Farming the Unseen Conditions
““There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.”
We’ve organized farming around a grid of lines. The Land Ordinance of 1785 gave us a grid – this was an effective means to sell and organize large unseen tracts of farmland.* But how might it be different if we were to begin to look at other unseen systems that actually exist in nature? A couple of Wisconsin farmers we’ve met have concerned themselves with the unseen. They embrace soil protection, soil building, and climate resilience—all while producing delicious food.
To develop one inch of topsoil in nature, it can take approximately 100 years. It’s interesting and even counter intuitive, but farming can improve on this timescale. Helen Kees of Wheatfield Hill Organics near Durand, Wis. is passionate to the point of tears about soil. The process of soil creation is gradual, but deliberate. “It’s about the livestock under the ground,” she says, amplified by farming practices used through many generations on their land. Their farm uses intensive soil protection practices such as strip crop planting, rotation, and water retention techniques. The soil building includes macro- and micro-nutirent applications and rotational grazing. They do not grow crops that do not prefer their dominant soil type (sandy loam loves melons), nor do they farm on the steep terrain, which defines so much of Durand. (In the photo above, we see Inga and Helen walking the Wheatfield Hill pastures.)
Beyond the soil, it’s clear that at Wheatfield they don’t see the imaginary line of where their property begins and ends. Wheatfield Hill Organics isn’t made of large tracts of clear-cut forest land. Instead, much of their open farmland resembles pockets within a matrix of specific forest types: floodplain, upland, and savanna.
Unseen climate adaptation
Erin and her partner Rob of Hilltop Community Farm include Wisconsin grown fruit as part of their CSA, in addition to supplying Quince and Apple—a Madison company producing commercial jams and jellies. At Hilltop, they are exploring resilience through agroforestry. Their farm experienced a cold in 2009, flooding in 2010, and a drought in 2011. So they know their ideal forest garden would perform like “elastic cartilage,” meaning they aim to grow a landscape that needs little input but can store a lot of energy to absorb and adapt to changes.
Where are their fruits from? From Siberia to Arkansas including “currants, hardy kiwi and other unusual fruits, with potential varieties like saskatoon, elderberry and honeyberry.” (Check out their hardy kiwi tree in the photo – yes, growing in Wisconsin!) Many of these fruit varieties are in “guilds.” The guilds are small pods with different varieties mixed together; varieties are used to “wick up” moisture and fix nutrients. At Hilltop it’s as if they are asking “what kind of agency can our guilds have?” Hilltop Farm hosts an event every year called “Currant Events” to invite other Midwestern fruit growers to help “shape the story” and generally have a good time doing it.
*To be clear, I’m of two minds when it comes to the imaginary lines of the Jeffersonian grid – I’m not an organizational luddite, but I understand ecology is best when viewed as more than a commodity. I believe we’ve seen good (large scale efficiency in food production) and bad (monoculture leading to the 1930’s dust bowl disaster).
