And we are working hard to learn...and teach it. The world of permaculture stands in strict opposition to the edicts of big agribusiness every bit as much as natural horsemanship, natural hoof care, and natural horse care stand in strict opposition to the edicts of the established horse world.
Our application of permaculture techniques to conserve soil and water and to produce more healthy living forage for our horses is still in its beginning stages. The changes have been remarkable. Where there was only mud or dust a few years ago we now have lush vegetation. Our soil is alive and we are working to strengthen it every day.
We just had forty high school agriculture students come out on a field trip to see what we are doing. They loved it, even if it meant standing in misty rain for an hour while learning about fungi and bacteria that are more important to plant growth than modern chemicals.
Education is a fundamental aspect of our program. Although I have not been riding or exercising enough in the past six months, I am averaging at least an hour every single day reading and learning about how to make dead dirt live.
http://simplesoilsolutions.com/ is a great site worth checking out right away. I look forward to going out to her operation and learning everything that she is doing that we can apply.
I have always found learning to be tremendously exciting and what I am learning here is making me giddy.
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A couple of months back, I began studying Korean methods of natural farming (essentially the same process as the link Steve provided..) and have begun applying it on my own place...the idea is to come alongside nature, and work within her boundaries, work to restore balances long lost.
We can now farm effectively with input costs from twenty to 100 dollars per acre per year, and not just on a small scale. A friend of mine managed a 700 acre macadamia nut grove in Hawaii, beyond organic process, using Cho Global Natural Farming, the input cost of running that farm is down to 21 dollars per acre per year.
When you work and make your soil biota closely resemble that of a healthy forest floor, all sorts of neat things happen, pest loads drop, pathogen vectors become very much shorter, topsoil builds faster, there are more beneficial predatory insects which show up, and the longer you use these systems...the less of it you have to do.
One farmer in Korea, has a large apple plantation, reports that he has not had to add anything to his orchards in five years or so...and has had no instances of disease or blight...yet is exporting some of the very highest grade of fruit to the very lucrative Japanese market...where 300 dollars for a perfect honeydew melon is not uncommon...
I am a bit giddy as well...I will be stopping by the horse lot in a few minutes to start the process of culturing a tank of forest microbes to apply to the pastures..
I am a little giddy too. -Lloyd
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