New CBD Products for 2021​

We are getting ready to start new seedlings. This year we plan on expanding production of lavender that we will be drying and using as one of the ingredients in the Special Tea. This tea is one of our best selling teas and helps people to fall asleep more easily and to get back to sleep if they awake in the middle of the night. We have also been expanding production of blackberries and raspberries as these flavors are so popular in our jams. We will also be boiling our maple sap soon to make this season's maple syrup. We have been using mostly maple syrup for sweetener over the past year as we can market our product as completely grown in Vermont. This is a change from our use of predominantly agave syrup.  Looking forward to the coming growing season!

Introducing a new tea here at Lightfoot Farm, just for the fall. Flavor of Fall tea is made with our farm grown wild peppermint, wild mint, and lemon balm.  To this base we add hibiscus (southern grown), dried apples,  ground mulling spices and ground cinnamon sticks.

 

We recommend brewing the tea for a full 15 minutes to really bring out the flavor of the fall spices.

We just harvested Ashwaganda, washed the roots, and then chopped and dried them.  Soon we will have tins of Ashwaganda root tea for sale.

 

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is in the Solanaceae family and the plant originated in India. It is also called Winter Cherry.   Ashwagandha is called an adaptogenic herb.  This is because the root is used to make a tea or powder that improves physical energy, increases immunity, and increases the vitality of those recovering from a chronic illness. It has also been used in pain management for rheumatoid arthritis.  The root has positive effects on the endocrine, cardio, and central nervous systems.  It is used to restore libido in males and it increases male fertility. Preliminary studies show that it helps to reduce the negative effects of stress, to slow tumor growth, to reduce cholesterol, and to reduce anxiety and help with sleep. It is also said to be good for fibromyalgia when mixed with Kava and Scullcap. Ashwagandha is also said to boost GABA and serotonin to help reduce anxiety.

 

How to make Ashwagandha Tea: Measure 3-6 grams of dried root.  Bring 3 1/2 cups of water to a boil and then immerse the dried root in the boiling water. Boil for 15 minutes and then strain the root and drink.  Drink 3 cups of Ashwagandha tea daily for best results.

 

(Information obtained from www.ehow.com and www.herbwisdom.com)

 

Lightfoot Farm jams are now available at Pete's Greens Farm Stand on Route 100 in Waterbury.They have maple sweetened raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, blueberry and elderberry jams in stock by the peanut butter.

We are busy now at Lightfoot Farm harvesting strawflowers, purple and rose statice, purple loosestrife, rabbit's foot clover, silvery mugwort, wheatstraw celosia and more and hanging them to dry. Our dried flower bunches are available at Northfield and Waitsfield Farmer's Markets in Vermont and soon at Waterbury Farmers' Market..  It takes about a week to dry the flowers on the lines and then most are arranged right away into colorful bunches. Other flowers are carefully packed in boxes for use later on in wreaths and other decoration for the holidays.

We are busy here at Lightfoot Farm picking blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries to make our new maple flavored jams.  We built a barn this year and tapped maple trees to produce our own syrup for the first time. Now we are combining our Vermont grown fruits with our maple syrup and the combination is a taste sensation.  We are still using our low sugar recipe.  We are all finished picking jostaberries, black currants, red currants, and Nanking cherries and have stocked our shelves with those jam flavors as well. For those unusual berries (the ones that we are finished picking and processing) we have only used maple syrup this year as the sweetener.  Red currant is the only unusual berry that is still available in the low glycemic version, sweetened with agave syrup.  This combination is especially good for those with diabetes.

 

 

In this photo Jean has just finished picking some of the red currants that we use in the red currant jam at Lightfoot Farm. We are hoping to produce more red currants on the farm and have recently planted more bushes. The red currant is a member of the gooseberry family and the latin name for the genus is Ribes.

 

Red currants have many health benefits.  They help to maintain a good balance of electrolytes. They are a good antioxidant and are rich in anthocyanins and proanthocyanin.  Red currants are benficial for diabetics and heart patients.  They also have blood cleansing and digestive properties (from www. onlyfoods.net).

A new bed of Lingonberries was recently planted here at Lightfoot Farm. In a few years they will start producing berries to make jam and jelly. Dr. Oz recently placed lingonberries on the same level as blueberries for their healthful benefits. This is due to the antioxidants they contain, including quercetin. Lingonberries are commonly used in Scandina ian countries and look similar to cranberries.

 

Cones have been placed over some plants to prevent sunburn, to protect them from frost and foraging animals and to help them acclimate to Vermont, as they were shipped from the west coast. Some plants have been protected from animals with netting. Orchard management here at Lightfoot Farm is labor intensive.

I planted the seeds for these Siberian pear trees around 1985 so they are about 28 years old now.  This is a photograph of me under the trees in full bloom, taken in early May in Northfield, VT. They are very hardy trees of Pyrusussuriensis and the fruits make a delicious pear jelly, although they are fairly astringent and not good to eat fresh.  The pears are small and of similar size and shape to a Seckel pear.  Here at Lightfoot Farm they are processed in a steam juicer to produce juice for making the jelly.