#684: Shatavari & Ashwagandha for Stress, Hormones & Healthy Aging with Amber Lynn Vitale

Well, you did just open up Pandora's box with me.

I moved from Brooklyn, New York to Montana in 2020 and started farming 25 acres regeneratively, organically.

And so it's a huge passion for me.

So basically, there's five principles.

You never leave the soil exposed.

You keep a living root year around.

You don't plow.

You disturb the soil as little as possible.

You plant a diversity of plants to attract a biodiversity of microbes to the root systems of those plants.

And the fifth principle that is really the hallmark of regenerative agriculture is that you introduce livestock.

You don't have to eat them.

You don't have to milk them.

You don't have to eat the eggs.

You just need them to eat plant matter and compost it.

as quickly as possible.

And they're the best builders of topsoil with a rich microbiome.

So even if you just had pets, you could have a rescue and move them through your property.

You are doing incredible service to the soil.

And I've watched it with my own eyes here on my property.

It's absolutely incredible how animals can just like a garden in two weeks, you know, at the end of the season, like I'm about to throw my sheep in there and they just like, it's gone.

And now it's all in their droppings and their urine and it's all in the soil.

It's incredible how, you know, paper and cartons and keeping that soil covered or leaf mulch And in the middle of the winter, freezing temperatures like you have in Utah and I have in Montana, just earthworms this big, just happy as little clams.

You know, they're just working away.

So you bring the soil back to life.

You attract pollinators.