Save Blue Hill Farms!
I recently received a very heartfelt email from Kim Hamilton, owner of Blue Hill Farms in Ventura, CA. Kim asked if I would consider sending her the “Expect Miracles” stamp used on all the mint orders during the struggle to keep the our farm. She also told me she learned of our “story” through her sister who purchased mint oil in support of the Crosby Mint Farm. One of Kim’s plans was to sell the book she wrote to raise money for her farm, and thought the powerful affirmation we adopted would bring forth the miracle she had prayed for. I am now honored to report this stamp of approval can be found inside “The Blue Hill Farms Guide To Raising Chickens”!
You see, all who live at Blue Hill Farms are in danger of losing this place called home! This farm is the home to Kim Hamilton, many volunteers, 150 chickens, 17 adorable pygmy goats, and their own farmland security, Nikki, the Anatolian Shepard. The foreclosure process is underway, and eviction is a possibility at the end of October!! One of my earlier blog posts was titled “The Kindness of Others”. Please search the list below AND your heart to see the possible ways you may want to give. Thank you from our friends at Blue Hill Farms.
with gratitude…
Linette ~ tmfd
1. Donate to Blue Hill Farms!
2. Watch Blue Hill Farms YouTube videos about their animals!
2. Learn more about Kim Hamilton & Blue Hill Farms!
3. Order Kim’s Book Guide To Raising Chickens!
4. Join & share OCCUPY Blue Hill Farms on facebook!
5. Bloggers…please blog!!! Read Kim Hamilton’s Blog
6. Pass it on & repost!…DONATE to Blue Hill Farm!
THIS IS “VAL” WHO LIVES AT BLUE HILL FARMS…THE HAPPY DANCE
my Dad & Kevin…
This short video was created for my son Kevin’s 30th birthday. But, as I viewed the images, I noticed many of the pictures were of my Dad and Kevin. I always saw the love in their eyes for each other, and every picture displayed an embrace. So Happy Birthday to my amazing son, who I have always called Sonshine…and Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, on Father’s Day, 2011. As I walk around his farm, I feel his presence, and I am blessed…Love, “the Mint Farmer’s Daughter”…xoxo
The Trip For Life: The Crosby Mint farm
Many thanks to Aaron Fown for visiting with me at the farm. I am honored to be a part of the Trip For Life…grounded in the muck we discussed farming, sustainability, and the future as friends. Crosby Mint Farm and the Trip For Life!
Friend For A Lifetime…Isidro Herrera
I fall back in love with Facebook every time I reconnect with friends from years ago.
A few months back, I received friend requests from sister and brother, Tina (Herrera) Lopez and Daniel Herrera. Overjoyed, I accepted! It had been 45 years since our last communication. Their grandfather, Isidro Herrera, cared for the land beneath me for years. When my father bought this farm, Isidro was already here. Each spring, he would travel from Laredo Texas with his sons and daughters and their children. I now realize that Isidro not only shared the farming experience, but he shared stories of this mint heritage that continued to live inside his family. Through his wisdom, family leadership, and integrity, Isidro had an impact on my life. Even though I was young, his energy continued to linger here and I am now present again to the trust, peace, and a depth of love I sensed through his eyes.
The first gift this kind man handed me was the ability to play with his grandchildren, my playmates and mint farming buddies. The second gift is respect for the land I call home. His legacy lives on here at the Crosby Mint Farm!
To Danny and Tina, we explored this farm together. Today we share the big red barn that lives inside each of our hearts. We hear the same laughter. We hear the same birds. We see the same hayloft with corn cobs whizzing by our heads. We hear the sound of BB guns and remember the fort of vegetable crates to crawl through. Most importantly, we feel the same muck between our toes, an energy shared only perhaps by a mint farming family.
Thank you Isidro and thank you Facebook for bringing my friends back home.
From Michigan to Laredo, and back to the farm with love…
Linette
the mint farmer’s daughter
This video shares some of the beautiful pictures of the Herrera Family that Tina sent my way. Isidro, the stoic patriarch, was a gift beyond measure. He loved this farm, stayed with the land during its transition, and shared the love of mint with his children and grandchildren. I was just a small girl when he lived here at his special little white house down by the creek. And then one day, perhaps in 1965, they didn’t return until our connection through Facebook.
PS…I have now just newly connected with Isidro’s two other grandchildren Tony Hernandez and Lydia Hernandez James, children of Isidro’s beautiful daughter, Rosie Hernandez. Rosie offers her own stories and memories to the continued mint tapestry, soon to come!
To Italia and back…
This video was made prior to my trip to the Terra Madre Conference in Torino, Italy. I am reposting this farm greeting for my new friends from around the world. I want to thank Josh Viertel and Juliana Taube and their amazing Slow Food USA team for their contribution to make this all happen. I am grateful to Carlo Petrini, for making his vision of a Terra Madre Global Community become a reality.
I will be posting pictures, videos and more thoughts…when you are in the presence of greatness, power, & peace you can’t help but return to you community transformed with a desire to make a difference individually and collectively.
As in the words of Wendall Berry…”For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free”.
Love to my new global community of Terra Madre,
Linette
Under the Terra Madre Sun…
mint...my heirloom herb
I can’t help but compare my life to one year ago. My story has a happy ending, but I continue to share memories from that experience that present the contrast. Last fall after the eviction, I would steal away in the dark to visit the farm. On full moon, I would often run into my brother Jim and his wife Lilian sitting in the truck on the bridge, talking, or staring over the fields. We would share smiles (no words needed) and I would wander off to pick the patient sunflowers left behind and visit the pond to embrace what once was ours. I would sit there and wonder…how can a mere piece of paper (which the bank then held), define stewardship or ownership for the farm? My heart told me otherwise. That was the difficult issue for me…this land will always be a part of me and the law stated differently.
To escape the pain of this separation, I did two things…I would tell people in conversation, “I am going to Italy!” and I watched the movie “Under The Tuscan Sun” almost every night? The obvious reply from people was “wonderful Linette, when are going?” And I would say…”well, I don’t know the date yet, but I am going!” That conversation went on for months.
earth happy
The power of speaking into the future became my reality when Wynne Wright, a professor from MSU, made a visit to the mint booth at the Lansing City Market. After a delightful conversation, she asked me if I would be interested in a possible opportunity to attend the Terra Madre 2010 Conference in Turin, Italy as an US Delegate? To make a somewhat long story, short I am boarding a plane for Milan tomorrow. After a few days of digging around for my Mazzolini-Gregori Italian roots in Tuscany, I will arrive in Turin to meet the friends of Terra Madre!
sunflower feet
After the last viewing of Under The Tuscan Sun with friends, I realized that Frances (Diane Lane) and I have kittens, snakes, & sunflowers in common…along with an abundance of friends, family, and love in our lives. You will have to watch the movie and stay tuned to find out whether someone shows up to remove lady bugs when I am resting…but according to my conversation and what the Universe delivers, it just may come true.
Terra Madre 2010 is the global conference on everything food, farming, education, sustainability, the goodness of the earth and a story of its people. Meet my new friends and yours of Terra Madre!
I am blessed and honored with this opportunity…
Ti amo, la mia famiglia e gli amici
Linette
ps…extra shouts of gratitude to Wynne Wright for delivering the opportunity, to my cousin Michael for delivering me his copy of Under The Tuscan Sun, to the organizers of Terra Madre 2010, to my son Kevin and daughter-in-law Liz for their support, and to those who will watch over the farm & animals while I am away…PJ, Lilian, Lori, Kellie, Dawn, & David I take you with me!! Ciao!
