Join Wild Earth at the Bluegrass VegFest!

Now Coming this Fall to Louisville - the highly anticipated Bluegrass VegFest! The festival will be July 9, 2022 from 11am-6pm.

"Bluegrass VegFest promotes healthy, cruelty-free, and plant-based living - showcasing Kentucky's multitude of vegan-friendly businesses as well as national vegan brands. The event attracts thousands of attendees who are passionate about food, the environment, animals and socially/eco conscious companies. You don't want to miss it!"

We are seeking volunteers to help us with the Wild Earth booth at the event. We will need volunteer to participate in the following 3-hour shifts:

• 10am-1pm: Setup + early shift

• 1-4pm: Mid-day shift

• 4-7pm: Late day shift + closing up

Please contact wildearthfarm@gmail.com to RSVP for a volunteer shift. Please include your name, phone number, and what shift you'd would like to volunteer for.

"Enjoy incredible plant-based eats, renowned speakers, live entertainment, product samples, and learn about all the ways veganism benefits animals, people, and the planet." Learn more abut the festival here. Hope to see you at our booth!

Fill the Barn with Hay!

Now is the time of year when we need to stock up on hay and straw for the sanctuary. Having rescued animals and working farm means that we constantly need to replenish our hay loft with bales used for soft animal bedding, mulching, composting, and weed control. The fields are being cut this summer and we need to buy hay from local farmers before it is sold out. We need to purchase two wagon loads, or 200 bales at $3 a piece. Please consider contributing a few much-needed bales with a donation to Wild Earth Sanctuary. Thank you!!

From the Sanctuary Desk: Sanctuary Tours & Volunteer Days

Wild Earth's Sanctuary & Homestead Tour is a space where you can spend an hour learning how to turn your backyard into a space for rescued animals and abundant vegan permaculture gardens. You will meet and learn the stories of our rescued farmed animals, easy alternatives to industrial food systems (such as veganic growing), as well as learn all about rainwater harvesting, composting, and no-till gardening methods. You will also learn about building hugelkultur beds, digging swales, food forestry, and making an herb spiral.

Tours are $15/adult, $10/student, senior and low income adult, $5/child, and kids under 5 are free. Tours are free for volunteers and monthly donors.

• Saturday, June 26th at 10am (eastern)

• Saturday, July 17th at 11am (eastern)

• Saturday, August 7th at 11am (eastern)

Please RSVP on Facebook or at wildearthfarm@gmail.com. Pack a water bottle and a picnic lunch!

You are welcome to stay afterward to hike our trails, or for one of our Summer Volunteer Days (July 17th and August 7th only) from 12-4pm (eastern)!

Join us on the farm and animal sanctuary for our Summer Volunteer Days! Meet the animals, and help out around the farm. No experience necessary. Please RSVP at wildearthfarm@gmail.com.

• Saturday, July 17th at 12pm (eastern)

• Saturday, August 7th at 12pm (eastern)

Schedule:
11am: Join us for a tour of the sanctuary and homestead (free for volunteers)
12pm: Sign in
12-4pm: Volunteer work time
4pm: Picnic and hike our trails

Dress for any weather (rain gear, sun hat, sunscreen, etc) and wear close-toed shoes. Tasks vary and special needs can be accommodated. Bring fruits or vegetables and treats to share with the sanctuary animals including pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and ducks.

You can save time and fill out your volunteer application online and submit via email. To RSVP, or if you have any questions, email us at wildearthfarm@gmail.com.

Location & Directions:
WEFS, 605 Eli Sparks Road, Irvine, KY 40336
After turning right on Eli Sparks Road, you will pass a few houses, a pond, and forest/fields. Then turn left to come down a long driveway to the brick farm house. If you get to Sarvice Hollow Road on the left you have gone just a few feet too far. If you get lost, send us a message.

Hope to see you soon!

From the Farm Desk: Honoring Mike Durschmid

Three years ago our very dear friend Mike Durschmid passed on. We often don't have words that can adequately convey mourning, as our bodies and hearts sometimes can't even process such a change. In the moment, death might very well encompass our thoughts and emotions, but we are often expected to process everything in a timely manner.

When mourning is placed in a small time frame for the sake of moving on with life we often leave so much uncovered. The shock of not being able to readily sit next to someone for advice, support, or laughter can numb us with sadness. As I sit tonight and imagine Mike across from me I can smile about what we might be laughing about or contemplating over a cold beer and I feel a different sense of mourning. The long talks around dreams about working together at Wild Earth and the joyful hope that is vegan permaculture, are things I deeply miss. It was always something I took for granted, working with him for long hours in the fields, gardens, and barns of Wild Earth. Now, he is with me in many ways that still brings smiles or tears, and sometimes both of these at the same time. Mourning is a process that changes over time, as much as everything else around us.

The seasons bring us new memories and with all the changes we have to expect our own stories to also change. The opportunity to mourn in so many different ways is incredibly powerful--it is healing and necessary. There is much to mourn over from the past year of the pandemic, things that were so new, that they didn't even have those familiar first stages of mourning. Properly allowing that space to heal and process the fear we ourselves and those around us have been holding onto is going to be critical. Listening to the adaption and cycles of life around us can teach us and guide us through the process.

I miss Mike, sometimes very acutely, and sometimes in a very general sense. Wild Earth will always reflect our friend, and will always have space for the energy of love and compassion Mike brought here.

You can learn more about Mike here. Please support our Mike N. Durschmid Memorial Permaculture Pollinator Garden.

With love,
Joe

From the Farm Desk: Five Favorite Foragables

“Harvesting wild food is the oldest and most basic subsistence activity of humankind, but today we live in a world where these skills are almost lost. Foraging is the missing link in modern civilized cultures--it is this direct physical connection, in the form of sustenance, that brings us to our deepest appreciation and understanding of the natural world.” --Forager’s Harvest.com

Spring has sprung and we are not only blessed with stunning views at every turn, but food as well! While you can forage for wild foods all year long, some of our favorite wild edibles appear in early spring, adding bright pops of color to meals and nutrients to the diet, after a winter that sometimes seems to never end. What are our favorites this month?  

Redbud blossoms, cleavers, violets, dead nettle, and dandelions!

Before starting foraging, make sure you do your research and that you can confidently identify edible plants (and any possible lookalikes). It helps to attend a workshop, join foraging clubs, or shadow an experienced forager. Do not feel daunted by the sheer number of plants out there, as foraging is easy to learn if you start with a few common local plants. Make it a family affair, as children especially enjoy learning about wild foods (and eating flowers!). 

Books we like are “The Forager’s Harvest” and “Nature’s Garden” by Samuel Thayer.

The Eastern Redbud tree (Cercis canadensis), is a small native deciduous tree, known for its bright pink spring blooms. A member of the legume family, the flower blossoms are light and delicious! We throw them raw into salads or desserts, or cook them in soups or in a vegan rice or noodle dish. They make a colorful addition to lemonade, or grab a handful to snack on while you are out for a walk. The blossoms are only around for a couple weeks in spring, but you can freeze them or make redbud jelly, to extend the harvest. 

If you’ve ever been hiking and had a weed literally stick to your skin, you may have had an encounter with cleavers (also known as “Nature’s Velcro”). Galium aparine, these sticky plants are considered medicinal, and are a great spring tonic. We like them best in tea, and the health benefits are many. We think of cleavers as a great plant to cleanse unwanted materials from the lymphatic system and blood, and use them in for the purposes of a spring cleanse. Their use has even been studied in regards to skin conditions and cancer!  

We are lucky to have the whole backyard full of wild violets, which is great because we eat them nearly everyday this time of year. We once tried to pull them from the garden as weeds, but now embrace their presence and enjoy eating the flowers and leaves. These small purple blooms (Viola sororia or Viola sororia albiflora) are a first sign of spring and are incredibly versatile and medicinal. We freeze them in ice cubes for a fancy drink, throw them in salads, use them in garnish, add to a smoothie, and have even made violet syrup.  

Purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) is a member of the mint family and can be found all over the farm this time of year, in areas of disturbed soil, such as next to fences. They are called “dead”, because there is no sting to them. We like these on pizza or folded into a pancake batter, but also use them anywhere we would use greens. We prefer to cook them as they can be fuzzy when eaten raw. Go ahead and share them with your rescued chickens, and they have been known to help those who experience spring allergies. 

I’ve never understood the suburban vendetta on dandelions. Nothing pleases me more than looking out into a yard of bright yellow blooms, and blowing dandelion seeds into the wind brings back so many pleasant memories from childhood. They are known as Taraxacum spp., but Taraxacum officinale is the most common species. All parts of the plant can be eaten-- the flowers, leaves, and roots, but we usually eat the flowers. Dandelion fritters are excellent. I’ve been known to make a colorful rice with a big handful of flowers and have added them to my breakfast banana mint almond milkshakes. Check out the variety of uses for this awesome “weed”. 

Happy foraging!

Heather Patrick
Wild Earth Sanctuary

From the Sanctuary Desk: Lessons from the Storms

In times like the ones we’ve experienced this last month at Wild Earth, we truly appreciate our neighbors, friends, and supporters, who all pulled together to help us through the recent winter storms and the aftermath. Having moved to Kentucky after living in places like Maine, Cleveland, Chicago, and upstate New York, I felt I had seen it all as far as winter weather was concerned. But nothing could have prepared me for the onslaught that we experienced these last few weeks in rural mountainous Eastern Kentucky. The first sign that something big was about to happen was the ghost town I encountered when I went about my normal errands, stocking up on animal feed and supplies. Ice storm on the way? Ice storms are beautiful, and no big deal unless you were driving, I thought. I could not have been more wrong. 

The second sign that it was going to be big was my favorite neighbor, who has lived on this mountain for longer than I’ve been alive, came by to check in and make sure I was stocked with firewood. Then it began: three days of ice pelting the trees, then rain (which then froze), then everything was topped with six inches of snow. I spent eight hours chiselling ice off the vehicles and stairs (which was a great way to warm up from the chill of a house which was now 40 degrees-- having lost electricity, heat, and water days ago), only to find there was certainly no possibility of driving anywhere due to downed trees all over the driveway and road. I took to ice sledding around the farm to get to the animal barns (a harrowing experience but fun nonetheless). Neighbors snow boarded on the desolate, empty roads. 

This was the second time our community rallied for Wild Earth, with offers of warm places to go stay, friends of friends in town who could help, calls to local authorities regarding the details of the unplowed and impassable roads. Of course, I had to hunker down and wait it out because the dozens of animals on the sanctuary were relying on me to help them get through this. Did I mention this all happened during the coldest nights of the year? The following night, there was no sleeping as I listened to the trees breaking and crashing down all night long, dreading the destruction come morning. It felt exactly like the time I was in the worst hurricane in Belize in 40 years. 

Luckily, although trees did fall on or around the pig and turkey, duck and chicken barns, no one was hurt and the barns were not severely damaged. Then came the next wave of appreciation as supporters donated to our GoFundMe, and neighbors came by to cut a path through the heavy, frozen debris so we could use the driveway and get to the hay barn. Volunteers came out to an emergency work day to remove fallen branches (as ice chunks fell all day from the tree canopy above), repair gates and fences, and clean the sanctuary’s barns (which was sorely needed after the animals’ long stay inside). 

Friends organized a service day with their church and a big crew came out to pick up the branches everywhere to assuage one of the other dangerous future outcomes of ice storms:  forest fires from all that fallen brush. Family came from out of state and for an entire week repaired damage and turned the fallen trees into firewood for the next power outage (which came again several times over the next couple weeks). Sadly, all that ice and snow, plus new rainstorms soon caused massive flooding in Eastern Kentucky and many in our town and surrounding localities lost their homes, businesses, and all their belongings. Being on the mountain, we were spared, but were trapped for days by the floodwaters covering roads and bridges in all directions. Please donate to the relief efforts if you can. All in all, an ice storm like this hadn’t affected Kentucky in the better part of a decade and the flooding was one of the worst in recorded history.

Two lessons were learned this month: people really do care about each other and natural disasters only make that more apparent; and these kind of extreme weather events are only going to be more prevalent in the coming years, so the importance of alternative energy, and building resilience is paramount to our survival.     

Thank you,
Heather Patrick

From the Farm Desk: Organic Association of Kentucky Conference

I attended the virtual Organic Association of Kentucky (OAK—what a great acronym!) conference in February. It wasn’t as fun as in the past when I attended in person, but it was very accessible, and there were many wonderful presenters. 

Farmer/activist/author of Farming While Black Leah Penniman from Soul Fire Farm talked about the African origins of some of our current-day sustainable farming practices. She also spoke about discrimination and violence against African-Americans, including African-American farmers.

And permaculture came up. From what I understand, Leah takes issue with the word permaculture, which she says is connected to appropriation and making specific histories invisible. And how permaculture uses indigenous people’s knowledge without their consent and without compensation. 

Here’s a quote from Leah from an audio clip from Black Permaculture Network. “I actually choose not to use the term (permaculture) because my understanding is that, our African Indigenous ancestors came up with climate smarts, people smarts, Earth smart technologies to produce food without harming the Earth and then college educated white folks branded that as permaculture, packaged it and sold it for a profit.” (Listen to the clip to hear more from Leah.)

I am open to potentially “abandoning” the term permaculture. Maybe the framework of permaculture can’t be “fixed.” Permaculture was packaged by white men, and its content is taken/stolen from the wisdom and experiences of many people and cultures. As a white person involved in permaculture, maybe the solution to give credit to the origins of practices and find ways to share financial and other benefits with those whose cultural wisdom I benefit from. I don’t want to die as part of another generation of white people mostly continuing indigenous erasure and death around the Earth. (I will probably still die this way, but that won’t stop me from doing what I have the capacity for.) Or maybe the solution is something else entirely.

Here’s an article that conveys some of the issues. Additional good readings are here, here, and here.

Thoughts? Reach out to me on Instagram.

Going back to the OAK conference, a few of the many other great presenters were Elizabeth Whitlow from the Regenerative Organic Alliance, Matt Wilson from Grow Appalachia, Justin Duncan from the National Center for Appropriate Technology, Jeff & Lisa Windhorst from Spade and Table Farm, and The Market Gardener author Jean-Martin Fortier.

If you missed out and want to join in, you can register and pay for access to the recordings. OAK had scholarships available before the conference happened, but they don’t have any available for after-the-fact-only viewing.

High Mowing Organic Seeds was one of the sponsors of the conference, which got me thinking to share a list of my favorite seed companies given the time of year it is. It may be too late for some people on spring and summer crops, but better a little late than not at all. Other options for sourcing seeds include local seed libraries and finding/starting a seed swap in your area, although these are sparser/more difficult this year than normal. If you’re interested in saving some of your own for next year, Beth Bridgeman from Antioch College presented about this at the conference). And The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving is a good book.

Native Seeds/Search
Hudson Valley Seed Company
Fedco Seeds
Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Sow True Seed
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Maine Potato Lady
High Mowing Organic Seeds
Seed Savers Exchange
Adaptive Seeds
Strictly Medicinal
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Wild Garden Seed
Peaceful Valley

P.S. Here’s a seed list from Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine.

Happy planting,
Anna

From the Farm Desk: 2020 Reflections

Summarizing and recapping 2020 within a short journal is quite a tall task to attempt. There isn't a simple and neat way to go about closing out a year such as the one we are about to transition from. However, time isn't really a series of easy-to-digest blocks that can be compartmentalized quite like some would like. It is stranger than we'd think, and it is moving without regard to what hours get called 2020.

We move forward together, learning and adjusting, into the future we create. So as we each reflect on this past year, we can note lessons we've learned as individuals and as communities. We can work on changes we want to see in our lives not only as a passing year, but also as another day, and from moment to moment.

This year we planned and cancelled a permaculture design course during a time when the teaching of intentional design are very needed. Now is when the ethics of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share should be guiding us in structuring our lives to be more compassionate, resilient and healthy. With each of those relating not only to our own selves but also to each other - our communities and strangers alike. There are a lot of lessons tucked into the moments of 2020. Hopefully we can listen.

From the Sanctuary Desk: Winter Fund Drive & Holiday Gift Guide

With the upcoming winter solstice this week and the subsequent return of the light, the end of the calender year can also be seen as a brand new beginning. Consider a donation to our year end fund drive. Your contribution will provide food, bedding and infrastructure for the sanctuary animals.

How is Wild Earth Sanctuary unique?

• We grow organic, veganic produce for the rescued animals, on-site

• We teach veganic (animal product free) gardening

• Animals are housed in natural settings with forest and pond access

• We are the United States' vegan permaculture hub

• We feed our rescued animals organic non-GMO feed whenever possible

• We strive to be zero waste

• We harvest rainwater, compost, and teach renewable energy

• Aniamls' hay/straw bedding is locally grown by our neighbors

• We strive to be a closed loop system, buying little and throwing away a minimum

• We rescue siblings or friend groups whenever possible

• We are actively fighting the climate crisis

• We have never lost an animal to a predator in our six years of rescuing

• We serve as a living examaple of how we live more sustainably AND compassionately

Thank you for your support!

If you're celebrating the holidays this time of year, you're probably like us and you want to give gifts with a conscience: gifts that are socially and environmentally responsible, and that support small businesses or benefit nonprofits. With that in mind, we'd like to share two of our favorites!

Envision Positive
We love this woman-owned small business! This company handcrafts a variety of eco-friendly, 100% vegan products from jewelry to pins, cutting boards, pillows, wall hangings, patches, reusable bags and masks. A portion of their sales are donated to nonprofits working to build a more compassionate world.

With a wide selection of beautiful and unique items, and a five-star Etsy review, it is a great resource beyond the holiday season, for that special someone's Valentine's, birthday or "just-because" gift. Envision Positive uses materials such as organic cotton and sustainable bamboo. You can support Wild Earth Sanctuary by purchasing the yellow duck pin or magnet from their Envision Sanctuary Project. We helped design this image in honor of our first sanctuary residents - ducks Muddy, Buddy and Cassidy!

PlantPure Communities
This nonprofit organization's mission is to build stronger, healthier, more sustainable communities. PlantPure Communities offers programs, resources, tools, and knowledge to empower community leaders, activists, and advocates, in order to help educate people about evidence-based nutrition. They coordinate a global grassroots network of community groups supporting whole food, plant-based initiatives on a local level. They are really the only organization doing this kind of work and they have done great work this yeaer in providing education on the immune-boosting and healing power of food, and the Moving Medicine Forward program which is bringing much-needed nutrition education into medical schools.

Check out their "What We Eat Matters" line of shirts, hoodies, reusable bags, mugs, masks, and organic cotton selections, all which benefit the nonprofit's important work.

2020 Year in Review

2020 has nearly reached its end.  Although the year has had many hardships, we would like to count our multitude of blessings as we look back over the year, and thank a few of the people who went above and beyond to make our work possible.  

In the spring, quarantine began and we were incredibly thankful for our friend and former intern, Jason, who crossed the country and sheltered in with us for almost two months.  He volunteered daily, planting the spring gardens, foraging for wild foods, and building our new raised bed gardens, swale, hugelkultur, and square foot gardens.  

Covid financial pressures hit us hard, but so many people really came through for us in our time of need.  The Cynthia Edstrom and Steven Moore Charitable Fund, a Donor Advised Fund of the U.S. Charitable Gift Trust, provided a generous $10,000 grant, which went far in supporting our rescued animals' needs.  We were awarded a $5,000 Covid-19 Emergency Sanctuary Grant from an anonymous private family foundation, which covered our huge spring vet bills. Our board member Suzanne, along with Moira, wrote the grant proposal. As stimulus checks were granted nationwide, our friend Anna W. chose to share hers with the sanctuary, and many donated to our Covid Support GoFundMe. Tom and Chong-Ling, parents of our two-time intern, Sierra, continued to send a bag each of the dogs' and cats' favorite food every month. Check our our wish list for ideas.  Lauren, Anna D. and Kat provided support on our social media, website, and newsletter, and many volunteers continued to pitch in, sometimes driving many hours to help with fencing, gardening, building, or animal care. 

Videographer Lynn Van Eaton filmed and edited a virtual tour which we shared during a session we taught with Graham's online Vegan Permaculture Design Course. The tour will be released to the public soon. We welcomed new monthly donors and animal sponsors. Many donors supported us through Giving Tuesday, and organized birthday fundraisers, including Dani, Emily and Megan.

While not one, not two, but three full time interns cancelled their internships last minute (leaving us no time to find replacements), our intern Abby worked tirelessly for us the whole summer, feeding animals, cleaning barns, building, and harvesting the gardens. In the fall, our friend and neighbor Shay asked friends to donate to Wild Earth in lieu of birthday gifts, and he organized our first post-Covid socially distanced tour of the farm sanctuary (see above photo). Our friend Kristina took time out of her busy life to care for the sanctuary for two weeks while we were out of town. 

Photojournalist Sam Mallon embedded with our co-founder, Heather, documenting her day to day life managing the farm and sanctuary, while unschooling her children, fostering kids, working a remote job, and living with a chronic illness. We conducted many interviews throughout the year and enjoyed Zoom conferencing with researchers and students. 

We are so thankful for the few people we mentioned and for so many more.  And for you, and your ongoing support.

THANK YOU to every one of you who helped Wild Earth make it through this challenging year!