March for Science :: Let Science Fuel Your Passion

It was a blast being a part of the March for Science New Ulm on Earth Day! There were over 100 people that gathered at Herman Heights to celebrate, participate and honor our natural resources. I loved listening to the other speakers and very much enjoyed speaking myself. Here are a few pictures and my speech from the event. #everydayisearthday

March for Science - New Ulm

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Hello! Thank you for welcoming me here today and thank you for all being here supporting and celebrating science. As an organic farmer science is very important to me, so your presence and support is encouraging.

When thinking about what to talk with you about today, how science is important to what we do at our farm, many things came to mind. Than amazing world of mycorrhizal fungi around root systems. Food as medicine. How bitter flavors aide digestion comes to mind in the spring. The art of grafting apple trees. Pest cycles. Beneficial insects. Soil organisms. Riveting, yes?! Science helps me understand all of these systems, processes and interactions, so we can do our job well - so we can produce food and nurture our farm ecosystem.

While musing on all the ways science influences our jobs at the farm my mind kept coming back to all the ways science inspires us to do what we do and to keep doing it better.

Science drives my passion to farm nutritious, healthful and organic food for people, in harmony with our amazing ecosystem. So this became my path - to bring the environment, and natural health, into people's homes through food, and to deeply care for and nurture the bit of ecosystem that is our farm.

My husband and I farm, because we have a great respect for our natural environment and we wanted to practice natural resources conservation actively, on the ground. We choose to farm organically, because this is what science tells us creates healthy soils, healthy plants, clean water and clean air. And if the soil is not healthy - vibrant and full of organic matter, teaming with beneficial bacteria, fungi, nematodes - if it is not alive and well balanced how can the food be healthy? How can we be healthy?

A single teaspoon of rich soil can hold a billion bacteria, several yards of fungal filaments, several thousand protozoa and many, many nematodes.

Recently we purchased new land, which we are transitioning from conventional agriculture to organic apple orchard and pasture for our pigs. As we were planting trees a couple weeks ago we were astonished at how dead the soil seemed. As we dug our trees out of the nursery bed the soil was beautiful - loose and crumbly, dark, full of worms and organic matter. We planted these trees into our new field, where the soil was compacted, more chunky and cloddy than crumbly, devoid of much organic matter, devoid of worms. We are excited to bring this land back to life.

Back to that fungi I mentioned, each tree was planted with mycorrhizal fungi to nurture the health of the trees and the underground soil ecosystem. The endomycorrhizal fungi live partially inside and partially outside a plants root system. This symbiotic relationship fosters a greater exchange of nutrients. The fungi helps the plant take up more water and nutrients than the plant can do on its own; then the plant pays the fungi back in carbon. Nurturing this relationship is a long-term investment, that thrives with lack of disturbance, which is why we use minimal tillage and are moving to no-till.

This fascinates me. Science helps me understand.

Parasitic wasps lay eggs in or on host insects - pests like aphids and cabbage worms - as the eggs hatch the prey is consumed.

This fascinates me.

These natural processes and interactions are amazing and science - hard core research and hands on citizen science - helps us to better understand what we can do to nurture them to better create ecosystem services into all parts of our farm and farming.

Over the last several years we have worked in partnership with the University of Minnesota on carious research projects at our farm. Early detection monitoring for new and emerging pests and diseases. A trial of native Minnesotan mycorrhizal fungi. Monitoring a bee nesting block for the Bee Lab. This year we are building a passive solar greenhouse for growing in the winter, designed by the UMN. All this research is so import and and needed!

My passion for farming is driven, in part, by the fact that there is always so much to learn - there is always something to observe and explore. Science fuels this inspiration daily. Sometimes we forget to slow down and appreciate it, but there are so many examples around us, all the time.

The topic of science keeps bringing be mack to my passion, my inspiration, and that is really what I want to get down to. Find that bit of science, that nerdy fact, or process, or system, or machine that inspires you and let that help fuel you. Let science make your life more driven - at your job, or life at home, outside your job. It can foster appreciation, build creativity and give you new energy for the things you do day to day. Life is meant for learning and the possibilities are endless.

I am a farmer, the soil is my lab, where is yours?

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On Climate Change & Community

It is scary to me to see climate change being denied. It's scary to me what damage can be done to our ONE environment in a short period of time. What gives me hope is YOU as individuals, making progress with individual actions, and US as COMMUNITY working together for change.

We got into farming to put conservation on the ground and to build community through food. This is one way we are fighting to combat climate change, integrating community/environmental education - while eating well.

Remember that each food purchase you make is voting with your food dollars - you can vote with or against climate change. Support a healthy environment, a healthy future for our children. Support organic and sustainable.

Making a Blessing out of Fighting

Eternal mud season. That's what it feels like. Sometimes it seems like we are always fighting. Fighting the mud, the wind, the weather. Fighting time. Daylight. Sneaky chickens. Fighting for organic. Fighting the consumer mindset. Fighting for environmental and good food education. Time. Fighting bugs, disease, loss. Fighting to meet our sales goals. Fighting off exhaustion.

Right now the mud is a downer and it exacerbates this feeling, so pig chores became a meditation on fighting today. As I wrangled the kids hay rack out of one mud pit and into theirs I could feel the frustration (and triumph). (Fighting that fleeting thought that I just want to turn everyone into bacon!) The kiddos were delighted, grateful, exuberant over their alfalfa hay - my heart is full.

Hogs enjoying some good hay, despite the mud.

It's difficult to remind myself that it is a blessing to be able to fight these things, fight for these things. (I'll have to remember this in summer, when I'm trying to sleep with rain and 40 mph winds.) To have choice in these elements I'm fighting, and fighting for. Farming will never be easy, there will always be something to fight against, but we remain vibrant, grow strong.

We have the privilege not to have to be fighting for our livelihood. When there are others out there fighting for their homes, their lands, their water (our lands, our water), who have much less choice.

I think about the mud - the water in our ground. I am grateful that my family, my farm, my farm animals have access to good, clean water. The mud makes me crazy, but it's Minnesota...hopefully it will freeze soon. "This too shall pass." Meditating on gratitude that this is a temporary fight.

Mucking it up with my muddy buddies.

We stand with Standing Rock. We have to keep fighting for our environment, for our children for the next seven generations. We cannot give on this, but keep pressing forwards - each of us where we can.


The Seventh Generation Principle
"This principle states that we should make decisions about how we live today based on how our decisions will impact the future seven generations. We must be good caretakers of the earth, not simply for ourselves, but for those who will inherit the earth, and the results of our decisions. This value is found in the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Great Law of Peace (Gayanashagowa) and is common among a number of indigenous peoples in the Americas." - Woodbine Ecology Center

Don't Panic, We're Organic!

Grow Organic

Another year, a new organic certificate and inspection passed with flying colors and no changes needed. It feels good to be an organic producer.

At Alternative Roots Farm we believe that the right way to grow produce for our community is to grow organic. We never questioned this. There are arguments we hear, floating around the farming community, against this step, but they just aren't convincing to us to skip something so vital. The organic label is assurance to our customers that there are no synthetic chemicals on the food they are eating, we are caring for our land with organic management (crop rotation, organic matter, wildlife habitat) and no GMO crops are grown.

It is the only label that has solid, regulatory weight behind it that consumers can trust there are no chemicals and GMOs used. Many other claims, such as "natural" and "beyond organic," do not have any regulation for them. In a society where folks are hopping on the sustainability bandwagon, there is so much greenwashing of products it can be confusing when making purchasing decisions - organic eliminates this confusion.

ARF has been certified organic since August 2014.

Now, there are still ways organic could improve, but I feel it is a solid, trustworthy label for produce and produce products, while improvements for animal products are needed (in my opinion). When it comes to meat and eggs I would continue to use a skeptical eye and try to learn about your farmers and farms the products come from - buy local. "Access to pasture" is not the same as actually being out on pasture. With any good thing, such as a growing organic industry, there are going to be businesses that take advantage where there are profits to be made.

A Peek at the Certification Process

That brings me to the certification process behind organics. Each year, every organic operation - whether a grower, or processing facility - an organic business must work with their certification agency to apply annually for renewed certification. Then a third party, independent inspection agent makes a farm visit to verify paperwork, after which they report back to the certification agency, who reviews the report and makes a final determination of organic status. 

Certified organic by the Midwest Organic Services Association.

Paperwork and records are reviewed. Seed tags and bags and catalogs are saved for 5 years of accountability. Harvest data is checked to jive with what we are growing, to make sure folks aren't buying in and calling stuff organic that isn't. Seed to sale the inspector wants to be able to trace a product, for validity. What that looks like is our inspector, pulling out a sales receipt and having me trace that back to when and where it was harvested. There are various other paper trail details like this.

Arguments Against Organic

So, why do fellow farmer folks argue against organic? 

"The paperwork." Well, yes, there is paperwork, but in essence this is paperwork you want to do to be a good farmer, or business person, anyways. It's a little more work the first year of certification, then easy review and updating following that. 

"The Man." Yes, it is the government, and government regulations, which sometimes seem ass-backwards, but it's the way it is - deal with it. I file some paperwork, legally, federally filed paperwork that acts as a great insurance to our business and then I get to farm how I want. The government is not running my operation. I rotate crops on my schedule, plant the seeds that I want. Big Brother is never a presence on our farm.

There are other arguments, but these tend to be the main ones. I get frustrated by farms marketing as "Beyond Organic" which has no basis and confuses the organic name, confuses consumers we work so hard to educate and, frankly, is illegal. There are those that say we should not have to apply to not use chemicals, it's the conventional farmers that should apply to use chemicals (so much truth to that), but again...this is the way it is.

The hoops are worth jumping through for you, for our community, for education on real food. This isn't just about our farm, it's about our countries broken food system as well. It's as much a political statement as it is a small business decision.

Buy organic, support organic. For sustainable farms and food and future.

Photo Update 4.13.14

The pictures just get more exciting as time goes on! Here's some pics from around the farm and one must-read article.

Article: Why You Should be Skeptical of Walmart's Cheap Organic Food

If you have a bee house make sure you clean it before setting it out for our friendly native pollinators. Want to build one of your own? Check out the Mason Bee House Project.

Mason bee house tucked in the lilac bush. We want
to promote these native pollinators as much as possible.

 This little house is in the kitchen garden, providing a cute backdrop to these lovely prairie onions. I hope to see more pop up this year and I sprinkled some of the seeds out in our native prairie buffer.

Prairie onions in the kitchen garden.

 The tree swallows are back nesting in the bird boxes on the property line and in the large silver maple we have seen the wood ducks two times now! Hopefully they will stay :)

Nesting boxes are part of our effort to provide wildlife habitat
and conservation practices.

 Also in the kitchen garden the chives are making a strong comeback. That's a nice little clump of Autumn Joy sedum coming up too.

Green in the kitchen garden.

 The pasture from last season was tilled and seeded over the weekend. We used a pasture mix, which we added a legume to. The pasture will be expanded beyond this and maintained as permanent pasture from here on out.

New pasture seeding.

John is finishing up work on the farrowing (birthing) hut for the pigs, which is made out of up-cycled lumber.

Farrowing hut.

The rhubarb is coming up! It is a welcome sight in the vegetable field. This will be the first year  of harvest for the rhubarb. These Glaskins Perpetual rhubarb plants were nurtured from seed, so we could have an heirloom variety of our choosing on the farm.

Rhubarb, a welcome sight in spring.

 Strawberries are another perennial we will be harvesting for the first time this year! There are many greening plants in the bed.

Sparkle heirloom strawberries.

 A third new perennial - bunching onions! These Evergreen Hardy bunching onions were a great addition and we have Ishikura variety in the kitchen garden looking equally as hardy. Sweet.

Perennial bunching onions.

A look at the vegetable field from up a tree! The soil is getting closer to ready every day. We can now walk in the field without sinking. Soon we'll be tilling and marking out the beds. I am ready any day!

Vegetable field April 11, 2014

The seed starting station is starting to fill up! We're looking to complete the green house when the transplants start overflowing the basement ;)

Tomato seedlings.

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day! Every day is Earth Day really! At least here on the farm it is. Are you doing anything special for Earth Day?

"Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human creatures."

-  US Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day (April 22nd, 1970)

John planting shrubs for wildlife and beauty

Yesterday John planted 50 tall shrubs on the farm--red osier dogwood, gray dogwood, black chokeberry and elderberry. All native, all beneficial to wildlife. A few were planted up along the driveway, as you can see in the picture, the majority were planted in our field--about a 150' strip on the outside of our native prairie field border. This hedge will serve to slow winds, attract beneficial insects and birds, serve as a buffer from our conventional neighbors, and it will be pretty! Can't wait to see it fill in over the season!

Red osier dogwood

It was quite pleasant to see something go in the ground this week! We're still waiting to get into the field to prep for planting. It's still a little too wet, with more moisture in the forecast. The rhubarb is starting to come up, and I bet the garlic won't be far behind that!

Cover Crops & Grains

Oats in the broadcast spreader.

More than half of our cover crops/grains are planted now.  The wheat was planted first.  The oats under-seeded with alfalfa went in over the weekend--perfect timing with the rain.

If you look close you can see the oats being broadcast.

This Even-Broadcast Spreader device has been super handy--perfect for our small, tractor-less scale!  John spread the oats first, then went back and did the alfalfa separately.

John looks like he is having way too much fun!

We've had a few people ask what we are going to do with oats and wheat.  Well it will be feed, for the chickens and us!  I am looking forward to baking a fresh loaf of bread, from freshly harvested wheat, from my own backyard!  As well as happy chickens, and delicious eggs and meat.

On the approximately 1.8 acres of cropland we have only a 1/4 acre will be in vegetables this year.  The rest is in cover to rest the land, from it's history of intensive conventional ag; add organic matter; alfalfa and red clover have great root systems to break up compaction, improve drainage and porosity; and suppress weed pressure.  Still to be planted are the red clover and buckwheat--and so many yummy veggies!

Bee Houses

Part of our mission on the farm is to promote and develop wildlife habitat--including habitat for pollinators.  John built these darling houses for Mason and Orchard Bees.  They don't produce honey, but they do an excellent job pollinating--even better than honeybees.

The tubes you can see are bamboo (a renewable resource) sections cut to 5 1/2" - 6" lengths.  Amazingly the Mason Bee Queen will produce males or females based on whether these tubes are more or less than 6 inches in length--crazy cool!  We have two houses hanging up in the yard now.

Mason Bee {photo starlisa's flickr}

John tried a couple different kinds of tubes for the bees to use, to experiment.  Something has been working on the houses, but no sighting yet!

Along with the smaller bees, we are planning to provide the proper habitat for the cuddly bumble bee.    We are excited about our little bee friends, and this will tide us over until we get our first honeybee colony in 2013!