How we farm
At Little Ark, most of what we do differently than a “conventional” farm is about fostering a thriving soil ecosystem. This is not mother-earth-hippy-stuff; we do what we do because of the current scientific consensus in biology and measurable outcomes in the field. While we are certified USDA Organic and think a legal definition of “organic” is valuable, following the standards is almost incidental to our real goals. These are our biggest priorities:
- Minimize tillage and other forms of soil disturbance. Farmers till to make life easier. Mechanical seeders and hoes travel much better through a smooth, even seed bed. In the process, however, we kill larger soil inhabitants (such as earthworms) immediately, expose the tinier ones to the sun, and accelerate the decomposition and desiccation of organic matter by breaking it apart and increasing the surface area : volume ratio of the pieces. For these reasons, we abandoned the use of our tractor’s tiller and rotary plow in 2019. We still use a tool called a “tilther”, which is effectively a tiny tiller powered by a cordless drill that can loosen the top 1-2” of the soil, as opposed to the 6-8” typical of higher-powered tillers. We use the tilther only for crops we direct seed in densely planted beds (carrots, turnips, and radishes).
- Maintain living root systems wherever and whenever possible. If the best way to lose soil organic matter is tillage, the best way to gain it is growing roots. Where we don’t have harvestable crops planted, we sow grasses and clovers to keep the surface of the soil protected from the sun and to provide continuous food for the microbiome. If a cover crop fails to germinate, we just let the weeds grow and do our best to mow them before they go to seed.
- Let animals apply manure directly. We love geese. We enjoy their company, and we also enjoy their meat. But their primary function on our farm is as lawn mowers. We rotate all our vegetable fields between production and pasture, so that every other year they get a break from the vegetable life and get a cover crop vacation. The geese graze this cover crop and manure the ground as they go. We’ve doubled our soil organic matter using this method over the past four years.
- Avoid killing beneficial organisms. Being a certified organic farm already means that we can’t use the worst offender on this front, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. We also limit our organic pesticide use to dire situations, and only apply it at dusk when the casualties of pollinators and other beneficial insects will be kept to a minimum.