At WTF, while growing nutritious food for our community we strive to protect the resources that we steward for the benefit of the human and more-than-human beings that rely on this land. This includes using farming practices that protect the quality of the soil, water, and air. To this end, in 2021 we transitioned the farm away from using tillage practices. 

Previously we had used tillage (mechanically turning over and breaking up the soil) to prepare ground for planting, weed control, and terminating crops, but at that time we began learning more about how plants and soil rely on each other in a delicate symbiosis to do the real work of growing the food that we eat, and how destructive tillage is to that relationship. 

To put it simply, plants use their incredible and unique powers of photosynthesis to create carbohydrates, sugars, and simple proteins from the sun’s energy. They then release about 35% of their hard made resources into the soil surrounding their root system. This is because they know that their survival depends on an interdependent thriving web of soil micro- and macroorganisms. These organisms – beneficial bacteria and fungi, protozoa, nematodes, micro and macro arthropods, and earthworms, among others –  each do their part in breaking down the minerals and nutrients in the rock particles and organic matter that make up the soil (bacteria and fungi), and cycling those nutrients through their digestive systems into plant available forms (the soil predators: protozoa, nematodes, arthropods, earthworms). 

Tillage practices chop, slice, pulverize, and otherwise decimate these fragile communities, leaving most agricultural soils nearly devoid of fungi and the soil predators, while also creating compaction layers, releasing carbon into the atmosphere, and breaking up soil structure, making soils more likely to wash or blow away during the next storm. 

The learning curve has been steep since that transition in 2021, but over the years we’ve continued seeking out the experience and wisdom of other regenerative growers near and far and honed our systems toward sustainable, efficient, nature mimicking practices that support soil microbes, plant health, and by extension the health of the people/communities that eat our food. 

Based on what we learned, our guiding principles became the following: 

Disturb the soil as little as possible.

Keep the soil covered as much as possible. 

With a diversity of living roots, if possible. 

We use a diverse blend of cover crops to protect the soil from winter’s incessant rain, largely outcompete weeds, and build soil organic matter, which is critical for drought resilience by increasing the soil’s water holding capacity. Instead of tilling to create bare soil to plant into, we use 50’x100’ tarps to terminate cover crops and any weeds that might be growing in the beds. We cut down annual crops at the soil surface, leaving their rhizosphere (root zone) intact and plant the following vegetable or cover crop directly into this already functioning mutual aid network of soil microbes. We mulch our pathways with wood chips, providing the high carbon sources of food that fungi need to thrive. 

Here at WTF, as farmers, educators, and community members, we recognize our inextricable interdependence with everything around us – from rainfall patterns and soil microbes to school systems and transportation infrastructure – and we view our land stewardship practices as part of building the nourished, thriving human and more-than-human communities that we want to live in.