Romanesco: A Study in Fractals
/Romanesco may be the smartest vegetable as it displays fractal like patterns that follow a Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio. If you start eating Romanesco maybe you will be as smart as a cauliflower.
Read MoreRomanesco may be the smartest vegetable as it displays fractal like patterns that follow a Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio. If you start eating Romanesco maybe you will be as smart as a cauliflower.
Read MoreOne of the oldest uses of seaweed is in agriculture. The beneficial effects of seaweed on soil and crops have been used by farmers for thousands of years and confirmed by many scientific studies.
Seaweed supplies macro and micronutrients. It contains calcium, increases phosphorus availability, water retention and cation-exchange capacities. It improves soil structure, binds metals and contains compounds that act as chelators which make soil minerals more accessible to plants. Seaweed has proven its worth on every type of crop.
So how do you use it?
Read MoreWhen most people think of fungi the either think of a delicious meal or their toenails. And this is important to keep in mind as fungi can be beneficial (or delicious) or they can be detrimental (at least very least to toenails). But when it comes to soil, plants and overall health of the ecosystem, fungi are very important and managing them is one key to successful farming.
Read MoreProtozoa are single-celled organisms that feed primarily on bacteria. They also eat other protozoa, soluble organic matter and sometimes fungi. They are important drivers of nutrient cycling as they release nutrients when they consume other organisms.
Read MoreWe started down the journey of making plant extracts over 20 years ago when we bought a farm covered in ragwort, thistles and gorse. We had no idea what we were getting into. Having studied with Elaine Ingham we had two important bits of information that guided us…
Read MoreThrough photosynthesis plants gather and deliver nutrients to the soil in exchange for the nutrients they need to grow. But this is only the beginning of an amazing and complex relationship that creates the world we know.
Read MoreA fertilizer can be natural or synthetic (of course natural is best for a variety of reasons). Fertilizers can be applied to the soil or to the plant in a solid or liquid state. The idea is to give a plant what it needs for optimum growth. However, during the development of fertilizers, growth was really the only factor taken into consideration. The health of the plant or the animals and people that eat those plants was initially not really considered. As a result, plant growth and yields were increased, often along with reduced plant nutrition and increased plant and animal diseases. But what is it that a plant really wants?
Read MoreFact
When someone tells you that something is a fact they generally imply that a statement or information is true. This usually means it is something you can count on or use to get definitive results.
Opinion
When someone gives you an opinion, they are indicating that this is what they believe. It is their interpretation of some sort of information or supposed fact.
Yet often opinions are stated as facts and are then passed on as facts. We are bombarded everyday with information much of it repeated as fact.
Read MoreWe are racing into a new era of agriculture. The conventional system of agriculture (as we call it) that has been practiced increasingly over the last nearly 100 years is failing us by nearly every possible measure. We have an ecological disaster of soil, animal and human health on our hands globally. Increasingly we hear about these problems along with the big one climate change, but in reality climate change is the solution, not the problem.
Read MoreCompost tea is a method of extracting and multiplying micro-organisms in water. This process was popularized by Elaine Ingham of Soil Food Web fame, truly the mother of soil biology. Elaine has helped thousands of farmers restore and improve their soils through the work she has done and guides people through the process of making compost teas.
The compost tea process involves several components:
Read MoreMost people understand the simple concept of Photosynthesis. Plants take CO2 out of the atmosphere and, with the help of the sun, turn it into plants and trees and roots and really everything we see in the living world. So, photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight.
Read MoreSeawater contains a vast array of minerals (see chart below). It is very similar to the make-up of human blood. Rene Quinton did research in the late 1800’s around deep-sea water and proved numerous health benefits from using a water later termed Quiton’s Plasma. He also performed an experiment on a dog where he replaced the dogs’ blood with his Quinton’s Plasma, although controversial it is said the dog lived for another 5 years. You can read more about this interesting topic here.
Read MoreTesting Brix levels in your pasture, fruits and vegetables is a handy tool for not only giving you a quality assessment but as a management tool for assessing your practices. So, what is Brix?
Adolf Brix was a German chemist in the 1800’s who first figured out how to measure the density of plant juices by floating a hydrometer in them. This was of great value to wine growers as they could then figure out which grapes would make the best wine.
Read MoreAt Chaos Springs we have developed a system over our 40 years of organic growers to create fertility largely from within the farm boundary. This works by following these six practices.
Read MoreMainstream agricultural science tells us we need to renew our pasture to maintain full production of our pastoral systems. There are sophisticated calculators and plenty of new varieties that are supposed to make your pastures stronger, faster, better………..
Read MoreDuring our years at Chaos Springs we have continually experimented and used a variety of plant extracts for managing the soils in our pastoral, orchard and market garden systems.This direction was initiated when we first purchased our farm in 2001. At that time we knew little about New Zealand flora or pastoral systems as we had been market gardening in Utah for 20 years.We were so excited about the farm we had just purchased covered in beautiful yellow flowers we never thought they would be a problem. A week later when Jenny’s father Dennis arrived for a farm tour, I thought he was going to break into tears. We tried to reassure Dennis that getting rid of ragwort and gorse would not be that difficult organically………………………………
Read MoreNurturing the soil biology is crucial is you want healthy soil that will support healthy plant growth, healthy animals and healthy people, and the absolute best way to get started with fueling your soil biology is with compost.
Compost has been a basic component of agriculture for at least 4500 years, with the first recorded documents being the clay tablets of Akkadian in 2700 B.C.! I would call this a time tested practice, and who would want to argue with an Akkadian?
Read MoreChaos Springs Farm
131 Deam Road
Waihi
New Zealand
T 07 863 7975
Join the Chaos Springs Newsletter to stay in the loop about upcoming workshops, and receive great tips and information about soil health, composting, and on-farm fertility. We'll only send you good things, and will never share your email address.