Water Management on Regenerative Farms - NRCS Staff Educational Event
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writings & media
Articles, photography, video, and writings sourced from our work in and beyond the field. Our “from the field” series features projects, daily life, and reflections inspired by our work at home on our two farm sites in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Our “beyond the field” series features, projects, collaborations, and partnerships we are engaged in with our broader community.
Popular subjects include permaculture, forest gardening, regenerative agriculture, plant medicine, ecological restoration, earth based spirituality, and other diverse musings on agroecology topics.
From the Field: Spring in the forest garden
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Photos and reflections of the farm in spring; * Our “From the Field” Series features projects, production, and reflections derived from our work at home on our two farm sites in near Frenchtown, New Jersey.* Earth day arrives just as I’m beginning to feel love drunk on a new spring. A few days ago, standing under an old pear tree, alive and buzzing, radiant in sun gold full bloom, I abandoned my farm chores…
Read MoreArticle: Reading the Landscape in Snow
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Snow slows the mutable activity of water into a highly observable form. Its imprint on the landscape offers us a window into observing otherwise invisible water, wind, solar, and migration patterns that wield their influence across the earth and sculpt the natural world. Learning the art of landscape reading is a foundational step in developing a deeper relationship with the world around us, and understanding the natural forces that shape and shift its evolving form.
Right now, the streams and creeks are coming alive with rushing water flowing off of farm fields and backyards. It feels like the circulatory system of the earth is coming alive with the first sounds of spring! For this brief moment, between the freeze and the thaw, there are secrets to be gleaned and valuable insights to be revealed.
Read on to learn about the ways in which we can develop a deeper understanding of our landscape and context by reading the patterns of snow…
Read MoreBeyond the Field: Water Farming / Managing Agricultural Lands for Clean & Safe Water recently published by Pasa
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“Can agriculture transition from a major source of water pollution to a major force for improving water quality and, in turn, for protecting human and environmental health?”
That question was the subject of a white paper titled, Water Farming: Managing Agricultural Lands for Clean & Safe Water, recently published by Pasa Sustainable Agriculture late last year. The downloadable booklet features key approaches and perspectives on specific farming practices to protect and enrich watersheds.
Read MoreBeyond the Field: Ironbound Hard Cider Project
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A couple of seasons ago, we were approached by Ironbound Hard Cider to help develop their new cider orchards within a regenerative design context. This summer we broke ground on installing a swale system on their sloped field to help mitigate erosion and run-off, while retaining water in the landscape and increasing soil hydration for tree roots. Their new orchard layout will follow the contours of the landscape creating a continuity between agricultural production, and the underlying geographic formations of natural landforms.
Read MoreWILD FARMING SERIES: Perennial Polycultures / Complexity & Abundance
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Growing in perennial polycultures mimics the complexity and abundance naturally displayed by wild ecosystems. Cultivation happens within a horizontal and vertical spacial context, maximizing the productive yield of any given area, but also within the context of perpetually unfolding succession.
Read MoreREADING THE LANDSCAPE SERIES: Snow Cover
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From a permaculture perspective, late season snow presents a wonderful opportunity to read patterns in the landscape. By observing snow melt, we can easily identify where water naturally moves across the landscape, and this gives us insight into ways we might harness water flow, interrupt or redirect it, or choose select species that thrive in seasonal inundation…
Read MorePermaculture Principles: "The problem is the solution..."
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Permaculture is full of colorful tropes, but perhaps none so intriguing as the oft repeated paradox, “the problem is the solution.”
Each year at our Introduction to Permaculture course a prodding of this question comes up in earnest; what exactly does that mean, and how do we translate it into action?
Happy New Year & the Power of Goal Articulation
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We’re not much for resolutions (after all, what’s resolute in a universe propelled by perpetual change?), but we’re big on goal articulation. Goal articulation involves a synthesis of the what and the why informing your vision for the future. As we teach in permaculture, it’s not a singular process. Good design of landscapes and our lives involves beginning with, and returning to often, goal articulation to help understand what motivations guide us in the light of day, or shift in the shadows of our unconscious…
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