Learning and planning…

Winter has been a season of learning, dreaming and making plans! In January, Dennis and Megan attended the Practical Farmers of Iowa Conference and learned from some incredible people who shared their knowledge and experience in developing environmentally positive solutions for improving agricultural yields. Eric Lee-Mäder, former director at the Xerces Society and co-founder of Northwest Meadowscapes, reinforced the benefits of integrating native prairie habitat strips amidst cultivated crops to increase the prevalence of beneficial insects, improve soil quality and reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides.

We spent time learning about the many organizations that support agriculture in the midwest and potential funding opportunities that will support the efforts of places like our farm. We enjoyed learning about Lean Farming practices and the benefits of utilizing compost from Ben Hartman. Ben shared his passion and knowledge for growing healthy food efficiently, maximizing value while reducing waste.

Emma Barber at Rhubarb Botanicals shared with us her practical knowledge for selecting and growing herbs and botanicals, dos and don’ts around regulations and compliance and inspiration to keep following our passion!

After the conference, we started to plot out our herb and veggie garden! After many iterations using growveg.com, we landed on a ‘simple’ plan for our first garden (shown above). Only 37 species and 2,700 seeds to buy, plant, care for and harvest! Our garden will be a mix of herbal tea plants, as well as greens and berries to enjoy. Year one will be a trial and we’ll quickly learn how pest and wildlife pressures impact our garden so that we can plan out additional infrastructure in future years.

In a secondary growing space, we’ll have a small pumpkin patch, melons, popcorn and flax (shown below). Again, this year is all about trial and error to see what does well at our farm, what brings us joy, and what resources we will need to maximize our yields in future years.