When we look at things, deep down, whether we realize it or not, we're looking at a part of ourselves. That doesn't sound like a horticultural statement, so let me unpack it.
Let's take, for example, the question raised by Francesca Pachetti in a recent post: does the lemon tree make its fruits for me? And does the hen lay her eggs for me?
One way of approaching these issues is ecological: have our taste for the apple, its flavour, its timing, its colour, its nutritional properties co-evolved to benefit both man and apple? This is often the case, especially for fruit. In the case of the domestic hen it is only partially so - because that species exists only as a result of our selection, of our using it.
But are we using it or is it using us?
Some say hallucinogenic mushrooms have "decided" to use our brains to perpetuate themselves. Ultimately, being psychedelic appears to have only one benefit: it gives a "pleasant" experience to certain animals. Stamets takes this further by suggesting that the Fungi as a kingdom are using us to colonize the other planets of the solar system. The same could be said of plants, which will use us to disperse their seeds wherever we go - unless cyborgs replace us ecologically.
Is it the lemon taking advantage of our hunger and evolutionary potential or is it man who exploits the generosity of the lemon?
The key is, in my opinion, in the false give-receive dichotomy, not unlike that between compete-cooperate; both are extremely reductive, and betray a non-holistic perspective.
Giving and receiving, making the fruit and picking it up, laying the egg and "stealing" it, dying and turning into fertility are, basically and as Francesca suggests, the same gesture - and one that the ecosystem makes on and within itself. In our seeing these things as separate is the measure of our being dysfunctional.
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."
When we look at ourselves, deep down, whether we realize it or not, we are looking at a part of all things. Of all things.
"Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home." (J. Joyce)
https://www.cortesedario.com/post/are-we-using-the-lemon-or-is-it-using-us
Let's take, for example, the question raised by Francesca Pachetti in a recent post: does the lemon tree make its fruits for me? And does the hen lay her eggs for me?
One way of approaching these issues is ecological: have our taste for the apple, its flavour, its timing, its colour, its nutritional properties co-evolved to benefit both man and apple? This is often the case, especially for fruit. In the case of the domestic hen it is only partially so - because that species exists only as a result of our selection, of our using it.
But are we using it or is it using us?
Some say hallucinogenic mushrooms have "decided" to use our brains to perpetuate themselves. Ultimately, being psychedelic appears to have only one benefit: it gives a "pleasant" experience to certain animals. Stamets takes this further by suggesting that the Fungi as a kingdom are using us to colonize the other planets of the solar system. The same could be said of plants, which will use us to disperse their seeds wherever we go - unless cyborgs replace us ecologically.
Is it the lemon taking advantage of our hunger and evolutionary potential or is it man who exploits the generosity of the lemon?
The key is, in my opinion, in the false give-receive dichotomy, not unlike that between compete-cooperate; both are extremely reductive, and betray a non-holistic perspective.
Giving and receiving, making the fruit and picking it up, laying the egg and "stealing" it, dying and turning into fertility are, basically and as Francesca suggests, the same gesture - and one that the ecosystem makes on and within itself. In our seeing these things as separate is the measure of our being dysfunctional.
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."
When we look at ourselves, deep down, whether we realize it or not, we are looking at a part of all things. Of all things.
"Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home." (J. Joyce)
https://www.cortesedario.com/post/are-we-using-the-lemon-or-is-it-using-us
Dario Cortese
Are we using the lemon, or is it using us?
When we look at things, deep down, whether we realize it or not, we're looking at a part of ourselves. Let's take, for example, the question raised by Francesca Pachetti in this post: does lemon make its fruits for me? And does the hen lay her eggs for me?…
This video is an excerpt from a day-long course kindly filmed by Anna last October.
In the coming days I will be posting more of this type of educational content, in particular on how to start from weedy ground and make no-dig beds from scratch. If you don't want to miss it, the easiest thing is to subscribe to our youtube channel.
Anna will soon be working on putting together a full online version of all our courses, from the great material she filmed with us this autumn.
In the meantime, let us know what you think of this video - which is an introduction to soil and plant interactions aimed at all regenerative gardeners.
More material like this is available on our Telegram channel - make sure you scroll back and look at all the information shared on here over the last year. There are loads of videos, photos, posts which can be helpful on your regeneration journey.
https://youtu.be/1h961OSfYGo
In the coming days I will be posting more of this type of educational content, in particular on how to start from weedy ground and make no-dig beds from scratch. If you don't want to miss it, the easiest thing is to subscribe to our youtube channel.
Anna will soon be working on putting together a full online version of all our courses, from the great material she filmed with us this autumn.
In the meantime, let us know what you think of this video - which is an introduction to soil and plant interactions aimed at all regenerative gardeners.
More material like this is available on our Telegram channel - make sure you scroll back and look at all the information shared on here over the last year. There are loads of videos, photos, posts which can be helpful on your regeneration journey.
https://youtu.be/1h961OSfYGo
YouTube
How plants and soil work - an introduction for Regenerative Gardeners
This is a excerpt from our course on Regenerative Vegetable Growing. I talk about the interactions between soil and plant physiology.
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Living Soil Garden is a Regenerative No-Dig Market Garden on Goffin Land, in Exeter.
All of our vegetables…
- - - - - - - - - - -
Living Soil Garden is a Regenerative No-Dig Market Garden on Goffin Land, in Exeter.
All of our vegetables…
I sometimes get half-jokingly called a post-pasteurian. What does that mean? This term was originally used in the raw milk/cheese industry to describe those who believe that pasteurisation makes food less healthy, and - consequently, from a holistic perspective - less safe.
This stance is often perceived as controversial, because, according to the so-called germ theory of disease, illness is caused by specific microorganisms labelled as “pathogenic”. Thus, pasteurians (after Louis Pasteur) believe that the best way to prevent disease is by reducing one’s exposure to pathogens, and this often means to sterilise (pasteurise in the case of food) most things we get in touch with, especially food. As a consequence, foods and materials that support microbial life are often considered unsafe.
Some of you will have heard the extraordinary story of sister Noella Marcellino, “the cheese nun”. If you haven’t, please take the time to read the article below, or the book “Cooked” by Michael Pollan. This amazing Benedictine nun, with a PhD in microbiology, has been making traditional French raw cheese for several decades, alongside her fellow nuns at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, in Connecticut. When told that they had to replace their wooden utensils and vats with stainless steel ones, to comply with hygiene regulations, four nuns decided to get PhD’s in microbiology, plant science, zoology and agronomy. They knew all too well that removing the wooden microbial habitat from their process wasn’t going to make the cheese any safer, but, in fact, worse. They also knew that no amount of arguing (or watching Youtube videos and Telegram channels) would give them the tools to address the inspectors with evidence rather than opinions.
Armed with the experience made during her PhD studies, Noella finally ran a revealing experiment. She made two batches of cheese - one in a stainless-steel vat, the other in a wooden barrel - and inoculated them with *E. coli.* The results were as clear as they were counter-intuitive. In the cheese from the sterile vat, *E. coli* populations thrived even after the cheese had ripened; in the cheese from the wooden barrel, they gradually died off.
If you work in and with natural systems, this doesn’t come as a surprise at all. Health is based upon complexity, diversity, synergy, not sterility. A strong, resilient community is adapted to its habitat, ready to include new collaborative members, and equipped to challenge opportunistic guests.
A sterile, dead community isn’t healthy, because there isn’t such a thing as a dead community: microbial or human. That’s why raw, living cheeses are amongst the safest foods on the market (even, now, according to the FDA!)
Not only are pathogens few in nature (only 5% of the known bacteria species cause diseases in humans), they are just microbes that happen to play the important role of cleaning up the ecosystem, by attacking weak individuals and infiltrating their unbalanced communities of microbes. When they are bounced back by the microbiome of a gut, a rhizosphere or by our immune system, they act as sparring partners, thus turning into a resource for the organism they attack.
So, yes, you could say that I am a post-pasteurian. I eat dirty carrots and welcome microbes in my gut, on my skin, in my life in any form, shape and at any opportunity. I see stains as badges of honour, and dirt on one’s hands as a sign of respect. The smell of geosmin makes me happy, as do the sight of a dog bathing into a puddle and the excitement a child digging into a cowpat.
I’ve talked about this in the past, and now as then I must warn you not to listen to me when it comes to human health - I don’t know how you function, so I wouldn’t dream of telling you what’s best for you to do. I can only humbly invite you to observe and learn from nature, starting from the closest, smallest scale that is relevant to you. And wish for the unexpected.
https://www.cortesedario.com/post/am-i-a-post-pasteurian
t.me/LivingSoilGardening
This stance is often perceived as controversial, because, according to the so-called germ theory of disease, illness is caused by specific microorganisms labelled as “pathogenic”. Thus, pasteurians (after Louis Pasteur) believe that the best way to prevent disease is by reducing one’s exposure to pathogens, and this often means to sterilise (pasteurise in the case of food) most things we get in touch with, especially food. As a consequence, foods and materials that support microbial life are often considered unsafe.
Some of you will have heard the extraordinary story of sister Noella Marcellino, “the cheese nun”. If you haven’t, please take the time to read the article below, or the book “Cooked” by Michael Pollan. This amazing Benedictine nun, with a PhD in microbiology, has been making traditional French raw cheese for several decades, alongside her fellow nuns at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, in Connecticut. When told that they had to replace their wooden utensils and vats with stainless steel ones, to comply with hygiene regulations, four nuns decided to get PhD’s in microbiology, plant science, zoology and agronomy. They knew all too well that removing the wooden microbial habitat from their process wasn’t going to make the cheese any safer, but, in fact, worse. They also knew that no amount of arguing (or watching Youtube videos and Telegram channels) would give them the tools to address the inspectors with evidence rather than opinions.
Armed with the experience made during her PhD studies, Noella finally ran a revealing experiment. She made two batches of cheese - one in a stainless-steel vat, the other in a wooden barrel - and inoculated them with *E. coli.* The results were as clear as they were counter-intuitive. In the cheese from the sterile vat, *E. coli* populations thrived even after the cheese had ripened; in the cheese from the wooden barrel, they gradually died off.
If you work in and with natural systems, this doesn’t come as a surprise at all. Health is based upon complexity, diversity, synergy, not sterility. A strong, resilient community is adapted to its habitat, ready to include new collaborative members, and equipped to challenge opportunistic guests.
A sterile, dead community isn’t healthy, because there isn’t such a thing as a dead community: microbial or human. That’s why raw, living cheeses are amongst the safest foods on the market (even, now, according to the FDA!)
Not only are pathogens few in nature (only 5% of the known bacteria species cause diseases in humans), they are just microbes that happen to play the important role of cleaning up the ecosystem, by attacking weak individuals and infiltrating their unbalanced communities of microbes. When they are bounced back by the microbiome of a gut, a rhizosphere or by our immune system, they act as sparring partners, thus turning into a resource for the organism they attack.
So, yes, you could say that I am a post-pasteurian. I eat dirty carrots and welcome microbes in my gut, on my skin, in my life in any form, shape and at any opportunity. I see stains as badges of honour, and dirt on one’s hands as a sign of respect. The smell of geosmin makes me happy, as do the sight of a dog bathing into a puddle and the excitement a child digging into a cowpat.
I’ve talked about this in the past, and now as then I must warn you not to listen to me when it comes to human health - I don’t know how you function, so I wouldn’t dream of telling you what’s best for you to do. I can only humbly invite you to observe and learn from nature, starting from the closest, smallest scale that is relevant to you. And wish for the unexpected.
https://www.cortesedario.com/post/am-i-a-post-pasteurian
t.me/LivingSoilGardening
Dario Cortese
Am I a post-pasteurian?
I half-jokingly call myself a post-pasteurian. What does that mean? This term was originally used in the raw milk/cheese industry to describe those who believe that pasteurisation makes food less healthy, and - consequently, from a holistic perspective -…
And we’re back for another episode of our series “Back to the Source”. In our previous posts we’ve covered Soil Science, Plant health and nutrition in detail, and Regenerative farming in general.
🥕 Now it’s time to zoom in on Vegetable Growing. This post is about the basics of growing vegetables successfully, using no-dig and regenerative principles; the next post will be on more specific resources, which look at market gardening techniques.
❓ So, where can one learn how to grow vegetables while improving soil?
🌱 If you are in a temperate climate, Charles Dowding’s work is a must. He has developed a fantastic method, which is hard to beat in domestic contexts and can also be successfully adapted to professional operations. He doesn’t need any introduction - as the “guru” of the no-dig movement in Europe, he had the vision for a simpler, more sustainable and very productive way of growing vegetables with less work, fewer weed and pests issues in a difficult climate such as ours. He has been extremely generous in sharing his knowledge for free in uncountable Youtube videos. We can’t emphasize enough how much we have learned from those in our early days growing on an allotment in Bristol.
📚 Charles has written many books, but our favourite is one of his earlier ones: “Organic gardening, the natural no-dig way”, which you can see in the photo. Simple, to the point, contains useful tables with spacings and varieties. All of this information can probably be found in an updated version in his more recent books.
🥬 Another of Charles’ books that we really like is “Salad Leaves for all season”. We grow lots of salad commercially, and this book was a great resource when we were getting started.
👩🌾 Another great book for vegetable growers is a recent one by the amazing Jesse Frost of “No-Till Growers” (more on his podcast in the future). “The Living Soil Handbook” is a fantastic resource if you are into no-dig, and want to see the full potential of it - considering alternatives to the deep-mulch method used by Charles Dowding. Jesse also goes into more technical details, including treatment of fertility and composts, interplanting, harvest techniques, etc. A definite must in the vegetable grower’s library.
t.me/livingsoilgardening
🥕 Now it’s time to zoom in on Vegetable Growing. This post is about the basics of growing vegetables successfully, using no-dig and regenerative principles; the next post will be on more specific resources, which look at market gardening techniques.
❓ So, where can one learn how to grow vegetables while improving soil?
🌱 If you are in a temperate climate, Charles Dowding’s work is a must. He has developed a fantastic method, which is hard to beat in domestic contexts and can also be successfully adapted to professional operations. He doesn’t need any introduction - as the “guru” of the no-dig movement in Europe, he had the vision for a simpler, more sustainable and very productive way of growing vegetables with less work, fewer weed and pests issues in a difficult climate such as ours. He has been extremely generous in sharing his knowledge for free in uncountable Youtube videos. We can’t emphasize enough how much we have learned from those in our early days growing on an allotment in Bristol.
📚 Charles has written many books, but our favourite is one of his earlier ones: “Organic gardening, the natural no-dig way”, which you can see in the photo. Simple, to the point, contains useful tables with spacings and varieties. All of this information can probably be found in an updated version in his more recent books.
🥬 Another of Charles’ books that we really like is “Salad Leaves for all season”. We grow lots of salad commercially, and this book was a great resource when we were getting started.
👩🌾 Another great book for vegetable growers is a recent one by the amazing Jesse Frost of “No-Till Growers” (more on his podcast in the future). “The Living Soil Handbook” is a fantastic resource if you are into no-dig, and want to see the full potential of it - considering alternatives to the deep-mulch method used by Charles Dowding. Jesse also goes into more technical details, including treatment of fertility and composts, interplanting, harvest techniques, etc. A definite must in the vegetable grower’s library.
t.me/livingsoilgardening
This is the first of a series of videos on how to integrate agroforestry within market gardens or large vegetable gardens.
Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. In agroforestry systems there are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components.
Agroforestry can also be defined as a dynamic, ecologically based, natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels.
Agroforestry systems are multifunctional systems that can provide a wide range of economic, sociocultural, and environmental benefits.
In part 1 of this series (below), I look at a few "common traits" of agroforestry systems across the world, and review the main types of agroforestry with emphasis on how they could adapt to a market-garden scenario.
In part 2 (online on Friday) I discuss a few examples of market gardens around the world which have integrated agroforestry in their operations, and I will be commenting images and videos from those models.
Finally, in part 3, I will illustrate how all of this has influenced our design and I will introduce the agroforestry systems at Orto Foresta - the new incarnation of Living Soil Garden.
None of these videos have the ambition of being systematic, comprehensive, or authoritative. They provide a subjective look at this topic of great interest and on which there are few shared data and experiences at the moment. So, any input is super encouraged!
https://youtu.be/GFHNcjKBPuo
Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. In agroforestry systems there are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components.
Agroforestry can also be defined as a dynamic, ecologically based, natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels.
Agroforestry systems are multifunctional systems that can provide a wide range of economic, sociocultural, and environmental benefits.
In part 1 of this series (below), I look at a few "common traits" of agroforestry systems across the world, and review the main types of agroforestry with emphasis on how they could adapt to a market-garden scenario.
In part 2 (online on Friday) I discuss a few examples of market gardens around the world which have integrated agroforestry in their operations, and I will be commenting images and videos from those models.
Finally, in part 3, I will illustrate how all of this has influenced our design and I will introduce the agroforestry systems at Orto Foresta - the new incarnation of Living Soil Garden.
None of these videos have the ambition of being systematic, comprehensive, or authoritative. They provide a subjective look at this topic of great interest and on which there are few shared data and experiences at the moment. So, any input is super encouraged!
https://youtu.be/GFHNcjKBPuo
YouTube
Agroforestry for Market Gardens - Part 1/3
This is the first of a series of videos on how to integrate agroforestry within market gardens or large vegetable gardens.
The FAO defines agroforestry as a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms…
The FAO defines agroforestry as a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms…
A great new publication on trees with edible leaves around the world. Free 80-pages pdf in English, just published by the great Meghan Giroux and Eric Toensmeier.
https://perennialagriculture.institute/2023/01/10/trees-with-edible-leaves-pais-latest-publication/?fbclid=IwAR24wkLwAXEW8of0TH-RM5L2eVYV4coSffnt1kDfC5wffzhBIJwltDhZJ_w
https://perennialagriculture.institute/2023/01/10/trees-with-edible-leaves-pais-latest-publication/?fbclid=IwAR24wkLwAXEW8of0TH-RM5L2eVYV4coSffnt1kDfC5wffzhBIJwltDhZJ_w
Lots of people ask us: "how do you convert a lawn or weedy patch into a no-dig vegetable garden like yours?"
This video is an excerpt of our upcoming video course. It covers the preparation of the ground that should come before making no-dig beds. In particular, it deals with occultation (using plastic tarps to smother existing vegetation).
Note that occultation can be enhanced if you drench the ground with LAB (Lactic acid bacteria), organic milk whey (a by-product of cheese making and weaker version of LAB), IMO, or any other actively decomposing inoculant.
Let us know what you think about this type of content and whether you think it is useful or redundant (considering there's already lots of content online!)
https://youtu.be/exG369xrWQA
This video is an excerpt of our upcoming video course. It covers the preparation of the ground that should come before making no-dig beds. In particular, it deals with occultation (using plastic tarps to smother existing vegetation).
Note that occultation can be enhanced if you drench the ground with LAB (Lactic acid bacteria), organic milk whey (a by-product of cheese making and weaker version of LAB), IMO, or any other actively decomposing inoculant.
Let us know what you think about this type of content and whether you think it is useful or redundant (considering there's already lots of content online!)
https://youtu.be/exG369xrWQA
YouTube
Starting a No-Dig Garden - Preparing the Ground
In this video we discuss how to prepare the ground before starting a no-dig garden, "the long way". For the more impatient among you, there will soon be a video discussing a quicker way to get started.
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Living Soil Garden is a Regenerative…
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Living Soil Garden is a Regenerative…
Back to talking about agroforestry. This is a fantastic document, written by Joshua Finch, who is doing some great work in Finland (and with whom I hope to start a collaboration soon - stay tuned).
It's the report of a 3-day consultation given by Ernst Gotsch in Denmark, to establish a young successional agroforestry system.
If you read this carefully you can learn a lot about how to design for tree and perennial planting, how deep to dig the holes in your context, how to arrange mulch along a newly planted row, how to observe the landscape around you to get clues to inform your planning.
Up to this day there has been little to no documentation of Ernst work in cold temperate climates such as Denmark. A lot of the material in this pdf can be extremely enlightening for UK practitioners.
https://www.novia.fi/assets/Publikationer/Serie-R-Rapporter/Successional-Agroforestry-Trip-to-Denmark-October-2022_Finch.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2xI7xZHkRIjngImn4dCTSKXk-YxXIzX-6zcjk_a9RXTy-h8CRHLz2esck
It's the report of a 3-day consultation given by Ernst Gotsch in Denmark, to establish a young successional agroforestry system.
If you read this carefully you can learn a lot about how to design for tree and perennial planting, how deep to dig the holes in your context, how to arrange mulch along a newly planted row, how to observe the landscape around you to get clues to inform your planning.
Up to this day there has been little to no documentation of Ernst work in cold temperate climates such as Denmark. A lot of the material in this pdf can be extremely enlightening for UK practitioners.
https://www.novia.fi/assets/Publikationer/Serie-R-Rapporter/Successional-Agroforestry-Trip-to-Denmark-October-2022_Finch.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2xI7xZHkRIjngImn4dCTSKXk-YxXIzX-6zcjk_a9RXTy-h8CRHLz2esck
I know most of you are on here because of the tips about gardening, growing, farming and ecology. For this reason, I keep personal or irrelevant posts to a minimum, if not zero. However, several people have expressed the desire to follow our journey setting up our new farm in Florence. So I thought I could share a monthly post with updates on what we're up to, including obviously both growing and more general stuff. Let me know if you think that is a good balance of if you'd rather I kept this channel strictly for technical inputs.
For the moment, since we're going to leave this country we love so much in just a few days, forgive me if I share with you this heartfelt goodbye.
https://www.cortesedario.com/post/goodbye-england
For the moment, since we're going to leave this country we love so much in just a few days, forgive me if I share with you this heartfelt goodbye.
https://www.cortesedario.com/post/goodbye-england
Dario Cortese
Goodbye, England
And once again, it is time to move. There is a sentence, somewhere in Cioran’s work, that has stuck with me since my early twenties: “On n'habite pas un pays, on habite une langue. Une patrie, c'est cela et rien d'autre.” When I moved to England from California…