Mini-Farming

The emphasis on this blog will now shift from South America to mini-farming, which was among the major purposes in the land purchase made six years ago. The property is now nearly fully equipped to become largely self-sufficient in plant food production.

The system employed here is biointensive agriculture, which is defined in the Wikipedia entry as:

"The biointensive method is an organic agricultural system which focuses on maximum yields from the minimum area of land, while simultaneously improving the soil. The goal of the method is long term sustainability on a closed system basis. It has also been used successfully on small scale commercial farms."

The system (best to read the full entry) equates to raised bed growing of vegetable and grain crops, the extensive use of compost, companion planting and crop rotation, the use of open-pollinated seeds and production of compost crops, among other factors. The reader is advised to read and study carefully
John Jeavons, How to Grow More Vegetables: And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine ISBN 1-58008-233-5, among other respources. Spanish-speakers can download free an extensive amount of material at
http://www.growbiointensive.org/publications_main.html. 

I have a ten square meter plot of oats growing right now (it's late winter here) and am planting carrots, turnips and more lettuce next week. I have fava beans growing alongside, plus chard and lettuce. More beds will be dug next week and the greenhouse (photo soon) will be completed for planting as well.

I am also happy to report that following the two-week stay of the first Wwoof volunteer, an American couple have committed to come for as long as six months! I greatly look forward to working with these enterprising young people who are moving in the right direction with respect to the new paradigm necessary to live a wholesome and spiritual life in the stage of society into which we have entered.