GOING (BACK TO) NO TILL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qMpP0MiZLgWhen Hannah and I first started farming, we wanted to be no till farmers, because who doesn’t? Tillage increases erosion, kills soil biology. It decreases microbial diversity, releases carbon, breaks up fungal chains. It’s not good. But our skill level as farmers all those years ago was not quite adequate enough to know how to manage a professional garden space under a no till system.Why? Well, the way we chose to go about it was a lot of work. We had to push giant round bales over our garden every year (which required the garden to be empty of plants—not great for business or photosynthesis). That would usually take several back breaking hours as those things were massively heavy, often rotten, and filled with briars. Then, we would rake the hay out evenly. The next spring, we would pull that hay back and plant into it.However, what would happen is that weeds would inevitably come up through. And not from the soil—they would germinate and grow ON THE MULCH. The hay, in this sense, was both a soil cover and growing medium, which was confounding and difficult to manage. Weeds proliferated and we could not keep up with it. The soil was happy—the farmers? We were beat. It was a lot of work, plus I quickly learned that you really have to have a strong sensitivity to the needs of plants to be able to make a living farming on a no till system, and successfully keeping any garden, let alone one covered in weeds and hay.So we went to a light tillage system a la JM Fortier and have slowly been trying to figure out ways of getting back to a no till farm without killing ourselves. We describe our plans and ideas for transitioning into a no-till system in the above video, but don’t hesitate to pick it apart (especially the science stuff—I really try to be accurate, but I chose to cook and drink heavily instead of going to college, so...).Essentially, starting this summer (but really being in full swing by the Spring), we will start putting down heavier layers of compost over broadforked beds. Then we will always keep something growing in every bed—though at first some of that will simply be cover crops. We will seek out wood chips and leaf mold for the paths, though we may still have to manage those paths with hoes until we can find enough mulch to cover over 80 paths!I explain more about how and why in the video, but that’s the gist (not to be confused with The Gist, which is a great podcast that has nothing to do with farming. Usually).Anyway, let us know what you think and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button so you can follow our journey back to no tillage, no digging, happy soil, guilt-free farmers! - Jesse

PLANTING OUR HEDGEROWS.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BGGVlbJadTA&persist_app=1&app=mWe are super into hedgerows as of late (also super into the term “super excited” as evidenced by this video). The idea is that we place these hedgerows in between our garden plots to block wind, trap heat (and cool), and bring in beneficial insects, birds, snakes and microbial life. And of course, we are excited to be adding some diversity to the farm and to future CSA baskets!Check out the video and let us know what you think. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly video updates!-Jesse

GOT YOUR FARMERS YET?

Hey guys, we are almost full on our Spring/Summer CSA—which we deliver straight to your door!—but we do have just a few spots left that we would love to fill! If you are in the Lawrenceburg, Frankfort, or Versailles, Kentucky, areas (aka Bourbon country) would like to sign up you can click here OR (to save on the credit fee) send a check to us at 1295 Gilbert’s Creek rd. Lawrenceburg, KY 40342. The cost is $360 for 15 weeks (or $648 for a large family 15 week share—a 10% discount). Of course, don’t be intimated by the price, we can work out a payment schedule if you cannot pay all at once—we want to feed you and your family. Also, you can read more about our CSA here, too, or email us at roughdraftfarmstead@gmail.com with any questions you have! Spring is almost here, y’all! So excited.J+H

THE FARMSTEADING SERIES.

Over our six years as an actual farm entity, we have really taken to the term Farmsteading.Farmsteading is not really a word (my spellcheck abhors it), but it’s has become very real to us.Farmsteading is an obvious portmanteau of homesteading and farming yet it’s also more than that. For us, farmsteading is about making a good simple living off good simple living, where our business life and personal life are not actively separated but intentionally made to be symbiotic. We grow food for our family, and more so we can feed others. And it is no accident that we are not Rough Draft Farms, or Rough Draft Gardens. We are, wholeheartedly, farmsteaders.And in the spirit of that, a couple months ago we started putting up videos (below) about how we do things on the farmstead. The goal here is simply to show how we grow food, offer some advice, and hopefully inspire some of you to do the same. Our systems are always evolving, but we thought it would be fun to share what we have going on and how we do it. So maybe you want to farm or you’re just curious about how we do things! Check ‘em out and let us know what you think. And as always, subscribe to follow along!-Jessehttps://youtu.be/HmkAkLfwE6Ehttps://youtu.be/CV_yMThxYaMhttps://youtu.be/ApCZx1b7sz4