Intensive no-till, regenerative farming

What is no-till farming?  Literally, no tilling, ploughing, discing, chiseling of the soil.  Tillage is responsible for a significant amount of atmospheric carbon and nitrogen emissions.  Tillage is also responsible for putting millions of acres of agricultural land out of production each year due to erosion of top soil. Many organic farmers rely on tractor cultivation for weeding since they can't use herbicides.  Unfortunately, this means that  organic farms can add to the devastating climate and erosion issues facing our planet.

 No-till does the opposite by building large amounts of organic matter (carbon) in the soil, thus sequestering atmospheric carbon.  We do this by top dressing 4" of compost on our permanent beds before every planting, and deep mulching the pathways with straw, cardboard, or woodchips.  By building organic matter, we are building top soil.  No-till creates healthy soil, the way nature intended, so we farmers can grow healthy food for the people!

Other benefits of intensive no till include natural weed suppression (= happy farmers, and happy, productive crops), a healthy soil food web of earthworms, microbes, and fungi that create soil aggregates for drought resistance AND the ability to deal with heavy rain storms, habitat for ground burrowing native pollinators, and a high yield per acre.  Intensive no-till works wonders on poor soils, so farmers aren't limited to pristine ag lands.  This system regenerates the soil while sequestering atmospheric carbon and producing tons of food so that our community has access to delicous, organic produce and the farmer has great yields with a low overhead (no tractor required!) so can make a living wage.  

Does this sound revolutionary?  Stay tuned for tours, workshops, and events at our no-till farm.