Ohana Farm and Market

Raking wood chips, prepping to plant a small tree. From the first time I heard about Paul Gautschi's Back to Eden gardening method, I have been hooked.  It has answered almost every major question I had about setting up a regenerative homestead here in the central Texas area, where the weather is so extreme -- either flood or drought, burning hot or freezing cold, etc. The general philosophy of Back to Eden is: Grow Things as the Creator Intended .  According to Gautschi, God revealed to him that he was gardening the hard way, which also happens to be how farmers have worked since recorded history. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, states that after the Fall, God cursed mankind and the soil so that "man would only be able to live by the sweat of his brow."  And, after mankind was expelled from the Garden of Eden, men took to growing food by "tilling the ground."   This makes a lot of sense if you look at modern farming practices, where the ground is tilled ...

Coming fresh out of the IT industry, I had developed an " I'll do this, but I don't do that " mentality. Not to say I was lazy -- I just wanted to be as efficient as possible by focusing on my specific field (software development) and outsourcing everything else.  So I didn't really question the cost of plumbers, mechanics, landscapers, etc., even to do very simple jobs that I have easily done myself.   But that doesn't really work when you're trying to work toward self a more self-sufficient, homesteading lifestyle. Not to say homesteaders should do everything themselves either. Maintaining a supportive family and community is vitally important. But I need to transition away from the outsourcing mentality and start re-imagining what I could figure out on my own.   Broken Garden Hoses We use garden hoses all over our homestead -- for filling water dishes, feeding sprinkler systems, washing things, etc.  Unfortunately, these hoses get damaged for various re...

If you stop and think about it, many seemingly mundane or trivial things are actually quite miraculous.   Take seeds, for example.  A single, tiny seed will fall to the ground and dry up (die).  Then, even in this dried-out state, it is programmed to initiate new growth (sprout) after it contacts water, seek nutrients and water from the surrounding soil, send down roots, send up green foliage, gather energy from the sun, then create more seeds to multiple infinitely more of its kind in the future.   Pretty amazing!  Growing trees (or plants) from cuttings is similarly miraculous.  A totally new fig tree, for example, can grow from a small 12-18 inch section of branch.  This can oftentimes be more efficient than growing from a seed. Propagating your own new tree requires two simple ingredients: a section of a tree branch and some moist soil.   It works better for certain species of plants and trees than others.  My casual observ...

I used to depend too much on coffee.  Up until a few years ago, I would consume 3-4 cups a day.   Over-dependence on coffee (caffeine) is similar to any other kind of substance abuse, in that it's not really sustainable and and it comes with significant side effects: stress on the heart, messed up adrenal glands, headaches, anxiety, brain fog, energy crashes after the "high" wears off, irregular sleep and a wrecked gut. But to get past my dependence on coffee, I had to answer the question:  How can I function at a high level mentally or physically without coffee? The answer is to live with a holistic mindset, and have enough faith in God's design to transition out of my current diet.  Fire Cider just happened to be a major piece of the process to get me to a better place holistically. A Healthier Kind of Energy I was surprised to discover how much my energy levels benefitted from taking a shot (two-ish tablespoons) of fire cider every day.  Of course, holis...

Who would have thought that you can eat mango skin?  Well, actually you can eat a mango just like a kiwi, skin and all.   But why? you might ask ... The answer is: to feed your gut. Mango skin is a very effective prebiotic . In our house, we freeze dry the skin, then powder it, then blend a teaspoon of this concentrated fiber in our smoothies.  This powder is a prebiotic , which means that it feeds the good flora in your gut.  This contrasts most food in the mainstream American diet, which either kills beneficial gut bacteria, or encourages the growth of detrimental micro-organisms.  Freeze dried mango skin: That same freeze dried mango skin blended into a powder:  We just add a teaspoon to our smoothies (it's very concentrated!) for a powerful prebiotic boost.   We already sell freeze dried mango on our website, but we don't sell the prebiotic mango powder (yet).   So what do you think? Would you add this to your smoothie? Should ...

Disclaimer : this article is not professional medical advise.  It is my experience.  Not everyone will respond the same to certain stimuli. That being said, I hope my experience can be helpful to you. *** As I ventured into my late 30's I noticed that eczema was becoming a real problem.  At first, it started creeping in on my ankles and wrists.  From that point, month after month, it just kept itching and spreading.   So I consulted with a dermatologist, and she prescribed (you'll never guess) ... topical steroids.  This seemed to work great.  It was a silver bullet! Until the prescription ran out and it came back worse than before.   Then I married a lovely, holistically minded woman named Lizzy.  She helped me realize that eczema is usually a symptom of something wrong internally .  It turns out that I needed to rethink everything I was putting in or on my physical body. Here is a partial list of what I cut out of my die...