Water, Water, Everywhere
CLEAN WATER
A customer recently asked us what our water quality was like on the farm. They implied, correctly, that water is a critical part of the diets of animals (and plants!) and that water contaminated with any variety of chemicals would obviously also poison our meat and produce.
Well, we have good news. Ridgemeade owns its watershed and aquifer - we are situated on the highest point for 20 miles in any direction. That means there is no run-off from industrial agriculture or manufacturing onto our property. In fact, all the run-off is from us onto other property and we like to say that whatever water ends up on our land ends up leaving even cleaner. However, as we build soil and sequester carbon at exponential rates, the quantity of water leaving our land decreases radically. In fact, for every 1% increase in organic material in our soil, one acre will filter and hold (no run-off) 20,000 additional gallons of water!
Much of our water used for our gardens and livestock comes from our deep well, and since we own the watershed and aquifer, the water is pure and clean and further still, it is filtered again through granulated limestone and charcoal before being used for consumption on the farm.
The third leg to our water purification and conservation program involves the cultivation and maintenance of robust riparian areas, featuring native bushes, trees, and wetland plants like rushes, cattails, and lilies. A secondary benefit to these riparian areas is the profuse amount of wildlife that congregates in these areas - from rare and migratory birds to deer, rabbits, frogs, salamanders, coyotes, snakes, turkey, owls, pheasants, and more.
Because our land is primarily in an area of pastures and forests, the overall chemical use per acre is extremely low, and zero on Ridgemeade. That means aquifer contamination is negligible, especially given our large catchment pond and all the other reasons stated above. As Joel Salatin says of his farm, Polyface, the same goes for Ridgemeade: “Rain doesn’t percolate through chemical-laden crop ground on its way to the aquifer [as on Industrial farms]; it percolates through leaf litter and grass [and deep, carbon-rich soils], which act as cleansers.
We know exactly what’s above the terrain of our pastures and pond. The pond has cattails, salamanders, frogs and other critters that indicate clean water.
Again we turn to the wise words of Salatin: “Nothing purifies water like vegetation and high organic matter soil because all that carbon detoxifies like a carbon filter. Pasture-based livestock and constant movement facilitates soil carbon capture and therefore is perhaps the most efficacious water purifier available.”
For us, the bow on top is that Ridgemeade was a fairy farm from 1849 - 1940, a period during which the toxic chemicals we know of today were not even in existence. In 1940, when the MacElroy family purchased the farm, Mr. MacElroy was acquainted with Mr. Rudolph Steiner, the founder of the BioDynamic Movement - a modus which Mr. MacElroy strictly adhered to as evidenced by his family’s oral history as well as his meticulous record keeping.
Steiner’s BioDynamic method involved rejecting all of the new-fangled fertilizers and pesticides that appeared on the market after World War II (as a secondary use platform of waste materials from toxic gases and munitions creation) in favor or BioMimicry - the technique of mimicking nature in every way possible while reducing human impact and the need for human intervention.
The BioDynamic movement was a precursor to what would become Permaculture and the Organic Movements and the latest, most highly evolved iteration which we adhere to at Ridgemeade - the Regenerative movement, which takes the best of all three to create a dynamically sustainable system of agriculture and living that considers not only the improved triple bottom line, but all eight forms of capital (social, ecological/living, financial, cultural, intellectual, spiritual, experiential, material).
In short, Regenerative Agriculture not only produces increased abundance but simultaneously repairs ecosystems and reverses climate change - regardless of whether that change is naturally occurring or man-influenced. It is, in fact, one giant filter for much of the damage man has done to the land, the water, the air, local ecosystems, wildlife, migratory patterns, ethical paradigms, and much, much more.
At Ridgemade, we are using Regenerative techniques not only to filter our water but to filter our lives and to clean up our act. We’re doing our part at behaving appropriately and humbly as co-members of the larger community of the globe.
