Legitimacy
Hi there,
Big news over here on the farm… We are now officially a business, Berryton Home Farm LLC! This is a great time for us but not without a little stress, I mean, upping the ante means that there is now a palpable sense that with success can come failure. It had never occurred to me before that failure would even be a thing. How is a person able to change a mindset back and forth I wonder? Nothing has really changed in regard to the farm, right? Right! It has at the very least created more drive within me and a more focused direction.
As a family, we often walk the farm. Through the pasture and woodland, “adventuring” the children call it. It keeps us connected to each other and to our land. This morning was no different and it was glorious to be out. While we are out and about talk often turns to what we are going to do and why we know that we are on the right track still. I’m not going to bother you with the day to day planning but I will share with you just why we are travelling this often arduous path. We strongly believe that through hardship, whether that’s the strain of responsibility, the muscle aching hard work, or the patience to carry on despite what appears to be a glacial amount of movement, the strongest of characters and the tranquility of contentment is forged.
I know that some of the traditional farmers around here think that we are crazy. Crazy to embark on growing a farm from scratch and certainly crazy to do it the way we are. No quick fixes, no shortcuts, no manmade scientific “advances.” What we are doing is called Regenerative Ranching (I call it a farm because I’m English and it’s the name I’ve always known) What it is best described as is using only nature to, firstly, replenish the fertility of the land and restore the balance (harmony) to the land as it would have been before European farming practices destroyed the drainage and robbed the nutrients from it (ever wondered why people talk about the aquifers drying up?). Secondly, to continue the same to build soil, yes it’s built, and continue to invest in nature and increase diversification of all life.
So how does a person do that?
I’m pleased that you asked! Well, it’s slow. Like, really slow. We bought sheep, just a handful with the sole purpose to eat, pee, and poop. The reason grass grows is to be eaten you see. It’s true. Have you noticed how the more you cut it the faster it grows? Our land had been mown for hay and that hay given away for decades. Little to no fertilizer had been put back, in any form and as a result the grass was very poor, starved. No bugs to speak of because the grass was so sparse and thin that the soil dried up, and because of that no birds. No worms because of the hard crust on the top and no spare dead grass to eat. Sheep (herbivores) are light and have small feet so that they didn’t harm our soil any further, they eat grasses and weeds alike, and spread their own fertilizer and it’s even pelleted like you get at the store. We stopped haying and only gave the sheep small, daily, paddocks so that we could be sure not to let them eat in one spot too long (again so as to not ruin the soil further) The transformation the first year was nothing short of miraculous due to the terrible state that it was in when we started. Well, it slows down after the first year but this is a long haul kind of thing.
Gradually we add more sheep and later we will be able to add cattle as more grass and better soil will support more mouths and stomachs, plus the ground won’t be destroyed by the heavier animals because the rain will soak through (thanks to the worms) and not turn to mud.
There’s more to it and it’s fascinating but I’ve probably written enough to bore you already! If you have any questions at all add them here, I love answering them.