Welcome!
Thanks for visiting Tierra Viva Farm, your source of fresh,
local, naturally grown vegetables in the Harlingen area. The
health of the soil, the plants, and the people who eat them are my
priorities. I
use no synthetic pesticides and apply a variety of organic fertilizers.
That's the short version. The long version is:
I started this little farm because human health begins in healthy,
living soil. I saw that if I wanted nutritionally-dense, ripe, fresh
food, I was going to have to grow it myself. The modern,
"cheap"
industrial food system excels at producing cosmetically pretty food.
But is it really cheap once we consider all the hidden costs:
the
poison spraying, topsoil erosion, taxpayer subsidies, antibiotic
resistence, animal suffering, oil-dependence, and
lack of
flavor? I refuse to contribute to these problems.
It's no secret that fertile soils rich in minerals and organic matter
produce healthier plants and livestock and people. A hundred
years of scientific study have revealed this repeatedly, and peoples
around the world have know this based on informal observation
for
thousands of years. But today food is sold based
only on
price - never any mention is made of its quality.
"Industrial
agriculture, because
it depends on standardization, has
bombarded us with the message that all pork is pork, all chicken is
chicken, eggs eggs, even though we all know that can’t really
be true.
But it’s downright un-American to suggest that one egg might
be
nutritionally superior to another.” Joel recited the slogan
of his
local supermarket chain: “‘We pile it high and sell
it cheap.’ What
other business would ever sell its products that way?”
-Joel Salatin
I think nutrition should be the foremost concern of any farmer. But
today's system doesn't promote that viewpoint:
"Despite
all the apparent
advances in industrial agriculture, the nutritional qualities of our
basic foodstuffs have been declining during this century. That's
largely because most agronomists focus on bulk yield and profitability
of the crop, whilst knowing next to nothing about animal/human
nutrition. However, there's a little-appreciated "law" about this area:
nutritional value usually drops in direct relationship to the increase
in bulk production. Or, in agriculture at any rate, "quality" seems the
opposite of "quantity." -Steve
Solomon, www.soilandhealth.org
It's a big problem, and I can only do what I can with what I
have where I'm at. In my little patch of the Earth, soil
health
is the top priority. Here's some of what I do to bring you
the
best food I can:
- No
Pesticides, synthetic
fertilizers, or herbicides
-
These things often do serious harm to soil biology (and
people) and are unneccesary.
- Compost
-
everything I can I get my hands on from the farm, and then
some.
The piles of water hyacinth next to all the canals are a favorite of
mine. Got manure or bagged yard waste? Can I have it? ;)
- Natural
Fertilizers - Guano, Gypsum for Ca and S, langbeinite for K, Mg,
S, lime for Ca and Mg, Soft Rock Phosphate for P, cottonseed
meal for N, P, and K.
- Fish emulsion
and seaweed - ocean-grown biomatter is a great source of
trace elements.
- Green Manures
- Bare soil
is like a body with no skin. I always try to have cover crops
adding organic matter and recycling nutrients in the soil.
Leguminous cover crops add nitrogen too.
- Windbreaks
- The Valley
needs more windbreaks! Plants grow better and use less water
when
protected from excess wind. Next time the wind is blowing
topsoil
into your face at45 mph, ask the farmers around you why they don't
plant windbreaks and cover crops. I still don't know!
- Wide Plant
Spacing -
Most of my plants are spaced farther apart than is commonly
suggested. I aim to let each plant have a big root system to
forage for soil nutrients. The yield per area might drop a little, but
the
quality increases.
- Mix Animal
and Vegetable Agriculture
- many of the worst problems of industrial ag stem from the
divorce of animal farms from crop farms. In short, plants
need
animal wastes and animals need living plants.... and nobody needs a 4
million gallon manure lagoon at a confined-animal-feeding-operation
waiting to break.
- There's more
- There's always a better way, and I'm always open to it...