Complimentary Blueberry Juice

Today was the day we installed our first-ever cover crop.

We’ve been talking about it for years but today was the day. It is likely to rain soon, and as such we were able to prepare an unused field for seeding. After numerous seasons of drought (and as farmers who largely farm without irrigation ), we decided it was no longer plausible to hope for the best. Having things growing on unproductive land would, among other things, offer us a layer of resilience that we currently do not have. And so, last year we purchased a specialized 10-row seeder from Northern Tools that covers 5 feet to start us on a new journey.

In one acre we hope to covert to a no-till as early as next season, we planted a 10-way cover crop mix:

Black Oil Sunflower
Sorghum Sudan
German Millet
Italian Rye Grass
Hairy Vetch
Forage Peas
Daikon Radish
Purple Top Turnip
Flax
Berseem Clover

Along with this seed mix, we had some leftover organic alfalfa fertilizer from a currently ongoing potato trial. We added it to our new hopper.

It’s really exciting to go through this process. Not only as farmers who have forever only planted one crop at a time, with tools designed to plant one thing at a time, using an implement like this was quite thrilling! All those seeds going down at once! To convert empty and barren soil lying fallow into something photosynthetically productive with diversity built in, with no intention of harvesting any of it. All the theory of what core crops are supposed to provide and benefit aside, we have no idea what is going to happen, as we’ve never experienced this before, never planted these plants before, and never used a tool like this before. And all of those unknowns is the most exciting part.

All we can do now is wait, and watch this grow.

We will repeat this process in multiple places, on multiple properties and at varying times of the season.

I’ve been hoping it would stop raining all year, but right now, I really hope it rains on Friday night as forecast. I would love to see this crop grow, to gather as much data as I can, and learn as much as possible.

In the coming months this summer I hope to provide updates on this field and delineate further of the benefits of covering barren soil with a wide array of photosynthetic organisms.

Stay curious!

Graham

thanks for reading complimentary blueberry juice