Happy Easter — Season Two!
Easter marks one year since our first blog. It was fun to go back and read it. Not much has changed; each week is still two steps forward, one step back. We are still overwhelmed, still learning a ton and still having a blast!
Here are some highlights from the last few weeks:
We discovered TikTok. If you haven’t checked out our instagram, click here to see Rita racing around and Trooper and Mayday acting like goofballs.
We are making a number of investments to help us farm with regenerative practices. This includes:
Reducing tillage
Planting multi-variety cover crops
More companion planting. For example, tomato plants will be sandwiched between marigolds and basil plants to improve soil health. And hopefully the marigolds will also serve as a pest deterrent.
Using our animal waste to enrich the soil.
Introduce Bokashi composting all over the farm this season. Bokashi allows us to compost meat and other food wastes that do not do well in regular composing. The compost and compost tea it creates is another way we will be enriching our soil.
The highlight of the week was listening to Cuauhtemoc Villa teach how to burn and create biochar. Thanks to the Sauvie Island Center for putting on the biochar workshop yesterday. Cuauhtemoc demonstrated how to burn and create rich biochar that enriches the soil. Like Bokashi, there are so many ways to turn “waste” back into the ground.
The workshop, attended by nearly 50 people, was held back near the Grow Lunch Garden built by the Sauvie Island Center students and volunteers. Next, they’re beginning work on the First Foods Forest. The biochar from yesterday’s workshop will be turned back into the soil to enrich the area of the food forest.