Change How You See Things

A smart farmer named Don Cambell said, " If you want to make small changes, change how you do things. When you want to make major changes, change how you see things."

Gabe Brown a farm innovator says, "The greatest road block in solving problems is the human mind."

In farming we are prone to impose our will on the natural processes at work on the farm. Instead we should...

Biochar in Your Soil

Did you know that there is pyrolytic carbon or biochar in all of the temperate soils of earth. I had heard of the Terra Preta a black, anthropogenic soil found in South America in the Amazon Basin. This was a soil made by the Amazons from a combination of charcoal, bone and compost. Terra Preta is persistant for thousands of years.

But did you know there is a significant amount of biochar in your soil. Here is how it works...

Biochar - Creating A Coral Reef In Your Garden

One of the cool characteristics of a tropical coral reef is the huge surface area that hosts many living sea creatures and a whole ecosystem.

Did you know you can build a coral reef "like" structure in your garden by using pyrogenic carbon.

What is pyrogenic carbon?

1491 - America Before Columbus

Last week we had several history lessons, we are transitioning from the history of several world changing plants to considering how several civilizations "bio-engineered" their soils. Charles Mann in his book 1491 talks about what America was like before Columbus. It is a very interesting read and has much food for thought. He says the Native American populations were vast. To feed their civilization they were able to grow massive crops through highly advanced agriculture.

At the same time that the North American Natives were building their civilization with temperate soils the cultures of the central Amazon were building their civilization in rain forest soils with extremely low fertility. Thousands of years later the soils they engineered are some of the most fertile in the world. These soils are so persistent that they actually grow back when the top layer is removed.

Both civilizations sustained hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions with their ancient growing techniques. I think there is a lot to learn from what they did.

So how does this apply to Market Gardening in Minnesota?