What You May Not Know About Energy For Healing Yourself And The Land With Anna Chaney

What if we considered a new/ancient approach for healing ourselves…and the land? Anna Chaney went out on a limb to try to find answers for her own health and stumbled upon “energy healing.” And while it may sound “woo woo”, energy medicine helped her resolve many chronic conditions that were plaguing her.

Anna then went on to implement ancient practices for the healing of her land. She started prioritizing “living soil” (her #1 crop). She began playing the long game by following permaculture principles and other simple, ancestral techniques to revitalize the land, make it more productive, and enable it to provide healthy veggies, untouched by artificial, chemical inputs—so that it could make better the lives of generations to come.

Visit Anna’s website: honeysharvest.com

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Episode Transcript

Within the below transcript the bolded text is Hilda Labrada Gore and the regular text is Anna Chaney.

What would you do if no matter what you tried, you couldn’t resolve your chronic health conditions? Our guest for this episode took a chance on some energy work. She had never heard of such a thing before, but it turned things around for her. She then became committed to helping to heal not only other people, but the land. This is episode 537, and our guest is Anna Chaney, the founder, owner, and operator of Honey’s Harvest Farm and Herrington on the Bay in Maryland.

Anna is also a certified energy healer and a functional nutrition practitioner. Anna tells her story about how she was struggling with many conditions and how she overcame them through energy work. At first, she thought it sounded very strange, but then she came to embrace it. Not only that, she talks about how it transformed her way of thinking when it comes to the land. She started taking the long game and looking into how to work with the land in such a way that it would benefit generations to come.

She talks about why permaculture is critical to this way of looking at the land and dealing with it, and also how living soil is her first crop. She also talks about the benefits for her family and those around her. She took a page out of the local indigenous peoples, who, in their dealings with the land, keep in mind what the ramifications are of what we’re doing today on the next seven generations down the line.

Before we get into the conversation, I want to invite you to the Wise Traditions Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 17 to 19, 2025. It is going to be an amazing experience, and it’s going to nourish you in every way. How do I know? Because I’ve been there. You’ll get nutritious food benefits from amazing speakers that include Mark and Sam Bailey, Dr. Andy Kaufman, Dr. Tom Cowan, Leslie Manookian, and more. Also, sitting around the table, eating nourishing food, and talking to friends that you’ve never met before is so nourishing as well. Join us. I hope to see you there. Go to Wise Traditions Conference to register. This is Hilda Labrada Gore, and this is Wise Traditions.

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Welcome to Wise Traditions, Anna.

Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here.

A Backstory Of Chronic Illness: Why Honey’s Harvest Farm Was Created

It’s your farm. Thank you for inviting me out to Honey’s Harvest. This place is so peaceful, so restorative, and so healing. I want to hear the backstory on why you created it. I know it has to do with the fact that you had multiple chronic illnesses at the same time. Let’s go back to that moment in time. What was it like, and what were the illnesses?

Going back to that time, I just had a second child. I had an infant. Because of the level of stress in my life, I knew that I needed to take a lot of vitamin C and eat as healthily as possible, which is what I knew at that time to be healthy. I stopped taking vitamin C in August. All of a sudden, my entire body began to shut down. I felt aches and pains all over my whole body. I had chronic headaches. I had a loss of memory. I had severed my rotator cuff and didn’t even know it because that’s how much pain my entire body was in.

You were probably, in the childbearing years, around 34 or so. How is it that you had all these things come on all of a sudden?

Nothing does. This is what I’ve learned since then. All of a sudden, it’s a building. It’s almost like a bioaccumulation of stress, low-energy vibrations, and being exposed to lots of toxins from the world that I lived in at the time. All of that together created the perfect environment for whatever was out there that I could take in and become ill.

Tell me again what you were struggling with.

The catalyst that allowed me to learn what was going on there was Lyme disease. I had chronic Lyme disease. I had Babesia, another tick-borne illness. I had Bartonella, another tick-borne illness, and Ehrlichia, another tick-borne illness. I developed precancerous tumors. I had a loss of memory that we think was due to a toxic mold exposure. I was also diagnosed with mold toxicity.

At the time, you had two kids. Where did you turn? What did you think you should do about it all? You’ve gotten some diagnoses. Was that helping you get any closer to real health?

No. I worked with conventional medicine for four and a half years. They finally said, “This is it. There’s nothing else we can do.” I had talked to many doctors up and down the East Coast. They said, “We’re going to go ahead and put the PICC line to your heart. That way, you don’t have to take those 22 pills a day. You’ll do that until whenever. We don’t know. It might be for the rest of your life.”

Is PICC line where they intravenously give you meds or what have you?

Yes. I said, “No, thank you.” I thought to myself, “I’d rather not be here anymore.” That was four and a half years in. I had a third child in the meantime. We were in August 2008. I said, “There’s got to be another way.”

Am I hearing you right? You were like, “I can’t live like this.” You were getting near the end of your rope.

Yes, definitely. It’s either we don’t live anymore, or we find another route, because this medicine made me feel horrible. It was up and down constantly, and no end in sight. There was no real healing. That’s when I had to try something different.

What did you do? I got to find out.

Every single person has their formula. Whatever my formula is today, it could even change tomorrow.

In my head, thank the Lord, there was this voice that said, “Energy medicine.” I completely ignored it. I was like, “No. Absolutely not.” A whole year transpired. Back in 2008, I said, “Fine.” I contacted a friend whom I knew would know something about this. She’s like, “You go down to this place.” I went down to this place.

The Unexpected Journey To Energy Medicine

What was it about it that was so off-putting to you? Why were you like, “No, thank you for that?”

At that time, I felt like it was so foreign to me and not real. Honestly, I thought that’s voodoo. I don’t want to have anything to do with that. That can’t possibly be a real thing. Fast forward now, I’m a certified energy healer. That teaches you a little bit about what did wind up happening.

You decided, “I can’t say no to this voice anymore. I’m going to check it out.” What happened next?

I went to this lady that my friend recommended. I remember going in, being nervous, and hiding my car behind the building so that nobody in the area would see that I came to this crazy place. It was August, and it was hot. I was in a suit. I was sweating inside an air-conditioned space. I waited. She came and took me up to her little loft area. It was a darkish, small area. There was a massage table. She said, “Hi, what are you here for?”

I was like, “Energy medicine?” She said, “Okay, great. What kind?” I was like, “There’s a kind?” I said, “What kind do you have?” She handed me a menu. I was so nervous that I could not read the menu. There were little icons with pretty pictures next to each thing. All I could do was look at the pictures. I was like, “That’s pretty. It had a sun, a pretty rainbow, and some blue skies.” “Rainbow medicine.” I said, “Yes.”

You were suddenly regressed to three years old. “I want pretty sun and rainbows.” What was that?

She said, “Okay, great. That’s rainbow medicine. We’re going to do an illumination. Stand over there.” She sat down, and I was like, “I stand. You sit. I’m the client.” All I could think of was, “How do I get out of this place? This is crazy. She’s going to do something.” She said, “I’m going to track you.” Here I am fully dressed in a suit, thinking, “I don’t know what this lady is going to do.” She said, “Just stand over there and relax.” I’m like, “Yes, right.”

She sits down. I decided to close my eyes at that point. She told me to take some deep breaths. She started to mumble and write. I could hear the pen. She was talking to somebody. I thought, “I have got to figure out how to get out of this place.” I finally relaxed. She went on and on. I started to daydream in my head, and I saw these images. I’m like, “This is nice.” You get to settle down a little bit, ground maybe. She said, “I’m finished.”

She looked at me. Again, I’m standing over there, fully clothed in my suit. She said, “I think there’s something going on with your right shoulder.” I was like, “No, I broke that when I was young. I was sixteen.” She’s like, “I think it’s not fully healed.” I said, “Do you know how old I am?” When I went to the doctor, it was severed. My rotator cuff was severed on the right side.

You didn’t know that?

I had no idea. That’s how much pain my entire body was always in.

That was a little side thing to you then. You were like, “Whatever, because I’ve got other stuff going on.”

Not only that, but she started to talk about things. I was like, “How could she tap into that? How could she know these things?” At that point, she said, “Go pick a healing stone out of this little bundle. We’re going to do an illumination.” I lay on the table. She did some energy work on me. I was like, “I will never do this again. This was crazy.” I left, thanked her very much, and paid the bill.

Two weeks later, I was like, “I think I feel better. Something is happening.” I wound up working with her for six months. I went back for all my tests, and everything was clear. I felt like a million dollars. I felt like I was twenty years old again. I did change the way I was eating. I thought I was so young and had always been so healthy that I didn’t need to listen to all of those guidelines. At that point, it was August. I committed to this strange energy stuff and listening to my holistic doctor.

Unlocking Your Inner Healer: The Power Of Energy Work

This is so fascinating. I’m wondering what the blockages were to your energy. Why wasn’t it flowing properly? Why were you getting so sick? This rainbow sunshine treatment or whatever she did, this illumination, what did it uncover besides the physical? You have an issue with your shoulder. What did it release in you?

There was so much. Now that I’m certified in the same teaching that she was taught in, I can see what I didn’t understand was happening at the time. At the time, I knew I was feeling better. It was some weird stuff she was doing. What I now understand is that with energy work, we’re clearing the luminous energy field. That is basically in all the different cultures of the world. They had some practices that tuned into that energy field for thousands of years.

The teachers that I worked with taught from a variety of different cultures. They melded them together so that each person who is trained as a healer can take it into their practice in their own style. The goal is still the same. You’re releasing energies that are stuck. They can be from pretty much anything. We take on energy every day. We can be around that heavy energy from a person, an experience, or a traumatic event.

As humans, our energy field can allow that in. We carry that burden with us. When an energy healer works with someone, they’re trained to tune in and seek out where that heavy energy is most stuck. We often use the chakra system to locate that. There are various tools and insights that we can glean from doing the energy work and then inviting that heavy energy to leave. There are many different practices.

Wise Traditions | Anna Chaney | Permaculture — Permaculture: When we have living soil, we know that it helps pull the carbon out of the air. It helps regenerate that into nourishing food. It helps stabilize the soil itself.

This is so interesting. It’s reminding me of two interviews I’ve done. One is with Eileen McKusick about our biofield. She uses tuning forks to reharmonize the body, get rid of stuck energy, and help it all flow more. The other was with Bradley Nelson, who wrote The Emotion Code and The Body Code. What you’re sharing has been approached by different practitioners in different ways, but it brings us to the same place.

I always believe that every single person has their formula. Whatever my formula is today, it could even change tomorrow. What I mean by that is the different modalities of healing that are going to serve me in this moment at this time with whatever is going on in my life, whatever toxins I may have been exposed to in the world, and what my body needs to release. Energetic release and physical physiological release are the two modalities that I practice because they’re so helpful for me. The teaching is passed along for people who decide to imbibe in these practices with us here at Honey’s, at the farm. We’re so fortunate to be able to layer that in with the nourishing food that is grown in our living soil.

Honey’s Harvest Farm: A Full-Circle Approach To Health

I thought I was coming here to talk to you about your farm. What does your healing journey have to do with where Honey’s Harvest Farm is today?

To me, it brings it full circle. It’s that 365-degree wheel that we know that health is not only energetic, but it is physiological and emotional. The physiological part is all based on our fuel, our energy, and the clarity that is held or not held within our body. It is the toxic load that the body burdens. What I learned in my healing journey is that food grown in living soil, which is as close as we can get to nature’s way, is going to be the most nutrient-dense nourishing food and medicine that we can have access to that we can ever ingest. We decided that we would seek out the best mentors we could to learn how to grow that living soil first.

With that, our vision has always been a regenerative agricultural farm based on the concepts of permaculture so that we can honor those who came before us, the wise folks of the native people who were here. We understand that it was the Piscataway Conoy Tribe in this area. We understand that one of their philosophies was, “What I do today is going to impact seven generations to come.” How can we create sustainability and a regenerative ecosystem on the farm that will still be here, be positive, be nourishing, and be healthy for not only the entire ecosystem, including those little microorganisms in the soil, but for the humans who will come after us?

Do you think this is different than the regenerative agriculture movement? I guess I’m wondering because what you’re saying sounds so poetic, so beautiful, and so profound. Do you think we understand that when we talk about regenerative ag? Part of the point is, “Let’s make it so this is good for the soil, good for the animals, and good for the people,” but are we thinking long term? What do you think?

It’s funny because a lot of regenerative farmers are thinking that this is the solution that we’re all looking for. When we have living soil, we know that it helps pull the carbon out of the air. It helps regenerate that into nourishing food. It helps stabilize the soil itself. It brings life back into the soil, which stabilizes the soil itself. It grows more healthy food, medicine, trees, shrubs, and all the things. They know that it is the solution. Are they thinking of seven generations to come? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody else talk a lot about that. I think there are some. They’re more in some of the indigenous communities that still hold on to that belief system. They’re very aware of that. Generally speaking, I don’t think there’s a great awareness of that.

The Magic Of Living Soil: Beyond Regenerative Agriculture

You’re intentionally trying to think that far ahead. Can you tell me a little bit more about the term living soil? You’ve used that a few times. What do you mean by that? How do you develop that?

It’s not rocket science. We do workshops here. We send people away with everything they need to start their living soil. It’s like in your gut. When you create that perfect environment for your gut microbiome to flourish, and with the microbes that you want in your gut, it’s the same thing in the soil. You want to create this perfect blend of carbon and nitrogen in the soil that then brings in the mycelium, the fungus, and the bacteria. You want the balance between the two. You’re looking for this 50/50 ratio, which is super easy to remember and to understand.

You’re looking for 50% carbon and 50% nitrogen. You put that together. You get 50% bacteria, you get 50% fungi, and then you create this entire soil food web. When you have this well-rounded environment, then you invite in all of the natural native bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa, and all these little micro arthropods. You get your earthworms. It’s like the food chain, but the underground food chain.

Did you see that happen when you started working with that intentionality here on the land?

Yes, 100%. It’s cool. The best example is probably when my son did this little experiment on his own and had no idea he was doing it. He built a 4×4×4 garden, a cube with chicken wire. He put in the different carbon and nitrogen. It is horse manure and wood chips. He let it sit there. This is how easy it could be. There are many different ways to do this. You can do it with a lot more activity and intention, or you can let it do its thing, like nature.

We let it sit for about 6 to 8 months. He planted a singular sweet potato slip into this 4×4 cube. At some point, I saw this massive vine thing growing. I went out there, and I was like, “What is this?” He told me and said, “I watered it twice, and this is what it did.” It kept going and going. This was after we had taken a soil food web class from Dr. Elaine Ingham, whom I highly recommend. There are many other people now that she has trained who also offer the training. We’re one of them.

In October, we got the first frost. We went out to harvest this thing, and it was crazy. A sweet potato on a conventional sweet potato farm is going to grow anywhere from 4 to 10 pounds of sweet potatoes per plant. He put a singular sweet potato plant in this living soil experiment. For whatever reason that day, friends and cousins started showing up. It was fun. We started to harvest and harvest. How many pounds do you think we got out of this thing?

Tell me. I don’t know.

It is 100 pounds.

Are you kidding me?

It is from one singular sweet potato plant. It’s all on video. We have the proof. We made my son stand with a big laundry basket and stand on a scale. We took his weight off, and then we got the actual weight of the potato.

That is from a singular sweet potato plant, where normally in the conventional system, you get 4 to 10 pounds. That is tremendous. That was proof for you that you were on the right track. I’m sure it was an amazing proof for him and everyone who came around to gather the sweet potatoes with you.

Farmers are some of the best stewards of the land.

He was elated. We’ve practiced that ever since. We were practicing it already. We had the confirmation. We understand from studies done at Rodale Institute, some other folks out in California, and all these regenerative agricultural farmers who are now doing a lot of research that these potatoes are more nutrient-dense because the soil was alive. I can make that quick connection for you.

Just like in our gut, when we have a microbiome that’s robust and it’s working the way it’s supposed to, they’re digesting our food for us and getting it into a form that we can use in our body and ourselves. In the soil, those little microarthropods, the bacteria, and the fungi are all working together in a food chain where they are literally what’s left over. Their excrement is bioavailable nutrients loaded for the plant to absorb in a bioavailable form.

It is because in nature, nothing is wasted. Their excrement is nourishing the plant.

Think about those roots which try to get into the clay, the silt, and the crystalline substances in the soil, which is where all those minerals are locked up. The roots can’t penetrate that, but the little teeny tiny microbes eat it. They eat that stuff. It’s so abundant that they poop it out. It’s in a bioavailable form for those roots to absorb. They go all into the plant and nourish whatever parts of the plant that we’re going to consume.

This is making me think about that phrase I’ve heard people say. It’s not, “You are what you eat,” but, “You are what your body absorbs.” Your gut back in the day, Anna, was messed up. I’m sure that was part of the physical blockages that you had.

It was a mess.

You needed to get it in that place where it could absorb the best of the food you were taking in, and the energy work helped you. Can you remind me what those two modalities were that you said took on?

Functional nutritional counseling or consulting is where you’re trained to get to the root cause of whatever somebody is dealing with. You’re seeking the roots so that you can find solutions that will address those root causes. Oftentimes, that has to do with a detoxification of the body. It is not always, but pretty much most of the time. One of my mentors, Dr. Group, says that the cause of all disease is a toxic external environment and a toxic internal environment. When we identify those, we can begin to release those toxins. The second certification is shamanic energy healing. That’s a release of toxic energy.

I think I’ve heard of Dr. Group.

You probably have.

Where is he located?

He is in Texas. He works with a group out there called Healing for the Ages. They are very focused on functional healing. They’re all doctors of some sort.

From Tobacco Fields To Thriving Ecosystems: The Farm’s Transformation

What I like is that you took your healing journey and made your body more open to bioavailable nutrients. You thought, “Let me do the same thing for the land.” You realize we have to put the best stuff in us without a lot of artificial inputs, and we’re trying to avoid the toxins. That’s what you do here at Honey’s Harvest. Tell me more about this. How many acres is it? Do you have animals? Tell me a little bit about the farm.

We have about 160 acres. It was originally a tobacco farm owned by the Fowler family, who purchased it from the Bowen family. I’m the thirteenth generation from this region, not from this farm, but from this area. Many of my ancestors and relatives were or are farmers. As conventional farming came in and took over the industry, and tobacco was so big around here, they were trained and taught to farm with chemicals.

What we know now is that not only are the chemicals carcinogenic. I’ve lost a good number of my family members to cancer, including Mr. Fowler, although I don’t know that we were directly related. A lot of us down here are related. He also passed of cancer, and so did the gentleman who lived as a crow flies that way, who was the crop duster. They said the planes would fly over what is now Honey’s Harvest Farm, and dust the crops with one farmer called Agent Orange.

They were doing what they thought was best at the time. “Let’s get rid of the pests, so we can have more productivity here on the farm.” Sometimes, we don’t always know about the fallout until later.

They did the best they could. They didn’t want to do any harm because farmers are some of the best stewards of the land. They do what they’re taught. Where the farm started was in tobacco, at least with this era from the 1940s, ’50s, on. We transitioned to permaculture and regenerative ag. The basis is the living soil for us. Everything that we grow at the farm is in living soil. We cultivate the wildlife in the soil. We have created some ponds and shallow water, like wildlife refuge areas, for the wildlife to come in. We bring in lots of waterfowl. We bring in frogs and amphibians. We bring in tons of birds, these little birds that are forest. They’re called fids, forest interior dwelling birds that make the long trip from South America to here and back every year.

When you say you bring in, do you mean you purchase them and have them come, or do you put up a little welcome sign?

The ecosystem is a welcome sign. We planted 50,000 trees on the farm in some of the old fields. We dedicated ourselves to allowing the topsoil to regenerate itself. These trees are through a program with the state of Maryland through the DNR, where anybody who is willing to plant at least an acre of trees can have access. It’s free. 1) We chose plants and trees that have to be native. That’s one of the requirements. 2) We wanted trees that would bear fruits and nuts for generations to come.

The wildlife loves them. We share with the wildlife, but with 50,000 trees planted, there’s plenty for all of us. We see all these doves and different types of birds coming in. We don’t go get them. They come because there’s not a lot of habitat left in our area. There’s so much development in Anne Arundel County. We feel very committed to creating as much of that natural environment as possible. While we used to have livestock, now we focus on the wild ecosystem and the microorganisms in the living soil. We partner with farmers in our area who provide those beautiful pasture proteins that we love so much and offer in our store.

Do you think your farmer friends in the immediate vicinity think you guys are nuts? I know you were mentioning nuts. Do they think, “What is this style of farming?” It is because it’s returning to old ways prior to pesticide usage and all that stuff.

I have felt the brunt of jokes. I’ve heard that we’re maybe even the topic of conversations in certain circles. I have also found that, as I’ve been reelected again to be the chairperson for Anne Arundel County’s Agriculture Commission, people are starting to hear and even speak to it in these group settings. “Anna focuses on living soil. What they do at that farm is they create living soil without chemicals. They create healthy soil that grows more.” I had someone say that at the meeting. Somebody else turned that is very much embedded in the system. I know that their livelihood is based upon grant monies from Monsanto. They are compelled to say certain things in all of these arenas.

What are those certain things? Let’s be specific. It is not to call anyone out, but to help us understand.

I’ve had multiple conversations with people about this in trying to understand why they say what they say. I did have one gentleman who works through the University of Maryland tell me that he’s paid by a Monsanto grant. That’s his income. When I say the things I say, it’s threatening his livelihood because we don’t do something that they call nutrient management. It is such a nice word for, “How do I manage chemicals on my farm safely?” We don’t do that. We don’t need that because we focus on living soil, and living soil does not need chemical input. It would be extraordinarily detrimental.

Why “Nutrient Management” is Not the Answer

How does your farming differently, and people supporting that, threaten his livelihood or his grant from Monsanto?

That particular conversation was about engaging with the University of Maryland in a study where we were going to grow in living soil.

You would naturally have an advantage. That would make him look bad and maybe get back to Monsanto, and they’re like, “This isn’t working.”

He could not even accept us as participants because we weren’t using nutrient management or chemicals. We didn’t even qualify to be part of this study that we were willing to do because we were unwilling to use chemical inputs. Chemical inputs are often salt-based. When you put that stuff on your soil, you’re doing what would happen to us if we got doused in salt all the time, or chemicals, for that matter.

You’d dry up.

You got it. Where are our microbes? They create the need to fertilize the soil with synthetic chemicals that the plant now takes up, which are not native or natural to the plant. It grows a plant, but they’re not resilient. What do we have to do? They have no immune system because it’s not nature’s nutrients, like us. They have to put pesticides and herbicides because the plants don’t have a robust immune system. They may look pretty and grow, but they’re dependent on this synthetic lifestyle.

It’s like a cascade of interventions designed to make us dependent on these chemicals.

It’s brilliant if you think about it.

This is a little side thing that is coming to my mind. Have you ever gone into a mall? People don’t go to malls so much anymore. They’re like, “Let us do like a free experiment on your face to show you what our lotion does.” Sometimes, there are certain chemicals in there that will make it look brighter on one side than the other. You think, “This is great. This looks less wrinkly,” but what they’re doing is doing something to manipulate and maybe superficially make it look right. They’re not helping us glow from the inside out.

That’s a perfect metaphor. What I have found, though, to answer your original question, is that some farmers are adopting our practices. We have two farmers who come to our market who are growing in living soil. We have another farmer who said, “Don’t tell anybody,” because he’s a conventional farmer. “I don’t want anybody to call me a tree hugger, but this is what I’m doing.” He’s using what we would call a bio-complete compost tea.

The essence of living soil is composting to make that soil alive. He’s using an extract that these big businesses also sell because I do believe that they know that the future is coming. They need to be part of that so that they can remain relevant. They will sell these biocompost teas. This guy is trying to win a contest. He knows he can’t win unless he uses the more natural, holistic approach. He told me not to ever tell anybody, so I will not reveal the name. The individual is a fantastic farmer who was trained and learned in the conventional way. He has been inspired by someone, a fellow farmer, who keeps feeding him at the statewide contest.

I want to ask you about compost because I know you don’t have as many animals on the farm as you did before. Don’t you need animal waste to help the produce grow abundantly?

Yes, that is nitrogen 100%. We are so fortunate to be in this area where there are many horse farms, goat farms, and sheep farms. We have access to the nitrogen that we need, which is the manure. That is 50% of your compost. The other half we get from the guys who take the trees down the side of the road and drop wood chips off at our farm for free. All of it is free.

Living soil does not need chemical input. It would be extraordinarily detrimental.

We have to go pick up the manure. There’s a little labor in that, but we’re helping them get rid of their manure piles. We’re bringing it over here. We’re adding that carbon and creating this beautiful living soil. It is nourishing the plants that creates these nutrient-dense plants that we then make medicine from and put in the store. We all have access. We also teach people how to do it themselves, so they can be more sustainable.

Cultivating Community: Workshops, Markets, And A Shared Vision

That’s what I was going to say next. You’re not an isolated Honey’s Harvest Farm in a bubble. I know you have workshops here. You have a farmer’s market occasionally. You’re doing things to get the word out that people can have living soil, but also healthier guts, and so forth.

We have markets on the first and third Sunday of every month. These are cooperative markets where the local farms come and offer whatever it is that they focus on. Many of those are the pasture proteins, the dairy, and the cheeses. We have a lot of wineries, distilleries, and breweries, all farm-based. There are bakers, fishermen, and oyster men, all from the area. They come twice a month on the first and third Sunday. Our stores are open every weekend.

I know that this all started with your healing journey. Where are you on that journey now?

What I love about life itself is that it is a journey. We are exposed to things throughout life. Even though we may heal from chronic illness, we’re still going to be exposed to the latest flu or cold virus. We will have acute injuries potentially. As you know, I had one in 2024. The beauty of having gone down this path, and my real inspiration at that time when I was sick, was that no one else should ever have to get this sick to realize that there are other options out there that can truly heal us from the inside.

Every person has an inner healer. I started first at that time, offering these services not myself, but through other people in these wellness days. Going forward and becoming certified, offering that to the world is super important, so that they can realize that they have access to all of this. It can be free, from the food we ingest to the herbal medicines that we can rely on, and develop those plant relationships to that amazing nutrient-dense food that comes from our fellow farmers, with energy healing and connecting back to the ways of the earth.

One way to connect people that is not so woo-woo is through the soil and gardening, because gardening is normal. It helps them see. Once you have that connection, you realize there’s so much more to that than just gardening. We are part of nature. We are an important part of nature. When we breathe out, we breathe carbon dioxide. The plants take that and create their food. They do photosynthesis. They give us back oxygen. We have this synergistic relationship. It’s time to reconnect to that and realize that the earth is here for us, and we’re here for the earth. I love the idea of helping people realize. Most people know. They do. They go to the beach. They put their feet in the sand.

They feel so much better. It’s not that they are taking time off from their work. It’s because they’re connecting to nature. Isn’t the root of the word human humus, which is the root of soil?

Exactly. That fulvic acid and that humic acid, you can take that in, too, and ingest it.

It sounds funny. What was the best thing when we were three years old? It was eating mud and making mud cakes. The parents are like, “Don’t do that.” You’re like, “This is good.” The kids know. I feel like I could talk to you for hours, but we’re going to wrap up. I do want to ask you, Anna, the question I love to pose at the end. If the reader could do one thing to improve their health, knowing that there are many modalities out there, what would you recommend that they do?

I would probably recommend that they truly authentically know and believe that they have the ability to heal. That belief will take you in many directions to find your true formula.

Those are beautiful words to end on. On behalf of the Weston A. Price Foundation, thank you so much, Anna. It’s been a pleasure.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

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Our guest was Anna Chaney. Visit her website at Honey’s Harvest Farm for more information. I am Hilda Labrada Gore, the host and producer of this show on behalf of The Weston A. Price Foundation. Now, for a recent review from Apple Podcasts. Redeem1230 had this to say. “As I age, I was finding an erosion of my health and assumed it was just the way life will be as I age. This podcast helped me understand that it doesn’t have to be that way. The tide has turned, and as I continue to learn and improve my diet, my health is improving.” Redeem1230, this is great to hear. We love hearing stories like this. This is a blessing for you, and we are so happy that you shared it with the world.

You too can leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Go to ratings and reviews. Give us as many stars as you’d like, and tell us what a difference the Wise Traditions lifestyle has made for you, or write us an email, and we’ll possibly include your story in an upcoming Wise Traditions Journal. Write us at Info@WestonAPrice.org and put Letter to the Editor in the subject line. These stories mean a lot to us, but they also encourage the world that it’s never too late to get healthy. Thank you so much for tuning in, my friend. Stay well, and remember to keep your feet on the ground and your face to the sun.

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Wise Traditions is a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation for Wise Traditions in food, farming, and the healing arts. The content of this show is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for the advice provided by your doctor or other healthcare professional. It is not intended to be, nor does it constitute, healthcare or medical advice.

About Anna Chaney

Anna Chaney is the founder, owner and operator of both Honey’s Harvest Farm and Herrington on the Bay, where she provides inspirational leadership to her team members. As a Certified Energy Healer and Functional Nutrition Practitioner, Anna offers health coaching services to the public, including Shamanic energy healing, regenerative ag workshops, and energy healing workshops. Anna is passionate about living soil, nutrient dense food and medicine, and energetic health. She is dedicated to her mission of enriching lives and connecting people to their inner healer through enlightening experiences, meaningful connections, empowering workshops, and healing farm products.