Happenings

Andrew doing the last of the garlic bed preparation with the amazing broadfork from Rebel Garden Tools.

What is regenerative agriculture? In week six of this 12 part series, we’ll consider this indicator of an ecologically healthy farm system: increasing landscape diversity. Landscape diversity occurs at various scales: plot, field, field perimeter, farm, and region. When we talk about diversity we are looking at moving along a continuum from simple systems to more complex systems. Ecological systems can be examined as overlapping features such as soil life, soil cover, water features, shelter, nesting habitat, flowering plants, native plants, plant structure, and corridor connectivity. Then we ask how each of these features can be enhanced to better support beneficial wildlife such as pollinator insects, predatory insects, reptiles and amphibians, birds, bats, and other wild mammals.

As an example, we can support predatory insects, which protect our crops from insect pests, by keeping snags (a standing dead or dying tree) and decomposing logs, by providing habitat close to the crop fields, by planting alternate native host plants (for food when crop pests are not present) and other sources of nectar and pollen, by providing clean water fro drinking, nest building, egg laying, by keeping some brush pile, bunch grasses, or leaf piles, and by minimizing tillage. This complexity can look ‘messy’ to people accustomed neat rows and bare soil.  We know that messiness is teeming with life!When we see a beautiful black rat snake here on the farm, we feel grateful. We know the snake is not venomous and poses no threat to humans. The snake’s presence also indicates that the soil and water are free of poison and that snake has adequate habitat. The snake eats lots of mice, voles, and moles and is welcome on the farm!

Upcoming events:
November 17 – Bread Baking Full Day Workshop
November 17 – Foraging: Roots
December 8 – Foraging: Winter

The list of classes for 2018 is getting shorter as the season winds down, but we are hard at work planning new and exciting things for 2019! If you have an idea for a class or workshop you’d like to offer, let’s talk!

See you at the farm!

What is regenerative agriculture? In week five of this 12 part series, we’ll consider this indicator of an ecologically healthy farm system: increasing nutrient cycling.  This explanation relies heavily on the very cool, open-source online textbook website created by Rice University. Read the entire chapter here: https://cnx.org/contents/s8Hh0oOc@13.7:1KV9fus6@9/Biogeochemical-Cycles. All images credit: work by John M. Evans and Howard Perlman, United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Nature produces no wastes. Everything gets used by something else. Mineral nutrients are cycled through ecosystems and their environment. Of particular importance are water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. All of these cycles have major impacts on ecosystem structure and function.

Water from the land and oceans enters the atmosphere by evaporation or sublimation, where it condenses into clouds and falls as rain or snow. Precipitated water may enter freshwater bodies or infiltrate the soil. The cycle is complete when surface or groundwater reenters the ocean.

Carbon dioxide gas exists in the atmosphere and is dissolved in water. Photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide gas to organic carbon, and respiration cycles the organic carbon back into carbon dioxide gas. Long-term storage of organic carbon occurs when matter from living organisms is buried deep underground and becomes fossilized. Volcanic activity and, more recently, human emissions bring this stored carbon back into the carbon cycle.

Nitrogen enters the living world from the atmosphere through nitrogen-fixing bacteria. This nitrogen and nitrogenous waste from animals is then processed back into gaseous nitrogen by soil bacteria, which also supply terrestrial food webs with the organic nitrogen they need.

In nature, phosphorus exists as the phosphate ion. Weathering of rocks and volcanic activity releases phosphate into the soil, water, and air, where it becomes available to terrestrial food webs. Phosphate enters the oceans in surface runoff, groundwater flow, and river flow. Phosphate dissolved in ocean water cycles into marine food webs. Some phosphate from the marine food webs falls to the ocean floor, where it forms sediment.

Sulfur is an essential part of the amino acid cysteine and is involved in the formation of proteins. Sulfur dioxide from the atmosphere becomes available to terrestrial and marine ecosystems when it is dissolved in precipitation as weak sulfuric acid or when it falls directly to Earth as fallout. Weathering of rocks also makes sulfates available to terrestrial ecosystems. Decomposition of living organisms returns sulfates to the ocean, soil, and atmosphere.

The cycling of these elements is interconnected. For example, the movement of water is critical for the leaching of nitrogen and phosphate into rivers, lakes, and oceans. The ocean is also a major reservoir for carbon. Thus, mineral nutrients are cycled, either rapidly or slowly, through the entire biosphere and from one living organism to another. Understanding these cycles and their inter-relatedness enables us to make good choices about the ways we choose to farm.

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Shares
This is the final pick up week for 2018 shares! Here is what we plan to include in this week’s CSA shares:
Potatoes
Kale
Swiss chard
Sweet peppers
Hot peppers
Onions
Garlic
Winter squash
Beets
Sweet potatoes
Sunchokes
Leeks
Popcorn
Mixed herbs

Upcoming events:
October 26 – Offal: Tongue, Brains, and More!
November 17 – Bread Baking Full Day Workshop
November 17 – Foraging: Roots
December 8 – Foraging: Winter

See you at the farm!

Working on the farm this week was especially satisfying because of the bright sunshine and cool weather. We harvested sunchokes otherwise know as Jerusalem artichokes. Sunchokes are the edible tuber of a species of sunflower native to eastern North America. Check out these recipes for sunchokes roasted, pickled, puréed, or made into chips. Our CSA members will get sunchokes in their vegetable share. We will also have them available in our online farmstand.
While harvesting sunchokes, we discovered a patch of pawpaw seedlings! Apparently the pawpaw seeds we tossed into the field last fall took root and sprouted. We were so excited, that we took the time to plant them in pots. Hopefully, they will over winter and we will plant them in the spring.Monday marked week one of the 25 week long Woodland Steward Training. Armed with simple tools: axe, saw, hoe, and loppers, interns Josh, Kelsey, Heather, and Andrew will immerse themselves in learning biology, ecology, and restoration design while their labor helps to regenerate the Horn Farm landscape. Welcome!

What is regenerative agriculture? In week four of this 12 part series, we’ll consider this indicator of an ecologically healthy farm system: increasing water quality and quantity. A healthy landscape stores and filters water, cools the surrounding atmosphere, creates mist and clouds, and prevents flooding and drought. Complex systems involving all kingdoms of life are responsible for the water cycle on land. As we weave the woods and streams back into the farm, we are adding structures like check dams. The check dams slow the velocity of water flow so that erosion is reduced or eliminated.As we layout the stream side planting, we are planting trees on contour to help slow, spread, and sink rain the falls on the fields.We are always thinking of ways to restore healthy water cycles on the farm. This allows us to be resilient in the face of future floods and drought. Our water stewardship also affects everyone downstream. We take great care to make choices which make us good neighbors.

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Shares
Here is what we plan to include in this week’s CSA shares:
Potatoes
Kale
Sweet peppers
Hot peppers
Onions
Garlic
Winter squash – Acorn & Butternut
Beets
Sweet potatoes
Sunchokes
Leeks
Parsley
Sage

Upcoming events:
October 26 – Offal: Tongue, Brains, and More!
November 17 – Bread Baking Full Day Workshop
November 17 – Foraging: Roots
December 8 – Foraging: Winter

See you at the farm!