Regenerative Farming

A type of farming intended to work with nature and improve soil health over time. Regenerative practices include cover cropping, crop rotation, no-till, composting, and grazing cycles when farm animals are involved.

Worm Compost

In short, this means worm poop. Worm compost is made by putting food scraps into a bin with worms (red wiggler worms, in our case). They eat the food and poop out fresh soil. The nutrients are very rich and are alive with microbial activity - both amazing things for the soil on the farm. If you want to learn more about worm composts, check out this blog post.

Cover Crops

Plants that bring nutrients back into the soil that are not intended to be harvested for food. In addition to fixing nutrients into the soil, we choose cover crops that attract pollinators and beneficial insects and help to break up the clay in the existing soil to make it easier for the plants to get their roots through. Cover crops we have used so far: field peas (snap peas), purple vetch, red crimson clover, alfalfa, and daikon radish.

Chop & Drop

Chop and drop is just what it sounds like. The cover crop plants are chopped at their base, leaving the roots in the ground to help support the soil's microbiome, and the leaves, stalks, and fruits are left on top of the soil to break down. If chop & drop is done after the plants have produced seeds, the farm will re-sprout cover crop plants throughout the year. 

Solarizing

This simply means covering organic matter with a tarp to trap the heat inside and help it break down faster. In our case we cover cropped the rows, chopped & dropped them, and then solarized the organic matter from the cover crops. 

Sheet Mulching

This is a soil preparation technique that uses cardboard to layer on top of other additives to retain moisture in the soil and suppress weeds while the microbes get to work. This works incredibly well when transforming an area covered in grass into a garden or farm.

Worm Compost Tea

There is a whole science to this, but essentially, it means steeping worm compost in moving (areated) water for a certain amount of time until the nutrients and microbes in the compost are in the water. Then, the tea is applied to the soil, which is a much more effective way to disperse all the goodness than directly adding worm compost. 

Companion Planting/Guilds

A natural pest control and soil health management technique. Some plants act as pest deterrents for others, either by repelling the pests (like garlic, mint, or other fragrant herbs) or by attracting them and keeping them away from the food plants (nasturtiums, borage, etc.). Some flowers also attract beneficial insects (like ladybugs or pest-eating wasps) that eat the insects that eat the food (like aphids). Companion planting or planting in guilds also benefits the soil by having ground cover plants that act as living mulch, which keeps the soil shaded so that the soil conditions (like moisture and temperature) are ideal for the microbes that are alive inside it. The three sisters technique (corn, squash, and pole beans) is an example of companion planting: The corn plants grow tall and strong, the beans climb up the corn stalks while fixing nitrogen into the soil, and the squash shades the soil. Each plant helps the other plants around it in some way. 

Crop Rotation

Crop rotation simply means that when one plant has finished producing and is ready to be reintegrated into compost, whatever is planted in the same spot after is a plant that will help rebuild the used nutrients. Soil health is very localized, so just replacing that plant with something that fixes the nutrients it used up keeps that part of the farm going strong. 

Succession Planting

Planting seeds throughout the whole growing season on a regular basis (think: sowing new seeds once a week or once every two weeks) so that there are plants in all stages of their life cycles throughout the season. This is primarily done to extend the harvest durations. It also keeps the soil balanced between growth and decay, which feeds the ecosystem in the soil. This is also a great technique for climates that vary a lot during a particular season from year to year. Even with the variations, there is a better chance of getting a good harvest.