Seed makes a difference - to the quality, flavour and nutrient density of the food we grow and eat. Seed makes a difference to a plant’s pest and disease resistance, to its resilience in extreme weather and its ability to form relationships, supporting the ecosystem and thriving from it.

This week we celebrated Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. It came just as our lavender crop matured. As we cut lavender under the hot sun, listened to the neighboring farms raking hay, round bales criss crossing fields, and bit into our first peaches, we felt that Summer feeling. We revel in the long days and the warmth even while we feel at the mercy of the sun and we hope for the combine forces of light, warmth, water and earth to ripen our seasons harvest.

Slowly Spring moves into Summer - seedlings grow and bear fruit. The earth’s tilt will change sending the sun back to the North, and the earth will continue her long exhale of Summer. The warmth and light of the season will grow sunflowers tall, ripen fruit, and swell tubers! And we hope that the time we have spent nurturing a living soil will help all of the food crops to thrive and mature through whatever Summer will bring.

We view this year as a successful season as we continued to achieve and/or work towards our goals as a farm and a community. The farm continued to strive for a biodiverse, balanced ecosystem where the health of the natural system continues to improve, our natural resources are respected and enhanced and the food we harvest is of a high quality and nutrient dense.

Green manure crops are used to protect and proliferate soil microbes, to remineralise the soil, and to build humus - not only through the incorporation of organic matter back into the soil but also through the great symbiotic relationship between plants and soil life - with plants converting sunlight and water into complex sugars which are then fed to the diverse network of organisms living within the soil who in turn offer nutrients and/or heightened immune system response to the plants. It is amazing the interconnectedness of the soil life and the plants above.