Author Archives: LeAnn Brown
A Path for Healing People & Planet
We truly, literally, are what we eat. I invite you to pause a moment and let that sink in.
Food is not only the fuel that makes your body run, what you eat forms the building blocks for your cells, for your child’s cells. Our babies, our children are what they eat—physically, mentally and emotionally—literally made of what we give them or allow them to eat.
Once we really understand this—witness the truth of it—we will see every food choice with new eyes. We will clearly see food as energy, as fuel, but also as forming and regulating every cell in our body—as immunity boosters and powerfully healing and sustaining.
We’ll want our food and our children’s food—including snacks, treats, holiday favorites—to have the most light and life force possible and the sugar-filled, chemically-loaded faux foods will no longer have power over us, no matter how skillfully they market to us, no matter how deceptively they are packaged.
We all deserve new traditions based in health and the true happiness that results from eating well—the joy that comes from an empowered life, caring for our bodies and our planet, too. -LeAnn Brown, excerpt from l&l life. Read the full post here: Do they really have us that spellbound?
Do you know what regenerative agriculture is? How soil health directly impacts our human health? How the gut microbiome and diversity on the micro and macro level directly impacts our children’s quality of life and our ability to thrive as a species on this plant? Click the links below for introduction videos and links to communities who are offering educational materials on these and other related topics.
A Path for Healing People & Planet
If you would like more information or have any questions, I’m happy to pass along all the (free) resources and research I’ve discovered on my own journey to understand our current health care and food systems and the paradigm shift that needs to happen for the health and wellbeing of our families and future generations on the planet.
Please feel free to email me via the contact form on this site. ♥️ LeAnn
June 10 2022: Group Work Day at the Garden
Once again, Kassadi and Drew Dunn have organized and hosted another fun and productive work day at our Community Learning Garden. So much work went into this day to make it the special event it was for all who attended.
A BIG THANK YOU to Kassadi and Drew and their family and everyone who came out to participate. Exciting progress!!-LeAnn Brown
PLANTING REPORT (from Kassadi)
🥒12 cucumber bushy pickler 6 yellow slicer 6 🍅14 tomato Russian yellow azoychka 3 Black Cherry 3 Sun gold 3 Illini gold 2 Muscovitch 3 🌶14 peppers 2 picnic pepper 1 red 1 orange 1 bell golden California wonder yellow 1 bell red Wisconsin lake 3 Anaheim 4 Shishito 3 poblano These are the starts purchased from Bowman Organic Farm, & they all got planted.
Rock Painting Project with local artist, Sherry Weston Thayne https://www.facebook.com/sherbare32 
Report and images provided by Lead Gardener, Kassadi Dunn:
(A)=Adult (c)=child (A)= 10 (c)= 11 Repeats from last event (A)= 4 (c)= 3 🌈(A) Harli Denney & (c) Sebastian Bowen & (c) Oliver Denney. Helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden, painted rocks& put their art in the garden, helped plant the raised beds, and helped clean up. Oliver made new friends & played in the sprinklers! 🌈(A) Ann & (A) Dave Boyack Helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden & bought water bottles for everyone. 🌈(A) Kathy Harris Helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden & offered great advice! 🌈(A) Elder Cook & (A) Elder Lindauer Helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden 🌈(A) Karalee & (A) Darren Dunn Donated shade covers for the day, painted rocks & put their art in the garden, helped plant the raised beds & helped clean up. 🌈(c) Violet Boyack, (c) Hazel Devenburg(c) Piper Lish & (c) Kaydence Dunn Came to paint rocks & put their art throughout the garden 🌈(A) Dakota Booth Helped set up, helped plant seeds & starts in victory garden, helped plant raised beds & helped clean up. 🌈(c) Orrin, (c) Isla & (c) Leo Linscomb Helped plant seeds in victory garden, painted rocks& put their art in the garden, & helped plant the raised beds. Made new friends & played in the sprinkler! 🌈(A) Brittney, (c) Frankie & (c) Eric Sorenson Brought watermelon to share with everyone, painted rocks& put their art in the garden & helped plant raised bed. Made new friends & played in the sprinkler!
At the heart of the vision for our Children’s Learning Garden…
The following simplifies Dr. Zach Bush’s message in one relatively short video and
reaches to the heart of the vision for our learning garden.
Solutions within (!) so please watch and pass along to everyone you care about:
You might also like these resources:
FREE Master class with Zach Bush MD, The Microbiome (with links to much more information and resources on related topics.): Healing Secrets: The Wisdom of Your Microbiome: https://www.onecommune.com/microbiome-zach-bush-md-master-class
https://nontoxicneighborhoods.org and https://www.instagram.com/nontoxicidaho/
Recent News and Resources
excerpt from EWG.org, November 2, 2022: Leaked corporate documents have exposed Syngenta’s attempts to cover up paraquat’s, a popular weedkiller, links to Parkinson’s disease.
Ground-breaking investigative reporting from the New Lede and the Guardian has exposed hundreds of pages of Syngenta’s internal documents. These documents prove the chemical giant has known since the 1970s that paraquat could accumulate in the brain. But they hid that information from regulators – they lied repeatedly, claiming it could not cross the blood-brain barrier. Even Syngenta’s own research showed the weedkiller could harm the brain.
Paraquat remains one of the most widely used pesticides in the U.S., even though it’s been banned in China, the EU and the UK.
excerpt from EWG.org, August 1, 2022: Mars, the company that makes Skittles, is facing a lawsuit alleging its use of titanium dioxide makes its product “unfit for human consumption.”
But Skittles is just the tip of the iceberg. An EWG analysis has found titanium dioxide in over 3,000 products, including Sour Patch Kids, Starburst, Hostess Cupcakes and Jell-O.
Multiple alarming studies have found that titanium dioxide can break DNA strands and cause chromosomal damage! Because of these health concerns, the EU decided to BAN titanium dioxide as a food additive earlier this year. Meanwhile, in the U.S., titanium dioxide in food remains completely legal! The FDA hasn’t even reviewed new science on the chemical since 1966. Ridiculous!
EWG’s Dirty Dozen Guide – The top 12 chemicals to avoid
Help us keep our garden safe and healthy!
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
The primary mission of our Children’s Learning Garden Project:
Growing clean, healthy food and connecting to nature and each other.
As we build our garden together, please remember there are no pesticides or herbicides or other chemicals allowed. Please be mindful of this if you are donating items yourself or you are helping us obtain sponsors/donations:
🌱Only organic (pesticide and herbicide free) materials may be brought into the garden. This includes any materials brought in for composting or mulching.
🌱All seeds and plants…all trees (including non-edible) must be organically derived and grown. No use of chemicals. No GMO seeds or plants.
🌱All donations of lumber and other materials (plastic liners, etc.) must be checked to ensure they are chemical/toxin free and will not leech into the soil.
🌱In addition, we will not accept sponsorship monies from any chemical company or their affiliates.
🌱Please also help us monitor any foods brought in for the children for events or gatherings: An important part of the garden project is to introduce children to healthy eating – making it fun to eat healthy foodstuffs whether fresh from the garden or “treats” made with clean, unprocessed ingredients (see links to recipes below.) Please help us monitor this –
As the project progresses and we begin to host events and gatherings, please send all proposals for food vendors and the like to LeAnn Brown.
🌞🌻 THANK YOU so much for helping us monitor these most important aspects of growing healthy, organic food and teaching the children that healthy eating can be delicious and fun, too! 😊 LeAnn Brown, Project Initiator/Committee Chair
LINKS to a couple of fun and easy recipes to make with kids:
https://www.medicalmedium.com/blog/caramel-apple-rings
https://www.medicalmedium.com/blog/raw-caramel-apples
If you are interested in more yummy recipes for kids (and adults!) – please use the [contact form] to let me know. I have many recipes, recommendations and research I’ve been compiling for the last several years that I am happy to share. 🙂 LeAnn
Recent News and Resources
April 2023: Tests found alarmingly high levels of chlormequat in 12 oat based products including Quaker Oats and Cheerios. See full list and article: EWG Investigation
excerpt from EWG.org, August 1, 2022: Mars, the company that makes Skittles, is facing a lawsuit alleging its use of titanium dioxide makes its product “unfit for human consumption.”
But Skittles is just the tip of the iceberg. An EWG analysis has found titanium dioxide in over 3,000 products, including Sour Patch Kids, Starburst, Hostess Cupcakes and Jell-O.
Multiple alarming studies have found that titanium dioxide can break DNA strands and cause chromosomal damage! Because of these health concerns, the EU decided to BAN titanium dioxide as a food additive earlier this year. Meanwhile, in the U.S., titanium dioxide in food remains completely legal! The FDA hasn’t even reviewed new science on the chemical since 1966. Ridiculous!
EWG’s Dirty Dozen Guide – The top 12 chemicals to avoid
THANK YOU
Our thanks to all the brave souls who ventured out on a very wet and chilly EARTH DAY to make a start in our Community/Children’s Learning Garden. Despite the weather, we accomplished a lot and we are so grateful to every person for their contribution.
We’ll be sharing a full report soon (scroll down for update)…we just wanted to express our thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm, your donations, and your hard work today!
We did it!
I want to make mention of our lead gardeners, Kassadi Dunn and Drew Dunn, who led the charge and made this first work day happen, prepping and bringing materials to the site days before. They worked tirelessly on-site all day long and on top of all the physical labor, were taking time to engage and encourage all the children who came out. Despite being wet and cold, the kids were motivated and interested in learning – – I can’t wait to see how well we all do in a little warmer weather!
I also want to mention and thank Dakota Booth and Darren Dunn who were on-site first thing and worked all day building the raised bed boxes and helping throughout the day in other areas, as well.
Scott Hoskins was on-site first thing and when he noticed the guys building the boxes in the rain, came back with his pop-up canopy for them, then worked all day doing the hardest jobs: digging holes and planting trees, among other things.
Sherri and Bill Bordeaux were on-site first thing and Sherri came back soon after with food for everyone.
Many came throughout the day and we were able to get the names of most of you which I will share here soon. (update: scroll down for report by Kassadi Dunn.)
If you participated and are reading this post, please make a comment below and give the names of all those in your group so we can make sure to record everyone in our Memories Book we are creating for our garden. We also want to make sure we can keep in touch with all who are interested in participating in the future, so we’d love to have your contact info so we can send you messages and updates.
Thank you again to everyone who came out and for all who have shown your support in so many other ways! – Visit our “GRATITUDE GARDEN” where we showcase all sponsors and donations given.
I’m so grateful to all of you for making this garden a reality! LeAnn B. (project initiator and committee chair)
Earth Day @ McCammon
(April 23, 2022 – Report by Lead Gardener, Kassadi Dunn):
(A) = Adult – 16 adults attended
(c) = child – 11 children attended
Lead Gardeners/Event Organizers: Kassadi Dunn and Drew Dunn
Project Initiator/Committee Chair: LeAnn Brown
Dakota Booth (A)
Helped set everything up. Brought tools & built the raised beds. Helped plant trees & fill the raised beds & helped clean up.
Darren Dunn (A)
Helped set everything up. Brought tools & built the raised beds. Helped fill the raised beds& clean up.
Scott Hoskins (A)
Stayed the entire time, brought tools, set up his easy-up so we had a dry spot to work, dug half of the tree rings himself, helped plant all of the trees, helped fill garden beds & was great company.
Savanah (c) and Dave (A) Boyack
Showed up first thing to pick up trash & rocks & sticks, left for other things & came back to fill the raised beds& chat.
Sherry (A)& Bill (A)Bordeaux
Picked up rocks and garbage. Were very thoughtful & generous, supplied the whole crew with lunch & drinks
Jiraiya (c)
Strong young boy who picked up rocks, sticks & garbage, was eager to help, had a very encouraging attitude that kept us motivated.
Tori Bowen (A) & Sebastian Bowen (c). Dug tree rings, helped plant the goose berry & blackberry. Donated $100, wildflowers seeds, and a beautiful blackberry bush, entertained us with fun conversation
Arianne (A), Aven(c), Penn(c) , & Hera(c) Hunsaker
Began the rock garden mandala bed and the kids made a very smart design decision to incorporate another path to accommodate the irrigation
Paula Rowe (A)
Came and entertained us with fun conversation and donated money on behalf of her mother MarLeen Keller $100
Hazel (c) & Mitzi (A) Carter
Continued work on the rock garden mandala, planted a black currant& two raspberries, dug tree rings & helped plant trees. Hazel was very motivated and kept wanting to help despite being very cold. She motivated us all to keep going.
Braxton (c) & Brynlee (c) Anderson
Continued work on the rock garden mandala, helped fill the raised beds & entertained us with nice conversation
Karlene Hall (A)
Helped fill the raised beds & entertained us with nice conversation
Frankie (c), Britney(A), Eric (c)& Ben (A)Sorenson
Very much wanted to help but had car troubles, they still made it in time to help us clean up at the end of the day
Ivan Bullock’s Donation – In Memoriam
Ivan Bullock, whose family has deep roots in McCammon, recently donated $500 to our non-profit community organization MAC | McCammon Action Council. With his donation, he included a beautiful letter wherein he paid tribute to family and friends who have passed:
McCammon Action Council
Dear Council Members:
I am making a $500 donation to support community events and projects carried out by this body. These funds are donated in memory of McCammon area residents who have passed away and made significant contributions of time, service, and support of our community in so many ways.
H. Reed & Jeanine Cammack – Reed served for 25 years on the Marsh Valley School board as member and President. He and his wife Jeanine were lifelong residents, both growing up here attending McCammon Elementary and High School. Reed worked with his father Henry on the family farm located west and north of town and took over operation of the farm after his father passed away. Reed was an insurance agent for Farm Bureau and made lifelong friends while serving as their agent. Reed and Jeanine were active members of the McCammon LDS ward serving in many capacities over many years.
Lynn & Sharon Crump – Lynn and Sharon were both raised in McCammon and attended McCammon Elementary and North Marsh High School. Lynn worked with his father-in-law, Otto Jenkins, operating Jenkins Tractor Service in the buildings where the Little Rock Café and D& D Repair are located. They served the Marsh Valley and McCammon area for many years selling and servicing Massy Ferguson, Alice Chalmers, New Holland farm equipment and auto-truck repairs. They eventually closed the business shortly after Ott retired. They moved to the Pocatello area when Lynn went to teach at Idaho State University Diesel Mechanics Program.
Gary K. (Sam) and Anita Brown were both raised in McCammon, attended local schools and were lifelong members of our community. Gary taught 7th and 8th grades for several years in McCammon and then was the principal of Mountain View Elementary School for 25 years. They both were active in our community and in the LDS church.
Lynn and Una Bullock were lifelong residents of McCammon. Both attended local schools and supported the McCammon community. Lynn and his nine brothers were raised on the family farm west of McCammon. Lynn eventually took over the farm after his father, Willard, passed away. Lynn also worked at Jenkins Tractor Service for many hears as a mechanic. Lynn was a strong supporter of the McCammon rodeo serving as a volunteer, furnishing roping calves and hay, and riding as a pick-up man for the saddle and bareback horse events. He served as president of the rodeo committee for about 10 of his 30 plus years on the committee. Una worked at the elementary school as a teacher’s aide for several years, operated the Cloverleaf Café until is was bought out by Flying J and worked as an assistant manager for Flying J restaurant for almost 20 years.
Beverly Bullock – Bev was an implant to McCammon having grown up on a farm in Rockford, Idaho. She attended Rockford Elementary and graduated from Snake River High School. She graduated form Brigham Young University with a BS degree in Education. Bev was teaching at Greenacres Elementary when she caught my eye (or I caught hers). We moved to McCammon when I bought the Cloverleaf Café and Texaco where Flying J Truckstop is now located. Bev ran the café for about 5 years, then wanted to go back to teaching. Her divine calling for sure. Bev taught at the Mountain View Elementary School for 29 years. She also taught GED night classes in McCammon for Idaho State University Continuing Education and helped many people get their GED diploma. After her retirement, Bev continued to substitute for teachers in the school district, enjoying subbing at the high school where she reconnected with many of her grade school students.
Bev was a two-time cancer survivor, inspiring many of us in the community with her determination and perseverance during her final battle with this terrible disease.
There are many more residents who are deserving of being recognized for their contributions to our community. I hope to continue to recognize more individuals in the future.
Thank you for all of your efforts in making McCammon, Idaho a great place to live in and be from!
Ivan Bullock
THANK YOU IVAN for your generous support of our organization and for including this beautiful tribute. You are an integral part of our community and we feel grateful to call you neighbor and friend.
Growing Healthy Kids
Planting begins this season in our very own Community/Children’s Learning Garden!
There will be growing areas for raised beds and in-ground crops and fruit trees and berry bushes and pollinator-loving flowers and herbs –a veritable food forest…evolving and growing over time with many inviting spaces and places planned for discovery and connecting with nature and each other.
THE VISION: We have many ideas for fun events, activities and gatherings at the garden and are excited about the myriad possibilities this will bring to our children and our community as a whole.
EVERYONE IS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE! There are many ways for every person, young and old, to contribute and benefit.
Come grow with us! 🌞🌱LeAnn Brown, Project Initiator/Committee Chair
Please reach out today and let us know how your family and/or business would like to be involved! CONTACT
Related reading:
An inspiring article about the many benefits a garden offers from the perspective of an occupational therapist working with children:
Community gardens help students blossom and grow. As a therapist, I’ve seen it firsthand.
SPONSORS AND DONATIONS
We are looking to our community and area businesses for support in bringing this project to fruition. We have raised funds for initial stages, but are still in need of funding and material/labor donations for a 20’x40′ solar-powered greenhouse building for year round growing and learning, a 30′ diameter amphitheater (looking for a company to sponsor/donate stone slabs for seating) and various other supplies and help needed.
CONTACT us today to learn how your family or business can be part of this exciting project and memorialized in our
Gratitude Garden with a permanent plaque.
