photo: Michelle Johnsen

You spoke, we listened! The 2019 Foraging Intensive has been redesigned to make it an even more valuable and enjoyable learning experience. Changes include a more academic approach to learning, smaller class size, more hands on activities, more sampling of nature’s best wild flavors, and more classes in a shorter time period. Check out the website for more information and to register.

What is regenerative agriculture? In week 10 of this 12 part series, we’ll consider this indicator of an ecologically healthy farm system: increasing levels of food self sufficiency. You’ve heard the statistics about how far food travels from the place where it was grown before it is eaten. On average, food travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles to get from farm to table.  The current food distribution system is unwisely dependent on fossil fuels, subsidizes unhealthy food products, depletes the soil, pollutes water, and weakens rural economies. For every dollar spent on food an average of only 14.8 cents goes to the farmer. In addition, relying on food from outside of our local area leaves us vulnerable to anything that suddenly slows or halts transportation such as extreme weather events, fuel shortages, or acts of terrorism. For these reasons and more, we are working to increase the diversity of crops grown at the Horn Farm, and we collaborate with other local farms such as Rising Locust Farm to make it easier for people to meet their food needs from the local area.

Upcoming events:
December 8 – Foraging: Winter

2019 Beekeeper Training
2019 Regenerative Farming Internship
2019 Foraging Intensive

See you at the farm!

photo: Michelle Johnsen

The farm season is winding down. The farm interns have graduated. We’re mulching the fields with leaves or straw, organizing tools, taking inventory of seeds, and sweeping out the barns and greenhouses. While we are wrapping up 2018, we are deep in planning mode for 2019. Look for more classes in the summer kitchen, a redesigned foraging intensive, and new outdoor nature exploration opportunities for youth here at the farm.

Food for our community. New farmers. Meaningful work. Ecological restoration. Skill building. Confidence building. Community building.

Please help us to continue our work in 2019 by contributing to our end of the year fundraising appeal. Please donate today! Thank you! The work we do at the Horn Farm is truly a community effort and we couldn’t do it without you!

You spoke, we listened! The 2019 Foraging Intensive has been redesigned to make it an even more valuable and enjoyable learning experience.

photo: Michelle Johnsen

Changes feature a more academic approach to learning, smaller class size, more hands on activities, more sampling of nature’s best wild flavors, and more classes in a shorter time period. Check out the website for more information and to register.
What is regenerative agriculture? In week nine of this 12 part series, we’ll consider this indicator of an ecologically healthy farm system: increasing plant health. Soil is the foundation of that process. Soil health determines plant health.  Healthy plants produce foods that taste and smell good because they are full of good, nutritious minerals and micronutrients. Delicious is good for you!

Farming began in the rich soils found in river valleys where annual floods would replenish the biologically vital minerals lost when crops were harvested. Once this natural cycle of restoration was interrupted, farming lead to less and less fertile soil over time. Since the nutrition level in our food is directly related to the types and quantity of minerals and nutrients in our soils, the food we eat has become less nutritious (and less delicious!) For more information about the connections among soil, crop, and nutrition, check out the Bionutrient Food Association. We work to build soil health by keeping the soil covered and by adding lots of organic matter like leaves, straw, and compost.

Upcoming events:
December 8 – Foraging: Winter

2019 Beekeeper Training
2019 Regenerative Farming Internship
2019 Foraging Intensive

See you at the farm!

Winter snow arrived early this year.

There’s still plenty of food to be found. We’ve got kale, scallions, and leeks that we planted this season. There’s also plenty of wild edibles, too. Tomorrow’s foraging class will focus on roots. Now that the plants have begun to drawn their energies into their root systems to store them for winter,  it’s a good time to dig them. They can be used as tasty root vegetables, or we can dry them for tea, and use them to make medicine. Class will be held outdoors, so dress for the weather!

If you can’t join us tomorrow, consider joining us for the final class of the year: Winter Foraging on December 8th. There is still plenty for the adventurous forager to add to the dinner table. Come see what we can find and utilize as the months proceed into winter!

What is regenerative agriculture? In week eight of this 12 part series, we’ll consider this indicator of an ecologically healthy farm system: increasing genetic diversity.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports the following.

Crop genetic diversity is still concentrated mainly in regions known as “centres of diversity”, and located in the developing world. Farmers in these areas, who still practice traditional agriculture, cultivate local varieties known as “land races” that have been selected over many generations. Closely related species that survive in the wild are known as “wild relatives” of crops. Together, land races and their wild relatives are the richest repositories of crop genetic diversity.

FAO estimates that since the beginning of this century about 75 percent of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost. We are becoming increasingly dependent on fewer and fewer crop varieties and, as a result, a rapidly diminishing gene pool. The primary reason is that commercial, uniform varieties are replacing traditional ones—even, and most threateningly, in the centres of diversity. When farmers abandon native land races to plant new varieties, the traditional ones die out.

Centuries of human and natural selection have resulted in thousands of genetically diverse breeds of domestic animals adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions and human needs. Some are resistant to parasites or disease, for example, while others are adapted to humidity or drought or extremes of heat and cold. Animal genetic diversity, represented by this wide range of breeds, is essential to sustain the productivity of agriculture.

When we purchase, collect, or save seed, we are aware of the importance of genetic diversity as well as the value of locally adapted varieties of plants. As weather patterns change and temperatures rise, our planting palette will include some species that thrive in traditionally warmer climates.

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

2019 Beekeeper Training
2019 Regenerative Farming Internship

See you at the farm!