Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Earth Day


The creation of Earth Day in 1970 is somewhat akin to a corporation producing a new site of ethics guidelines.  It is less the formalization of a spontaneous celebration and more the result of a culture acknowledging the reaching of some dystopian-predicting threshold.   Whether we have avoided those days of future past or not, time will tell.

Regardless, Earth Day is a convenient time to get one's hands dirty.  (It doesn't take long to realize how different dirt is in different places, from the wonderful black, slightly moist soil to the sandy, inert fill used around construction projects.)




There are plenty of people who believe that crops grown in better soil are just better. That is why we are so careful with our soil.


Next time you come by, you may meet our two newest WWOOFers, including Cyrille from Geneva, Switzerland (on left), and Finn from New York City (on right).




Our Maremma takes her job of guarding plants very seriously. 



No chemicals are ever added to this soil.


 Instead, people drop off their unwanted leaves here every fall.  During the winter, the leaves break down.


Furrows are made in the leaves, exposing the rich soil below.  Plants are put in the newly exposed soil, and when they grow large enough, the farmers pull the leaves back around the crops to keep in moisture and keep out weeds.


The process reduces the amount of additional water the crops take as well, to nearly none. Crops are watered only when initially planted and in cases of extreme drought. .



This completely organic process must make for healthier animals as well.