Celestial Farms Magazine | Issue 2: Learn, Heal, Grow

Celestial Farms Magazine

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om Our Directo ote Fr r AN

I am so excited about our second edition of the Celestial Farms Magazine! The first one turned out so well. Chloe’s pictures are the best aren’t they?! She just keeps getting better.

At the first of the year, a contractor donated labor and materials to build us a wedding pergola to help us be more sustainable. Just a couple weeks after finishing the project, we had our first wedding at it and then had a “Styled Shoot” to highlight all of our improvements and show how ready we are to help make the next brides dreams come true! (See page 44 to see the outcome!)

Also this year, we wanted to focus our efforts in not only promoting healthy living and eating, but, with the USDA emphasis, encourage “value added commodities”. Basically, the Government is encouraging farmers to take their products like blueberries, and create something with them like muffins, thereby making more money from their crops. Most of us had a hard time working in our home kitchens from lack of space or equipment.

We have now created a space where I am infusing honey and oils, brewing soaps, and baking granola!

Dennis from Early Risers will be baking his bread as well as preparing some picnic items. We will also be welcoming other producers to the kitchen. The kitchen meets the standards of the Department of Health as well as the USDA. It is also pretty enough to produce lots of videos and host cooking events!

(See page 64 for a behind the scenes look on how our products are made.)

Even with all of our big projects these past few months, we still value our volunteers, classes, and toddler activities. Be sure to meet our volunteer of the quarter, Gia Amin! She is such a joy to work with.

(See page 34 to see her advice for other volunteers.)

All of these events, and improvements to the farm aid us in supporting the community and our rescues. This month alone, we had seven goats surrendered to us.

As always, thank you all for supporting the farm and all of our activities!

Veronica Pasciuto Executive Director

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LEARN HEAL GROW

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CONTENTS 8 KIDS IN NATURE

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WATERMELON SALAD

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SUN-CATCHER CRAFT

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VOLUNTEER HIGHLIGHT

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STORYBOOK BEGINNING

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A NEW SPACE

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FALL EVENTS

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BEHIND THE PAGES

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Kids Belong in NATURE 8

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Society has gradually shifted from a time of spending tons of time outdoors, taking advantage of all that mother nature has to offer into staying inside on devices. Many have forgotten how good it feels to have the damp dirt squuuish between your toes! Kids belong in nature - we all do.

Soaking up the sun (with proper skin protection) can be so beneficial to your soul and body, no matter how old you are. For children, being outdoors and gathering sticks, gardening, building or climbing all help them grow their fine motor-skills. When they pick flowers, or gather leaves for comparison they are using their critical thinking. All of these things help prepare them for growing up, and when you are right there next to them along the way, you are helping fill their soul with love and respect.

Tending a garden or caring for animals helps children gain more self-esteem, a great way to think about this is when you see a plant’s life cycle from seed to vegetable happen in your backyard. It is beyond rewarding, you feel this warmth of happiness overcome you.

You are proud of your work, time and energy that created this vegetable. You are left happy, and proud of yourself for your patience, respect for the earth, and responsibility.

The bottom line is, we could all benefit from nature and what it offers. We don’t have to have all one or the other, we just need to remember to go back to our roots and what makes us human.

Care for the earth, and it will care for us back.

Imaginations are something we tend to forget about as adults, we stop letting our thoughts drift to silliness of couch cushions being a castle or fairies living in the gardens. We have to remember that children are flowing with creativity and imaginations just waiting to come out. The outdoors offers limitless possibilities a four-wall room cannot!

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Kids Belong in NATURE

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Wate rme lon S

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S alad

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SIMPLE, EASY AND ENJOYED BY ALL (INCLUDING THE CHICKENS)

Watermelon Salad Recipe 1. Cut half a watermelon into cubes, and slice your cucumbers into moon shapes. Place into a bowl.

2. Then you’ll want to pour 1/4 cup of lime juice into the bowl with your desired amount of mint.

3. Gently toss, and store in the fridge overnight for flavors to mingle.

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Rosemary is a symbol of remembrance, and can help your memory performance.

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The body stores memory just like the heart stores love.

A touch of the earth, the smell of some rosemary, even a droplet of rain can welcome in a rush of familiarity, something we once knew.

We might label it as good or bad, happy or sad, but down at the core of our experience it is just our senses clinging to Remembrance.

Sami Zabner

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Dakota 22

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t f a r C r e h c t a c n u S l a B o t a n ic

Material Needed: + Contact Paper + Popsicle Sticks + Scissors + Flowers + Leaves + Nature

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Step 1 Take a square of contact paper and use Popsicle sticks to map out your desired shape. Press down firmly to ensure it sticks.

Step 2 Now its time to make your design!

Double check that your pieces of nature are nice and dry before pressing them into your shape.

If they are wet, the craft will not hold.

Step 3 Once all of your gatherings are placed on the contact paper, you want to make sure it is as flat as possible because we want the contact paper to stick tight.

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Step 4

Step 5

Take another square of contact paper and press down as firmly as you can! We want it to be sealed to help it last longer.

Cut off excess and you’re done! It can be placed in the windowsill or you can attach a piece of string to it to hang it. Watch it slowly decompose as time passes by.

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Fire

Fire came to us after being taken in by the Jacksonville Fire Department. She has a sweet but fiery soul. After working with her week after week she has finally become more trusting of humans and learned belly rubs feel so very good!

Pigs are our highest requested surrenders totaling at 20 calls per week.

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VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

GIA AMIN Gia is one of our best volunteers at the farm! We took the time to have a interview asking her why she volunteers and what it means to her. If you are unsure if the farm is a good volunteering fit for you, take a read!

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Gia Amin, is a regular volunteer to the farm. At only 7 and a half years old she is one of our hardest working volunteers and wants to be an animal scientist when she grows up. Gia let us ask her a few questions to share with everyone!

Q: When did you first start visiting the farm?

Gia: I started visiting the farm about 4 months ago.

Q: I really cant believe it has only been 4 months! How often do you visit?

Gia: We visit Celestial Farms about 4 to 5 days a week!

Q: If you had to choose a favorite animals, who would it be?!

Gia: I can’t choose!!!

Q: Fair enough! What is your favorite task to do on the farm?

Gia: It would have to be working in the bunny yard. I love all of the baby bunnies and the chicks that live in there.

Q: That’s a really great choice! So Gia, what does volunteering mean to you?

Gia: Volunteering means helping the animals and giving them love.

Q: That’s a great response, all of our animals love to be loved. Why do you think others should volunteer?

Gia: You do a lot of work here on the farm and it can’t be done all by one person!

Q: And lastly, what is some advice you want to give to others who may want to volunteer here?

Gia: It’s very fun here, you can even pet and brush the animals!

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Our grumpy goose, Jiya, is often found yelling at guests trying to wash their hands next to her pen!

While she can be a bit daunting, she actually enjoys cuddling (when she wants). She was raised in an apartment and never got to go into a ‘real’ pond, because of that she is too scared to go for a swim on our pond bordering her pen. Instead, she has a personal pool she gets to enjoy.

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Chloe Pasciuto Photography Capturing NE Florida children & couples Also specializing in creative shoots & boudoir Facebook.com/Chloepasciutophotography

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Every six weeks our farrier comes out to take care of our equines hooves! This is incredibly important to their health and quality of life. If you have ever seen Nugget or Don Quixote on the farm, you can see how they walk on the sides of their hooves. For them, their previous owners did not tend to their hooves, because of that they have hurt for the rest of their lives. We do all that we can to make sure our animals have the best quality of life possible.

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Clothing & more available at Celestialfarms.org/shop

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A Storybook Beginning This past year at the farm we have began to open up for weddings more than we have ever done before. In the past, we would have a wedding maybe once every two years if someone reached out and asked. All of us here love the magic around the farm, and want to be able to share that with couples who share our same love of the animals. Being able to host weddings, helps further support the care of our animals and community projects. This year we were so graciously donated construction time and efforts to build a brand new wedding pergola by Tutelage Consulting, to help further our endeavor into the wedding world. In the next few pages you will see a wedding story come to life as showcased through a beautiful styled shoot on the farm. If you are unfamiliar with a styled shoot, it is essentially a mock wedding used to showcase vendors and venues for future couples to find inspiration or see if they are a fit! We are so lucky to be apart of a wonderful community full of wonderful wedding vendors.

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Florals: Aime Peterson Flowers Hair & Makeup: Belle Dame Artistry Photography: Madison Rose & Co

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Our inspiration for this styled shoot was all things whimsical.

We absolutely love fairy tales and incorporating them into the farm.

Belle Dame Artistry nailed this look with a delicate braid updo, that shows off the details of the wedding dress. Not only did they create a beautiful hairstyle, they did an amazing job on Desiree’s makeup, making her glow even more.

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Florals: Aime Peterson Flowers Hair & Makeup: Belle Dame Artistry Photography: Madison Rose & Co

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Florals: Aime Peterson Flowers Hair & Makeup: Belle Dame Artistry Photography: Madison Rose & Co Pergola: Tutelage Consulting

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Florist Aimee Peterson did an incredible job not only with her flowers but as well with her decor skills. She went above and beyond in assisting us with this shoot, bringing in beautiful decor to accent the theme, couple and cake. To truly capture the fairytale essence, she was able to create a moss covered table for the cake to reside on. It truly brought the entire table to life.

If you have visited the farm before, or follow along with us on social media - you may know that we do not grow mass amounts of fruits or veggies.

Instead, we have demonstration gardens where we get to teach and show people where their food comes from. For this shoot we wanted to try to include fruit that can be found around the farm giving all the whimsical vibes. Mandee Bakes did an incredible job making such a beautiful and mouthwatering cake adorned with fruits, some of which can be found on the farm.

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Florals: Aime Peterson Flowers Hair & Makeup: Belle Dame Artistry Photography: Madison Rose & Co

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A Real Love Story We met in 2012 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where we went to college. Tyler played football there so he had to go up early to start training and I came a few weeks later.

When Tyler saw me for the first time he looked at his friend and said “I need to marry that girl.” We became friends but I wasn’t interested in dating. A few months went by and we became closer and eventually decided to date in 2013.

We’ve been together ever since. Tyler graduated a year before I did, so we got engaged my senior year. After I graduated we moved to Tennessee for a year for Tyler’s job and then moved back to PA to be close to family. We had our daughter in 2018 and then 15 months later had our son. My parents moved to FL during that time and we were always visiting, so one day we decided, let’s just move down to be closer to them! We moved at the end of 2019 and have loved every minute of it!

Celestial Farms is on of the first places we learned about for kid friendly activities and the kids absolutely love going to feed the animals. Our 5th anniversary is June 4th which is just two weeks after the wedding shoot. What better way to celebrate your anniversary than getting to dress up and pretend to do it all over again!

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T he More You K now....

While this berry may look similar to a blackberry or even a dewberry, it is called lantana.

Lantana is often used as an ornamental plant in gardens and yards, while it is beautiful the berries that are produced can be toxic to pets as well as humans.

The berries contain triterpene acids lantadene A and B. These acids have a negative impact on the kidneys and gallbladder. Eating enough could result in poisoning with unsavory side effects.

Pictured Left is Lantana Pictured Below is Dewberry

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A New Space Designed to Bring People Together.

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Behind the General Store, lies a space that has transitioned through many changes. Once a poolside patio turned into changing rooms for summer camp. After that is became a storage area, then becoming a smaller version of the store and lastly it was a tea room. None of those were serving the space well for us, or for the farms mission.

After tedious brainstorming, planning and talking things out, it was decided to turn that space into a kitchen. It has taken quite a few months of slow and steady accomplishments, that we are in the final stretch of opening up our market and kitchen space!

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This new space is set to change the way you experience the farm, and bring the local farmers in the community together while helping the farm stay sustainable.

Not only will the farm be able to keep the general store stocked with products Our favorite bread-makers, Early Risers is taking on a new venture at the farm.

They will be able to provide food for purchase for guests to picnic on the farm.

When the kitchen is free, it will become available for rent by local farmers, bakers, and anyone who needs a kitchen to make products in.

We still have a bit more work to do, but we are so excited for whats to come.

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Fall Events on The Farm Save the dates for all of our end of year events!

Last year during the pandemic we struggled so much from the loss of our community events.

Thankfully, this year we are once again able to have the Jacksonville community able to come out once again and celebrate with us! We are no longer requiring appointments, or reservations in advance.

Even though restrictions have began to end, we are still taking great care in sanitizing spaces all over the farm. At the end of the day, all we want is our community to heal together, safely.

This is possible as long as we take a moment to care about each other.

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MEMBER ONLY CAMP OUT September 3, 2021 Throughout the year our annual members get a few special events to come and enjoy the farm in a special way!

Check in the afternoon of the 3rd and check out on the 5th.

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During this event, we will have a group campfire Friday night and the next morning enjoy some continental breakfast! Explore the farm all Saturday and then before departing on Sunday grab some donuts for breakfast.

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HUG A FARM ANIMAL DAY September 18, 2021

Join us in September to celebrate all of our animals at Celestial Farms!

When visiting during Hug a Farm Animal Day, you can expect to find other non-profits set up with booths around the farm, and vendors with a focus on healthy living.

During this event we host mini classes, have food for sale, tours, music and fun. This year we will even be premiering our private animal encounters!

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FARM OF FANTASY October 30, 2021

One of our favorite events is Farm of Fantasy! We all get to dress up from our favorite fairy tales and provide a safe place to trick or treat.

We accept vendors for this event, have food available and, Halloween music to boogie to!

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Around the farm is various activities and opportunities to earn a prize. We welcome to community, organizations, families to make have a booth to pass out candy and information.

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CELEBRATION OF PEACE December 4, 2021

One of our favorite parts about Jacksonville is how diverse our city truly is. We use this event to help highlight all of the different ways to celebrate the season and its meanings of peace and kindness.

This event we welcome all kinds of vendors to the farm, organizations, carolers to keep it lively and a positive environment for all who come to visit.

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Behind The Pages

Veronica Pasciuto

Patty Pasciuto

Therese Conrad

Bob Pasciuto

Assistant Director of all things outdoors and our general store! She is the woman behind your favorite Toddler Tuesday activities.

Coop Commander Bob is the farms biggest supporter, tour guide and idea man! When hes on the farm, expect a few crackers handed to you and the best stories!

Chloe Pasciuto

Daphne Balcanoff

Assistant Director of events and media, often found chasing her toddler around the farm and taking photos.

One of our best assets to day to day happenings on the farm! Our flexible floater, adapting to any projects we throw her way.

Sami Zabner

Anisha Robelen

One of our Barn Manager and animal lover!

She can be found on the farm Wednesday to Saturday tending to the animals and making awesome videos.

Master of Guest Relations! She is here to greet you and tell you the happenings of the farm, she even makes the oh so delicious fudge found in the General Store!

Rory Malloy

Tami Scherck

Executive Director and Founder of Celestial Farms. She is often found around the farm doing 10+ things at once.

Our other Barn Manager and all around wonder man! He’s just started but has helped us get so many things done, you can find him here Monday to Wednesday.

Delaney Gurgel

Our Master Gardener and grandma to all!

She is a wonder women, accomplishing projects, gardens and building all by herself!

Registered nurse and part of our Guest Relations team! You can find her here most Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays greeting all guests and giving tractor rides.

Another part of our Guest Relations team!

She is the sponsor mother of Rooter the pig, and can tell you all there is to know about him!

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CREDITS Photography Credits got to Chloe Pasciuto.

Special thank you goes to Mandee Bakes, Aimes Flowers, Belle Dame Artistry and the Dummermuth’s for their roles in our styled wedding photo-shoot.

Mandee Bakes https://www.facebook.com/MandeeBakes Aime Peterson Flowers and Event Design http://www.aimepetersonflowers.com/ Belle Dame Artistry http://www.belledameartistry.com/ Rosemary Drawing Credit goes to Digital Arsi on Etsy

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Celestial Farms is a 501c3 not for profit farm animal rescue and educational center located in Jacksonville, FL. The farm is open to the public Monday to Saturday from 9am to 4pm. Spend time with the animals or in the gardens. The organization runs on donations which assist in community programs, classes, events, as well as the care and rehabilitation of farm animals.

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