Market Farming

["Dori Green" <dorigreen00 AT hotmail.com>]

At this farm if it's carbon-based ("organic"), it gets offered to The Great 
Ghod Compost.  Sometimes I turn that compost, sometimes I just let it sit 
for three years.  Been experimenting with different methods, having good 
success this year with warming the barn by leaving a packed base in the 
run-in with a deep clean straw bed on top.  It works with goats, probably 
wouldn't with horses.

Everything gets mulched with finished compost.  Weeds are killed with thick 
blankets of finished compost on top of a layer of black-and-white newspaper.

The soil here is about 50% large rocks, 25% small rocks, 25% clay.  It was 
the only land within about 50 miles where chemicals had never been used, 
more important to me than tilth or fertility -- both of which I can fix 
within my own lifetime.  If all I had for composting was chicken feathers, 
it would improve this soil! <G>

And improving the soil is what I'm doing here.  Harvests are just a nice 
bonus.  Isn't that one of the biggest differences between organic and 
commercial agriculture?

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm
Corning, NY

http://www.ic.org/agrove

Intentional Community with local and long-distance members
Chemical-free fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers
Dairy and pack and draft goats
Free-range chickens, ducks, and geese (watch where you step)
Affordable housing cooperative
Regional farmer's marketing cooperative
Partnerships
Dried herbs and American-grown Black Tea by mail-order



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