LIVE Farm Tour at 21 Acres--Wetlands and farming! January 2021

Join us for a guided farm walk where we explore the deeper processes that occur on our farm through the seasons. This month we're talking about wetlands! How do we decide where to farm and where to conserve the valuable resource of wetlands? This agroecology practice--maintaining wild space near agricultural production areas--can actually boost production in agricultural spaces.
This tour was led by Restoration Specialist Jess Chandler and Farm Operations Lead Anthony Reyes, and hosted by Rhianne Janovich, Administrative Assistant. Our live virtual Farm Walks happen all year round! To join us for a live session, check out our upcoming events: 21acres.org/classes-events
This is a recording of a live webinar event hosted on Zoom.
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At 21 Acres, located in Woodinville, Washington, we inspire action to solve climate challenges by learning as a community to grow, eat, and live sustainably.
Check out what's growing at 21 Acres! We're sharing resources for lifelong learners, gardeners, farmers, chefs, low-wasters, and fresh thinkers of all ages. Join us as we grow, eat, and learn together.
21 Acres is located on the ancestral lands of indigenous nations including the Stillaguamish tribe, the Duwamish, and Coast Salish peoples. We acknowledge these nations as the original stewards of this land and honor both the land itself and the people of these nations past and present. We are deeply grateful to caretake this property for the community and future generations.
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[@TierraPermaculture]

Well Done Folks!

[@shnnnhickman]

Hi, great walkthrough. Very fun to see your projects. A couple of thoughts came to mind along the way. If you have goats, why not feed the blackberry and bindweed to them? And also, could the goats go out and harvest the turnips in your fields? Do you use the Soil Food Web diagnostics and Haney Soil Analysis before applying inputs? Thanks!

[@21AcresCenter]

Hi there, Brenda here. I've shared your questions with our farm/soil team. The crew takes a much deserved weekend off on Sundays and Mondays, I'll keep you posted when I hear more.

[@21AcresCenter]

Hi again--here is the response we received from our soil team:
Thanks for the questions! Our goats definitely help with our blackberry and bindweed mitigation. We actually have new plans to incorporate the goats more in our site management with mobile paddocks, mainly targeting bindweed and reed canary grass. The challenge is making sure they don't also eat the plants we're trying to restore. We try to keep the goats out of the field for organic, since we have relatively quick successions of plantings, we'd have to wait 90 or 120 days before harvesting when fresh manure is "applied," though incorporate pigs within our rotation in a fallow block. They do a great job of foraging the leftover turnip cover crop. We have a pretty strict fertilization schedule based on our soil analyses and how much nutrients the plants will uptake through their growth cycle. Mostly use them as biotic inoculants. We haven't tried either of those tests, though have incorporated aspects of the Haney analysis. We'll have to look into these for the upcoming season, thanks for sharing!