Share-Life Farm Blog, October 2025

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Once we determined her illness was caused by a long-term low level exposure we started to look back to see what some of those exposures could’ve been.  After her brother graduated from high school he had a desire to go on wheat harvest. His dad checked out some harvest crews. Since he did not drink, he didn’t want his son traveling with one that did. He couldn’t find a suitable crew so they just loaded up their combine and truck and hit the trail that started a tradition that lasted for 17 years at first, just the boys went on the crew with their dad, but then the two girls started going and they drove the trucks to the elevator. Most elevators back then you dumped the trucks in a narrow hallway, went into a pit and a lot of times they were standing there with a sprayer, spraying insecticide malathion as the wheat was going into the pit to protect it from weevils in the bin. And have a very distinct odor and even today I recognize it easily.  Also, there was a lot of dust when you were unloading the trucks. She can remember having some breathing problems after going to the summer hauling weed to the elevator. This probably could be some of those low level exposures that was starting to eat away at her immune system.

Journaling the journey

The airplane incident was a definite setback for her. It made her really sensitive to the fungicides, as well as it seemed to make her more sensitive to some of the other exposures such as exhaust fumes. sometimes it is hard for those of us who don’t have a lot of sensitivities to even comprehend how long it takes to destroy a person that does into a reaction. I know a man who said he had got so bad that he could barely go out in public because if he run across someone wearing Kelowna perfume, he would cough uncontrollably. Fortunately, he was able to rebuild his immune system mostly with Rishi mushroom tincture. After her exposure, she was picking peppers one day and they mowed the road banks across the road and threw her into reaction. I had to go help her into the house and she had to change her clothes.  One night on the way home from church three deer walked out of the cornfield across the road in front of our car and she lost the use of her arms for a while. We knew then that harvest his fall was probably not gonna be a good time for us but it hasn’t been as bad as I was afraid it might be. The air cleared up faster than it did when they sprayed it in the summer. Because of all this, we decided not to even try to move back into the big house closer to the road until after harvest.

Jim’s gems

Since my last blog, we have witnessed the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk, and also about the same time another school shooting in the north east. So many of us wonder why do we see such senseless acts. My opinion on the matter is that we are seeing what it’s like to live in a heathen nation now.  Back when they took prayer and Bible reading out of the schools. Many thought that was maybe a good thing because they thought we were just removing and separating religion from education. What they didn’t realize was that and so doing we also removed our national conscience and therefore we are finding a situation that’s spoken of in the Bible that says in those days there was no King so every man done what was right in his own eyes and that’s what we are seeing today. So we see a man that shoots a policeman and his reasoning was because he did not want to go to jail , a man shoot Charlie Kirk simply because he doesn’t like his politics and another person shoots, innocent children, and for that there is no reason except to say that he had no conscience. Most religions of the world have a code of ethics. They expect their followers to live by and many of them are very similar when it comes to what is right and wrong. So maybe instead of trying to keep religion out of public life, we ought to be encouraging more influence of religion in public life.

Share-Life Farm Blog, August 2025

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August 31, 2025

I mentioned my wife’s environmental illness could have started in childhood. She grew up in what at one time was known as the Apple capital of Missouri Waverly, Missouri. Her grandfather at one time was part owner in an apple and peach Orchard. He had an apple shed in the Orchard and the kids used to work and play in there With trees all around. It was a different time back then all the tractors were open station tractors, and they sprayed the orchard without thinking about who is in the area because they didn’t realize how toxic the sprays might be so she was exposed to some of these chemicals at an early age. She also showed cattle at the fairs and they used a lot of fly spray and soap and stuff getting the cattle ready for show. We will talk about further exposures in her teens and early 20 years next time.

I am also going to start to journal our activities to hopefully give you some idea of dealing with this illness and maybe give help to someone else that might see it and read it. It has been an interesting three weeks here on the farm as Rosie was outside when the neighbor sprayed the field across the road with fungicide She was in one of our hoop houses picking for Market when the planes flew over usually when they fly over , if she’s in the hoop house, she’s safe, but because the plane was flying so low this time and actually spraying cross the roa in d it caused a severe reaction she completely went Paralyzed. We ended up putting her in the tractor loader bucket to get her to the house and drag her in the house on a rug to get her in then I had to get all her clothes off, and it still took a while for her to be able to function. This incident has caused her to be more sensitive to fungicides again and the next week they sprayed the beans across the road with a ground unit, but it still has kept us out of the house next to the road since.

Now our first edition of Jim‘s gems. Some observations that I hope will make you think. I told some of my friends as I was telling them I was starting up the blog that I was going to tell them how to stop cancer well here it is . The chiropractor that we go to is a little bit of a history buff and does a lot of research and we have some interesting conversations. A few months ago he mentioned that years ago in medical schools as the medical schools were teaching new medical students about diseases they brought up cancer. This was probably in the 30s, but they showed them what it was and said this is cancer, but don’t be worried about it because you will not see more than one or two cases in the entire life of your practice. Now they got me thinking well if we want to stop cancer then all we need to do is go back to the economic system we had in the 30s where all the food we raised was organic. There were no cell phones. There were no cell phone towers There were no satellites in our atmosphere so if we just get rid of all of that, there was limited, indoor plumbing all landline phones all we need to do is go back to the time of the 30s and we can probably find cancer decreasing. Also it was before a lot of people were vaccinated. Now if you’re not willing to go back to that system, then we have to maybe accept the fact that we’re killing ourselves by degrees and while research looks for a cure for cancer the average American or anyone else concerned about that I would be doing all I could to keep my immune system built up to be able to fight off the cancer invasion we’re seeing. I would be encouraging grocery stores to promote organic food. I would search out organic farmers in the local farmers market. Whatever I could to get the healthiest food I could in my body to keep my immune system going.

Until next time this is your friend in farming, bringing you food with integrity

Share Life Farm Blog, July 2025

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As I stated in my first blog, I have a twofold purpose: to tell our story and to ask some thought-provoking questions—so here goes.

For the past 46 years, my wife has suffered from an illness we refer to as environmental illness. Originally, it was called the 20th Century Illness because it didn’t exist in the century before. You might also call it a man-made illness—it’s brought on by changes we’ve made to our environment, so the name environmental illness fits.

People with this illness become hypersensitive to nearly everything around them. It’s very hard for them to function normally. Dr. William Ray of the Environmental Health Center in Dallas, Texas, explained to me that the illness can develop in one of two ways: either through long-term, low-level exposure to various chemicals and pollutants, or through a massive, one-time exposure. In my wife’s case, we believe it was the former—long-term, low-level exposure.

We’ll talk more about her illness in the next blog, and how it may even trace back to her childhood.

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On another topic, I recently heard that Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs has a personal chef. I’ve always said a good chef can make a piece of cardboard taste good—but at the end of the day, you’re still eating cardboard.

If athletes and celebrities are really concerned about their health, maybe instead of hiring personal chefs, they should be hiring personal farmers. I also heard that the Chiefs brought on a team nutritionist, which is a great step. But maybe they should also consider the services of a team farmer to really benefit their players.

In today’s world, I believe it’s more important than ever to know where your food comes from.

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On the homefront:

My family was here the last two weeks of June, and we were so proud of how everything looked. Then we got some rain that kept us out of the field, and now—less than a month later—it looks like a jungle out there. Sure wish we could figure out how to get the crops to grow as well as the weeds do.

Until next time, I’m your friend in farming—bringing you food with integrity.

The Share-Life blog is back!

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Welcome to the first installment of what I hope to be a revival of a blog that I used to write almost 20 years ago. We used to go to my sister-in-laws on Sunday who was caring for my Mother-in-law and disabled brother in her home to give her a little moral support and a break if she needed run errands or something. Most of the time I was there supporting my wife and she had internet and we did not. I had a CSA member who offered to set up a website and maintain it for me, hence the blog was born as a way to keep my CSA members informed, as well as anyone else interested. When my Mother-in-law passed the Sunday trips stopped and so did my internet connection so the blog stopped. We just got fiber optic cable in our rural community thus reviving my opportunity to resume my posting. A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last 20 years and so I see the focus of my postings to be different. This first post may be a little long as I try to explain my motivation for even attempting this endeavor. The rest I am going to try to keep short and sweet that I hope will add something to your day when you read it.

The purpose I have for doing this is two fold. The first is to maybe ask questions about things around us that make you think. I don’t pretend to have all the answers so I’m not going to try to provide them, I am just going to ask the questions. I hope you’ll find my wacky way at looking at things entertaining if nothing else.

The second is tell our story as we have traveled down the road of life dealing with this rare illness. My Mother-in-law used to tell me I should write a book about all the crazy circumstances we have encountered. And since I’ll probably never get that done I thought this might be a suitable avenue. My purpose in telling our story is not to extricate sympathy for us because we have had a wonderful life, but rather to comfort others going some major trial or illness in their life. As a Christian I believe God had a purpose for allowing this illness into our lives, not just to make our lives “interesting” and I don’t want to miss that purpose. I know sometimes when we are going through a difficult time we sometimes feel as if we are all alone. I think it helps to hear of someone else’s trials even though different than our own and how they handled them. As a song I once heard said,” If I can lighten someone else’s life along the way then my living shall not be in vain.” I hope we can do just that and maybe bring a smile or two along the way.

Your friend in farming bringing you food with integrity.

Late April-May 2023

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This is what asparagus does to you when you get home too late to cut it on Saturday night and are too exhausted to get up early and cut it before church on Sunday.

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This is what a hard freeze does to potatoes in the spring.

The first photo is after the April frost; the second is April 27, four days later.

Jim Thomas, Sr. and the Farmer’s Market

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Jim Thomas, Sr., in one of his three favorite places

This post is in honor of Jim Thomas, Sr., born December 16, 1933, called home peacefully September 30, 2021, surrounded by family at the farm in rural Marshall, after a short struggle with cancer (obituary here, funeral video here). Jim was a fast picker of potatoes and strawberries. “He loved to pick ’em, and he loved to eat ’em,” his son said this morning. “I never could pick as fast as he could, though I tried.” His back couldn’t take picking and potato digging anymore, recently, so he instead took on the work of washing and bagging and prepping of the kale and other produce. Next to church, the activity Jim lived for every week was going to the Farmer’s Market. Even in the winter, when the market starts an hour later, the lights in Jim’s house would be on at 4:00 a.m. “I had my alarm set anyway,” he’d say. Farmer’s Market days were long days for Jim, as the family often didn’t get back home until 5:00 p.m., and the ride in the back seat of the truck was uncomfortable, but coming to market was one of the activities he loved the most, to the end. Every Share-Life customer and fellow vendor is already missing his smiling face, and his straightforward, kind, dedicated and devout nature behind the table Saturday mornings. His spirit will never be far from us at the market.

–R. Brekhus, webmaster & longtime customer

No CSA in 2021

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We regret that there is no CSA option available in 2021. We are a small family farm. Jim Sr. has had some health challenges recently,  and Rose has an immune disorder that makes it difficult to bring on additional labor, without exacerbating her condition. So, while we hope to be in a better situation eventually, we had to make the difficult decision not to continue with the CSA this year. We will continue to sell our produce at the Columbia Farmer’s Market and supply our local restaurant customers.

What to do with those lovely long beans

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This week’s CSA bag contains these marvelous foot-long Asian green beans, some cute little red peppers, and onions and garlic, among other things. If you’ve never cooked these beans before, consider a stir-fry, like this Chinese Long Beans With Black Pepper recipe from Food & Wine magazine (and use the beans, the onions and the red peppers), or Tiny Urban Kitchen’s Stir-Fried Chinese Long Beans With Garlic. The trick is, avoid boiling or steaming these guys, or they’ll just get floppy.  In a pinch, it’s even possible to make a tasty vegetarian main dish with them, even if your only cooking device is a microwave oven – just be sure to also pick up some of those tomatoes from Share-Life, too! See Seriously Asian for more tips on cooking these flavorful summer vegetables.