mother always had a garden, I learned to garden from her, this was much different than farming. My father spent some time on a farm as a child and talked of his experiences, but still, that provided me with no practical experience. I basically bought land to farm with my husband with no real knowledge of farming.

I wish I had this book several year ago when we first started on the farm. Although extremely difficult, I find farm work to be quite satisfying. I love the physicality of the work and joke about the money it saves me on a gym membership. I love being close to the earth and the need to be completely aware of the weather. I love having the responsibility of caring for land and animals. I love being able to make a value added product from the herbs I grow on my farm.  (Colorado Aromatics Cultivated Skin Care products).

Women Powered Farm starts by discussing various ways of getting into farming; internships, apprentices, classes etc. In my case it was basically reading all I could and learning from failures. The book also addresses things to look for when buying a farm. We found it was important to look at county zoning and even neighborhood zoning and that even 35 acre plots may have restrictions.

Importantly, author Audrey Levatino talks about health on the farm; stretching to prevent muscle pulls and joint stress, and how to keep your energy and enthusiasm up and making priorities - because work on the farm is never, never finished. As women, we often rely on a man's strength, but she has tips for getting around that.

Other topics covered include;
how to pick out a pair of shoes
how to buy a tractor
what you need to know about burning wood
how to do basic country skills (like put up fencing)
how to use basic hand tools
making compost tea

The book includes a table for germination temperatures for various crops and how much seed is necessary to sow a field. I enjoyed reading the personal stories of women farmers; their struggles and joys.

This book will stay on my shelf as a constant reference source during the year when I need advice about how to do something or for when I need the encouragement and comfort of re-reading another woman's story on her farm. I highly recommend this book to anyone making that transition from gardening to farming.

Read more about our Farm and skin care, we call Farm to Skin.

Healing Herbs, Tina Sams

Healing Herbs, A Beginner's Guide to Identifying Foraging, and Using Medicinal Plants
Tina Sams
Fair Winds Press, 2015

Healing Herbs, Tina Sams

Tina Sams is a modern day Village Herbalist with a vast knowledge of herbs found in gardens, field and forest.  She is a teacher, mentor, and someone good at bringing people together to share information and educate others.  Many of her projects, such as The Essential Herbal Magazine, are collaborations that she encourages among herbalists as is Healing Herbs where you will find many contributions from other herbalists.

After explaining the various methods of using herbs, Tina has broken this book up into 20 different herbs; 20 different herbs that everyone should know.

For each herb Tina includes background information on the herbs, medicinal benefits and recipes for food, medicine, skin care and/or crafts. The book makes herbs easily approachable with its casual style and is great for both the beginner and experienced herbalist. A great one to keep close for reference.

You can get yours here.

Book Review: Harvest to Hydrosol, Ann Harman

Harvest to Hydrosol, Ann Harman

botANNicals 2015

Annie Harman is a distiller extraordinaire and I am happy to consider her a colleague as well as a friend. Her and I have talked back and forth alot about distilling over the years and I can attest that she is the best person to have authored this book - the first of its kind. This is a must have guide for distillers of hydrosols; either at home as a hobby or professionally.

As a bibliophile it is not surprising that she starts the book out with a history of stills and distilling. It is fascinating to read about the different types of stills used throughout history.  This is followed by advice on how to choose a modern day still to fit your needs.  Annie has the utmost respect for her stills and uses an analogy of the still being the Earth and the distillation process representing the earth’s water cycle of evaporation, transpiration and condensation.

As a scientist, Ann recognizes the importance of safety and keeping the work area/distillation area clean and sanitized. Being made typically on the farm, hydrosols/distillates are prone to being contaminated by airborne bacteria and fungus. She has great advice here.

Much of the book is about observations she has made during her distillations and its good that she has great record keeping skills. These observations dispel some common myths of hydrosols. The Appendix includes chemical analysis (GC/MS) of some hyrosols she has had tested.  I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in distilling, even for experienced distillers who want to learn how to make it more of an art.

Distillation is both an art and a science and very few ‘rules’ apply.  However you choose to distill, know that this is an evolving field. Nothing is written in stone  and there are many ways that you can choose to do your distillations. Make sure to make careful observations and document what you do so that you learn from every distillation you perform and find the right way for ‘You’ to distill.

You can purchase this book directly from the author at https://copperstills.com/products/

Book Review: Botany in a Day

Although it actually took me more than a day to read this book, I enjoyed every minute of it. Rather than using the laborious method of “keying out” plants, this book discusses similarities that plants within a given family share. For instance, all roses have 5 petals and numerous stamens. The majority of plants in this book are found in the Rocky Mountain region, but plants from across the county are represented. Looking at patterns seems a more natural way to learn any type of biology as it is a way of categorizing and keeping things straight. Elpel describes ach family of plants by just a few key words to remember. For instance, the Saxifrage family (Saxifragaceae) is a small plant with small flowers, usually 5 separate petals, plus an oblong ovary with 2 styles.

The book starts with a tutorial to bring the reader up to speed on basic taxonomic information, classification systems, evolution of plants, terminology and basic information on some plant families. Elpel then introduces each botanical family with a short description of anatomical features and then significant genera within that family are listed with a brief description. There are no photographs in the book but the illustrations are detailed. There is also a short section on medicinal properties of plants which is presented from the perspective of the phytochemicals in plants.

Now that I know that members of the mustard family have 4 petals with 6 stamen – 4 tall and 2 short and they are all edible, family hikes become much more interesting. We identify the mustards along the way and compare their taste!

Being more of a human biologist than a plant biologist, keys have always caused me grief. Elpel also gives some basic instruction on how to use a key. I suppose a seasoned botanist might find this book a little boring, but a good audience would be the herbalist, hobbyist, gardener or beginning botanist – as well as those of us on the other side of biology who don’t want to be burdened by a key.

This is the fifth edition of Botany in a Day, the first one being printed in 1996. I haven’t compared all of them, but each edition has been expanded and revised. Rather than being just a guide to accompany a field trip, this is actually a book you will enjoy reading by the fire! Some of the proceeds from sales of this book are donated to a Montana park founded by the author, 3 Rivers Park.

Essential Oils and Aromatics, book review

Essential Oils and Aromatics: Step-by-Step Guide For Use in Massage and Aromatherapy

By Marge Clark

Silverleaf Press 2008

Marge Clark has recently been able to put some of her wisdom to paper in “Essential Oils and Aromatics: Step-by-Step Guide For Use in Massage and Aromatherapy”. This compact book is great for quick reference and filled with information. More than just a collection of essential oil monographs, this book starts with information on how to purchase essential oils and what to look for in an oil. It then continues to address the properties of carrier oils used for diluting the essential oils. Safety concerns are important to Marge and she addresses this as well.

You can of course find the typical information and blends for spa treatments, but this information goes much further. Aromatherapy is widely used for “mind and mood” and there are many suggestions for this use such as chamomile and jasmine for anger, or basil and clary sage for mental fatigue. Medical science has confirmed that many essential oils have antibacterial, antifungal or antiviral activities too. Marge’s recipe for a general germ killer blend takes this into account. The blend I am most interested in right now though is the tennis shoe freshener and am hoping that this might also work in my son’s gym bag!

You can purchase “Essential Oils and Aromatics” from her website at http://www.naturesgift.com/specbook.htm#Marges and she will autograph it if ordered from her. On her website http://www.naturesgift.com you can also find a large variety of essential oils, blends and carrier oils. One product of particular interest may be the “Flu Foil Synergy” which may be quite useful this flu season. I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in essential oils.