In the documentary "Living Soil Film" they mention that a really diverse healthy ecosystem will contain up to 10,000 POUNDS of living biology in the soils! And, that 10,000 pounds was the weight of two elephants - and elephants eat a lot. So, it takes a lot of plant matter to feed soil biology. To learn more about Living Soil and things you can do to protect your soils click to watch the FREE documentary - more than 4 million folks have.

Early 2022 we had our soils tested to see why our plants were not growing. The Haney Test told us there were plenty of nutrients available in the soil, but not in the form plants could use it. The PLFA test told us the biology in our soils. The optimum would be 1:1 ratio of bacteria to fungi. Our soils were 9:1. Further complicated by little predator activity like protozoa. You see, protozoa feeds on bacteria and this releases the nutrients to make them available to the plants.

We need more fungal and predator (protozoa & nematodes) in our soil. How can we ADD these - its not like you can go to your local farm store and buy a jug of them.

The answer is in COMPOST. Not just any compost. It must be highly fungal dominate with a good predator population - that means the compost must also be aerobic (meaning with Oxygen that is required to keep these guys alive).

March of 2022 we built two Johnson Su Bioreactors. This style is noted for being fungal dominate. The downside is the process takes at least one year to maturity.​

Since we did not want to wait a year to get started we purchased 500 lbs. from a company in AR and a tote of compost from a company in N. CA. The CA folks were graduates from Dr. Elaine Ingham's Soil Food Web School. We used all of the 500 lbs. and about 50% of the CA compost last fall.

We have learned a lot for FREE from the web. However, there are not a lot of details provided in the free stuff. And the details matter and impact success.

So, when the Soil Food Web (SFW) offered a deal on "bundled" classes I signed Eric (oldest son) up for them. The fit is great as Eric already has a biology degree and knows the microscope. Additionally, I have contracted with a consultant to come to the farm the end of June who will work with us on building several "piles" of compost as well as microscope techniques. Zach is an early graduate of the SFW, worked with Dr. Elaine when she was at the Rodale Institute, and has about 20 years experience.

This week Zach tested samples from each of the three compost piles I have. Wednesday we had our conference call to discuss the results. Only good news. The beneficial F:B ratio was as high as 11:3 and each pile had a high number of predators. Results suggest oxygen rich compost. Since each pile was a bit different it was decided a good strategy was to blend compost from each pile together when making extract to spray while planting.

One of the cool benefits of compost is ALL the materials come directly from our farm. So, we are taking the materials from our farm to make compost - extract the biology that is then sprayed back onto our pastures. The reason we do that is we want to maximize the biology from our farm. All from nature, back to nature without chemical inputs. Materials left from the extraction process is also recycled into a pile that will become "inoculate for new piles.

Once this gets going and you have food sources for everybody it snowballs! Bacteria (food source of predators) breed every 20 minutes so if you have 10 thousand it would not take long before there are a million or more. Bacteria become food for predators like protozoa and nematodes and they keep bacteria at a manageable level.

This is one of the pictures from our compost at 1:50 dilution and 400x total magnification: Documenting active Testate Amoebe which are a beneficial indicating protozoan as they signify a predatory organism as well as adequate oxygen levels within the ecosystem. NOTE- I could not figure out how to keep the arrows as a part of the picture. The Amoebe are the two larger oblong bubble looking items with darker spots inside which is their lunch.

So, why are more farmers not accepting of Regenerative Ag? Some of the reasons may include:

• Tradition - that's not how my parents and grandparents farmed
• Incentives - USDA does not reward or incentivize loans for farmers to practice Regeneratively. Gotta spend on equipment, fertilizers, chemicals, etc.
• Risk - afraid to change and risk not being able to pay debt notes
• Education - simply don't understand the value

Lastly, remember last week I mentioned the need for more farmers - especially the need for vegetable farmers in our area. Well, I think some don't want to do this because they don't think there is enough money to be made or it take to much land. Well, this week a video came up about a guy that farms 35 hours a week by himself and makes 6 Figure Income on 1-acre of land. Check it out here and share with someone you know who might be interested.

At Nature's Gourmet Farm, our intent is to create a community that will evolve around one of the most intrinsically important things of the ages, and that’s the provision of sustenance. That's our passion - to raise healthy food to nourish families and strengthen immune systems.

** Product Availability Update **

Chicken - Next harvest date is June 13th with restock the following day. Starting in June our batch sizes will increase to meet demand. Processing will continue for twice per month for the balance of the year.

Eggs - Eggs have improved drastically. 

Beef - Restocked May 19th. Next restock will be June 23rd.

Pork - Restocked April 28th. Bacon was added Monday, May 8th. We plan to restock sausages this week and all pork again late June 2023

Lamb - Restocked April 28th. Next restock will not be until July timeframe.