Gingerhill Farm Retreat

Food Sovereignty and Health Check out the history of our farm in the new video! The farm has a big group coming in and Zach gives us a little backstage look at the goings on as they get ready to receive their guests. He starts with a little history: His mom started the farm as a haven for clean food and as an educational center to teach people about how to be more self-sufficient. He explains how everything was planted by a 60 year-old woman and armies of voluntee...r labor over the years. Mayumi shows up and he talks about how it took her 10 years before they had food on the farm and how now they can easily hoist 25 for lunch with food from the land. Zach takes us into the kitchen and checks in with Alex the chef. They taste some Chayote sauerkraut and he shows us a farm egg quiche and Big Island salad. Next Zach takes us down into the coffee orchard and talks about the philosophy behind what they do. What we’ve tried to create here is an environment where humans, animals and plants can thrive, creating a community where the main goal is self sufficiency and health. He tastes some abiu and shows us how they grow Kona coffee underneath fruit trees like avocados and lychee. If you live in Kona you have to grow Kona coffee. Its too expensive at $50/ lb to buy, so we grow it. Coffee is a labor of love, he states. His guests start arriving so he signs off to round them up for their tour. By the time this tour is over, he says, they will have been transported to a new dimension and hopes that they will have been inspired to improve their health and get back in touch with nature. https://youtu.be/E7N-RfiXHgk

Another lunar cycle is upon us.

As an eco-community striving to be more in line with nature, we have our rituals surrounding the lunar cycle particularly the New Moon and Full Moon. During the New Moon, GH’s co-director and lady-in-charge iris.lami holds a circle for women to share, connect, meditate, and manifest with each other. We have been doing these circles every month for the last few years and it is always heartwarming to witness the healing and catharsis that takes place when we simply allow ou...rselves to just be held in a sacred container. Our Full Moon dances blossom with high-energy and life. To see so many of our community members and visitors celebrate humanity by moving their bodies in their own unique ecstatic splendor is the stuff of life. We welcome people from all backgrounds to share their talents on the cosmic dance floor. These events give us something to look forward to every cycle. It is our way of remembering, of communing with our true nature that has and will always be one with the Universe. Come join us on our next moon events: Tues May 11 - New Moon Circle Wed May 26 - Full Moon Dance

How We Eat Here at the farm we have access to beautiful bounty from our land. Our farmers and gardeners work hard to provide nutrient dense produce for our talented chefs to turn into wonderful meals. We have had many guests come with different dietary preferences or restrictions: from vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, meat eaters and everything in between. We strive to eat and live clean, but we also allow ourselves the enjoyment of different types of food.... How we cook and how we eat is as important as the what. Do you eat with happiness and gratitude? Or are you constantly worried if something being served to you is according to your specific preference? Of course it is important to ask these questions, but eating doesn’t always have to be a statement of your identity and politics. It can just be for the joy of it.

Free-Range Chicken Project New video experience for you. We check in with Zach as he shows us what the crew has been up to for the last four sessions. A big project is coming to a close as he takes us on a tour of the new free range chicken area. He says that it was overhead cane grass which he cut down with a brush cutter, exposing sugar cane, dwarf coconuts and Koa trees underneath. He tells us that the plan is to move the chickens to the area and enclose them with a... new solar charged electric fence and et them work the area. This way the chickens can keep the grass down and offset feed costs by eating insects for protein. Zach tells us that they finished by managing the banana clumps on that border the area and then took all the material and piloed it into huge compost piles to make soil. Kara and Katie finish stacking kukui logs for firewood that Misha cut down on day one of the project. Zach points to some tall Kukui branches that remain, overhanging Misha’s new cabin and states that they will probably bring in Coco Pete to cut them down as they don’t have much experience in felling big trees. He points to some tall banana clumps along the border and asks the audience if they know the common name for these types of bananas. In Brazil they are called Banana da Terra, translated as Land Bananas, like a bigger version of the Chiquita or williams Banana. If you know the English name for these bananas, please help us out in the comment section below. What is the English name for the Brazilian Banana da Terra? https://youtu.be/tL1Wu6Q8IBY