Dear Friends, At the fall equinox, farmers pause to reflect on the growing season, with harvest upon us. Here at Mt. Folly, I’m dispensing with happy talk. From Covid to climate, the year has been rough, so rough I’ve had to summon my inner mule. Here is the back story, some of which you may know:…
We need food and farming for people to survive. At the same time, more than half our soil’s carbon has been lost to the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change and causing problems for all of nature, including humankind. We are learning how to fix that at Mt. Folly, working with The American Farmland Trust, The Savory…
February 2, 2021 I just wrote a letter for our Mercantile customers touching on the hours of Zoom farmer meetings I attended in January. Here is my main point: The main theme… was how to use biology to solve our environmental and health problems. From the gut microbiome to carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, this…
Whiskey Rye from Canada? NO! We are growing it on land once owned by Daniel Boone! Trailblazer that he was, Daniel Boone chose 400 acres around present-day Schollsville for his settlement and preemption, growing a corn crop there in 1775 and 1776.* More than 2 centuries later, we are partnering with American Farmland Trust to…
We all know that because of the global pandemic, this year is like no other. Certainly, the farm has been impacted with erratic prices and late delivery of custom-made specialized equipment. But the grass grows, Covid or not. Cows calve; goats kid; corn grows. Alone in the mornings walking down the farm road, climate change…
Yes, it’s spring. Apple trees are blooming; cows are grazing the cover crops on our organic corn and soybean fields. The farm is in lock-down. Mt. Folly Enterprise employees are working remotely, and we are doing our very best to keep them on the payroll. It’s the year of the global pandemic. Though we don’t see…
This marks my 38th year at Mt. Folly. My mother, who farmed here before me, died this January. My ties to the land run through her, and Rachel Ware Bush before that, then Mattie Ware and Richard Ware before that, back to early settlement in “the beautiful level of Kentucky.” This truly is a family…
Our rye cover crop starting off strong, it will protect the ground from erosion and sequester carbon while adding vital nutrients to the soil. Deluge or drought (and we’ve had both this year), there is a rhythm to the farm year. We are nearing the end of harvest, with the non-gmo crops and the organic…
Boy, did things dry out fast! For the past month, we have been irrigating the hemp crop and our vegetables for the farm-to-table restaurant at the distillery, opening this fall. The last of the hay is getting cut and rolled, and we wait impatiently for a part of the silage chopper, which broke after we’d…
Christian, Laura, and Ben admire the hemp transplants. It is June 1, wet, and I don’t recall being this far behind on planting, though I know my memory can trick me. Our Austrian Winter Peas, which we plant before organic corn to fix Nitrogen and then plow under, have made a crop! Yesterday, walking the…