Soil Health Field Walk at Andrews Farm
Monday, August 7, 4:30-6:00 pm
183 West Hill Road, Gardiner, ME 04345
Join Andrews Farm and American Farmland Trust for a field walk exploring innovative approaches to tillage reduction on organic farms. Farmer Mike Perisho will showcase his four-year minimum tillage rotation:
- Year 1: Onions mulched with aged leaves which are then raked to pathways after harvest and winter rye/vetch sown on bed tops;
- Year 2 Rye/vetch crimped/tarped for fall brassicas;
- Year 3: Residues raked into pathways for carrot and salad green successions;
- Year 4: Beds raised using BCS (2-wheel tractor) rotary plow and covered with wide landscape fabric with permanent holes for peppers, eggplant, and summer cucurbits.
Mike will provide a whole-farm tour and will discuss the operations involved in the trial rotation, elaborating on his initial soil health, weed suppression, and crop performance observations. We will round out the afternoon with a lightly-moderated farmer roundtable sharing session on what soil health and climate adaptation practices participants are exploring on their farms.
Speakers
Mike Perisho began growing vegetables on his wife Jess’s family land in 2014, which had been farmed by her family since the late 1800s. This fifth-generation effort is keeping the land in agriculture while involving family members, friends, and neighbors in the stewardship of the land. Mindful of how their activities affect life downstream, the farm team takes any opportunity to work with nature, rather than intervene against it, through the use of practices that preserve soil structure and maintain high levels of biological activity.
Julie Fine, New England Climate and Agriculture Specialist for American Farmland Trust has worked on dairy and vegetable farms in MA, CA, and New Zealand over the last 20 years before settling in western Massachusetts. In 2018, she earned an MS in plant and soil science from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst researching the effects of winter-killed cover crops on nutrient cycling, weed suppression, and soil health. Through relationships with farmers across the Northeast, Julie has seen the agricultural and climate challenges that food producers face and is dedicated to working together toward site-specific solutions for climate adaptation, soil health, and sustainable food production.