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Garden 1:
-Kale
-Peapods
-Red Chard
-White Chard
-Spinach
-Celery
Garden 2:
-Striped Squash
Garden 3:
-Broad Beans
-Green Beans
-Scottish “Curly” Kale
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At 5am, we blasted the radio and took off for Philomath, OR in a pickup truck 65 miles an hour. We prepared to pick up 4,500 pounds of biochar there at an industrial site. When we finally arrived around 9:30am, we met John and Phil who gave us a tour of the machinery that makes biochar and the chemistry that makes it all happen.
After that, of course, it was time for the loading. Using a forklift and the power of four people, we packed 15 300-pound bags of biochar into our truck and our farm trailer.
After making our first stop at Long End Island farm, we noticed a flat tire on our trailer. We carefully drove to the puget island ferry and went across the river, flat tire and all, to Westport, OR.
We waited on the side of the road for our friend Jack to help us change a tire and as we waited, a man named Brandon and his son stopped and helped us fix the flat which sent us, gratefully, back on our way again.
Then, it was time to make our next deliveries in Westport before finally wrapping up for the day and heading home. As we made our next delivery, we met a couple interested in our soil consulting work and we discussed with them the importance of three main things to maintain healthy, living soil: Biochar, Mineral Balancing, and Composting.
All in all, yesterday was a success as we continued to spread biochar across the Pacific Northwest to begin to improve the soil quality there dramatically. Stay tuned for our next big adventures.
http://instagram.com/p/rcV4ybR9HE/?modal=true In our specially blended composted soil, our starter plants are rapidly growing! Here we have organic spinach plants that will be transplanted into the ground in the next week are so!
http://instagram.com/p/raA3rRR9I6/?modal=true At Biocharm Farms, composting is vital to the health and quality of our produce as it is part of what enriches our soil.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, composting has the ability to regenerate nutrients in depleted soils. It does this by stimulating the production of beneficial bacterias and fungus which then through biological processes 
decay into an organic matter mixture called humus which is not to be confused with Hummus, the delightful garbanzo bean dip. You don’t want to eat humus, but you do want to eat the produce when such a mixture is its growing the soil. Humus increases the nutrient contents of soil and even allows the soil to hold moisture that keeps it hydrated.
Composting materials even has been seen to lessen the amount of pests and disease in crops which means harsh chemicals and fertilizers aren’t needed when you compost. With composting, as well, you are reducing the amount of organic waste that ends up in landfills and are using it for good. Composting reduces your carbon footprint and can help to restore depleted soils around you.
Be sure your compost is getting wet daily,
Use the decayed soil in your garden to increase the nutrient density of your produce
Save the environment, one compost at a time.
Article by Annie Baldwin
We planted these starts a few days ago and they are already starting to sprout in our mineral balanced nutrient dense soil. Our WWOOFer, Annie, has taken these on as one of her projects while she is here this month. We will be transplanting these into the soil in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for their progress in the coming weeks.
biocharm farms 