Farming with Nature
The Beginning
In 2015 we purchased 17 acres of hilly land just outside Turin Italy to set roots for our family after 20 years of a nomadic life. Turin chose us because after living here the longest it started to feel like home.
Kate is a self-taught first generation farmer, Pierre’s family has been farming in Northern France for multiple generations. We are motivated to actively combat climate change while improving the land around us and improving our health.
So what did we decide to do? We planted an orchard, started a no-dig market garden, brought in the animals to help rebuild the soil while building a completely new ecological house from scratch. Kate submerged herself in books and studied the first years to find new ways to produce in a natural way. We finally found regenerative farming and the solutions became clear.
The Clarity
We finally started living onsite in 2019. After many set backs and errors we finally see clearly now the path forward. The important lesson learned is that there is no one size fits all solution for every piece of land. Your context is everything and being a new farmer is actually helpful in changing the current paradigm of farming.
Regenerative farming is working with nature to bring life to the soil by restarting the cycles of nature. Holistic management is the key how you get there.
The Savory Institute states that -”Holistic Management is a process of decision making and planning that gives people the insights and management tools needed to understand nature: resulting in better, more informed decisions that balance key social, environmental, and financial considerations.”
Regenerative farming describes farming and grazing practices that reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degrading land resulting in both carbon drawn down and improving the water cycle.
The Progress
Farming must not only be sustainable; it has to be regenerative. In the beginning we reshaped some of the pathways and covered all bare-soil with vegetation to slowdown rainfall and to retain as much water as possible to stop runoff. The more water that stays in the soil the more resilient you become during droughts.
More water in the soil also grows more plants that can sequester carbon in the soil where is belongs. Pastures and trees can capture carbon. Managed animal grazing can fertilize your land. We needed ruminants to help regenerate the soil so we chose blacknose valais sheep. They eat the grasses in the pastures and orchards which then grows back stronger and thicker capturing more carbon and augmenting the organic matter in the soil.
More organic matter in the soil equals more life in the soil. This is the key to growing healthy plants. We also move our chicken weekly with the innovative eggmobile we built. They keep our orchard fertilized and we keep them healthy and happy. Their eggs have more nutrients than industrial egglayers by 10 times.
Healthy plants are strong and can fight off pests and diseases so how crops are grown is important. If you mimic nature in a controlled space there is no need for pesticides and herbicides.
We recently converted to a full No-Dig Market Garden for seasonal vegetables. Permanent standardized growing beds have a pure compost base which is used as mulch to protect the clay earth below from the sun and wind. The results are astounding how well vegetables grow because the structure of the soil is improving. More worms and microorganisms loosen the compact ground and give roots an opportunity to mine minerals deep underground when there is a living topsoil.
The Benefits
Animal Welfare is important to us, this means respecting the natural behavior of animals. Chickens scratch and this in turn aerates soil, reduces pathogens and turns compost. Sheep move in herds and ruminate pastures, this in turn buries new grass seeds, cuts our grasses to regrow and capture more carbon from the air and tuck in down in the soil where it belongs. The animals are healthy and don’t need medication. in return our soil is healthy and doesn’t need pesticides and herbicides.
This living ecosystem makes us healthy too. We eat nutrient dense food that can only come from healthy living soil. We boost our immune system by eating the plants, meat and eggs, but we also boost our immune system by contact with animals and healthy soil improving our microbiome at the same time.
We try to leave the land better each year preserving habitats, retaining more water each year with improving topsoil, progressively planting more trees following agroforestry practices and ultimately storing more carbon on the same piece of land each year with growing organic matter in the soil.
We are proud of our calluses and bruises, we carry them like medals for improving our land and our health.
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