central Maryland , and the north field has the climate of southern New York State .
Early on I came across Robert Rodale ’ s groundbreaking book , Organic Farming and Gardening , which started and made the case for organic farming in this country , and for decades I farmed this land organically .
The heart of organic farming is a farmer ’ s Hippocratic oath : “ First , do no harm .” Do not use persistent pesticides or disease treatments which travel up the food chain from the bugs to the birds and beyond . Do not use commercial fertilizer made from oil and natural gas . Do not use herbicides because there really are no safe ones .
One positive organic practice is to move crops around from year to year — and within a year — to avoid the buildup of pest populations and diseases that are specific to certain crops . With three different climates in the three fields , crop rotation was simplified . I could plant one crop in the south and the same crop in the north and get different maturity dates .
Another common practice on small organic farms has been tilling the soil with mechanized tillers . The standard tiller in this country is the Troy-Bilt whose design has remained unchanged for decades . I have taken one completely apart , fixed the problem , and put it back together again . It runs fine .
Over the years , the tillers unearthed a basket-full of stone tools from the Indigenous Peoples who lived and farmed on this land .
When tillers run sideways across hills , and not straight up and down , they naturally terrace the land and make level rows for planting . Every planted row is in a raised bed . The terracing and raised beds with adjacent valleys retards erosion during heavy rainfalls . I remember many years ago we had 12 inches of rain on top of wet ground in June . The valleys between the raised beds filled with water . We joked that we were doing hydroponic farming by necessity ! In a few of the rows the water broke through the raised beds and flowed down to the next row . There was no erosion off of the fields at all .
Years later I was introduced to the the concept of regenerative farming by local farmer Nick Maravell . The idea is to improve the soil , the natural environment , the fauna and flora around the farm . Farm lore has it that this tan Central Maryland Piedmont soil was worn out 300 years ago by the tobacco culture that depleted the magnesium in the soil .
One important regenerative practice is to stop mechanized power tilling . Tilling prepares a seed bed very quickly but it destroys soil structure , is hard on the multitude of living organisms in the soil , and distributes weed seeds and roots
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