Outside reading and viewing that shaped how we think about soil biology — interviews, lectures, and case studies from other growers.
In an interview with Acres U.S.A., soil ecologist Dr. Christine Jones described how farmers can wean off synthetic nitrogen gradually rather than all at once — cutting back roughly 20% the first year and 30% in each of the next two, while supporting soil biology with year-round plant diversity. She also discussed why bare fallow ground between crops breaks down soil aggregation, hurting water infiltration and increasing erosion risk.
As I make this compost and harvest it, I am always amazed at how much life is in each handful. Trying to understand there are trillions of life forms in my hand is impossible to grasp. We grow up thinking in dozens and hundreds. But numbers over a billion still amaze me.
I watch the scientists who are popular and well spoken. Men like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Brian Cox are astrophysicists who excite the masses with their explanations of the heavens. Recently Dr. Cox said he thinks there are over two trillion galaxies, each with 400 billion stars! And to think one hundred years ago, no one even had heard of a galaxy. What will be the amazing finds in the next 100 years?
To me, this information speaks of an infinite creator who delights in making things. Lots of things. But these very gifted and intelligent men publicly deny there is a creator.
I read this passage from the Bible today and it so eloquently expresses what I have been thinking.
For all people who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature; and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know the one who exists, nor did they recognize the artisan while paying heed to his works; but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air, or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water, or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world.
If through delight in the beauty of these things people assumed them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Lord, for the author of beauty created them. And if people were amazed at their power and working, let them perceive from them how much more powerful is the one who formed them. For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.
Yet these people are little to be blamed, for perhaps they go astray while seeking God and desiring to find him. For while they live among his works, they keep searching, and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful. Yet again, not even they are to be excused; for if they had the power to know so much that they could investigate the world, how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?
Wisdom 13:1–9 NRSV
Tops on the reading list: Neal Kinsey's Hands-On Agronomy (Acres U.S.A.) — the only book we've read four times. Kinsey studied under Dr. William Albrecht at the University of Missouri and explains soil chemistry through plain science and stories, not jargon. Reading it alongside your own soil test from Kinsey Agricultural Services (Charleston, MO) makes it click even faster.
On the same day: notes from the worm bins in 102°F heat, how a shop-vac keeps the air columns clear in the larger bins, and why mixing concentrated vermicompost 1-part-to-2 with regular bin compost makes a better finished product for farmers.