scadb

for us, farming was not to earn us more than what we were earning, in fact we knew farming wouldn’t give us close to the earnings we were accustomed to. coming from a farming family, we knew farming doesn’t allow one to be wealthy, so it was not wealth building motive. the motive is to farm naturally, sustainably.

we began at our farm, knowing we need to build up soil organic matter (som). we gathered wood chips and wood logs (biomass). wood chips as mulch helps build bacterial community by conserving moisture and protecting the microbial life from weather extremes. wood logs are good medium to grow mushrooms and build up fungus. both together help to build soil with good fungal-bacterial balance.

we learnt tree leaves falls onto ground and could be tainted with contaminants from the ground, we discontinued using leaves. we knew animal and bird manure has heavy antibiotics, hormones that would upcycle into the plant growth and the fruits of the plants. we didn’t import manure.

nj dep helped us to get permit for us to be able to use biomass. they also informed that we have to start depleting the biomass we had gathered. we started using up biomass as it starting to decompose.

about 9 years ago we were in front of many of you, sharing our approach to farming naturally. our will to use biomass. we didn’t miss any opportunity to ask for help to be able to use biomass. we relentlessly bugged many of you to help realize the potential of biomass. sadc and scadb got us to be able to carry out a pilot program to utilize the biomass we had gathered. by the time we got the approval letter in oct, 2024, all of the wood chips had decomposed, much of the wood logs had decomposed, turned into wood chips and utilized in making hügel bed by our home in the exception area. we were told that we couldn’t bring any new biomass to carry out the pilot for hügelkultur and biochar.

meanwhile, the hügel bed by home and a mulched area in the field showed very good results upon soil analysis in 2020. a study by saint peters university noted of soil improvement as well. the soil gained som of 10.5 from 1.1 and active soil carbon of 1151. the soil is thriving of fungal-bacterial life in less than 3 years. the analysis proved our efforts towards sustainable farming were on right track.

we invest in building naturally fertile soil. we practiced no-till for almost 8 years even though were suggested to perform tillage to reduce compaction. the compaction is still an issue, though the soil has good structure. hardly any water runs off, as the water can percolate. the lack of som is limiting much of the farm to facilitate good growth. sorghum-sudangrass and sun-hemp are supposed to grow 10-12 feet tall, on our farm the average growth is 3-4 feet. we get very good growth in the areas of high som.

we would have certainly lived an easier life and avoided draining our savings, if we farmed like most farmers, as our farm is located in a very good location, that is not what our intentions were.