Mother Earth News Fair Takeaways

My friend, Amanda, won weekend passes to the Mother Earth News Fair this weekend at the Puyallup Fairgrounds by writing a super neat blog about her current gardening exploits for a community organization we both are participating in called Sustainable Renton. I had never heard of this fair before this year but with lots of information on seeds, homesteading, sustainability, low-energy buildings, gardening, and farming, how could I pass it up? Even though the invitation came on the morning of the Fair at 8:30am. Amanda's husband had to work and she wanted a buddy. I'm so glad she asked! We had a great time.

There were tons of booths and 14 (!) different workshops going on at the same time, all day, both days (though we only attended Saturday) to choose from. We were tempted to split up and cover multiple topics but camaraderie won out. First we went to a lecture about composting and soil fertility. Amanda took great notes while I was busy with Abigail. They're so great I copied them here and added some commentary:

Building Soil Fertility

Fertile soil is made of:
1) mineral particles
2) organic debris
3) soil foodweb - bacteria, mites, fungi, algae, protozoa, earthworms.
Fertile soil should be about 50% air : water ratio.
Soil foodweb - plants release sugars from living plant roots, bacteria and other critters feed on sugar, then on bacteria concentrated around roots.
Earthworms break down nutrients which are left in castings while their tunnels aerate the soil.
Over-tilling creates too much aeration and tiny particles called Micromanure which quickly dissolves minerals from the soil and allows minerals to escape into the air.
Minerals sustain the food web which sustains the plants. The large minerals commonly found in fertilizers are N-P-K = Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. The most influential of which is Nitrogen.

Nitrogen - Plants require it but it must be balanced.

Lack of nitrogen is one of the most common reasons that plants don't achieve optimum growth. However, too much nitrogen causes an overgrowth of leaves without produce. Balanced nitrogen is a key component for balanced leafy growth and produce growth.

Cover crops - keeps your soil foodweb supported through the winter.

"Fixing nitrogen" - legumes take nitrogen from the atmosphere, convert into a form useable by plants in the soil - part of the soil foodweb
Austrian peas are a tasty overwinter crop (available from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply). Clovers, vetch, and alfalfa are also good cover crops.

Compost - apply mulches, compost, or manure regularly
- Suppresses plant diseases
- Improves soil texture
- Increases soil's water-holding capacity = drought resistance

Artificial Chemical Fertilizers
- Unsustainable (fossil fuel based)
- Can be too potent and burn plants
- washes out of soil, damaging the water supply
- damages the soil foodweb
- Expensive

Soybean meal and alfalfa meal are the best priced organic fertilizers per pound of nitrogen.
Most organic fertilizers will be 2-4% nitrogen. If your fertilizer has more nitrogen than that, they likely have a chemical fertilizer added.

Eight keys to good soil

1) Grow cover crops
2) Avoid chemical fertilizers
3) Avoid tilling. (Broad fork suggested. I also suggest this)
4) Use organic mulches - such as wood chips
5) Use as much compost as you can - chicken manure is great
6) Use grass clippings
7) Use fall leaves - you may break them down with lawn mower - aged one year is best
8) Buy good organic fertilizers wisely

After that lecture we wandered around the booths a bit more, listened to Ed Beckley Jr. speak a bit about his slow transition to energy efficiency, then hit the bookstore. I got three: "Folks, This Ain't Normal" by Joe Salatin, "Saving Seeds" by Robert and Cheryl Gough, and "The Fruit Gardener's Bible" by Lewis Hill and Leonard Perry. Amanda also got three other books so theoretically we could swap and read six!

Then it was time for FAIR SCONES! I absolutely adore them. We always have some in stock from Costco. As soon as we get low I put it on the next list. When we turned around I noticed a booth of specialty oils and balsalmic vinegars. Be still my heart; and my taste buds! We had a blast tasting everything and I ended up buying a small bottle of the white balsalmic and the parmesan, garlic, basil dipping oil. Then it was off to a fermentation lecture during which a sore back, fussy baby, and lack of experience with the subject allowed me to be distracted most of the time. But Amanda says she got a lot out of it. Maybe she'll write up what she learned. Unfortunately, I was so distracted that I ended up forgetting my beautiful balsalmic and oil under the chair never to be seen again. :((((

We also bought some local Theo chocolate, I bought a beautiful bracelet from Guatemala brought to us by co-ops and fair trade, and Amanda bought some seeds. We also got some gluten free handouts from Bob's Red Mill company which I'm curious to try. 

The other topic I learned a LOT on is pasture management. I attended a lecture put on by the Pierce County Conservation District about small farms and how to manage your small pasture. Now that we know our goats are a long-term fixture on our long-term property we need to develop a perspective on our property from "back yard" to "pasture" and treat it as such. Already we are seeing compaction, erosion, and overgrazing of some plants and overabundance of others. The original plan for this fall was to top sow a pasture seed mix specifically for dairy animals and fence it all into three or four sections to allow for rotational grazing. That is all well and good but I didn't know when to move the animals on (when the pasture is about three inches high) or when a pasture needs grazing (no more than 5 or 6 inches high). Or that when an animal is provided with an abundance of grazing they will become picky and quickly kill out their favorite foods. Apparently it is beneficial to chop your pasture down if it gets too tall for whatever reason otherwise the animals will be picky. Too short and the beneficial plants will either die or be stunted. Also, if a plant goes to seed it will stunt because it's job is done for the season. The speaker showed us a couple of different common variations of fencing orientations and other things to take into consideration such as gate layout and high traffic areas. For our high traffic areas it sounds like our best option is to, again, use wood chips layered a foot deep (they will compress over time) in the high traffic areas to promote drainage, protect the soft hooves, and prevent erosion. The drawback to this method is it needs to be scraped out and reapplied every year otherwise the new droppings and accumulations will simply develop a top layer of mud and defeat the purpose. Cheap, but labor intensive.

Last thing, I found this video on combining cover crops with no-till methods. Good stuff to keep in mind for this winter and how to manage that along with the wood chips.

I love this stuff.