It’s just shy of 8 AM here at Alfa Vedic Gardens, and I just came in to warm up after picking my first bowl of Jiao Gu Lan leaves for the day. As I ambled out of a perfectly comfortable bed to the vines outside there was still a sliver of moon, and Venus was winking at me just over the horizon. It’s my favorite time of day, and leaf picking ranks amongst my favorite pastimes for peaceful contemplation. A deer family is typically watching nearby, and I occasionally catch a glimpse of a bear's hindquarter gruffly retreating to deeper forest from an interrupted foraging in the surrounding huckleberry bushes.
Harvest time at Alfa Vedic Gardens is an awaited and wondrous event. Only a farmer can appreciate the months of effort that get you here, but this is what we live for. This year’s crop is so spectacularly healthy, vibrant dark green leaves and a radiance so palpable that I was impelled to grab my i-phone, and take some pictures; that’s all these gadgets are good for up here … no cell service, or power lines for at least 20 miles.
Jiao Gu Lan is our signature crop here at Alfa Vedic Gardens, and I instantly fell in love with it some six years ago with my first experimental crop. Yes, it’s your best bang for the buck in the world of adaptogenic (longevity) herbs, but I tune more into the personality of a plant. It’s sweet and giving, even whimsical at times, and I couldn’t imagine a summer without its lush green vines reaching for the sun on our rows of growing trellises.
Jiao Gu Lan has been dubbed the tea of immortality in southern Asia, where it’s much favored over Ginseng roots for a delicious morning tea, and health aid. Years back I purchased mine from an alleged organic source in southeast Asia, but one year it was third party tested and the results weren’t good … nasty pesticide residuals! Not willing to go without this herb that had become our staple, we decided to grow our own.
Some of you may recall that we moved our farm last year to more expansive, pristine land after ten years in the Mattole River Valley on the Lost Coast of northern California. Sadly, cannabis growers have ruined that once beautiful habitat. Nothing against weed, it’s the greed that turned us off! It was sad to leave Humboldt County, and many childhood memories with it, but we’re now on the banks of what is considered the cleanest, prettiest undammed river left in the country, the Smith River on the California-Oregon border.
Better yet, the Jiao Gu Lan prefers it here as well. We’ve learned much about growing this tonic herb from past years, but the purity of water and environment here is more than apparent in the quality of this year’s crop.
Next Spring we’ll be quadrupling production, and likewise in successive seasons. We have the room, and our beyond organic growing practices give back to the land. This growing season will supply just enough to produce our line of artisan teas for the coming year, but in the future we plan on becoming the go-to source for clean, domestically grown Jiao Gu Lan, even for bulk buyers.
Here’s our real motive, however. Any free society must be grounded in clean, decentralized agriculture. The Monsanto’s of the world that have decimated bee populations, healthy food, and all that sustains life on this planet will only go away when independent farmers regain prominence. What’s more, the practice of importing food from thousand of miles remote is insanity. Such a marketplace only benefits the multinational predators at the expense of less developed countries. Homegrown herbs are vastly superior, and you know what you’re getting. We’re doing our part, the rest is up to you.
Dr. Barre Paul Lando
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