Now I'm starting to worry, we've forgotten where our food comes from. 👨‍🌾👩‍🌾

Published: Sun, 07/24/22

Happy Sunday, Rural Sprout readers,

How was your week? We’re still exceptionally dry here in Pennsylvania. I heard from a reader in Texas last week who said they’ve only had 1.5” of rain since January.

Unreal.

I was walking around the lawn at my sweetie’s house this week, and I had to laugh. The grass was dead -- brown and crunchy. Yet the white clover and every backyard weed you could think of were still green and happily spreading out in the yard. Our own Cheryl Magyar is a big advocate for rewilding all or a portion of your lawn.

As I walked on the crunchy grass, I thought, “Boy, the backyard sure would be a lot greener if all we had growing was the clover and the weeds.”

I’ll bet the bees would be happier too.

We were feeding the chickens watermelon the other day (The girls need to stay cool, too!), and I was amazed at all the honey bees around us. My sweetie hasn’t been mowing the lawn because the grass is all burned to a crisp, and it’s covered in white clover right now. Not only do our chickens like to nibble the flowers, but nearly one in every five flowers had a honey bee happily buzzing about it. It was nice to see so many pollinators.

While we wait patiently for rain, I think to myself, at least there’s that little silver lining.

And I can’t help but think of all the farmers who feed us. So much of their livelihood depends on the weather. It seems we are teetering on the edge of crop failure for quite a few local farms this year. We’ve become so detached from where our food comes from these days that I don’t think most people understand how this dry weather affects all of us.

Most folks don’t see beyond their own brown yard.

We rode in the car the other day and decided to listen to the latest episode of Mike Rowe’s podcast. For those who don’t know, Mike Rowe hosts the popular Dirty Jobs television series.

He was interviewing a husband and wife who are the owners of a very large and very well-known dairy operation here in the states.

They have recently begun practicing no-till farming on a large scale. The gentleman farmer was extolling its benefits and saying how this was what the future of commercial farming needed to look like if we were going to be able to continue to feed the world.

I had to laugh. We’ve been saying that for a while now here at Rural Sprout.

Only it doesn’t need to be on the commercial scale to make a difference. Cheryl convinced me to give no-dig gardening a try with her great article 6 Reasons to Start a No-Dig Garden & How to Get Started, and my sweetie and I haven’t looked back. I can’t imagine gardening any other way now, especially with how dry it’s been this year.

It’s amazing what happens when you start taking care of the soil first.

Cheryl has another fantastic piece on no-dig gardening that you’ve got to read this week. If you’re even the littlest bit curious about what all the fuss is about, I highly suggest you pour yourself another cup of coffee and check it out.

No-dig gardening is cheaper, more drought-resistant and less work in the long run than any other type of gardening out there.

But more importantly, it’s truly sustainable. And as we watch the news and find ourselves paying more at the grocery store, I think the world is starting to realize it’s time to reconnect to our food again—what better place to start than in our backyards.