NATURANDA HERBS
In progress…
We are establishing a food producing garden. One that is resilient to change. Both the change of the climate and the generational shift. The food produced here will aim to enrich the local culture, and nourish its consumers. It will do this by enriching and nourishing the land.
The rich topsoils our modern agricultural is reliant on came to be through living, dying and decomposing plants. Deep perennial roots anchoring the soil in place, drawing minerals from the bedrock, and energy from the sun. The leaves falling to the ground, a mixture of sun and rock, and decomposing by the help of microbes and fungi – these in turn living, reproducing and dying. The grasslands had the help of grazing animals, in big herds, moving fast ahead of predators. Grasses that have been grazed shed their roots and then regrow with new long roots – in that way accumulating organic matter in the ground, made from sun and rock. In the conventional system the soil needs to be ploughed every year and this kills a huge amount of the soil life, depletes the soil, allowing for evaporation of carbon and run-off of minerals. The system we are trying to establish moves away from this.
Wildlife needs to be invited in and accommodated.
Nothing goes to waste. What can not be eaten of the food we produce needs to be eaten by our animals, or composted. Within the system, or farm, the animals eat what we cannot eat. The grazers eat the grass and turn it into protein. The browsers eat the tough shrubs, and turn into protein. Ducks hep control slugs in the garden, chickens peck
