Sustainable farming is a subtle balancing act. We need to maintain or better yet increase fertility, harvest a sufficient yield, and use as little external energy as possible. For us this is a work in progress.

Fertility hinges on our mindful use of cover crops to keep the soil covered in the off-season and between plantings, composting organic materials to return nutrients to the soil, and a careful rotation of crops through the garden beds. Using the Biointensive Method of farming, developed by John Jeavons , a previous systems analyst from Stanford, we are able to harvest yields per square foot that are significantly greater than USDA averages. Jeavons' book, How to Grow More Vegetables , is a well-used reference in our library.

We also minimize the use of off-farm fertilizers and soil ammendments, and equipment that burns gas. In a 1994 report, Cornell energy specialist David Pimmental estimates that conventional agriculture, which uses petroleum in equipment, fertilizers and pesticides, takes almost ten calories of fossil fuel energy to bring every calorie of food to the table. At the farm where Elaine has been apprenticing for the last two years, experiments show that they produce nearly ninety calories for every calorie of input. This figure is nothing short of amazing, and we hope to even approach it.

Ideally this human-scale farm will eventually be sustained completely with on-farm resources, including people power!