Dear Friends,
At Mt. Folly farm, we are doing big things, simply. We are part of the drawdown movement, which seeks to sequester carbon dioxide in plants, trees and soils. We have long been a part of the organic movement as well, for us meaning our products are raised in soils, part of the underground web which nourishes the above ground green.
As a subscriber to the Mt. Folly newsletter, you are automatically signed up for a chance to win a long weekend at the Homestead Log Cabin. There, you’ll experience real organic farming, meet the farm animals and the farmers, and participate in our rural life and economy. The contest ends July 31.
All life, including ours, runs on photosynthesis, nature’s engineering wonder. Plants, from trees and hemp to corn and rye for our whiskey, take in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and water (H2O) from the air and soil. Then, with the sun’s energy and other fancy tricks, the water loses electrons, and the carbon dioxide gains electrons, making glucose. This sugar feeds the plants and soil creatures, putting the carbon underground in the soil.
The farmer’s task is to keep it there.
This is not as easy as you might think. So, we are trying every trick in the book to keep the carbon in our soils, an objective known as sequestration. We are the only organic farm in American Farmland Trust’s national Conservation Innovation Grant, which is studying ways to improve soil health. We’ll show you the study’s three test plots where we use various cover crops and reduced or no-till methods to figure out what works.
We are making biochar from dying ash trees. We are using management intensive grazing for cattle. And we are building a small regional economy, to ensure shorter supply chains and reduced food miles.
I am delighted to commit the last years of my working life (I turn 65 next month) to this project, and proud of the young group who will follow. Thanks so much for joining us in this endeavor and know that we are giving it all we’ve got and then some.
Fondly,
