What's an "eater?"
At Morning Owl Farm, we use the term eaters rather than consumers,
because the language of consumerism has permeated too many areas of our lives. When we treat others as consumers we are concerned
only with how much we can sell them. When we call people what they are: "citizens," "eaters," and "students,"
for example, we acknowledge that our relatedness is based on more than selling and buying. Instead, we are building relationships
of integrity, trust, responsibility and earnestness.
At Morning Owl Farm we know that real people eat our food and real people and critters live in our community. To them we
have a responsibility to leave things better than we found them. That's why we use organic seed whenever possible, and
build our soil system with well-screened (when imported) and homemade compost. We use earth-friendly, products bought from
sellers and producers as close to home as we can find them to grow strong, healthy plants and birds.
It's
all about the soil . . .
At Morning Owl Farm, we're increasingly seeing that what we do as less about farming in the traditional sense,
and more about making soil. Most every activity in which we're engaged is about entering that cycle wherein what we take
from the soil is returned to the dirt to build new soil that sustains new and ongoing life.
We start with the bedding, which collects the ducks'
and turkeys' manure when they're shut in their coops at night. To that, we add the waste from three horses, Jake,
Dee and Patrick. And to that we add water, weeds and refuse from the gardens. It all gets mixed and watered and turned for
one full year, and then is spread over our gardens. After it's applied and new things grow, we start all over again.
Double
Duty Ducks . . .
The work of our ducks is to lay eggs for our eaters, or so we thought. Actually, we learned they're capable
of a whole lot more. In 2006, we began to reclaim about 40% of our land for agriculture. For many, many years, the area
had been fenced with two horses roaming about doing what horses do--not much. The land was never watered and never planted.
All that grew were weeds and dust. Truth be told, it looked like hell.
After learning more about taking care of the land and learning from three years of farming how better to work
with it, we decided to take half of that weed patch and reclaim it. We started in spring 2006, by tilling the land. Then,
when the new weeds had grown, we mowed and disced them in. Having found a way to get water a bit closer to the potential
pasture, we spread a mix of annual rye, buckwheat, flax and clover. Despite our green and novice status as would-be pasture
managers, we went into winter with a short crop of annual rye. That was enough to hold the soil through winter and enough
to at least give the spring weeds a bit of competition in early 2007.
In April, 2007, we sowed more rye grass, clover and flax. In late-April, we began running the ducks out there.
We noticed very quickly that where the ducks had been, there were fewer weeds and the growth was more lush. With electric
fencing, we move the ducks' paddocks, allowing them access to new, fresh greens every few days. After they're moved,
we water the heck out of where they've been, mixing their fresh manure in with the soil. Within a week, you can hardly
tell they were there. Then, it's time to mow again.
In 2008, we hope to get a grant to track the best methods for using a flock of ducks to weed and fertilize a small pasture.
I've shown our burgeoning pasture to several "traditional" farmers and they can't believe we've not
sprayed the land with fertilizer or herbicides. They're shocked at what a hundred ducks can do on a few acres. I bet
their grandparents knew what animals and land could do together. It's amazing, though isn't it, how fast we forget.
We're hoping not to. Thanks, ducks.
So, yeah, it's about feeding you, for sure. But it's about feeding
microbes, bacteria and plants too. Making it richer than we found it: that's our aim. Being able to do this until I'm
old, that's sustainability--that's the point.
