Today’s episode is all about cycling nutrients on your homestead to build rich, healthy, fertile soils that can’t help but be productive. Soil fertility IS the number one asset a sovereign homestead can have. Indeed it’s just about impossible to sovereign without it! Join me today for a high level overview of the different methods of cycling nutrients and generating your own fertility inputs to boost the productivity of your landscape and keep money in your pocket! We’ll also look at how these different systems can play well together to capture and cycle nearly ALL of the “waste”streams generated by a typical American household into valuable amendments that can help you increase your independence from the grocery store. This episode is all about the permaculture principle of WASTE = FOOD! We will cover:
- Vermicomposting – Perhaps the easiest and highest value nutrient cycling system with tremendous benefits in nearly all contexts.
- Thermophilic composting – good ‘ol fashioned turn ‘n burn compost piles for processing large amounts of bulk materials into quality soil amendment.
- Johnson-Su Bioreactor composting system – produce incredibly high fungal-content compost that is great for perennial cropping systems.
- Compost tea brewing – brewing aerobic teas to get the most bang for your buck from your beneficial biological inocolums. This is a HUGE leverage point!
- Bokashi – a type of anaerobic “pickling” of food wastes – awesome because this can handle everything that worms don’t like!
- Livestock – Chickens, pigs and black soldier fly larvae – all great way to get more value out of “waste” and turn it into food for you or something that grows food for you.
- Charcoal & Biochar – make a soil amendment that will literally last for thousands of years – the ultimate legacy investment to pass on to your kin.
- Korean Natural Farming Indigenous Effective Micro-organisms – a simple, effective and damn near free way to make a site-specific biological inoculum for your growing systems that literally comes from where you live! And the best part is – you only have to do it once!
- Greywater – sink water, laundry water, bathing water – all nutrient rich water that should go into your landscape to grow something!
- Blackwater – yes, I’m talking about toilet water here. Conventional septic systems inject this pathogen-laden water into the ground (often times into the same water supply that wells for potable water are tapping) when it could be utilized by biological systems at the surface to grow tons of food – with no stink of course!
- Compost Toilets – dry composting toilets are an excellent way to capture and utilize solid human wastes and turn them into a valuable soil amendment – for free!
- Biodegradable packaging (cardboard)- don’t just recycle it, or throw it out – CYCLE IT and use it to enrich your homestead soil!
Show Resources
- Vermicomposting
- Thermophilic Composting
- Johnson-Su BioReactor Composting System
- Compost Tea Brewing
- Bokashi Composting
- Livestock
- Charcoal & Biochar
- Korean Natural Farming
- KNF Hawaii site
- Fermented Farm – clear breakdown of the IMO creation process
- Greywater
- Water Treatment Systems
Getting started designing your homestead?
START HERE: Enroll in the Minimum Holistic Goal Creation Mini-Course today for free. This is the ONE THING that will make everything else easier or unnecessary on your homesteading journey! 100% Free
Upon completing this course you will have a crystal clear idea of who and what resources you have to work with, your desired Quality of Life that your homestead has to provide for, and what you will need to produce and the conditions required to sustain that production to meet your Quality of Life needs.
Music by Alex Grohl
