Two professors from ETSU came to the farm today to look at what I have been using for PD and the fava patch . I am hopeful that something will come of it as far as getting help to research and testing of plant parts and tinctures, etc . It is the first interest we have been able to generate in researching natural therapies.
** HELP PLEASE ..My spell check red underlines did not appear on this and I hit many letters wrong. How do I get it back? I don't always catch all my goof-ups!

Well, the summertime is here...weeds are "growing like weeds" , and half the time I can't get the weed-eater started. BUT, the favas have produced unbelievable amounts of beans this year. The plants are looking "tough" from the 90 degree heat and not much moisture in the ground. Don't think they will be productive much longer. That means they will be pulled out and new seeds planted soon for a fall crop of tops. Some of them, if they have new bottom growth , will be "pruned" of wore out stems to give space for developing healthy plants parts to grow. Have not had trouble with apids this year and there are very few spittlebugs around on plants (probably all are grown up and mating and laying eggs! Overall , even with the floods and reconstruction of raised beds,etc...it has been a very good spring. The greenhouse cover has made an immense difference in the type of heat and the environment in the greenhouse....like being under a young tree just beginning to leaf out. Still getting brocoli/ cabbage / yellow squash / cukes /kale/ chard from the greenhouse. Tried drying Kale...very good! I am in the middle of some new experiments that I hope will work /and processing lots of favas...staying up late at night...one time til 1:30...a bit too late , to get them done. Small sacrifice at this point...for the blessings of the harvest God has given. God is Good.

Exciting day at Bean Acres....we now have an older hen and 9 baby chicks following her about. Have been trying to get ready to have them for a while (re-doing the coop, etc) Hope to get some more...but for right now..wish to develp a relationship with mama and these precious little fuzzzy critters. Could waste all day just watching them learn from mama. Saw one eat it's first worm yesterday...pretty cool!! God Bless

Just planted a second crop of favas yesterday. Had harvested some that were really big , but not very pretty and a couple looked as if they were beginning to sprout in the soggy pods they were in. So, even though it was pouring rain...I went out to places where I had worked up last week and poked them into the wet ground. Every year the weather is so different...you never know when it is a good time to plant. If it stays really hot and gets dry, they won't do well...but if we get sufficient rain, they will actually make beans by December. And, if not beans...at least more tops to tincture for l- dopa. I planned to plant fresh seed in the end of July also where this years crop is now. It all has to be pulled out( or weed-eated ) and tilled up first when the ground dries out again..then I will plant more favas again. I have been able to make more tincture this year than ever before, even with the loss of half the first harvest because of spittlebugs. God is good.
Have a happy and safe 4th of July. God Bless!

Trying to get ready to plant the fall crop of favas this weekend...we have had alot of rain and bad thunder storms .A neighboring greenhouse was hit with high winds and ripped apart...flying debris hit a passing car and I heard there was a child fatality involved.(.so much pain and heartbreak in this world) Life is certainly uncertain at best....but we must go on. The weather gets more unpredictable and violent it seems year by year . I am reading AWAKENINGS....such insights into PD, by reading accounts of people with post encephalitis PD who "came alive" with l-dopa treatment and shared what it was like to be trapped in a non responsive body for years. How the therapy was both a miracle ....but wonderful and terrible. I haven't found out yet what form of l-dopa was used...does anyone know? That is so important to me right now....it will take a while to finish the book

Well, been up since 3 am ....you all are great company when a person can't get back to sleep.. My computer is really slow today and so in between clicking on threads to read , I am working on a hobo clown costume for a September Festival. By the time I sew on a patch your posts will actually appear .
I got about 200 fava seeds planted ...then it rained really hard , so in a couple weeks I will know if they washed away in the storm. Before Aug 10th will put in a final patch of favas just for tops. My hops plant is growing really well ...one vine almost to the end of my bamboo trellis/arbor. The two licorice plants are doing well...so I am anxious for the opportunity to experiment with these three plant additions to the farm. Also , set out a goji (chineese wolfberry) plant this week. Getting a lot of figs on my tree this year, they are coming on earlier and we should have a good harvest this time. Got a few last year before frost, but the tree was full of immature figs when cold weather came. Really looking forward to trying to make gluten and sugar free homemade fig newtons. Have a great day. Thanks for being out there at 3 am!!

Well, been up since 3 am ....you all are great company when a person can't get back to sleep.. My computer is really slow today and so in between clicking on threads to read , I am working on a hobo clown costume for a September Festival. By the time I sew on a patch your posts will actually appear .
I got about 200 fava seeds planted ...then it rained really hard , so in a couple weeks I will know if they washed away in the storm. Before Aug 10th will put in a final patch of favas just for tops. My hops plant is growing really well ...one vine almost to the end of my bamboo trellis/arbor. The two licorice plants are doing well...so I am anxious for the opportunity to experiment with these three plant additions to the farm. Also , set out a goji (chineese wolfberry) plant this week. Getting a lot of figs on my tree this year, they are coming on earlier and we should have a good harvest this time. Got a few last year before frost, but the tree was full of immature figs when cold weather came. Really looking forward to trying to make gluten and sugar free homemade fig newtons. Have a great day. Thanks for being out there at 3 am!!

Sorry I have not been posting...usually cannot get to even read the posts on the site...computer not working . Starting fall planting of fava beans in the greenhouse and hope they do as well as last years for producing tops. The experiment of cutting up pretty green fava pods and putting them in brandy to shake for a month worked for producing an l-dopa supplement. Also soaking raisins in a fava tops tincture...so they soak it up (to have a carry on l-dopa supplement for travel) It worked. Pretty cool to be able to eat a few raisins when needed. Hope this will post. God bless and have a great labor day weekend.

Well, it is almost October....Fava planting is coming up in the greenhouse have started harvesting the last favas planted in the garden. Dried leaves this time...to eat. They are as good as dried Kale and I can tell they are supportive. I powdered them to sprinkle on my food at the World Parkinson Congress in Montreal , Canada. Taking many things along to supplement my dopamine levels , just in case the liquid tincture doesn't make it there. Powdered steamed/dried fava beans., fava bean pods juiced and made into dried chips. Hopefully enough to get me thru the week til returning home again. Hope to meet some of you there. Blessings, Aunt Bean

Made it to WPC and it was amazing. Met some faces to put with names that I have met on the forum...that was great and I hope we will get the chance to meet again some day. Harvested more fava beans and leaves and tops yesterday and dehydrated all of them...didn't get many planted in summer (NEED HELP) Still no one here to test the new tinctures...but I will not give up hope. Those of you praying for my grandson that has infant leukemia...he is doing better and even has hair now. Got to go to the Light the Night Walk fundraiser for Leukemia and Lymphoma research held in Indianapolis Indiana this past weekend. They posted that 650,000 had been raised so far from the fundraiser and more will come in late. Research is so expensive...and takes so long (as we all know) A little cartoon at WPC . It was a white rat sitting on a bed saying to a man in another bed "I'm going home today. I'm cured, but it will take another 15 years for the treatment to be approved for humans." How very true! But, we must never loose hope or give up. There is something out there that will make a big difference in our lives. Until then, keep eating organic , fresh food, exercise, dance and keep moving to the beat of your own drum...........God Bless! Aunt Bean