A farmer’s bread and butter
Or, In PRAISE of Poop.
Call me crazy, but in my second half century of life I find I need to transform the way I look at a lot of things. A good case in point would be waste.
One of Jim’s favorite things to do on a farm tour is to grab up a handful of soil to show a visitor. Rare is the visitor who feels enough affinity with the soil to want to hold or smell it as Jim does. Yet the soil is a farmer’s bread and butter. It’s all of our bread and butter, really, and as we enter 2021, imagine what a difference it could make around the world if we all cultivated a rich connection with the soil around us.
Hay in rabbit pen absorbs urine and droppings 
Break down of hay and manure creates compost we will add to beds for increased fertility 
Late fall and early winter dry spells allow for applying compost and mulch
Yesterday I was struck by the approach of an inquisitive young visitor to the farm. He was interested in Rebecca our “pet pig,” and commented on her cleanliness in comparison to the “poopy” pigs in their pens.
Now I imagine that Rebecca seemed cleaner because she was in a pen with only one other pig, and because as she is only one small pig, we have been allowing her to “free range” in the pasture, which is a “cleaner” proposition than hanging out in a pigpen. But all of our animals “poop,” and when they do they are returning nutrients to the ground which, as they decompose and join with the organic material of decomposing grasses, leaves and branches, add structure and tilth to the soil which encourages the growth of microbes and fungi, all of which interact to produce the rich soils of a farm or forest.
I used to shy away from dirt and manure. How many of us grew up hearing “chicken poop” spoken with a distasteful tone? I certainly did, but I’m learning to see it as a highly valued resource for my garden. And I’ve learned to seek out the rich dark compost that the chickens create in highly trafficked areas where they scratch their manure into the soil. When we mix that compost with our garden soils, the look and smell and texture of our soil becomes a treasure of nutrients.
Last year one of our CSA members shared with us her family’s enjoyment of the cabbage they were receiving in their weekly shares. She said that it was so delightfully full of flavor that her teenage daughters were describing it like cake. How remarkable to grow cabbage cake from the fertile soil that is our bread and butter.