Journal Entry #1

"Feed the soil not the plants"
-Kat Darling

Tuesday, September 28th 2010    Two Mountain Farm


Kat Darling the owner of Two Mountain Farm is a Proctor Academy alum. After high school she went to college out west first at Witman, than attending Prescott College. College is where her interest in farming got started. Now Kat lives on the farm in Andover, NH with her dog Peo. 


Goal of Kat's farming: Provide herself with a lively hood, while creating a farm that gives back what it takes from the environment. 


Kat is currently cultivating on 2 acres of her 10 workable acres of land. The farm is located on another 45 acres of woodland that provides the house and farm with fuel. Two Mountain sit atop a hill that provides the farm with good drainage, nice western exposure to sunlight, and great air ventilation from the winds that blow through from the valley. The winds also do the service of blowing away diseases. 
    Paxton Sandy Loam is the soil on the hill that allows Two Mountain to be successful. It is a very acidic soil that is perfect for the native plants to grow like wild strawberries and blueberries. But can make it difficult to grow the specific crops Kat wishes to grow. 
    "Im trying to create diversity of crops with my farm" -Kat Darling
  
 Theres many challenges of growing in NH. Trying to figure out how to be able to grow crops for longer than 2 months is a main one. Kat's solution to this problem is having hoop houses. These are structures that look like a green house but arent heated. 
There are currently two hoop houses at Two Mountain. Kat hopes to build two more to houses in the next few years.

Once you add hoop houses to your farm it allows your growing season to go from 2 months to 8 months. Allowing Kat to overcome some of the challenges growing in NH create. Even though the hoop houses arent heated they still have a warmer temperature and allow you to easily control the amount of moisture each plant gets. 






"FEED THE SOIL NOT THE PLANT!!!" 

In this first hoop house Kat is growing spinach, bok choy, and micro greens. In the other she just had tomatos. Each crop flip flop from each hoop house every year allowing the soil to have a break from the specific plant. In November when all the greens are done growing Kat will move in the chickens to begin their job. They will live in the house and poop which adds much need nitrogen to the soil. 












With a little over 50 chickens at Two Mountain they are just as vital to the system as the human workers who coexist with them. Their poop puts nitrogen back into the soil and their digging rotatil the soil as well. Chicken act as amazing insect control. With their favorite foods being insects they are more than willing to help a farmer out with that chore. Their eggs are also sold to families weekly and bring in quite a bit of revenue. Not only do chickens help around the farm they also bring hours of entertainment. Just in our couple minutes of watching them the whole class was laughing at their antics. 


   

Bees also play a vital role on the farm! They pollinate all the plants that flower to turn them into a fruit. Kat told us that even the first year of having bees her yield of crop increased. She can also harvest a little honey that can be eaten or sold at farmers markets.  















  "The missing link to my farm is my composting. I just dont have enough to give back all the nutrients i take out of the soil yet." Kate told us this as she stood infront of one of her many compose piles. 

Having a high diversity of plants helps with keeping the soil healthy. As does having the animals help by adding cardon. But Kat hopes to soon have a large enough compost pile that it can supply all the nutrients that she is taking out by growing her crops.

  

  Cover Crops: (green manure) Kate uses cover crops so there is never a time when her soil is bare. On the site that we looked at buckwheat was being grown. Cover crops bring up nutrients from lower in the soil so other plants can use them. Also if the soil was bare than there would be runoff and loss of nutrients. 


"We Must think of the soil as a living organism." -Kat Darling

Once you start to think of the soil as a living organism your farming begins to become more successful. The healthier the soil the healthier your plants. The diversity of even the first 6 inches of soil is thought be higher than the rain forests. The Pasture where Kat does all her growing is bacteria run. As with in the forest the soil health is run by fungus. 

            Even Peo has a job on the farm, to hunt down mice. Or at least he tries to.


Two Mountain Farm in a pretty good example of how farms should be run. With the idea of full sustainability. Though some things could be changed like replacing the tractor for a team of draft horses. Making the compost pile bigger, no longer requiring fertilizer to be brought in. If more farmers took steps to have more sustainable farming than we would have a much healthier environment and in turn a much healthier population of people.  

   
  Even on our way out we got a glimpse of the statues from Easter Island. wow! All of  environmental studies are really connecting.  




Home is where the food is. Buy local, buy organic


                        Jen Ellms