Note from Farmer Paige: (scroll down for Matthew´s great article)

Well, I feel that Matthew´s article below is good enough to count as a newsletter from both last week and this week´s CSA pick ups.

And, a BIG thank you to Matthew, RJ, and the wonderful volunteers for caring for the farm, animals, and harvests. I was so excited to come back and see that there was so much done around the farm. I can´t thank you guys enough.

Actual Field Notes

Hello CSA members! Matthew here. When the cat´s away, the mice play. It has been quite an education for RJ and me this week while our fearless leader was away. Fortunately, things on the farm seemed to go as smoothly as we could have hoped. (We´ll find out for sure tomorrow when Paige returns.) Perhaps our greatest concern lately has been water. With temperatures consistently flirting with the low 100s, the earth has been dry.

To illustrate just how dry it has been: as soon as yesterday´s brief afternoon rain came to an end, I ran down to the farm to change the irrigation. By the time I arrived, the ground was completely dry. Only five minutes after the shower, there was no indication it had rained at all! Hopefully today´s rain will mark the end of a long dry spell that has seriously stressed our vegetable charges

Before Paige left, she left a book in my care entitled Building Soils for Better Crops. Its textbook-like appearance and format disguises one of the most informative, cogent books I have ever read. It reminded me of my initial incitement for becoming involved in organic agriculture: conservation. There is more to sustainable agriculture than not introducing harmful pollutants into food and environment.

The crux of the matter for me is soil. We seek to grow food in such a way that our successors will be able to enjoy the same privilege. The only way to do this is by nourishing and protecting our soils, which will in turn nourish the food that nourishes us.

Traditional agriculture is almost always based on allowing soil to regenerate. Slash and burn farming in the South American rainforest (while perhaps not a sustainable practice on a large scale) is one such example. An area of forest is burned and cleared, and the soil, having benefitted from innumerable years of fallen organic matter, is extremely fertile. When crops have consumed most of this fertility, a new area is burned while the previous site (given adequate time) will be reforested--and hence the soil regenerated.

In industrial agriculture, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, usually derived from petroleum products, are substituted for natural soil fertility (what in a sustainable system is nurtured with great care). This approach, compounded with the ubiquitous use of large machinery, leads to serious soil degradation and even soil loss through accompanying erosion.

"Organic" agriculture is often juxtaposed with industrial agriculture and conceived of in the negative: food grown not with synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and antibiotics. I like to think of "organic" as signifying the organic matter that is fostered in our soils. Soils with high levels of organic matter both hold and release water at the best rate for plant health, foster microorganisms that have vital relationships with plants, and provide optimal rates of mineral nutrient release. In addition, soils with high levels of organic matter better resist erosion and foster plants that, due to better nutrition, are more disease and pest resistant.

Soil is the source of our food. It is the foundation upon which all civilization stands. Without it, we would very quickly be trying to figure out how to turn fuel into corn, instead of vice-versa. We hope you all are enjoying your produce. While you do, we hope you take a moment to appreciate the miraculous soil that grew it.

Have a great week,

Matthew, soil, Paige, RJ