Earth Day…Every Day
Last week was Earth Day, or according to our preschool…Earth Week. The day was originally dedicated to raising environmental awareness throughout our communities. As a child growing up in the 90’s, the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about “Earth day” is always recycling, reusing and reducing waste. The farther I dig into this farm life, however, the more compelled I have become to think about our farming practices and how that might impact our world.
In 2019 the UN started warning that across the globe, we are close to completely depleting the earth’s soil*. They suggested that there may be only 60 harvests left with our current trajectory – that’s 60 years of food production remaining. 60 years where natural ecosystems are supported by the vital role that healthy soil plays. 60 years where the soil is less and less able to help sequester carbon, inviting the the crazy weather patterns and other climate change impacts to continue growing.
I turn 41 this year so I don’t think I will be around to verify whether the United Nations is correct here, but my kids and grandkids will be. That matters to me, so if there is anything I can do now to play a part in prolonging and rebuilding the health of our soil and the balance of the natural ecosystems around our bay I want to do it.
There are a lot of buzz words out there that describe how a farm operates: Regenerative, Sustainable, Organic, Biodynamic are just a few that I’ve heard recently. Instead of throwing these titles out there, here is a list what we do and why we do it.
Conscious Choices
1. We grow our vegetables and fruits using organic practices. We are currently NOT certified organic because most of what we grow here is consumed and preserved for our family. From day one we decided that if we were to grow food for our family, we wanted it to be as natural as possible with no synthetic imputs that may or may not impact our long-term health.
2. We only purchase non-gmo seeds, plants, and animal feed.
3. We have chosen to not spray chemicals on our plants, but instead use natural and biological control methods to address harmful insect and pest pressure. It is only a small minority of insects that are in fact harmful and should be controlled*. Typically sprays do not discriminate between the good and bad, so we have to give room for the millions of good insects to work for us. There is balance in the natural world if only we get out of the way and let it work. We hand pick bugs/catapillers (yay chicken treats!), we use lady bugs, praying mantis, parasitic wasps, spiders and many other beneficial insects to help control the bugs that cause damage to our crops.
4. We grow most of our produce, herbs and flowers from seed to give us the greatest control over the quality and treatment of those plants from seed to harvest. Neonics (Neonicotinoids) were developed in the 90’s and have become the most widely used pesticide on food and ornamental crops. This family of chemical though advertised as relatively benign to mammals, have devastating long-term impacts on pollinators and our waterways*. I would venture to guess that most if not all crops sold at local box stores have been treated with the product at some point on another. While we are not yet at 100% growing everything by seed, we attempt to make conscious choices and minimize the impact that harmful treatments like these could have on our farm’s ecosystem.
5. We have native rain gardens and intentionally plant native plants throughout our property to help establish natural habitats for those animals, birds and insects that can help us fight the bad bugs in our gardens. Trying to encourage natural ecosystems will help bring the natural world into balance on our farm.
Improving and protecting the soil health.
1. When we first established our in-ground gardens, we tilled to break ground and mix nutrients and amendments into the soil. In 2021, we created 2 experimental no-till garden rows and were extremely pleased with how they worked out that season. In 2022, we expanded our no till operations to include 1200 sq ft of garden space. Just like so many of us, we battle spreading grasses like crab grass and quack grass, but the hope is that the no till expansion will continue to produce promising results. Continually tilling the soil is so damaging to soil health and it’s ability to sequester carbon – we hope to continue to improve our soil health, and expand our no-till garden space each year as it is the more sustainable approach.
2. Unlike the chicken factories you might think of on Maryland’s eastern shore, we want to raise our poultry in the most respectful and useful way. We rotate chickens around our pasture, moving them regularly to ensure that they get fresh grass and bugs, trying to mimic a more natural habitat for them. In turn their poop stays on our grass and provides excellent natural fertilizer for our pastures. We have strong predator pressure (foxes, racoons, owls and hawks) so we use electric netting to keep our birds safe.
3. Last fall we began an experiment to use fallen leaves as mulch and to create our own leaf mold. I’m very happy with how this has worked around our garlic beds and am hoping to continue expanding this effort. (P.S. If you are local and don’t typically spray your trees and yard with chemicals, please contact us - I will gladly take your bags of leaves.
Reducing and Reusing Waste
1. We actively compost our food waste, garden waste and animal manure/bedding. The passive compost systems convert waste that would otherwise go to a landfill into a usable and nutrient rich product for our garden beds. We also have a small vermicomposting system. This year we will try to create a hot/active compost bed to increase our ability to generate the volume needed to support our no till gardens.
2. We clean and re-use vases/glassware for cut flowers.So many of us have 5 or 6 vases collecting dust in our kitchen cabinets.By re-using, older vases or mason jars, we can give new life to the glassware with our field collected flowers – keeping our cabinets free of clutter and keeping usable glassware out of conventional waste streams.In the end it also helps to minimize costs and keep our farm sustainable. Please contact us if you have a cabinet of vases or mason jars that you’d like to get rid of!
When I think of being sustainable or think of how other established “small farms” and homesteads are already operating sustainably it can be overwhelming. At times, the problems with our earth, our climate changes, our waste problems seem too big for our efforts to make a difference. I also believe that if everyone made one or two changes to live a more sustainably/consciously we would start to see a much bigger impact. What is one sustainable practice you can incorporate into your day to day? (remember, baby steps are okay!)
We didn’t start out doing all of the things listed above. Each step evolved as we started to put down roots on our farm. If I were to write this in another 3 years, my hope is that the list would have evolved yet again. As we step forward, we grow. As we grow, we learn. As we learn about a better way we can act on it and do better. In the end, the balance of our natural world…our earth…our children and grandchildren and their grandchildren will thank us…even if it feels like a baby step today :-)
For further reading:
1.https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/12/1052831
2. https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/2021-07-09-not-all-bugs-are-bad-good-bugs-garden
3. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/neonicotinoid-pesticides-slowly-killing-bees
Also be sure to check out “Kiss the ground” and “The biggest little farm” films on netflix.