What Early March Looks Like on the Farm

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What’s going on with us?

Things are pretty nonstop here. When we aren’t actively farming, we’re planning and dreaming of what we want the farm to look like. Here’s a quick peek at what’s happening here.

Outside

Aaron is prepping the beds by checking pH levels, laying out landscape fabric, and using low tunnels to warm the beds.

Collins (does not at all) lend(s) a helping hand in the garden, while Samson looks on from the other side of the garden fence.

Inside

The seeds are starting to sprout under UV lights, and Aaron is converting a washing machine into a greens dryer.

All in All

It’s a lot of work, but we’re happy to have the opportunity to do it. Farming is challenging and rewarding, just like anything else worth doing.

The Method to the Madness

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Farming is like anything else: it’ll absorb as much time, energy, and money as you want to invest. The more you invest, the more success you’ll have…hopefully. Aaron and I are both school teachers, and we’ve used the past few years to figure out how to make farming fit into our lives. That fit has sometimes been a square peg in a round hole, but we’re committed to growing good food, so we persist. Part of making farming work for us means we need to strategically spread out the workload over the course of our off-season. Once spring rolls around, life becomes a whirlwind of chores, and there’s not much time to step back and take in the big picture.

The Obsession

Aaron has spent way too many hours so far this winter methodically mapping out our garden beds for the coming season. (This does not include the hours he’s spent ogling seed catalogues, by the way.) He’s applying the knowledge he’s gained through a Market Gardener Master Class facilitated by J.M. Fortier, a Permaculture Design program through Oregon State University, a C.A.S.E. certification (Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education) at Kentucky University, and the endless gardening podcasts he listens to. The man doesn’t mess around.

The Plan

The spreadsheet Aaron created to plan our crops is intricate and proactive. It includes important dates for sowing seeds, transplanting, fertilizing, cultivating, etc. He’s been going at it like a mad scientist for weeks now. Adhering to the measure-twice-cut-once philosophy, he’s hyper planning now so that we can more easily carry out the heavy lifting of farming in the spring and summer months when it’s harder to think on your toes.

The Rules

Crop planning around here follows a few rules:

1. The crops we plant in our 20 beds are scheduled in a 10 year rotation where a given crop of heavy feeders are followed by nitrogen-enhancing crops (the plant equivalent of dainty eaters—leafy greens).

2. Our crops are planted in clustered intervals so that they don’t all ripen at the same time.

3. Crops are planted as close to one another as possible in order to maximize output and eliminate space for weeds.

4. We don’t plant foods our kids refuse to eat. (Sorry, fennel.)

5. We respect the natural soil food web and therefore plant cover crops liberally. (You’re welcome, worms.)

The Application

Each season of farming teaches us something new. How best to enrich the soil through compost and natural fertilizers. Which weeds to let grow because they improve the land. Which crops people in our lives most enjoy. How to prevent the kids and dog from destroying the insect netting. There’s no end to learning when you recognize nature as your teacher. We use the winter months to harness our learned lessons from the previous growing season and apply them toward the next.

The Video

Watch the video below to hear a little bit about why we plan the beds the way we do.

The Need for Regenerative Agriculture

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Truth #1: Whether we like it or not, because we eat food, we are a part of the agricultural system. Every time we purchase food, we are demonstrating our approval of the farming practices that were used to grow it. It’s a heavy responsibility, but it’s imperative that we all recognize our influence.

Truth #2: Humans have irrefutably done too much damage to our planet, and it’s about dang time somebody (or, better yet, a whole bunch of somebodies) steps up and does something about it. We need to reverse the damage we’ve done. This isn’t just some hippie pipe dream; it’s reality. Here are a few facts from folks who know things:

• “If current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years.” (Read this article if you have a few minutes.) (Or watch this movie if you have a few hours.)

• Mainstream farming practices have placed agriculture as one of the top five sources of greenhouse gases. (Fact check me here.)

• “In recent decades, contact with soil has largely been reduced, which together with a modern lifestyle and nutrition has led to the depletion of the gut microbiome with adverse effects to human health.” (Read more about the direct connection between soil health and human gut health here.) (If you're into it, also check out this podcast to learn more about the connection between human health and the environment.)

Truth #3: The status quo isn’t working. If we lose something faster than we gain it, the argument could be made that sustainable agriculture isn’t enough. We’re proud Americans here at Fail Better Farms, and we figure if we can put a man on the moon, then we can live gently on our home planet without compromising its well-being--or, by extension, our own.

Let’s Talk Solutions

Our current situation is not ideal, but neither is it without hope. Enter: regenerative agriculture.

“‘Regenerative Agriculture’ describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity – resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle.”

— Regeneration International

We are by no means experts on regenerative agriculture, but we’re working to learn all we can so we can be part of the regenerative movement. We hope you’ll join us on this journey.

Fall Harvest at Fail Better Farms

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We’re so excited to offer our first produce packages ready for sale! We’ve worked hard to grow tasty, nutritious veggies, and it feels good to know we’re feeding other folks wholesome food.

How We Do

All of our produce is raised organically with permaculture principles. Here’s what that looks like:

Instead of spraying our crops, we keep them covered with insect netting so cabbage loopers and other creepy crawlies can’t attack them. Also, we eliminate weeds between rows by laying down repurposed conveyor belts.

Once the produce gets to be a healthy size, we remove the insect netting in order to let our plants stretch out (and so we can take a closer look at our beauties!).

Regenerative Agriculture

After we harvest this produce, we’ll plant cover crop, which includes peas, vetch, daikon radish, and other cool stuff, which will pull nitrogen into the soil and make the land even more nutrient-dense for our planting next Spring. We believe it’s not enough to be sustainable. Our pursuit of regenerative agriculture means that we continually strive to leave the land healthier than we found it. Future generations depend on our success.

The Life of an Egg-Layer at Fail Better Farms

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We’ve been raising egg-laying chickens for several years now, so we’ve made enough mistakes and learned enough lessons to feel confident to share our process.

Different Stages of Birds

1. BABIES! We receive a new batch of chicks every year between January - March. In this early stage of life, our sweet chicks need be kept warm and protected, so we raise them in a barn stall with heat lamps and a lot of attention. Starting the birds early in the year is key because they grow up before snakes come out of hibernation. (We learned that the hard way.)

2. TWEENS! When our girls are about 3 or 4 months old, it’s warmer outside, and they’re smarter and more resilient, so we introduce them to a chicken coop that’s half walled and half chicken wire. This acclimates them to the idea of being outside without letting them roam free.

3. TEENS! When our pullets are able to fly up to roost, they need their wings clipped. After clipping their wings, we open an exterior door on their chicken coop to give them access to lush pasture when they want it. (See “Clipping Pullets’ Wings” video below.)

4. ADULTS! Once our girls start laying eggs (around 5 months), we introduce them to the flock of egg-layers that are rotationally grazing on pasture with 24 hour access to a chickshaw. Drama ensues as a literal pecking order is established. The rooster is thrilled at his growing harem. Eggs are collected at least daily so there is no chance of incubation.

What is Rotational Grazing?

Rotational grazing is a natural pattern where all parties involved benefit from controlled periods of intense distubance followed by a year long period of rest after the disturbance has passed. A Zimbabwean ecologist/livestock farmer named Allan Savory (see TED Talk below) made a crucial observation while watching the herds of herbivores on the plains of Africa. He noticed the landscape sprang back to life following the intense disturbance of grazing herbivores eating and pooping on a single piece of land. Just when the landscape looked like it was getting degraded, the predators push the herd forward, leaving the land the rest of the year to rejuvenate. Other animals followed the herd, making easy meals of maggots in poop and scattering the fertilizer as they gleaned. Allan applied this observation to his livestock operation and found that the process was transferable.

Why We Rotationally Raise on Pasture

Rotationally raising chickens on pasture serves many purposes. Everybody on the farm is benefiting from everybody else. Our chickens follow in the wake of the rotationally-raised pigs. It works like this: pigs get fresh ground to eat grubs and roots and grass, spreading fertilizer (poop) the whole time. As soon as the ground has been significantly disturbed by the pigs, they are moved to a new fresh piece of pasture to repeat. The chickens move onto the land the pigs just vacated, where the birds truly free-range to eat a balanced diet of protein (bugs) and greens (grass, weeds, seeds, etc.). All the while our customers are benefiting from the heightened nutritive value of the eggs being produced.

How we Clip Pullets’ Wings

Watch the video below to see how we prepare our birds to live on pasture.

Check Out Allan Savory’s TED Talk

Watch minutes 8:30-12:45 if you don’t have time to watch the whole video.

The Hog Blog

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Here at Fail Better Farms we raise our hogs like we raise our kids. We give ‘em plenty of space to roam, we feed ‘em as well as we can, and we love ‘em even when they’re gross. This season is our third for raising hogs, and we finally feel like we know what we’re doing, so we figured we’d share what’s been successful.

Rotational Grazing

We practice rotational grazing. This means our pigs and chickens separately spend up to a week on a specific patch of land before moving into a new area. The documented research as well as our anecdotal evidence shows that rotational grazing provides the following benefits.

• If you let pigs or chickens linger on one plot of land for too long, they’ll lay waste to it. If you keep them moving, on the other hand, they don’t pulverise any one patch of land, and the land can rest and regenerate before the next time the pigs are on it.

• It creates a food cycle that benefits our chickens. After the pigs move onto literally greener pasture, the chickens follow behind them. Naturally prone to scratch everything on the ground, the chickens scratch through the pig poo, which helps to distribute this natural fertilizer AND provides a source of protein (any maggots unlucky enough to be laid on the poo) for our birds. Gross, we know.

• Pigs love digging up the ground, eating bugs and roots as they go, so the regular exposure to fresh plots of land makes them happy (& healthy) as clams.

• Because the pigs are contained in a small section of land, they don’t run long distances, which results in tender, tasty meat.

Balanced Diet

In order to get them up to an ideal finishing weight (about 250 pounds), we feed them a locally-milled mixture of whole grains, bruised/ugly fruit from a nearby orchard, and fallen chestnuts in the fall. As mentioned above, they also get a kick out of scouring the ground for bugs and roots.

Attention

We show affection to our pigs regularly. Our newest trio of piglets is still warming up to us, but, as soon as they’re more comfortable, we’ll be petting them and using high-pitched voices to repeatedly ask them, “Who’s da sweetest piggy on da planet?”

We know some folks think it’s weird to treat future food as pets. We’ve been asked often how we can raise an animal, grow to love it, and then send it off to the butcher. Truth? That’s exactly why we feel comfortable with eating our animals. We absolutely know they lived pleasant lives.

A quick explanation of what rotational grazing looks like and why we practice it.

Prepping a Garden Bed with a Broadfork

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I realize you’re not all farming in your free time. I know you may not need to personally utilize the information in this video. The reason I’m posting it here is to show you how we prepare our beds for our crops. That way, the next time I give you a butternut squash as a gift, you understand why I’m so dang proud of it.

Thoughtful intention goes into our farming practices here at Fail Better Farms. Research shows that strong, healthy crops are a result of healthy, living soil. I know it maybe feels a little strange at first to think of soil as living, but I promise it’s a thing. Preparing our beds in the Spring with a broadfork rather than a rota-tiller allows the living organisms in the soil to thrive. If they thrive, so do our plants, and so do we.

Watch Aaron broadfork a bed in order to aerate the soil. It's all about giving the earthworms a break, people.

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