Bio-Intensive

Today we booked ourselves into a full day workshop at the Bio Intensive Agriculture Training Center.  We spent the day getting educated, alongside some of the crew from IPI, so we could bring to practice at KACH and take the knowledge home with us. John Jeavons from Willits California created Bio Intensive farming practices, which maximize land use and produce higher crop yields than traditional farming.  Essentially you are able to grow more food on less land and with less water and fertilizer... and preferably organic.  We trained on deep soil preparation, composting, pest and disease management, and bee keeping.  There was lots of conversation about having and creating healthy soil and how that impacts the quality of the fruits and veggies you grow, and the need for little to know pesticides. Actually, instead of using a chemical pesticide local medicinal plants are soaked and then sprayed to ward off bugs and fungus. Lisa and Emanuelle from Evo Design set KACH up with plans for a bio-intensive garden on the surrounding land on site.  The combo of livestock and garden will produce enough fruits, vegetables and milk to feed the 50-80 kids in the home.  So far we've dug 24 out of 30 plots and planted 3 fruit trees.  It will be cool to return one day and see the home finished and nestled in amongst the garden.We all got a load of value out of the day, and walked away motivated to have our own gardens.  I'm going to see if I can track down John Jeavons 'Common Ground' training center in California and keep educating myself on gardening and composting and such.  Super interesting.