By John Weiss

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

ELBA -- Gray earth in the waterlogged field blended with the somber late October sky as Sandy Dietz poked holes into a raised row of soil.

When she made about 100 holes with a rake handle, she bent down and pushed a clove of garlic into each. In all, she would poke about 21,000 holes and plant that many cloves.

It's tedious and tremendous work.

The summer has been hectic for her, her husband, Lonny Dietz, their family and workers at Whitewater Gardens Farm -- planting, weeding, harvesting, selling, harvesting, weeding, selling, planning, trying to control weeds and blights, washing lettuce and carrots.

Finally, in late October, life eased, she could spend a few days poking holes and planting cloves, each one with the pointed side up or they will grow crooked. It was relaxing way to get ready for next year's growing season when they will sell the garlic throughout the region.

That work on that land, however, is more than something to relax Sandy and provide income.

It's a way for the couple to reach out, to teach others about what they have learned in more than 20 years of farming organically (Lonny calls it biological or sustainable farming).

When they bought the land on a blufftop between Elba and Whitewater State Park, most of the fertility of the soil had been farmed out. They set out to rejuvenate it by planting crops that restore the fertility, the micronutrients and the ability to hold water. They have come a long way, but they have a long ways to go.

That food they grow on that rejuvenating land is sold at farmers markets and is a way to tell consumers about the land. That land that grows the food is a way to tell fellow farmers about what they too can do to raise soil health and lower costs.

It's not an easy lesson, they said.

Consumers buy the Dietz's lettuce, carrots, kale, garlic and other produce because they know no chemical fertilizers or pesticides were used, and they like the flavor, he said.

But few consumers make the connection to the land and how that kind of farming is better for the soil, he said. It's too esoteric.

"I know a lot of them are coming to the farmers market for the nutrition, and they know the flavor is better but they don't necessarily understand what's all going into it," he said. "And I think that's a part of the problem."

It's also harder to reach out to conventional farmers because using chemicals is a way of life. Some farmers no longer live on the land, and some just rent acres from others, so they don't know or care about it as much, he said.

"I think probably the biggest hurdle for somebody on a large scale like that is thinking beyond corn and soybeans," Sandy said, referring to the area's top two commodities.

If they want to plant a few different crops that will enrich the soil and they are willing to not farm every acre, they can add fertility and soil health, she said.

Hope for change

There is hope for change, for both consumers and farmers.

With rising health care costs, they believe consumers are becoming more conscious of good diets. They might be willing to pay more for organically grown food because it's healthier, with more micronutrients.

As for farmers, Lonny said they are being slammed with higher costs but are paid as much as they were 30 or more years ago. To make it, they have to farm more and more acres.

Eventually, they may get fed up with conventional methods and will begin using biological methods.

If they improve the soil and rotate crops, they won't need as many pesticides or fertilizers, he said. They won't need to be so big to be profitable.

The change won't come from big conferences or majority government efforts but farmers talking to farmers over coffee or over the back fence, Lonny said.

It will take a critical mass of demand from consumers to get change, they said. "It's a ways off," Lonny said.

End of the growing year

Right now, the Dietzes are still busy finishing off the 2009 growing season. They have to oversee construction of a large greenhouse where they will raise vegetables in winter and begin their summer plants. That will take all the pressure off making their living in summer only. They might even take a summer vacation

There is also the garlic to plant, carrots to pick and clean for sale and other final jobs to end the year that was mixed in terms of how much better the good earth healed.

When they began this year, they rates their land as a 5 or 6 on a scale of one to 10. It was a zero when they bought it.

Today, it's still about the same. " I think when it was dry, it was really a setback for it," Sandy said.

This fall, rain has helped it spring back to life. "You go out there now....the worm activity is unbelievable," she said.

That's another benefit of biological farming, he said. The land heals faster.

Healing land is what we need, he said. The couple likes the Native American concept of making decisions based not on today but the long-term.

"You really take long-term view, stretch it out over another 10, 20 years, what is that farm going to look like if it's farmed that way over 10 to 20 years, what's that ground going to be like, what's the profitability going to be like?" he said. "I kind of like the native term, thinking seven generations away."

There are 0 comments - Display All Comments