Stewardculturemagazine

The wisdom of Salatin10 common ‘threads’for farming success

Book Review: An Agricultural Testament

Do we find God in our chores? A.W. Tozer actually has something to say about it

Genesis’ creation account reveals God’s intent

Here a swale, there a swale, are they right for you?

Holistic manager teaches it is ethical to eat meat

Stewardculture magazine is a quar-terly electronic magazine contain-ing news, articles and features about regenerative farming and gardening that is God glorifying.

Stewardculture seeks to promote Bible-based stewardship agricul-ture. This simply means we advo-cate for creation-friendly thinking that emphasizes the fact that we do not own the Earth or even some small piece of it. Creation is simply a gift given to humans who are commanded to be its stewards as God’s representatives.

Our editorial and promotional content is designed to inform, ed-ucate and motivate nearly anyone connected with growing things, with content targeted to redeemed Christians. Each issue will cover a wide range of editorial and promo-tional content including tips and how-to articles, opinion pieces and feature stories.

Stewardculture’s editor happily accepts by-lined editorial submis-sions with the right of final editing for style, tone, length and voice. Editorial and graphical content may not be used in any form, printed or digital, without permis-sion of the editor and attribution.

Publisher and editor:

Dan Grubbs

Stewardculture

19108 Scott Rd.

Holt, Missouri 64048

816-729-4422

stewardculture@gmail.com

Cover story - The wisdom of SalatinOur cover story features a two-part examination of the 10 common threads to farming success outlined by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. How many do you practice?page 3

Do we find God in our chores?Our editor examines the notion that God can be found in the “sim-ple deeds” and so chores can become an opportunity to worship.page 4

Book ReviewSir Albert Howard’s book An Agricultural Testament outlines four important observations from nature we should all take to heart.

page 5

Can agriculture learn something from the Genesis account? If so, what?What does the Bible teach us about the creation of the universe and what are the implications for farmers?page 8

Swales are an important tool in landscape managementA small farm in northwest Missouri gains water management tool as well as a tree-growing systems with on-contour swales.page 17

Editor’s picksBooks to consider adding to your reading list.page 19

Almost Manna: can’t miss recipesPan fried Amish Corn Fritters and Oatmeal Date Bread.page 20

Into the BarnSallie Calhoun, a holistic management advocate, tells us why it is actually an ethical choice to eat meat.page 24

StewardcultureINSIDE

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On Nov. 18, 2014, Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms spoke at the Sus-tainable Agriculture Symposium sponsored by the Idaho Center for Sustainable Agriculture. In his ad-dress, Salatin delighted the crowd with his usual wit and acerbic commentary along with 10 com-mon threads to farming success based on his years of observation and first-hand application.

In this two-part series, I will launch from each of Salatin’s 10 best practices outlined below with my own expansions of those con-cepts. For me, you can not have a list of best practices for success without defining what success

looks like. I define success for a farming system as one that melds the ideas of sustainability and ecological farming into one rubric I call regenerative. If our practices are regenerative in nature and outcome, then we can call them successful. Conversely, if a practice is degenerative, even if it is finan-cially profitable, I will not consider it a success.

1. Commitment to work-ing the landscapeCertainly farmers need to be committed to managing their landscapes, but they first have to get over the fear of digging in … literally. Once a landowner makes

a decision to follow a regenerative approach, there can be a mistaken notion that their land must be left in a pristine state. Many will agree when I say that there are plenty of appropriate landscape-man-agement activities available to a farmer to help work the landscape.

Man in his God-given intelligence and creativity can make positive changes through various activi-ties, such as earthworks. In fact, employing landscape-management practices can turn an unwanted, unproductive piece of land into a highly productive one. The Salatin

Thewisdom ofSalatin

Observations from Joel Salatin point to common approaches for success on the farm.

part 1by Dan Grubbs

see SUCCESS on page 6

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From My Tractor SeatObservations and opinions

from the editor

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stewardculture@gmail.com

Do we find God in our chores?

The writings of one of my favorite authors, A.W. Tozer, challenge Christians to truly consider God. If done in honesty and with in-tegrity, it will dramatically change one’s life. I have found Tozer’s words to be true.

Though I love his works, they often reveal shortcomings in my part of my relationship with God. However, there is a wonderful quote lifted from the pages of his book, The Pursuit of God, which has real application to agriculture.

Tozer wrote, “Let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let us be-lieve that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there.”

If I even casually read that quote, I realize that “every work” includes all our living actions, and that must include our agriculture. So, I see two important teachings in Tozer’s short quote. One, that even my chores are opportunities to worship and minister to God. Two, I can trust that God will discover Himself to me through my farm tasks.

‘Priestly ministrations’I have a bad habit of assigning more value to large things than to small ones. I usually find it easier for me to think about God when a doe is kidding than when I pile up some hay with a fork. But, as

Tozer points out, I can minister to God in the “simple deeds.” The actions I do on our farm and in our home are opportunities to worship God through the very action itself.

Though I am not offering God a sacrifice of a lamb or an ox as the Hebrew priests did, my actions on the farm can be just as worshipful.

Now, I will not approach prun-ing apple trees as an item on a checklist of chores. Rather, I know this can be an act in which I can thank Him for His provision and learn from His design of creation. Through pruning I can minister to God and celebrate His wisdom and work alongside Him to foster fertility.

There also is an awesome responsi-bility in this, too. As a farmer, if I know I am playing in God’s de-signed creation, I dare not demean it. I cannot treat any part of it as common, which is to profane it. Therefore, it is incumbent upon me to treat His creation with reverence (not worship), especially through my actions as a farmer.

‘Finding Him there’An amazing truth that Tozer points out is that I can be con-fronted by God even when I am turning my compost pile or mow-ing the ditch along the road. This is what he means by God being “in” our actions. I may let the

busyness of life cloud my mind and make it more difficult to find God in the “simple deeds,” but He is there waiting for us to engage in “sweet and mysterious mingling.”

Creation points to God, so it should not surprise me to find His design in soil, to wonder in livestock physiology and discover inspiration in the hydrologic cycle. My chores often reveal divine truths that I would not otherwise have reinforced to me in quite the same way.

When a sheep farmer moves elec-tric netting to give animals a new patch of pasture to graze, God can be found there because the chore itself is based on principles of land management that are designed to mimic His creation. The sheep farmer found God right there and honored Him in the practice.

Together with HimWhen we find God in our ministra-tions to Him through our chores, it is joy available to us as believ-ers because we are experiencing a taste of the life for which we were created. Or, to let Tozer say it better:

“God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed us that we as well as He can in divine communion enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred personalities. He meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile.”

Book Review

In his book An Agricultural Testament, first published in 1940, English botanist Sir Albert Howard pointed to the fact that soil health should be mankind’s con-cern more than most others. Widely attributed to be the father of the modern organic agricultural mo-ment, Howard wrote in the preface:

“Since the Industrial Revolution, the processes of growth have been speeded up to produce the food and raw materials needed by the population and the factory. Nothing effective has been done to replace the loss of fertility involved in this vast increase in crop and animal production. The con-sequences have been disastrous. Agriculture has become unbalanced: the land is in revolt: diseases of all kinds are on the increase: in many parts of the world Nature is removing the worn-out soil by means of erosion.”

With the vision of a seer, Howard already saw indus-trial agriculture as a disaster that must be thwarted – this he understood back in the 1930s! What would Howard say if he saw today’s industrial farming prac-tices that have killed the soil and caused the disease of millions of people?

In his book, Howard refers to soil as the planet’s great “capital” to be husbanded. In his own words about why he wrote the book, Howard prefaced, “The pur-pose of this book is to draw attention to the destruc-tion of the earth’s capital – the soil; to indicate some of the consequences of this; and to suggest methods by which the lost fertility can be restored and main-tained.”

So, what do we make of this importance Howard plac-es on soil? We should make the utmost of it, starting out in our minds and then in our practices.

The very first sentence of the first chapter of An Agricultural Testament lays out the problem for us. Howard points the finger at industrial agriculture as being the cause of the reduction of soil fertility and therefore productivity. He wrote, “The maintenance of the fertility of the soil is the first condition of any permanent system of agriculture. In the ordinary processes of crop production, fertility is steadily lost: its continuous restoration by means of manuring and soil management is therefore imperative.”

And by “ordinary,” Howard was referring to the es-tablished agricultural practices in Europe and North America at the time.

What solution does Howard offer us? He suggests we take our lead from the ecosystems themselves. “Little or no consideration is paid in the literature of agri-culture to the means by which Nature manages land and conducts her water culture. Nevertheless, these natural methods of soil management must form the basis of all our studies of soil fertility.”

And not only the study of soil fertility, but the practi-cal application of what we see in nature to our agri-cultural practices.

It is the position of this publication that contempo-rary agricultural has not only killed the soil, but has therefore required the need to apply synthetic ele-

see Sir Albert on page 12

Sir Albert Howard’s writingholds keys to fixing brokenagricultural system

Sir Albert’s book An Agricultural Testament out-lines four important observations from nature we should all take to heart.

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family knows this first hand.

Building ponds and water catch-ment systems with swales (see article on page 17) or keyline plowing is an effective way to keep precipitation on the land rather than run off or erode the soil.

I also advocate for the use of ani-mals as part of a holistic manage-ment approach. If we are to really mimic creation, then we have to do so with animals. Natural eco-spheres contain animal life. This is a clue for us to observe and gain the benefits that animals bring to landscape management.

Ruminants mixed with poultry are great management tools within a mob and rotational grazing scheme that actually improves pasture while suppressing disease.

If we believe the planet has en-tered the anthropocene, then we need to start impacting God’s landscape for good and not for ill. Since humans have altered the planet, we can not go back in time to fix it so we must move forward with actions that builds healthy soil and produces healthy food. As Salatin said in his remarks, “Suc-cessful farmers are not afraid to adjust the landscape.”

2. Eclectic awareness“You want to be a farmer? Read widely,” Salatin said. Having been trained to study literature myself, I could not agree more. Note that he said “widely.” Do not limit your reading to farming journals or online forums. Read on a broad range of topics. Start by being aware of what is going on in agricultural policy and who the players are.

Because I believe that reading will stimulate the human mind to be-

ing better at thinking critically, I suggest the topic of what you read should not be trivial.

Farmers should read about mar-keting and about developing business plans. I suggest we read about economics. I believe we should be devouring the content produced by people we trust to help us, such as Salatin, Darren Doherty, Mark Shepard, Noah Sanders and a host of others.

Finally, the greatest aid the farmer can gain by reading is from the Bi-ble. There is a lot of content in the scripture that gives us insight into God’s creation and our steward-ship of it. Creation was so much a part of the human mindset during Christ’s earthly ministry that He used agriculture to help illustrate many of His main points.

Reading God’s word also keeps us humble and grounded in our role as farmers. And, it is revelatory about God Himself. What more could a farmer ask?

3. A can-do entrepre-neurial spiritThere are people who are risk in-tolerant. There are people who go blindly into the foray. I would say that a successful farmer is some-one in between. Farming is not without risks. However, it is not anything to fear, either. Yes, there will be failures. Sometimes these failures will be heartbreaking. But, the rewards far outweigh the risks. In permaculture, we call it feed-back from the system, not failure.

Being a farmer may require doing things that you have never done before. Whether it is running a small excavator to build a pond or neutering livestock or meet-ing a prospective buyer to make a proposal, the farmer must have an

SUCCESS from page 3

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attitude that he will succeed once setting hand to plow, so to speak.

Just as an entrepreneur who is launching a technology startup will serve many roles in the new business, so the farmer serves many roles. The successful farmer embraces each role. I do not pretend they love each role, but approaching each with a “can-do” spirit goes a long way to success.

4. Live frugallyThis key to success may seem subjective. But, I believe Salatin is suggesting that successful farm-ers are more than just smart with their money. At the heart of what he is teaching are the ideas of thrift and prudence. This advice is for both lifestyle and operations.

Living frugally means living a life-style that does not include extrav-agance, as well as living a lifestyle that does what it can to eliminate waste in all its forms.

I believe that true joy is not found in material objects so we should not seek personal gratification from them. Can you do a task manually rather than mechani-cally? Can you make do with what you have instead of the latest iteration or model of something?

Value is something farmers should be very familiar with. Each time they spend money or labor or en-ergy, a successful farmer should be confident that they are getting an equal value or better in return.

Does the solar array you just spent loads of money on give you an ap-propriate return? Are you expend-ing diesel on power for jobs you can do reasonably efficiently by hand? Anything you buy or rent eats into your revenue. When you add unnecessary overhead to your business, it means you have less

to enjoy as profit or to invest back into your farm. The frugal farmer carefully weighs purchases.

It might be an exaggeration or simply a goal to try to reach, but a really successful regenerative farmer has very little waste in their home and in their opera-tions. The by product of one thing or process is likely a useful ele-ment for another.

5. Assemble a teamBecause being a jack of all trades can be taxing, it is a smart prac-tice to have others help you. You cannot be a master of too many things if you have to do them all. The notion here is that there is cre-ativity, ability, skills and insights to be gained from other people helping you.

Interns, volunteers, family and friends are all great places to find help that will not cost you too much, if anything. If your opera-tion can support paid help, then look for team members whose skills compliment yours. As Sala-tin said, the very job you may hate to do is probably a job someone else just loves to do.

A team is also a good sounding board to ensure the farm plan is on the right track. Your team is an audience to share your vision and become advocates for what you are trying to do. With a team, you should not feel alone in the struggles you may face.

In the next issue of Stewardculture Magazine, we will continue with part two of this article that in-cludes Salatin’s second set of best practices for the successful farmer. These include: direct market, gross margin analyses, multi-enterprise, time and motion studies and keep the farm portable.

Creation account demonstrates God’s intention

God cares for, cares about, has purpose for and created the Earth

according to a willful act!

What does that mean for farmers?

Creation account demonstrates God’s intention

God cares for, cares about, has purpose for and created the Earth

according to a willful act!

What does that mean for farmers? by Dan Grubbs

What I purport is that God willful-ly created the universe with intent and purpose, and that God cares about and cares for His creation. This has implications for those of us who are stewards of some por-tion of God’s creation.

First examine the context. Mo-ses was helping to prepare Israel to enter the Promised Land that was designed for them by God. If Moses began that account at any point following creation – say, when Abram left Ur – any reason-ing member of that society would ask the logical questions of what was before that. More specifically a thinking Hebrew would ask where they came from, how they came into being and who is their Creator.

When examining just the first three verses of Genesis 1, we have a very rich text that informs every person who stewards a landscape of any size. It is not our intention to discuss the primary approaches to interpreting the creation ac-count, but rather to highlight some learnings useful for farmers.

Moses uses the Hebrew word Elo-hiym as the name for God in this text. This makes perfect sense be-cause it emphasizes preeminence and supremacy. This is in contrast

to the belief system of the Egyp-tians from which they escaped and in contrast to the peoples then inhabiting the Promised Land.

A common interpretation of Gen-esis 1:1 “In the beginning, God cre-ated the heavens and the earth,” is that it is a summary or topical statement and the following verses explain some of the details of God’s creation activity.

There are key things to take away when studying the creation ac-count in Genesis that will give any land steward a foundation of understanding: • Moses’ text clearly defines a

distinction between the Devine and the creation; that God is the Creator above and apart from His creation.

• The Devine is not restrained nor bounded by His creation but in control of it. This is in opposi-tion to other creation accounts of ancient far-, mid- or near-east people groups.

Now, let us see if we can determine God’s attitude toward creation. When we look at verse two, we have the description, “and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” The Hebrew word for “moving over” is rachaph, which is to brood as a mother

eagle over the nest, just as it is used in Deuteronomy 32:11. This is a good sign of God’s special and concerned care over creation.

Yet, it is when the following verses are examined in depth we see God has intent. When looking deeper into verse three – “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light” – we start to gain more clues.

The verb amar (to say) used in these verses on the surface is sim-ple, but be sure not to understand it in a metaphorical sense. As we examine the text in light of other passages, we learn that this was an actual verbal command.

So that we do not take the word “said” too lightly, examine other scriptures to help us understand. In Psalm 33:9 it is written, “For He spoke, and it was done: He com-manded, and it stood fast.” The psalmist here is giving praise to God for His creation. Then in He-brews 11:3 this is reinforced. “By Faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that was is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

These passages point to the same interpretation of Genesis 1 that God spoke actual words. So the question one might ask is if God is spirit without personal physi-cal form, how could He speak with no vocal chords, lungs, teeth, lips or tongue? The answer is found in John 1 and other key scriptures.

John 1:1-3 helps us see this is the incarnate Jesus Christ at creation giving the commands. The verses read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into

In Genesis, we have Moses giving the Hebrews an account of their history, their origins, but more importantly, their relationship with God. A daunting task for any writer, but with the inspiration of God, the creation account in Gen-esis does all these things and more. When we carefully examine the scripture’s account of cre-ation, we find relevant information for farmers, ranchers, homesteaders or anyone living on the planet today.

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being that has come into being.”

What we see in the text is that there is no external force acting upon the Creator except His own will to initiate and care for creation (amar and rachaph). Do not read over that sentence too quickly. Think about it. The Creator had a will to create the universe. If the Creator had intention of His own volition to create the universe, it certainly begs the question of why.

The intention is so that God can demonstrate His character, in part, through a loving relationship with man. He set man on a world that was designed specifically to host humans in peace. Even post flood, God’s design of the Earth is such that it easily sustains human life.

The ramifications of this under-standing are critical, but many farmers ignore them. Our response

should be this: knowing that God intentionally designed the Earth and is passionate toward His cre-ation, we then should steward the land in a way that is like a mother eagle over its brood (rachaph).

Continuing in the text we read the fact that God “saw” His creation was “good.” This is also insightful for us as humans. Elohiym could have created a place that was fraught with difficulty for survival of man. The Earth could be a place where human existence would be challenging. Instead, the goodness that God saw in His creation can, in part, be understood as favorable for human life that can be com-pletely focused on God.

The biblical model of stewardship is that we care for something as if we were the actual owner with full expectation that the owner will return and ask for an account-

ing of what we have done with the owner’s property. As farmers, ranchers, homesteaders, how will we answer God’s inquiry to give an account of how we have managed His land?

I suggest that we who call our-selves stewards of the land cer-tainly cannot allow it to degener-ate due to our practices. In fact, our practices should go beyond being just sustainable, but should actually give us a total return. However. yield is not the same as return. Return is the net of all our practices. Yes, we may yield 125 bushels of corn on an acre, but if we sterilize the soil, kill all the fungi, poison all the microbial life in the soil, we have a negative net from our farming practices … and I suggest we will be called a poor steward when we have to give an accounting.

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Sir Albert from page 5

ments in order to make the soil simply a medium by which artificial nutrients are conveyed to crops.

According to Howard, this is completely unnecessary and now extremely costly for the farmer who now needs government subsidies in order to make their operations feasible.

One does not continue to add air to a leaking tire if you want to get very far and not ruin the tire. But, it seems that is all modern agriculture wants to do. Why is this? The ever-pressing goal of increased produc-tion has caused farmers to resort to artificial means to gain this growth.

Enter the agrochemical and agrogenetic compa-nies who offer short-sighted solutions to farmers to increase their productivity – solutions that have contributed to the death of our soil and human dis-ease, according to Howard. Once the soil is no longer fertile, they offer fertility in a can. They offer pest resistance in a bottle. They offer drought resistance in a bag. All at a cost that an ever-increasing number of farmers cannot afford.

But, according to Howard, none of this is needed be-cause the land is already capable of maintaining fertil-ity through its natural processes that we can mimic in our regenerative farming practices.

Howard indicated there are four systems of agricul-ture we can study to determine which is most ef-fective: the agriculture of nature, the agriculture of nations that have passed away, the agriculture of the Orient and the industrial agriculture of the Occident. Naturally, Howard pointed to nature itself as the model for agriculture, but it is his description of the agriculture of the Roman Empire that is telling for our times today. He summarized:

“Judged by the ordinary standards of achievement, the agricultural history of the Roman Empire ended in failure due to inability to realize the fundamental principle that the maintenance of soil fertility coupled with the legitimate claims of the agricultural population should never have been allowed to come in conflict with the operations of the capitalist.”

The famous advocate for regenerative farming and a student of Sir. Albert, Wendell Berry similarly points out that farming is not business, but rather a cultural

partnership. Farming is about joining in partner-ship with creation and its systems. Chief among the responsibilities of that partnership is soil husbandry.

Here are four observations of nature that can be drawn from Howard’s writing.

Observation: Nature practices diverse farmingIn our stewardship of the soil, Howard suggests that we must first observe nature to see its successful practice of agriculture. He pointed out that nature practices mixed farming. No monocropping. This includes all the forms of biota that include animals from invertebrates to large mammals, and even fungi.

Howard taught that these all must be allowed to exist together in order for soil to be healthy. Howard wrote, “Whatever may be the reason why crops thrive best when associated in suitable combinations, the fact re-mains that mixtures generally give better results than monoculture.” What we see in modern agriculture is the exclusion of other species from our fields.

Observation: Nature protects its soilWhen left to itself, creation works to defend the soil from harm. Soil is protected in nature. Whether in the forest with a canopy of trees or in the prairie with dense grasses, soil is shaded from direct sunlight which can vaporize its precious moisture and harm the soil’s contents.

The crops of nature also protect the soil from the ki-netic effects of rain and subsequent runoff. The leaves of the canopy and grass of the prairie diffuse the rain into a finer and gentler spray and slows down the irrigation rate. Even in the fiercest wind storms, the flora of any natural region slow the gales to a harm-less breeze at the soil surface level.

Modern agriculture, on the other hand, plows up wind breaks and hedgerows in favor of annual crops exposing the soil to transporting winds during a large portion of the year.

Finally, creation does not disrupt the soil in order to propagate its crops. Overturning and overly cultivat-ing soil harms its structure, exposes it to run off and wind and allows for greater evaporation and degrada-tion of some of its chemical and biological elements and processes.

Observation: Nature lets soil breatheIn creation’s diversity, there exist species with root

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system used to promote the aeration of the closely packed soils. In creation, soil is not solid, but latticed with great surface area for transpiration, dissolution and slow movement of water. Irrigation is diffused, and allowed to cling to the greater surface area of the elements of a latticed soil. Solute and solvent are allowed to interact and migrate to absorbing root systems.

In creation, there are also organisms that create ad-ditional breathing space in the soil. Invertebrates not only help in the soil-making process, they also create paths and channels in the soil.

Observation: Nature maintains a strict economyIn creation, nothing is ever lost or wasted. Upon examination, healthy soil is a mixed residue of plant and animal manures (used here in the broader sense) converted by fungi and bacteria into humus. This economy ensures a proper balance of nutrients cycling from soil to plant and back to soil and so on. Even when the fauna dies, it enriches the soil to feed organisms and plants that are consumed by fauna again and then replaced upon their death. Addition-

ally, in nature’s economy, she grows some crops that take up nutrients, such as nitrogen, and she also grows plants that contribute nitrogen to the soil, creating another symbiotic system that is self-repli-cating. Nature also usually sequesters carbon in the soil rather than releasing it into the air -- quite the opposite of industrial agriculture.

Upon making these observations, farmers, ranchers and homesteaders must determine ways to adopt or mimic these natural activities and systems in our own practice of agriculture. An example is to practice diversity and soil economy by using crop rotation and planting leguminous crops in that rotation. Another example would be to keep cover crops in the rotation and never expose the field’s soil. Finally, the addition of animals into the system will complete the plan.

A great mind shift is needed in agriculture in North America that sees soil as the first crop to be grown as more important than the subsequent cash, sub-sistence or manure crop. This shift in thinking will be the only way we can realize that the planet’s great “capital” is soil, not water nor oil nor precious metals nor even intellectual ideas. Soil is and always will be the life upon which mankind depends.

God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and ev-erything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:25

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Swales can play a vital role in land

managementFor water management, agroforestry and silvopasture, swales can be an important

tool for the biodiverse farm.

In agriculture, swales are not usually the topic in farming circles but they can be a valuable tool in the earthworks tool chest. A ditch-berm combination, swales can be both part of a water management system, as well as a tree growing system.

This article will outline the construction of three on-contour swales on a sloping pasture at Hebron Acres in Clay County, Missouri. Though each application of swales is different from property to prop-erty, the effort at Hebron Acres can provide learnings for other prop-erty owners.

No escaping gravityAs gravity pulls precipitation downhill through the landscape, a smart strategy is to slow that movement and hold the water on the land as long as possible to make it available for soil and to hydrate growing things. Gravity cannot be totally escaped, but it can be used to the farmer’s advantage instead of a daunting foe.

Similar to P.A. Yeoman’s keyline subsoil plowing, swales arrest the downhill flow of water allowing it first to be captured in the ditch and then percolate into the adjacent berm and also down into the top soil deeper than if simply allowed to flow through the topsoil normally. These earthworks can be scaled to nearly any size and can be built by many means.

Are they right for every situation?One does not wake up one day and decide they need swales. As one form of earthworks, swales are a design element to be planned and

Photo: one of the swales on Hebron Acres in northwest Missouri. The swales were just planted with five pecan trees, five elderberry shrubs, five false indigo shrubs, five persimmon trees, five hazel-nut trees. More understory plants are planned in 2015 as well as a few more fruit trees.

see SWALES on page 21

Events

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Feb. 5-7

“Ben Falk calls his book about reviving a wornout hill farm in Ver-mont an example of resilience and regeneration; I call it pure natural magic. Grow rice in New England? Yes. Heat water to 155 degrees F on cold winter days at a rate of gallon a minute by piping it through a compost pile? Yes. How about dinner tonight of your own rack of lamb garnished with homegrown mushrooms? Yes. Your choice of scores of different vegetables and fruits even in winter? Yes. Plus, your own dairy products from your own sheep. All the while, the soil producing this magic, on a site once thought little more than a wasteland, grows yearly more fertile and secure from natural calam-ity.”

— Gene Logsdon, author of A Sanctuary of Trees and Small-Scale Grain Raising

Editor’s Picks

“After reading this book, all I can say is Sepp Holzer is a Superstar Farmer. Holzer turns out an absolutely remarkable volume and vari-ety of food products, all without one smidgen of chemical fertilizer, and on land in Austria that an Illinois corn farmer would pronounce too marginal for agriculture. American farmers and gardeners will be particularly interested in Holzer’s raised beds — which are quite dif-ferent in construction from ours in the U.S. — as well as his inven-tive water well irrigation systems, unique methods for integrating livestock into his fruit and vegetable gardens, and practical, low-labor way to grow mushrooms. A fascinating book for anyone who aspires to become the ultimate, champion professional of sustainable farming.”

— Gene Logsdon, author and blogger at The Contrary Farmer

Around the globe most people get their calories from “annual” agri-culture — plants that grow fast for one season, produce lots of seeds, then die. Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and func-tion while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs — in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture sys-tem of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future.

— AcresUSA

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Almost Manna: Can’t Miss Recipes

Ingredients:4 large ears of corn2 tablesppons all-purpose flour2 eggs, sperated

Cut the kernels from 4 ears of corn and place them in a medium bowl . Using the back of a knife, scrape the cobs over the bowl to extract the juices and pulp. The mixture will resemble scrambled eggs. Beat the egg yolks in a large bowl until light. Beat in the flour, sugar and salt and pepper. Stir in the corn .

Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold them into corn mixture . Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat and grease lightly. Drop the batter by small spoonsful onto hot skillet and cook until golden brown

1 tablespoon granulated sugarsalt and pepper to taste

Amish Corn Fritters

Ingredients:1 1/2 cups milk1 cup rolled oats (not instant)1 cup chopped pitted dates2 cups all-purpose flour

Bring milk close to simmer. Place oats and dates in large mixing bowl and add milk. Set aside to cool to room temp. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In another bowl , whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. When oat mixture is cool , beat in egg. Stir in dry ingredients, mixing well .

Pour batter into a buttered 9 x 5-inch loaf pan . Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until top is crusty and golden . Cool before slicing.

4 teasponns baking powder1 1/2 teaspons salt3/4 cup granulated sugar1 egg

Oatmeal Date Bread

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SWALES from page 17integrated within the larger, holistic farm design. If a farm plan calls for water capture and management and increasing fertility and biodiversity, these land-scape elements may be relevant.

As a farmer assesses the landscape and understands the layout and topography, they need to strongly grasp the way water moves through, on and un-der their property. If swales are determined to be a beneficial as part of an overall plan, the next step is to determine number, size and placement, as well as the interconnection with other farm design elements. Connecting swales to ponds and wells is one common example of integration. Another is to move water from one area to another, such as from the high val-ley out to the lower ridges of the rolling landscape.

Once placement of a swale is determined, a level-seeking device will be needed. This can be an A-frame level, a bunyip water level, or the sophisticated laser level. At Hebron Acres, a bunyip water level was used. These tools help determine a contour line which will be the linear guide for building a swale.

Pegging the contour lineOnce it was determined where the first swale was needed, the owners placed one stake of the bunyip level at the very far end of where the swale would begin. The level was stretched out to its length, which is approximately 20 feet. The second bunyip stake was then set down near where the next level spot would be. We take a reading on the calibrated stakes to see where the water levels are. We move the second stake up or down hill until we get the water in the bunyip water tube to read exactly the same on both stakes. Then, we pound in a survey peg or flag at both points on the ground.

Now we have two points that are on what we call contour. These two points are on the same level of elevation. We simply swing the first stake around and stretch the level out again from the second stake and find the next contour point and insert a survey peg. With this process and length of bunyip level, we can cover the ground pretty quickly at 20 feet at a time. Most A-frame levels are about five feet apart, though they can be operated by one person instead of two with a bunyip level.

We continue finding contour points for the entire distance of what we plan for the length of the swale.

When through placing survey stakes, we can look back over the distance and see the pegs form an imaginary contour line. Staying on contour, or level, is important so your swales do not pool up or allow water to run out one of the ends of the swale ditch. Keep the bunyip level handy because it will be your measurement tool when you begin to excavate earth to a consistent depth for the length of the swale.

ExcavationNow, the real labor comes. You will either dig the ditch by hand or by mechanized power. Your budget, schedule and ability will factor in how you dig the ditch. But, your first decision is to determine how deep and wide you want your swale ditch to be and how tall you want the berm to be. At this point there are several schools of thought about swale dimen-sions. At least take into account what your average annual rainfall is, what an average rainfall event is, what your goals for the water are, how many swales in the same flow pattern there will be and how you will handle overflow.

At Hebron Acres, we used a two-bottom plow pulled by a 1948 Ford 8N tractor. That approach turned out to be just as effective as an excavator (back hoe). We hitched up our plow with the left moldboard in

Survey pegs on contour shows location of swale

perfect line with the contour line represented by the survey pegs. From there, we left the pegs in place and simply pulled the plow following the contour line ex-actly cutting a clean cleft on the uphill side and mov-ing the soil downhill. We made several passes with the plow pushing more and more soil downhill into a berm on the downhill side of the forming ditch. To clean up the loose soil in the ditch, we switched out the plow for a drag blade which we swung to a trailing angle so it would scrape out the loose soil where the plow was digging and push it out on top of the berm.

Mulch to protectThough we did have to do some hand work with a spade and rake to totally clean out the ditch and pile the earth up uniformly on the berm, the swales were formed very well with this technique. Since we were building the first swale in the fall and did not have our trees and understory plants yet, we covered the berm in a thick layer of hay mulch to keep the newly piled soil from erosion. We have rains in the winter in northwest Missouri, so it was important to protect the berm and not overexpose the soil to direct sunlight.

This first swale measured about 160 feet in length with a ditch two feet wide and about 18 inches deep. The berm itself was about two feet high, so there is about a 42 inch difference between the bottom of the swale and the top of the berm. This could cause pretty good pressure on the swale should it fill with water quickly in a heavy spring thunderstorm. To alleviate this pressure, both ends of the swale are designed to allow for overflow into the pasture.

Understory and overstoryPlanning at Hebron Acres calls for use of polycultures

and the swales are an example planted with a diver-sity of fruit and nut trees. The trees were planted on the uphill side of the ditch, on the berm and on the downhill side of the berm depending on their soil hydration preferences.

The first planting featured five groupings of hazelnut, pecan, false indigo, elderberry and persimmon. Since these were just seedlings, we are waiting until later to plant understory plants such as comfrey and appro-priate guild plants.

Another consideration is avoiding frost pockets. Air moves the same way water does but is also affected by its temperature. Cold air wants to flow downhill. Keeping this in mind means you should not plant your swales without an outlet to let cold air continue to flow downhill and off the property. If a swale is planted so densely without any gap in its vegetation, there is a good chance of creating a frost pocket that will never seem to warm up and could damage plants or cause them to go dormant too early. The gap in the swales at Hebron Acres is planned to let the cold air out through each successive swale through the natu-ral downhill flow zone.

Organic matterAnother good technique employed in the swales at Hebron Acres is the placement of organic matter in the swale ditch. In this case there was a layer of brush and old hay placed in the ditch to allow it to decom-pose adding organic matter and allowing the nutri-ents to leach out and be available in the hydration plume downhill from the swale.

An alternative to placing dead plant material in the ditch is to choose some mixture of plants to grow within the ditch. Some of these can be planted as a

Aligning the plow to the pegged contour line

Plow moving soil down-hill forming a berm

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mulch and some can be planted for other beneficial reasons. For example, daikon can be planted in the ditch to provide deep natural tillage. The daikon can be harvested or left to rot and decompose. Either way, the long tapered root of daikon provides a channel for air and water to penetrate deep into the soil, as much as 18-24 inches.

Silvopasture and intercroppingOriginally, the distance between swales at Hebron Acres were planned to allow for an even number of passes with equipment for mowing. As plans evolved, the space between the swales will be either grazing paddocks or for forage growth.

Between the upper two swales a plot of sericea les-pedeza was planted among the pasture mix. This is intended as forage for goats as sericea lespedeza contains a natural de-wormer.

Between other swales electric netting will allow goats and laying hens to free range on the forage while keeping them off the young growing fruit and nut trees.

Monitor and assessFinally, once swales are built and the growing systems are established it is a good practice to monitor and assess the structure each time when working around the trees and understory. At Hebron Acres, the ditch of the swale serves as a walkway to harvest from the adjacent trees and vines. It also serves as a good place to closely examine the berm for any signs of weak-ness or structural failure.

At Hebron Acres, the berms are kept covered in grass and forbs as a sort of early succession growth phase and were chopped and dropped to provide a mulch to decompose on the berm and in the ditch. The soil of the berm and directly downhill should begin to show signs of improvement even after one year if the location of the swale was where the land was being abused before.

One significant improvement for Hebron Acres was that even after a heavy rain, the bog that usually appeared at the bottom of the slope did not show up anymore. This was a sign that the swales were doing their job holding water up on the landscape instead of letting it flow downhill and eventually off the farm where it was lost.

A bit of hand work to give the swale a finished look

Mulching the berm to prevent erosion

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Into the BarnWhy it is ethical to eat meatBy Sallie Calhoun, former chair,

Holistic Management International

Eating meat produced by land stewards working to regenerate their landscapes and the earth is one of the most ethical choices that an eater can make in the 21st century.

I am a cattle rancher in central California, and I know the local grasslands – the native perennial bunch grasses and the annual grasses that arrived with the Span-ish, the oaks on the hills and in the valley bottoms, and the birds that frequent these trees.

I continuously strive to under-stand this ecosystem and how the pieces fit together. This is a place where there is not a drop of rain between the middle of May and the middle of October. It is not suitable for vegetables – the hills are too steep for irrigation or cul-tivation. This is a classic grassland, like others that cover approxi-mately 40 percent of the earth’s surface – a place where there is not enough moisture for a forest to grow, but a place of spectacular, if less obvious, biodiversity and productivity.

Since I cannot grow vegetables or orchards on my land, there are two choices – fence it and ignore it, or use domesticated livestock to keep the grasslands healthy (and grow protein as a by-product). The world’s grasslands evolved with grazing animals, and without

them inside the fence would be shrubs, bare ground, less obvious biodiversity and less life. The soil and wildlife need disturbance, and inside the fence there would be little of that. Abandoning these grasslands now would be the final nail in their coffin, and we would all pay the price with more floods, drought, carbon in the atmosphere and extinctions, along with less food for seven billion people.

With properly managed domestic livestock we see a completely dif-ferent result. The perennial grasses thrive and over the course of their hundred-year lives huge root sys-tems grow supporting uncounted soil organisms and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. The wildflowers flourish every spring,

supporting a myriad of butterflies and insects for the birds. The rain soaks into the soil growing more grass rather than swelling streams and rivers. The system functions as it evolved with the help of a keystone species of the landscape – committed humans.

This land has been managed by humans since the Native Ameri-cans arrived approximately 15,000 years ago. Since Europeans arrived we have introduced non-native plants, killed the wild herds, built fences, re-routed rivers, tilled, sprayed and built, built, built. We displaced nature and took over the management and hence the re-sponsibility for this land. It would be supremely unethical to take the landscape, break it, and expect to

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supporting a myriad of butterflies and insects for the birds. The rain soaks into the soil growing more grass rather than swelling streams and rivers. The system functions as it evolved with the help of a keystone species of the landscape – committed humans.

This land has been managed by humans since the Native Ameri-cans arrived approximately 15,000 years ago. Since Europeans arrived we have introduced non-native plants, killed the wild herds, built fences, re-routed rivers, tilled, sprayed and built, built, built. We displaced nature and took over the management and hence the re-sponsibility for this land. It would be supremely unethical to take the landscape, break it, and expect to

hand it back to nature as if noth-ing had happened, all the while knowing the circumstances.

Meat consumed by humans is part of a vast system involving domes-ticated animals, the ecosystems in which they live and the economy. Thinking about the ethics of eating meat requires thinking about the whole system, not just one small part. The economic reality is that in order to have committed land stewards working with livestock every day for the sake of the ecosystem, they must be com-pensated, and selling meat is how that happens today. Much as some people might wish otherwise, it is not possible to quickly return to a landscape maintained by huge herds of wild herbivores. In order to support the world’s grasslands today and continue to benefit from the significant ecosystem services they provide, humans need to eat beef that is raised re-sponsibly on those grasslands.

Editor’s note: This essay appeared in In Practice issue No. 145, a pub-lication of Holistic Management International. To learn more about HMI, please visit their website.

What does God say about eating meat?

Though Sallie Calhoun makes her case well about the secular and environmental rea-sons why eating meat is okay, we also have the Bible that give us direct guidance. Here are some passages to consider when discuss-ing or thinking on this issue.

“Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”

Genesis 9:3-4

“On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making prepara-tions, he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four cor-ners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat!’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.’ Again a voice came to him a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’ This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky.”

Acts 10: 9-16

“One person has faith that he may eat all things, be he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.”

Romans 14:2-3