A Garden Can Be Anywhere by Lauri Kranz

Author:Lauri Kranz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2012-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

Dandelion Spring Farm is a certified organic farm.

Lauri: One of your goals is to pay attention to soil nutrition and to guard the soil. What do you mean by that?

Beth: Well, I eat vegetables because they’re healthy for me. And all those nutrients came from the soil. So I want that soil to be at least as nutrient-rich, if not more nutrient-rich, than how it started before we took out the vegetables. Even just feeding a family off a small space, the soil can help us to produce hundreds of pounds of vegetables that are made up of nutrients and water. And those nutrients need to be returned to the ground in order for the soil to continue to feed you. I also think that it’s important to not forget all the microorganisms and the environment that’s under the soil, too.

As a production farmer, I think it’s really easy to get into “I want more carrots.” To get into the economics. But that’s only half of it.

Lauri: How do we build a human community that is more garden- and farm-conscious? How did you get into it?

Beth: I grew up in Maine, west of here, and I always loved sheep and I was always interested in creating my own food and fiber. When I was in college, I learned that farming was a really excellent metaphor for talking about other environmental issues. I was at a liberal arts college that allowed me the freedom to go out to farms and talk about the things that were important to me in a way that was also very accessible. I was interested in the effects of the growth of urban areas on rural areas, and how that was impacting those rural communities economically, as well as socially. This was the mid-nineties, and people were starting to talk a little bit about climate change. Also realizing that our food is coming from farther away, and what is the environmental and economic impact of that?

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