Jun 8, 20232 min read

Humus: Humble & Heroic {Week 2 CSA}

The organic movement began long before there was a label to notify consumers of its importance, and the heart of it has always been healthy soil.

It's why one of America's greatest farmers and writers, Wendell Berry, said, “The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all.”

Farmers who resisted the fervor of the Green Revolution and all of its glossy petrochemicals recognized the direct link between vibrant soils teeming with life and the health of those eating from it. These early organic farming pioneers did the heavy lifting through a tangled political web of bureaucracy throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s to get an organic label codified into law so consumers could choose how they wanted their food to be grown. The movement was always rooted in the argument for healthy soil.

You'll see us waxing on about this topic often. It's the literal foundation of our premise as farmers and we're not afraid to cut into our already thin margins to protect it.

Growing crop after crop year-round, it's impossible not to notice the correlation between a rich and vibrant soil bed and plants that grow large, resist pest infestation, and taste remarkable. We've played with many approaches to improve our soil's organic matter and micronutrient composition, and our results have varied, teaching us more about how to support the microbiome of the land. The more alive it is, the better our crops turn out. In fact, the relationship between the biological activity of soil (a reliable metric of soil health) and palatable flavors of the food grown from that soil is well-studied. Organic food tastes better because healthy soil lends it more nutrition, and those nutrients lend depth and complexity to taste.

This is all rooted in the simple idea that health begins from the ground up. Exactly how that ground remains healthy or is restored to health is the subject of much inquiry, debate, and a humble acknowledgment that we are just beginning to scratch the surface of soil science.

Indeed, there is a vast array of invisible support to our existence, like a cosmic sea of activity just beneath our toes. As farmers, we are oft confronted with the limits of our own understanding of these critical and intricate mechanisms, but we make up for our ignorance with pure devotion.

We hope it's a devotion you can taste.

Healthy soil is priceless. It takes more than 500 years for an inch of topsoil to form and we have only classified less than 1% of the microorganisms within it. Soil is a nonrenewable resource we are just barely beginning to understand. As the carbon bank for 80% of all terrestrial carbon, and with an estimated capacity to sequester much more from the atmosphere, living soils are full of promise, hope, and life itself.

Inside Your Box This Week

French Breakfast Radishes

Red Romaine Lettuce

Dandelion Greens

Curly Kale

Bok Choy

Scallions

Spinach

Carrots

Cilantro