Soil Health

If you tend a garden or farm field and grow your own food, you may have noticed there’s a distinct difference in flavor between what you harvest out of your own patch and what you buy in the grocery store. You might ascribe this taste difference to a placebo effect (“It just feels better to know I grew this carrot!”...

On Earth Day, we like to take the time to reflect on how our work with organic seed fits into the framework of environmental and climate literacy. Although on the surface Earth Day may seem unrelated to agriculture – rather, you might wonder, isn’t it about a return to nature, protecting wildlife and natural habitats, recycling and cutting down on...

Two-yard sling bags of potting soil at VCC. When I began my agricultural career at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, I was excited to see a two-yard sling bag of Vermont Compost Company Fort Vee outside of the farm’s propagation house. As a native Vermonter, I have a lot of pride in my home state, but at the...

In Vermont and across the country, climate change poses increasing challenges for farmers: flood and drought, unpredictable weather, increased pest pressure and new strains of diseases. At the same time, the agricultural sector is a leading cause of the greenhouse gasses that lead to climate change. It doesn’t have to be, though. Just as the organic movement has offered an...

Inherent in High Mowing’s mission of providing high quality organic seeds is a dedication to building soil health in our production systems. Because our seed is developed in organic conditions with robust soils, the varieties we offer demonstrate characteristics that allow them to thrive in similar organic systems, on farms and in gardens that also recognize the importance of soil...

I grew up in a family of strict recipe followers; every baking project followed a structured procedure. Flour was always sifted twice – once before measuring, once after – and we used a special knife to accurately level flour in the measuring cup. Every instruction was followed precisely. As a rebellious teenager and young adult, I improvised everything in the...

Crop rotations are an essential farm tool. If planned and executed well, a crop rotation can establish long term soil health, break pest and disease cycles, diminish weed seed banks, balance nutrient levels, and create a vigorous overall farm system. Even if you’re a well-established farmer, chances are you’re frequently making adjustments to your crop rotation in order to improve...

Growing vegetables is hard on a place, and it’s important to put something back for all that we take out. One of our responsibilities as growers and gardeners is to be good stewards of the earth that we use. Feeding the soil is an important piece of increasing the health of our fields. One can add compost, but increasing levels...

Planting cover crops is a powerful way to improve your soil. Cover crops perform a host of valuable functions like increasing soil organic matter, fixing nitrogen, breaking up compaction, suppressing weeds and preventing erosion. In this guide we'll discuss your options for spring cover crops and the benefits of each, when and how to plant, and how to manage the...

Organic farmers know that healthy soil means healthy plants. At Good Heart Farmstead, everything we do is based in the soil. We even named our farm in honor of it—when soil is “in good heart”, it is alive and healthy. But organic farmers will also know that the name itself doesn’t transform depleted, acidic soil into living, healthy soil overnight...