About the Farming

Blue Mountain Farm uses no-till, sustainable and organic practices in its production of greens and vegetables. We adopted no-till techniques three years ago to reduce the release of carbon into the atmosphere and to preserve the natural microbe structure of the soil.

No-till farming avoids using plows or tillers to break up and overturn the soil. Instead, the growing beds are always covered by a growing crop, a temporary cover crop, or a mulch. The technique minimizes weed growth and keeps the soil moist and crumbly, ideal for root and plant development.

Both natural mulches such as hay and artificial mulches such as plastic are used. We are moving away from plastic as much and as fast as possible and switching to hay.

The plastic we do use is repurposed from other agricultural uses. Instead of buying rolls of thin, commercial mulch, we use salvaged silo tarp, the heavy, white poly that dairy farms use to store animal feed in long, oval tubes stretched out across the ground.

We cut the tarps into long strips, wide enough to cover our grow beds, and pin them to the ground with stakes. With care, the strips can be used over and over for several years.

In addition to reducing the carbon release that comes with exposing overturned soil to the air, no-till techniques preserve the natural layering of various microbe communities in the soil. As plants push their roots down through the undisturbed layers, they develop symbiotic relationships with the microbes that feed the needs of both.

In customary cultivation, the soil layers are upended and the microbe communities disturbed or destroyed. Plants are deprived of the natural growth stimulants they would otherwise find as their roots push downward, and the application of substitute synthetic fertilizers are then needed.

The farm uses other organic, sustainable and regenerative practices to build and promote development of natural growth and healthy, uncontaminated greens and vegetables. Applications of synthetic pest, and blight controls are eliminated or fully minimized. Instead, Neem oil, insecticidal soap, spinosad, pyrethrin and Bacillus thuringiensis are used to limit insect and disease problems.

We use organic seed as much as possible, and buy from small, regional seed breeders and distributors whenever we can.

We pump water from the creek flowing across the farm for root irrigation, and treated tap water from our house for overhead, leaf irrigation.