Soil…Our Hope for a Climate Solution

By Richard de Wilde & Andrea Yoder

In this week’s newsletter we’d like to return to our series of articles pointing to “the future of our food.”  The question on our minds this week is “Can we feed the world…without destroying it first?”  While we didn’t intend to write an article about climate change, here we are once again being faced with issues of climate change as it directly relates to this question.  Food First is an organization dedicated to ending the injustices that cause hunger and helping communities to take back control of their food systems.  Their work is centered around research, education and action.  This organization was founded by Frances Moore Lappé who, back in 1971, wrote Diet for a Small Planet.  Lappé laid out the evidence at that time representing several key points including the fact that there was 1 ½ times more than enough food to feed everyone on Earth, hunger is due to poverty and not scarcity, and the way the developed world produces and consumes food is damaging the planet.  Here we are over forty years later and the fact still remains the same that we still have enough food to feed the world and our corporate, industrial food system continues to damage the planet.  In Food First’s Summer 2017 “News & Views” publication, they stated “…the corporate food system contributes up to ⅓ of the world’s greenhouse gases, making industrial agriculture one of the main forces behind climate change.”² In this week’s article we want to face this topic of climate change and look at how we can turn the tide, quickly, so we have a future.

Asparagus field with a well established
cover crop including a variety of clovers.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that “Without additional mitigation efforts beyond those in place today, and even with adaptation, warming by the end of the 21^st century will lead to high to very high risk of severe, widespread and irreversible impacts globally.” ³  The Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) at Tufts University released Climate Policy Brief No. 4 in April 2017 entitled, Hope Below Our Feet, Soil as a Climate Solution.¹ In their report they quote climate scientist James Hansen who, in 1988, warned that:  “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO₂ will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm, but likely less than that.”  They follow his quote with the fact that atmospheric CO₂ levels today exceed 400 ppm and are still on the rise.  Carbon is not the culprit here, it is essential to our existence.  Climate change is happening because there is too much carbon in the atmosphere and the reason it’s there is largely due to human activities.  Carbon cycles in nature between five pools where carbon is stored.  Those five places include the atmosphere, oceans, fossils, soil and our biosphere.  The carbon cycle was in balance for many, many years cycling between these pools in a way that was beneficial to all life forms.  The problems started when we figured out how to extract carbon from fossils and use it as fuel, etc.  We disrupted the cycle and threw off the balance by putting more carbon into the atmosphere than the oceans, plants and biosphere could cycle.  The opening paragraph in the GDAE Climate Policy Brief¹ mentioned above reads as follows: 

“A major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is clearly needed, but there is increasing scientific consensus that even if achieved, this will not be enough.  In addition to a drastic reduction in carbon emissions, carbon must be removed from the atmosphere.  An important solution is beneath our feet—the massive capacity of the earth’s soils to remove and store carbon from the atmosphere.” 

This field is ready for winter with a
young cover crop of rye in place.

The problem is the lack of balance.  Soil, which holds about three times more carbon than the atmosphere, offers us hope for restoring this balance of carbon in nature that humans have disrupted.    As farmers, this excites us and truly gives us hope.  Why?  Because we understand firsthand how resilient and beneficial soil can be when properly cared for and many of these strategies to store carbon in the soil are things we’ve been practicing on our farm for many years now!  Over 40 years ago I (Richard) was inspired by the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner who taught me about the value of capturing solar energy and putting it into the soil.  Through the process of photosynthesis, plants have the ability to take CO₂ from the atmosphere along with water and sunlight to turn it into nutrients for the plant that develop root structures and carry these nutrients into the soil.  The nutrients feed the biological life in the soil and deposit carbon.  Carbon rich soil with high biodiversity is healthy, resilient soil.  I quickly learned the value of cover crops and we still make it a priority to plant a cover crop in a field as soon as we take our main crop off.  Cover crops fix nitrogen in the soil, hold soil in place and, in the end, break down and become part of the soil and build organic matter.  When I started planting cover crops, I did so for benefits including increasing soil fertility and tilth and increasing organic matter in the soil thereby increasing the resilience of the soil to hold water in a time of drought and drain water in times of excess moisture.  I never imagined we’d be in the position we are in now where planting cover crops and other basic, natural agricultural practices could be the key we need to regenerate and heal our broken cycle and reverse something as big as climate change!  In contrast, “Intensive forms of farming using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, are a leading cause of degradation of soils worldwide, as are destructive grazing practices in pasturelands.  But through appropriate practices that would enhance carbon pools in soils and biota, the potential terrestrial carbon sink capacity could be restored, essentially reversing its historic depletion, in what has been called the ‘recarbonization’ of the biosphere.”¹  

Our young piglets enjoy romping
around in the lush pasture grasses.

Our grass-fed Red Angus beef cattle are
rotationally grazed on our nutrient rich pastures.

There are several approaches we can take to regenerate our soils and enhance the natural functioning of ecosystems to rebuild what we’ve lost.  The GDAE report outlines some important regenerative strategies to increase the ability of soils to store carbon.  In cultivated soils, strategies include things such as the use of cover crops, planting trees and legumes to fix atmospheric nitrogen, feeding the soil with manure and compost, decreasing erosion and soil loss from sloping soils through terracing, and increasing soil microbiology with fungi and other microorganisms.  Pasture management in animal production systems is another important factor.  Sustainable pasture management includes planned rotational grazing which can have a remarkable impact on regenerating pasture grasses, increasing soil fertility, and reversing and preventing desertification of soils.   We also need to consider forested soils.  There have been astounding acres of valuable forest lands cleared for industrial farming and agricultural purposes.  We need to stop deforestation and be promoting reforestation to regenerate degraded forest ecosystems.  All of these efforts have the net benefit of supporting the movement of excess carbon out of the atmosphere through the use of plants and putting it back into the soil.  While it’s pretty remarkable to be able to use plants to combat climate change in this way, there is a twofold benefit from regenerating soils.  More plants on the land and more carbon returning to the soil results in not only decreasing atmospheric carbon, but also leads to increased soil fertility which also can have a significant impact on production and yield as well as the quality of food.  This will also help us continue to produce food more reliably in the face of weather extremes which is our current reality.  However, remember that hunger is not caused by scarcity but rather poverty.  “What causes hunger is not lack of food, but lack of access to decent land and work.  Most of the chronically hungry in the world are marginalized farmers and rural workers.  It is not how much we produce that is important, but who produces it, how, and who profits.  With 70% employment in agriculture in many parts of the world, simply producing more food in countries like Kenya, Uganda, or India will not solve hunger if there are no decent and stable livelihoods in the countryside.  Industrial farming displaces workers—so many we would need unrealistically fast economic growth, evenly spread around the globe to create enough jobs to employ all the world’s peasant farmers.  To end hunger, we don’t need to produce more crops per se—we need to produce more decent livelihoods.”⁵  We need to turn food production back over to small farmers, thereby giving them food security by giving them their jobs back and allowing them to preserve their cultural heritage and feed their own local markets and be part of their local economy.  In this manner human needs are met in a way that restores ecosystems and communities instead of degrading them.  It’s an obvious win-win situation!  We’d encourage you to read the GDAE’s policy brief for yourself as there are more details and benefits from employing these strategies than we can fully report on here and truly does offer us hope.  We need to face the realities that industrial agriculture has no place in the future of our food system.  Eliminating this form of agriculture would gain us great strides in combating climate change, but furthermore if it were traded for regenerative farming practices we would actually be able to make some headway.  The answer to our original question is “Yes, we can feed the world without destroying it.”  The question now is “Will we?” 

If you’d like to learn more about how the soil can lead us in regenerative efforts to combat climate change as well as see some examples of how other countries are implementing action and incentives for this purpose, we’d like to suggest the following resources:

• "The Soil Story", a video by Kiss the Ground that clearly summarizes the carbon cycle and the role of regenerative agriculture in less than 4 minutes!  If you do nothing else, watch this short video.
•  Soil 4 Climate is a nonprofit organization that is an advocate for soil restoration as a climate solution.  They have a lot of informative resources available on their website for both education as well as action. 
•  Global Development & Environment Institute (GDAE) at Tufts University offers expertise in the areas of economics, policy, science and technology as they relate to global development and issues related to the environment.  They have numerous publications available on their website including the Climate Policy Brief we cited above, Hope Below Our Feet. 

References:

1.  Codur, A.M., S. Itzkan, W. Moomaw, K. Thidemann, and J. Harris.  2017.  Hope Below Our Feet, Soil As a Climate Solution.  
2. Holt-Gimenez, Eric.  2017.  The Politics of Food:  The More Things Stay the Same, the More They Change.  Food First News & Views. Volume 39. 
3. IPCC 2013.  Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report, Summary For Policy Makers.  
4. Kruzic, Ahna and Holt-Gimenez, Eric.  2017.  The Politics of Food:  Feeding the World Without Destroying It.  Food First News & Views. Volume 39. 
5. Shattuck, Annie.  2017.   Food, Climate, and the Myths that Keep our Planet Hot.  Food First Backgrounder, Volume 23.
   
   

Adapting To Climate Change

By Andrea Yoder

The Bad Axe River along Harmony Valley Farm

     We realize there are differing opinions about climate change, what is causing it, what should be done about it, etc. As we reflect upon our recent wet September and then an unseasonably warm and beautiful October and November, we (as farmers) would be foolish to ignore the fact that the climate and weather patterns are changing. While we were experiencing excessive rainfall, California and the upper northeast portions of the US experienced a drought. Since 2007 we’ve experienced three substantial “Hundred Year Floods,” but we also had a drought year stuck in there as well. Weather patterns are becoming more extreme and erratic. Despite these changes, we all still need to eat. This  means we need to figure out how to adapt to these changes so we can continue to do our job!

Photo Borrowed from UCS website

    In June of this year, The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) published a document entitled, Toward Climate Resilience:  A Framework and Principles for Science-Based Adaptation. Their framework starts with a concept they call “climate resilience gap,” defined as “the scope and extent of climate change-driven conditions for which people remain unprepared, leaving them open to potentially harmful impacts.”  There will always be times when we are faced with weather-related situations beyond our control. Despite our best efforts we may still suffer losses and major impact. But what can we do to adapt to these changes and do our best to be prepared and decrease the impact we experience from climate-change driven conditions?
     I think this is an important question for all farmers to ask themselves now. As we look at our own situation, we look for places of vulnerability in our operation. In doing so, we made a decision to stop farming one area of land we have leased for several years now. It is very prone to flooding and is not the most resilient soil. Several years ago we started leasing some new land that is “high and dry,” away from rivers and streams. We have transitioned the land to certified organic and are ready to put it into full production next year. In wet years, we value land like this. On the flip side, in a drought year we can have challenges with some of our higher ground that is further away from a water source. In some cases we don’t have a water source to irrigate from and in others we may not have permits to irrigate. We cannot live in fear of rivers and creeks and it isn’t realistic to move our farm out of the valley. There is no perfect situation, rather we value the diversity we have with different areas we farm and do our best to mitigate risk.

New in November 2016: Dike In Field

    Following the excessive rain this fall, Richard and many of the field crew took advantage of the time now available to work on some drainage improvements. In one area they rerouted the drainage ditch to take water around a field and built a nice berm to slow water down and shunt it in the right direction as it exits a culvert. We have another field that is located right along the Bad Axe River. The crew worked in this area to improve the drainage around this field so rain water can run off the field in the wheel tracks and is adequately drained away to avoid washouts and excessive wet spots. They also built a little dike! (Richard tapped into his Dutch heritage).  It will give us two feet of vertical protection to hold back the river if we have another flood type event. We also have a larger field that had some wet spots and areas that just didn’t drain well after it rained. In years like this where we had rainy day after rainy day, the plants didn’t thrive very well in those wet, soggy areas. It took several days of intense work to get the grade of the field worked out and build some drainage ditches around the perimeter of the field, but it looks great right now and we’re anxious to see how these changes work next year!
     We’ve also removed trees, branches and debris from the river as well as dry washes. If we don’t get these things out of the way, they will build up and create dams which obstruct water from flowing where it’s supposed to go and potentially can spill over into field and roadways. Management…it’s constant management and observation. You don’t clean or fix something up one time and assume it’s good for ever. Water is powerful and changes things as it moves. You have to constantly reassess the situation each year and especially after a major event.

Cover Crop: Built-in Soil Protection

     But what if we swing to the other end of the spectrum and have drought? One of our first defenses is to be ready to irrigate. Irrigation equipment is an expensive investment and some years it may be used minimally. In a drought year, it may be the only way we have to get even minimal amounts of water to vulnerable crops. Over the past few years we’ve also started burying drip tape in fields before we plant the crop. In many cases this is a more efficient way to water a crop as you lose less water to evaporation.
     We realize we have a lot to learn and will continue to assess what we can do to adapt as well as what we can do to contribute in positive ways to decreasing factors contributing to climate change. This is a big topic to explore, but we all have to assume responsibility for doing our part to care for our corner of our world.

The SoilMobile...Come see it for yourself!

By Andrea Yoder

     We’re moving into that point in the season that Farmer Richard likes to refer to as the “the crack between two worlds,” otherwise known as fall. Summer crops are winding down, fall crops are starting to come in and before long we’ll be harvesting the final crops for winter storage. This is also the time when Farmer Richard makes it a priority to “put the fields to bed for the winter.”  This means applying generous amounts of compost and planting cover crops. So why is this such a priority?  First of all, we don’t like to leave fields vulnerable to erosion by leaving them barren over the winter and the cover crops help keep the soil in place. The other reason cover crops and compost are high priority is because they help replenish and build the soil. The combination of cover crops and applications of compost are vital to ensuring our soils remain rich, full of biodiversity, and have bioavailable nutrients in place for next year’s crop.  Soil is nothing to take for granted…it is literally our life source, and it directly impacts our survival. So, as we set out, year after year, to grow food for you and your family, we take great care to ensure we are doing what we can to enrich and care for our soil. We admit, we’re still learning. Yes, after over 40 years of farming Richard is still learning about how to care for our soil! The bottom line is not all soil is created equally, and it’s just one more reason why it’s so important that we all understand where our food comes from, how the soil it grows in is cared for and form that connection between our food choices, our health and well-being and the environment.
     Our Harvest Party is coming up on September 25, and we’d like to introduce you to one of our friends who will be joining us for the day, Sandy Syburg. You’ll know Sandy when you see him…he’ll be the guy with a smile on his face talking about soil, compost, microbes…oh, and he’ll be standing beside a big bus with a purple cow on the back, a farm scene painted on the side, and quotes about soil written all over the outside of the bus.  Sandy is the President/Co-Founder of Purple Cow Organics, located in Wisconsin, and what I just described to you is Sandy’s SoilMobile. We have worked with Purple Cow for several years now. They make all of the potting soil we use to grow our transplants in the greenhouse and for the past two years we’ve purchased compost from them by the semi-truck load to put on our fields in the fall. We’ve invited Sandy to come to the Harvest Party with his SoilMobile, not because he’s looking to sell you potting soil or compost, but because he has a passion for soil and wants to help others learn more about how important it is for all of us…not just farmers! Sandy’s SoilMobile is actually a repurposed school bus that runs on alternative fuel. 2015 was declared the “International Year of Soils,” and Sandy had the idea to use the SoilMobile as a tool to bring attention to this important topic. Sandy toured around the Midwest in this bus with an educational mission to share this important message:  “The key to life as we know it is healthy soil, and if a nutrient is missing from soil it is not in the food we eat. Plants take nutrients from soil, and our soils are often depleted of the nutrients that plants, animals and humans need. Therefore our soil needs to be rejuvenated.”  Among Sandy’s messages: … “instead of loading soil with chemical fertilizers to make up for nutrients, microbes and organic matter lost over time, replace them organically. It can take hundreds of years to create just a small plot of healthy soil and less than two decades to destroy its usefulness. With soil under siege, everyone should be involved in learning and implementing ways to improve this vital ingredient in growing healthy plants and food.”  Sandy’s message isn’t just for farmers, he’ll talk to anyone! Urban gardeners, community gardens, basically anyone who is interested in growing healthy plants and/or eating healthy food.
     I had the opportunity to talk to Sandy last week to find out more about how he became so passionate about soil. I found out that Sandy actually has many interests and a whole hosts of projects that spin off of each other. To start off, Sandy is actually a “farm boy.”  He grew up on his grandparents’ farm. His grandmother had a 3 acre garden and grew vegetables for the five families that lived on the farm. Sandy’s job was to manage the compost pile under his grandmother’s direction. He remembers her talking passionately about “feeding the soil” and considered it criminal to let any organic residue go to waste. In fact, he remembers his grandmother seeing someone burning leaves in their yard….she did not approve. She sent her grandchildren to pick up the leaves and bring them back to their compost pile. She also referred to hauling manure as “hauling sunshine.”  Thus the concept and practice of making compost and respecting the integrity of soil was something instilled in Sandy’s mind even as a youth. Little did he know that it would become a major part of his life’s work!
     Sandy has been making compost since the mid 80’s. Over the years he’s been involved with promoting and developing the practice of composting.  In the early 90’s there were only a handful of compost facilities in Wisconsin. Over the years this picture has changed and now there are over 200 composting facilities in Wisconsin. In 1993 the DNR banned yard materials from going to the landfill. In 2005-2006, Sandy worked with the state to write new guidelines for composting. This is great because we are no longer sending usable natural products to the landfill. Instead, these residuals are being converted into usable nutrients. As Sandy says..“It’s a no-brainer! Why wouldn’t you allow nature to capture nitrogen in the air instead of having to buy it or use synthetic fertilizer.”
     As we concluded our talk, Sandy reminded me that everything is so connected. We are at the intersection of local food and an understanding about how, where and by whom it was grown. Farmers are learning more profitable and sustainable ways of farming by managing nutrients differently and returning carbon to the soil. Consumers are becoming more ecologically aware and we hope more are becoming interested in the connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our food.
     In case you haven’t noticed a theme in our newsletters recently….we’d like to encourage each of you to build and form a strong connection with the source of where your food is being grown and learn more about how it is grown. We hope to see you at the Harvest Party!

The Soil Will Save Us by Kristin Ohlson

Photo Borrowed from Author Kristin Ohlson's Website

A Book Review By Bobbie Harte

     If you’re reading this newsletter, you already know many of the benefits of organic farming. You intuit that organic practices make tastier food, encourage biodiversity, and promote clean air and water. What you may not be aware of is that soil is connected to climate change, that land mismanagement contributes to 30 percent of the carbon emissions that enter the atmosphere, or that certain farming and land use practices may even reverse global warming. Striking the perfect chord of reality and optimism, Kristin Ohlson’s 2014 book, The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet, explores just that.
     In college, I chose Botany 101 to fulfill a five-credit science requirement. I like plants and I wanted to learn more about them, but the class was a disappointment.  We covered the biology and chemistry of photosynthesis, and we grew plants in milk containers and exposed them to different kinds of light. Sadly, I don’t remember anything else. What I really wanted from that class was something like Ohlson’s book: an exploration of the complexity of the soil and its connections to all of life. The book begins with a discussion of carbon farming and goes into the science of soil and photosynthesis. Ohlson effectively presents complicated scientific ideas in a digestible way, and she seamlessly shifts from details to the big picture. With her engaging writing style, Ohlson takes us to visit scientists, farmers and ranchers from Zimbabwe to North Dakota to Western Australia, as well as urban landscape managers in New York, Portland and Boston.
     Healthy soil prevents droughts and floods, purifies water, grows healthy food and sequesters carbon.  Soil is a collection of fungi, worms, bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, microarthropods, earthworms, beetles, voles and more. How many microorganisms are in a cup of healthy soil? “More than all the humans who have ever lived,” Ohlson writes.
     Working together, those living things create healthy soil. “Weirdly, we’ve all been schooled in the notion that plants are takers, removing nutrients from the soil and leaving it poorer,” Ohlson writes. “But when plants are allowed to work with their partners in the soil, they’re givers. They feed carbon exudates to the community of bacteria and fungi to keep them thrumming with life and pulling mineral nutrients from the bedrock as well as from particles of sand, silt, and clay….When the predator soil organisms eat the bacteria and fungi, all those nutrients are released near the plant. There’s always enough, unless human or some other force messes up the system.”

Mulch and cover crops can be an alternative
means to amend and protect soil integrity

     How can humans mess it up? Chemical fertilizer is one way. Scientists determined long ago that nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are essential for plant growth, and most chemical fertilizers are a combination of the three. But scientists have discovered more and more essential nutrients, and healthy soil is not a simple recipe with a list of ingredients and instructions for their combination. Plants obtain the minerals they need through complicated interactions with soil microorganisms. “Even after tilling,” Ohlson writes, “soil microorganisms will still be in the soil, but they aren’t likely to provide these varied nutrients to the plants once the chemical fertilizers are applied. Simply put, these applications interfere with one of nature’s great partnerships. By the terms of this partnership, plants …distribute carbon sugars through their roots to the microorganisms in exchange for nutrients. Fertilizer disrupts this pay-as-you-go system.”  Putting nutrients at a plant’s roots via fertilizer means the plant doesn’t have to give up any carbon to get them, and the soil organisms can’t get enough food, says Ohlson, quoting USDA microbiologist Kristine Nichols. “Without their carbon meal, the mycorrhizal fungi can’t grow and stretch their strands of carbon through the soil. They and the other soil microorganisms can’t produce the glues that fix carbon in the soil and build the aggregates that hold water. They go dormant and given enough stress, can die. At that point, the soil is so depleted of life and structure that a farmer can’t get a decent crop without chemical fertilizers….” If the relationship that makes nutrients available to plants is absent, then farmers must add more and more fertilizer each year to maintain or increase yields, which in turn creates a new set of problems. The nutrients that the plants cannot absorb runs off into waterways, where it causes algal growth. This depletes the water’s oxygen which kills aquatic life.
     As I read this book, again and again I marveled at the interconnectedness of all living things. In 2015, Robert Waldinger gave a TED Talk about the 75-year Harvard study on human happiness. Waldinger is the fourth director of this study which began with 724 men in 1938. Using questionnaires, medical records, blood tests, brain scans, interviews and more, the study continues today with 60 of the remaining men, and has expanded to include wives and some 2,000 children of the original participants. So what has the Harvard study uncovered about the secrets to human happiness? People who are more connected to family, friends and community live longer, Waldinger says. “Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.” This was also the idea that stood out to me most in Ohlson’s excellent book. The key to health is relationships, whether human or microbial. Our future depends on our ability to nurture relationships, and we need to nurture them everywhere.

Note from Farmers Richard & Andrea: Soil is one of the most important components of what we do and is an essential part of life for all of us. Even after all these years of farming we continue to learn more about soil and how to care for it…..and are continually amazed by the complexity of its system. We hope you’ll consider reading this book to gain even just a glimpse into the world of soil and continue to learn along with us. In next week’s newsletter, we’ll introduce you to Sandy Syburg. Sandy is the owner of Purple Cow Organics, the company that makes our potting soil mix for the greenhouse as well as compost for our fields. Sandy is passionate about soil, loves teaching others about it and has even created a “Soil Bus” that he uses in his efforts to spread the good word about soil. He’ll be bringing the bus to our Harvest Party on September 25! See the Harvest Party Invitation sent via email for more details.

Cover Crops...Our Allies in Nutrient Management

by Richard de Wilde
Every year we are intrigued by cover crops and find ourselves wondering why more farmers don’t utilize them.  Late summer and fall is an important time of year when we start to wrap things up for the growing season, making our final passes through the fields and putting them to bed for the winter.  We remove the mulch and irrigation lines, take down tomato stakes and chop any remaining plant material (such as broccoli stalks) in the field.  Starting in mid-late summer, as soon as a crop is finished, we start this process with the goal of getting a cover crop planted as soon as possible.  We’ve been planting cover crops since August, so many fields are already covered with a lush blanket of green growth.  Cover crops are a very important part of our production system and are important for maintaining the health of our soil as well as investing in future crops we’ll take off the land.

Richard kneeling in a cover crop planting

Cover crops are an excellent example of how it pays to work in alignment with nature.  While we plant most of our cover crops in the fall, they could be planted at other times of the year in certain scenarios.  We choose cereal grains, grasses and legumes as our plants.  It’s important to understand why we plant them and what purpose they serve.  First, cover crops will out-compete any fall weeds that might germinate in a field….and we hate weeds!  There are actually some weeds that germinate and start their growth cycle in the fall. Once they are established, we have to deal with them in the spring when they start to bloom.   The more weeds we can prevent from getting established in the fall, the better it will be in the spring.   Cover crops also help hold soil in place.  Winter winds and moisture can carry precious topsoil away if there isn’t something to hold onto it.  We try to get cover crops established as soon as possible so we can maximize their growth potential and form a strong root structure to hold the soil in place and prevent erosion.

Field planted with a cover crop mix of annual rye grass,
oats, crimson clover, Japanese millet and Austrian winter peas

Another important reason for planting cover crops is to build soil health and nutrition while building a system for holding nutrients.  Cover crop plants can both synthesize and extract nutrients from their environment and then act like a sponge to take these nutrients up and hold onto them.  Through photosynthesis they are able to take carbon from the air and use it to build nutrients in the plant and soil system.  Some scientists studying climate change have theorized that if all farmers used cover crop systems, we could mitigate the problem of excess carbon and the effects of climate change.  Many nutrients in the soil are water-soluble and can be lost when they wash away with melting snow and moisture over the winter and in the spring.  If you have a plant in the soil, it will take up the nutrients and utilize or hold onto them.

This year we’ve chosen to diversify our cover crop plant mixes.  We have two different mixes.  The first mix is a combination of four different plants that have the ability to overwinter.  This means they will start to grow again in the spring time.  We plant this mix in fields that we do not plan to plant early crops in.  This mix includes hairy vetch and mammoth red clover which are both legumes.  The other two components are annual rye grass and cereal rye.  Each component of the mix has a specific purpose.  The legumes are important because they have the ability to take nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil.  Annual rye grass is a fast-growing, aggressive plant that can out-compete weeds.  While it’s part of the overwinter mix for this purpose, it’s actually one component that will not come back in the spring.  Cereal rye is important because it takes up the nutrients, including the nitrogen synthesized by the legumes, and acts like the sponge to hold onto them.  They release them into the soil as needed, or at the end of their life cycle when we cut the cover crop and work it back into the soil.

Austrian winter peas, rye and clover in our cover crop mix.

Our second mix contains five components that will winter-kill.  While this means that the plants will die when we get temperatures of 10°F or less, these amazing plants can and will continue to grow (slowly) up until this point.  This is yet another reason that cover crops are so amazing!  We use this mix on fields that we know we’ll need to get into early in the spring to plant some of our early crops such as parsnips, salad greens, early cabbage, kohlrabi, peas, etc.  This mix also contains the annual rye grass for its fast-growing abilities.  The nitrogen-fixing legumes in this mix include winter peas and crimson clover.  The sponges in this mix include two cereal grains, oats & Japanese millet.  While creating these mixes has added a level of complexity to the process, it also has added a higher level of diversity to our cover crop system which in turn will create a wider diversity of microbes in the soil.

Our standard operating procedure when we finish harvesting a crop is to immediately follow with the chopper to break down any remaining plant material, then do a light disking.  Next, we spread compost and then the cover crop seeds are planted.  This happens fast and the whole process can be completed in 24-36 hours!  This is very time-sensitive and every day matters because you really want to maximize the growth of the cover crop while the fall days are still warm.  Of course we need moisture in the soil to germinate the seeds, so sometimes we dance with the weather and try to time the seeding right before or after a rain.

Using cover crops is a very efficient way to hold and add nutrients to the soil.  Once the crop is planted, everything happens in place.  There is no additional need to haul or spread additional fertilizer…the plant does all the work for us!  Management, teamwork and timeliness are key components to making this all come together.

We are what we eat….so we better make sure it’s good!

by Farmer Richard

There is a lot happening at the farm this time of year. We’re running a race against time to harvest as much as we can before winter sets in for good. We’re busy planting some of next year’s crops already…garlic, sunchokes and horseradish are just a few. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, we also have to start thinking ahead to the next season as this is a crucial time of the year to lay the foundation for next year’s crops. The nutritional well-being of our soils and plants is paramount to the success of our crops, our health and yours! Our philosophy has long been to provide our plants with everything they need for healthy, vigorous growth. Healthy plants are strong & can defend themselves. They can outgrow the weed competition and insects are not attracted to them. They are also more resistant to disease. The result is dependable production, higher yields, and food that tastes really good! While this is a basic concept of good organic farming, it is not easy. However, we can attest to the fact that it actually works!

Just as with human health, a lot has to go into the system for everything to function optimally. Right now we’re in the midst of reviewing our annual soil tests. Every fall we take samples from our fields and send them off to a soil lab where they are analyzed for a variety of nutrients and indicators of soil health. One of the important results we always look at on our soil test is the CEC, cation exchange capacity. Simply put, CEC is an indicator of the organic matter in the soil and the soil’s ability to hold nutrients. We are blessed with some very rich soil in our valley. In particular, the fields on our home farm are a soil type known as silt loam. These fields have a high CEC, which we can see on our test results, but also in the quality of the crops that grow in these fields. Soils with high CEC are more resilient and have a more stable soil structure. They hold water and nutrients that can support plants during periods of drought, yet at the same time they drain well during times of excess moisture. We strive to increase the CEC and amount of organic matter in all of our fields. But how?

Organic matter is built by adding compost, growing cover crops, and by supporting microbes in the soil that break down crop residue thereby returning it back to the soil. Many of our farm’s fields are vibrant colors of green right now, as they were seeded to a cover crop earlier this fall. As soon as we finish harvesting a crop we immediately plant a cover crop. This fall we planted a diverse mix of oats, millet, rye, winter peas, vetch and clovers. The purpose of a cover crop is to keep the soil covered and protected from wind and water erosion that can occur over the winter. They also support soil microbial life, capture and hold available nutrients and produce nutrients by capturing sunshine. We have found that cover crops are one of the most efficient ways to maintain and build soil fertility. After the crop is planted, there is no further buying, hauling or spreading necessary. Everything happens right in place in the field. The cover crops will go into the soil to be digested by soil organisms (ie tiny microbes to earthworms) and become food for our next vegetable crop.

Cover crops and soil building are still just part of the big nutrition picture. Our fall soil tests also help guide us in making decisions as to what additional minerals we will apply in the fall for each field. Every year we take nutrients out of the soil in the form of vegetables which we send your way. In order for the complex system to work, we have to make sure we replenish them and provide them with a balance of nutrients to draw from for their critical life processes. So we buy and spread mixed mined minerals to replace the ones that left the farm in the form of food for others. Does this really make a difference? We think so! Minerals and trace elements are key components to many plant and soil processes. If they are not present or are not in appropriate balance, systems do not function optimally and the crop may not have as many nutrients.

While much of our soil building efforts happen in the fall, we also invest in the nutrition of our plants during the growing season by providing them with additional minerals and nutrients at critical stages of their growth. We do this by adding nutrients to irrigation water delivered through drip lines to the roots and also foliar feeding which feeds the plant through the leaves.

Many farmers question whether all this nutritional hoopla is worth the extra effort and expense. As stewards of the land, we feel that it is our responsibility to not just take from it, but to also care for it so it can be productive for many years to come. We also feel that it is our responsibility to grow the highest quality food we can grow. Isn’t the whole point of eating to nourish our bodies? So when we’re asked if it is worth it to spread minerals and compost, plant cover crops or provide additional nutrients, we find it hard to not answer “YES!” Maybe you can taste those nutrients too?