A small, organic, regenerative market garden in Falmouth, Maine.
Plant Food Farm is a celebration of the profound healing and illuminating beauty of nature, explored through the lens of growing and sharing food. It is meant to help connect us directly with the real source of our food and to illustrate the potential of a life lived in collaboration with nature rather than opposition to it.
Many of us have an emotional connection to the experience of eating good food—an experience we all (often literally) share. Having local and direct access to natural sources of food can help us to think and talk more about how we might live in a way that celebrates nature and everything it provides without harming or displacing it in the process. I hope that Plant Food Farm can inspire a discussion about the things nature has to teach us and how we can protect it even while meeting all our needs.
I believe wholeheartedly in the nutritional and environmental benefits of organic farming, so I am committed to running an entirely organic operation. I want to minimize my harmful impact on the earth for as long as I am on it, and that extends to all aspects of the farm’s operations. While I grow 100% organically, I am not yet MOFGA certified. I will be applying for certification this year.
Organic
Small-scale
Large-scale agriculture requires growing practices that are often very harmful to the land. Heavy machinery—in addition to running on fossil fuels—disrupts or destroys the soil food web of living organisms that provide nourishment for plants. Deep tillage and soil compaction cause erosion and disrupt the water cycle. Pesticides and herbicides (even organic ones) can devastate natural ecosystems over time. Keeping the farm small enables people-powered growing practices that require more attention and care but protect the long-term health of cultivated land.
Practices like no-till growing, crop rotation, and cover cropping focus on building and maintaining soil health. This can increase soil microbe activity and organic matter content, improve the resilience of plants and the nutrient density of food they produce, permanently sequester carbon from the atmosphere in the soil, and result in a net-positive impact of farming activities on the surrounding ecosystem. It is possible to restore health to the land even while getting what we need from it.
Regenerative
Intensive
Growing as much food as possible on the smallest amount of space ensures minimal impact to the natural ecosystems that are disrupted by human food production needs. Intensive growing practices, including season extension techniques and succession planting, can substantially increase the amount of people that can be fed per acre of cultivated land.
Growing a wide variety of crops in a carefully constructed crop rotation ensures that nutrients are returned to the soil at the same rate (or faster) than they’re consumed. Permaculture landscape design principles make it possible to not just maintain, but even increase natural biodiversity on cultivated land in ways that are inspired by nature. Natural hedgerows, ecological wildlife ponds, and the intentional planting of pollinator-attracting or pest-repelling plants are examples of how thoughtful landscape design can encourage beneficial biodiversity on a farm, increase farm resilience, and reduce the risk of major disease and pest issues over time.
