Over the winter I’ve seen a lot of posts from farmers “battling” mother nature in their farm practices. Across the midwest, I see the desertification of land that used to be fertile grasslands with nine feet of topsoil thanks to the Buffalo. I’ve seen the videos of the wind whipping away what topsoil is left, the ground bare.
And I had a thought. How would we ever win against Mother Nature? A being that has been learning and evolving over billions of years?
And why would we want to? Look around the world at what she’s built. I mean how incredible is it that healthy, well aerated soils harbor bacteria called methanotrophs, which break down methane? It’s just mind boggling that Mother Nature designed a system to create balance with grasslands and ruminant animals.
There is so much we don’t know about the workings of our beautiful planet.
I like to imagine a world where we farm as a love letter to nature. We could be students of the earth for an entire lifetime and still not know a speck of what there is to know about it. But here’s an example of us trying.
Last summer we had a pretty bad drought in Vermont. The pastures stopped growing. Except the parts along the edge that had access to shade for most of the day. Those parts of the pasture stayed lush and green, and were 8-10” taller than the pasture out in the middle of the field.
Contrary to what I always heard as a kid, by watching and listening to Nature I saw that grass does indeed like some shade. The trees can protect the grass from extreme drought events and they can also protect it from extreme rain events by slowing the rain down before it hits the earth, and keeping the soil in place with their root structure.
And so we’re continuing on our plan to eventually have trees sprinkled across our entire 100 acres of pasture.
This is a teensy example. But close your eyes and imagine a world where everyone farms as a love letter to nature. I see lush green ecosystems where wildlife and humans flourish alongside each other. The feeling that comes to mind is abundance. And nourishment.
What a beautiful world it would be if everyone had access to nutrient dense animal foods. Our chronic health problems would disappear. We would have that vital connection to our food and to the earth.
Oh, what a world!
We’re two short months away from the grazing season kickoff and I can’t wait to see what we learn from our farm this summer. I’m looking forward to tasting the animals we harvest that have been grazing on this magical farm the whole year. I just know you’re going to be able to taste the love and the energy of this place.
And now it’s time to feed the animals and shovel snow.
Lots of love from the snowy hills of Vermont,
Katie