I met sir Bey, a retired USDA Forestry scientist, at one of the numerous FRESH! Screenings he arranged last fall in churches and community centers throughout the Fayetteville area. Through this encounter I was exposed to Dr. Weston A. Price, Sally Fallon Morell, Joel Salatin and Will Allen . If you have never heard of these individuals or have seen FRESH! please take time to visit their sites and view the documentary, you will learn tremendous details never touched upon in most public educational systems.
By the end of his opening lecture I was amazed as to how little I truly knew about holistic health, nutrient densities of our shared environments and scientific pioneers such as Dr. Carey Reams and Dr. William Albrecht . What education and food substances have I been fed and continue to feed myself on? Even if a product is organic and chemical free, does that truly imply that I am receiving a product that would nurture and heal my toxin infused cells? Then FRESH! was initiated and an idyllic scene that is Polyface farms reflected within the prisms of my cones.
I consider Dr. Bey to be a mentor of sorts, a man with an intriguing platform of personal intent and new frontiers. It is very exciting to witness the human manifestation of those thought patterns and lifestyles you seek. This past year has been brimming with such activity it truly makes me ponder which energy field Karma works by, an individuals’ intrinsic mindwave or the collective reverberations of humanity…
So Carlos, Stephen, Kari, Crystal, Marc and I set off towards Fayetteville, chasing the remaining stars and tail of darkness as the sun slowly encroached the horizon behind us. We arrived at Harmony Gardens around 8am and were greeted with carrot muffins, tea, multicolored jars of dried and canned produce and Weston A. Price literature. Oh how I wished to have just sat there in the living room, gleaning through his bounty of gardening and health books few Arkansas libraries hold in its entirety. Immediately the FRESH! movie and Weston Price journals on Agriculture & Nutrition, Vegetarianism & the Environment, and Save RAW Milk were claimed. Dr. Bey then introduces himself and the course we intend to embark upon. So the day begins anew.
This gardening class is based on the bio-intensive foundations laid down in John Jeavons workshops and book, “How to grow more vegetables" along with eco-agriculture methods that Dr. Bey experiments with in his backyard garden. His garden produced 12 ft. tall corn , rhubarb and gallons of berries and figs last year with his grafted pecan trees producing nuts after only four years of planting! The soil within his beds was properly cover cropped with oats and had the airy texture of a whipped nut butter. His brambles had vigorous new growth and it seems that he knows exactly what he is placing into this garden, how it morphs into real LIVE FOOD and how his body assimilates vital nutrients that are missing in the lack luster produce from grocery stores and Farmer’s Markets. As stated at the beginning of our workshop, Dr. Bey is 74 years old but my, what youth he exudes to audiences! He is breathing evidence as to the wonders of what proper soil nutrition can provide us all.
By the end of the workshop I purchase a 25lb bag of paramagnetic rock and am filled with the ambition to create an enhanced microbial and energy rich environment for my 2010 garden. Let’s see if the key to environmental resilience, increased yield and extended shelf life of plants and produce will be found.
