Climate: Notice Anything Different?
It’s late October 2024 and the rain we’ve been waiting for since mid-August has finally arrived. After weeks and weeks of warmer than normal temps and absolutely no rain, clouds form and precious rain falls. Just over 3″ of gentle, steady moisture revives our farm and the forecast begins to look more ‘normal’ with cooler temps and moisture. All the irrigating we’ve tried to accomplish in the previous weeks, nature took care of in just a matter of hours. It’s a huge relief.
We’re often asked if we’ve noticed any changes to our growing season due to climate change. Our response is always an emphatic, “Yes“. We’ve never experienced a mini drought in the fall when timely rains always come. Summer might be dry but you can count on moisture to arrive in the fall. But, even that is changing. Our wettest month the last 2 years has been July. Anything is on the table – too wet, too dry, hot spells, derecho, hail. We now talk about resilience – against the next big wind or storm, the next heat wave, the next drought.
Every growing season is getting warmer, the heat waves are longer and definitely more frequent. It has always been the case that our first below freezing night and day came before Thanksgiving. That has not happened for 2 years and doesn’t seem likely this year either. Our growing season is longer, warmer and more unpredictable than ever.
What we do know is our growing methods are the way to raise food if you want to mitigate the impact on the climate. As our new farm helper noted recently, there is no bare ground on our farm. Wherever you look, there is something growing, covering, protecting the ground whether it is mulch on the lettuce bed, cover crops on fallow beds, perennial pasture for the livestock or the leaf litter in the timber surrounding our farm. No….bare….ground. That is what you want to see. Bare soils are vulnerable to wind and rain erosion and provide no protection and promotion of soil life – the very foundation of what is needed to grow nutrient rich, healthy food.
We try to mimic nature’s method of covering soil to promote life below and above the soil like the toad in our lettuce bed. Life abounds on our farm! Cover also increases organic matter in our soils which is not only important for soil life, but when big rains come, soils high in organic matter will absorb water like a sponge and hold it for the plants instead of running off. This is so important in times of feast and famine with rainfall. We need our soils to hold the moisture if drought is going to be a regular part of our growing season.
We do not roto-till, apply poison or use any fuel intensive, soil destroying methods on our farm. Tillage chews up soil life – both microscopic and visible. Think of the earthworms! Tillage also releases carbon. Nature does not till or apply pesticides. She covers, nurtures and protects. On our farm, we have decided on a scale that allows us to grow food that causes minimal disturbance. We seriously prepare our garden beds with muscles and hoes, mulch and cover crops. Small scale growing, with an emphasis on soil health, diversity and coexistence with nature, is the best choice to protect our planet.
We appreciate your support for our growing methods – organic, slow, fuel free, regenerative – so many labels but all mean one thing and that’s opting out of big agriculture’s bad practices that warm our planet, destroy our soil, poison our water and air. Agriculture can either exist in harmony with our Earth or mine our resources and destroy our environment. I believe you can see where our roots are firmly planted.
There are so many fronts to address with climate change, it can leave a person feeling hopeless. But, how your food is raised is one of the most important choices you can make for your own health and the health of our planet. Choose your food wisely or better yet, grow your own! It might seem like a small contribution but over time, think of the impact. A little can go a long way in making change.