The runoff challenge
Conventional farming often relies on nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. When it rains, some of those nutrients can wash into creeks and rivers, contributing to algae blooms and low-oxygen conditions downstream, including the Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone.”
The organic difference at Mt. Folly
Mt. Folly is organic. Our fertility comes from nitrogen-fixing cover crops, compost, compost teas, and biochar. We do not apply synthetic nitrogen fertilizer.
We grow fertility in place using legumes such as vetch, crimson clover, and Austrian winter peas. In our ley system, when fields are in hay and pasture, the mix includes alfalfa, chicory, clovers, timothy, orchard grass, and warm-season grasses as summers get hotter.
Karst water is fast water
Mt. Folly sits on a limestone karst landscape. Water moves quickly through cracks, sinkholes, and cave systems. That makes groundwater protection immediate and personal.
A non-negotiable line
I decided to go organic after exploring the cave system beneath the south end of the farm and realizing that a contracted corn grower was applying atrazine above that cave network. On karst, “out of sight” is not “out of water.”
Dumping synthetic chemicals into limestone cave systems is a red line for me.