Carbon farming means implementing practices to remove carbon from the air (where it’s harmful, and contributes to climate change) and place it in the soil (where it’s beneficial, and helps plants to grow, which increases your forage yield). Carbon farming helps the soil retain water so that the land stays greener, longer, even in times of drought.
We have several ongoing carbon farming projects here (planting California natives in Silvopasture Refugia; rotational grazing with our Ouessant sheep flock and guardian dogs; reseeding pastures), along with one-off projects (oaklings; CDFA Healthy Soils 2017 program grant for compost application and hedgerow planting).
Teachers
Soil is the foundation of any farm. We’ve learned from Elaine Ingham, Toby Hemenway, Will Bakx, Dr. Jeffrey Creque, and Paul Kaiser about how to improve the quality of the soil at our farm.
In 2016 Amy worked with the Sonoma Resource Conservation District (RCD) to build a LandSmart Plan for our farm. Building on that plan, 2017 Amy won a grant from the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) for two healthy soils practices that are part of our carbon farming work: compost application and hedgerow planting.
In May 2019 we were invited to join a fledgling Carbon Farm Cohort with other Fibershed producers in this area, including Leslie Adkins of Heartfelt Fiber Farm, Misty Gay of Freestone Ranch and Sarah Keiser of Wild Oat Hollow. We meet quarterly to discuss carbon farming, share news, seek wise counsel, and laugh together. It’s a real gift to share community with like-minded, hands-on, dedicated land stewards.
Improvements
As we sequester carbon in the soil, over time we hope to see increases in:
- Root mass and vigor in pasture grasses and forbs
- Organic matter in the soil
- Soil water retention (so the land will be greener, longer)
- Biodiversity
- Density of life (more birds, for example)
- Resilience of our farm as an organism
Partners
Our domestic partners in carbon farming include:
- A grazing flock of Ouessant-mix sheep, Nigerian dwarf-mix goats, and livestock guardian dogs
- The Imperial Mining Company, aka assorted heritage breed chickens
- A few hives of honey bees
- Silvopasture refugia plantings of California native shrubs and trees
- Mini orchards of fruit and nut trees and shrubs
- Pasture green kingdom life of grasses and forbs
Our wild partners in carbon farming include:
- Native pollinators and “beneficial” insects
- Birds
- Wildlife
- Mycorhizzal networks
- Wild native shrubs, trees, wildflowers, forbs, and grasses
Some Small Achievements
On November 27, 2018 Amy was a panelist in the Fibershed Carbon Farming Webinar. In the video for that event (25:25 – 36:40) you can see the particulars of what we’ve done with compost application, at a nuts-and-bolts level, and how Peter’s handiness with tools has been so helpful.
In 2020 we built cross-fencing and began bringing water to the pasture land in the back of our property, so that we can incorporate these acres into the pastures grazed by our flock. Rotational grazing is now part of our carbon farming, hooray!