Organic Farming and the USDA’s organic certification program, despite its flaws, remains the gold standard for chemical-free food production. Since 2014, Mt. Folly Farm has proudly maintained this certification. Part of the process involves an annual inspection and testing of organic crops, like the farm’s corn. The latest test results, received in December, showed non-detectable…
It’s here and we are on it… World Soil Day is here. This commemoration stumped Bernie Sanders at a Town Hall before the Iowa primary, but now he knows that regenerative farmers feed the soil, and the soil feeds us. You may have heard about the human microbiome, a better understanding of which has…
Buffalo clover, unlike other legumes, doesn’t need bacteria to fix nitrogen, as it historically thrived with buffalo herds that provided this benefit naturally. Today, we replicate this process at Mt. Folly Farm by rotating cattle, promoting soil health, and helping revive the endangered plant.
If our civilization can’t stop the pumps (construction, transportation, heating and cooling), can we buy some time by putting atmospheric carbon back in trees, plants and soils, where it belongs? Is it possible for agriculture to become a solution rather than a cause of climate change?
Dear Friends, Fall is here, the silage for our winter feed is up, and our plans turn to harvest, cover crops, complex rotations, grass and soil diversity. Per my last letter, I’ve paid a visit to our friends the Halls, at The Troublesome Creek Times in Hindman, Knott County.* There, I spent an afternoon, delivering…
Dear Friends, And the winner is Julia Truitt Poynter! Thanks to all who signed up for the Mt. Folly Farm newsletter and entered to win a stay at the Homestead. Julia and I will tour the farm, visit the distillery and the new Mercantile on Main, see our downtown. She plans to visit in October…
Dear Friends, At Mt. Folly farm, we are doing big things, simply. We are part of the drawdown movement, which seeks to sequester carbon dioxide in plants, trees and soils. We have long been a part of the organic movement as well, for us meaning our products are raised in soils, part of the underground…
Dear Friends, Last week we hosted a garden club here. We talked first at the Homestead Cabin, then toured on a tractor-pulled farm wagon. Necessarily, these tours are but a snapshot of what we do at Mt. Folly. One of the most innovative undertakings for the year (and for many years to come, I believe)…
Dear Friends, Like everyone else on the planet, amid COVID chaos, I need to stop and remind myself why we are doing what we are doing: raising organic hemp for Homestead Alternatives, raising organic corn for Wildcat Willy’s Moonshine, raising pasture beef for our farm-to-table restaurant, seeking customers who welcome alternatives. Here my answer to…
Dear Friends, There is a connection between the soil microbiome and our microbiome. As we focus on health, we’ve come across these new findings. For organic farmers who use nature rather than pesticides and herbicides to grow plants, including organic hemp for CBD, we are heartened to see this research going mainstream. The human microbiome consists…
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…
The USDA’s organic farming program has its problems, but for now it is the gold standard for food grown without chemicals. Mt. Folly Farm’s crops have been certified since 2014, and part of the certification process is an annual inspection, during which the inspector pulls a sample of organic production, in this case the farm’s…