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Regenerative Farm & Forest Business
VERMONT BIOCHAR – GREEN FIRE FARM
The “green fire” in our farm name (Green Fire Farm) refers to the life force within the soil that with care will reflect in vibrant health for plants, animals and us. We “cultivate” this fire with restorative farming &
forestry practices joining with others who are also feeding the Earth's green fire. Our farm & business is family run. We are both committed to providing the conditions for life to thrive. Hart Brent accomplishes this through her work as a Traditional Naturopath. Michael Low as
a regenerative farmer & builder.
We began Vermont Biochar in 2009 to address our own needs for fertility on our rundown Vermont hill farm with no topsoil and an abundance of dead and dying trees. Since we began making and using biochar & other carbon farming techniques we have improved our farms ability to produce food and sustain livestock more than twofold.
With our improved soils we began making hay for our goat dairy & draft animals. One time, when we were troubleshooting our hay loader with an old time neighbor, he looked around and commented “your problem is that your hay is too thick.” He scratched his head wondering how we had
achieved this without plowing and reseeding. It was through biological and carbon farming. We wrote more in an old Small Farmers Journal article
about this farm transformation.
Through our production of biochar and on farm trialing with biochar we have seen firsthand the regenerating potential of this ancient technology. From improved hay and grasslands, richer more stable gardens to better managed forest land. Read more
about our experience of transforming forest into farmland in the story of building a new meadow.
These are the some of the stories of a regenerative business – where the production and practices of the business improve the foundations of the resource base we all depend on.
Biochar is the Foundation for Living Soil
Biochar is the foundation for a living soil
Biochar is 'Char'coal produced from wood or plant 'Bio'mass. Biochar’s carbon matrix holds air, water and nutrients near the roots of the plant creating the conditions for a living soil. We inoculate our biochar with beneficial microbes to create the full spectrum of a living soil.
TERRA PRETA & BIOCHAR IN HISTORY
Thousands of years ago, Amazonian peoples used biochar to transform thin soils into terra preta, the deep, dark, highly fertile living earth. Biochar will do the same for you.
Biochar represents resource conversion at its best.
Vital life energy that could be converted and stored In biochar.
Slash and burn: a one-time resource extraction model. Subsequent yields will be lower quality and quantity.
Slash and char: a successful conversion of energy and resources. Subsequent yields will be equal or higher quality.
The results? Stable resource base and stable culture or industries.
The terra preta soils are living soils, up to six feet deep of lush, black humus, that are entirely man-made from a very poor soil base, that have remained fertile for 2,000 years. We believe the most effective technique for re-creating terra preta today is the application of inoculated biochar, to restore rich living humus. With our Biochar you are enhancing the foundation of your soil, creating a lasting rich fertility. With this living soil base you then see more value from any minerals, manure, or compost added to the soil. To get the most value from our premium biochar – focus this black gold where you will get the highest value: Using Biochar
Sky Meadow
Our experience turning forests into lush farmland through BioChar
Biochar represents resource conversion at its best. All of the energy in a forest can be lost into the atmosphere through a destructive fire. Or it can be transformed into a stable form of carbon that will last as a fertile soil base for thousands of years.
Our farm’s forest is a mixed second growth comprised of hardwoods and softwoods. There is some timber, firewood and habitat for wildlife. Mostly it is comprised of dead and dying softwoods, the results of the conditions it was left to grow in.
When we had finished harvesting the wood and began clearing stumps our equipment operator commented that he normally piles the topsoil aside and spreads it on at the end. On this site there was no topsoil to work with. Clear cutting followed by generations of overgrazing had depleted the already thin hill soil base.
We were able to work with these adverse conditions by transforming the forest energy bound up in the dead and dying trees into biochar. Then we focused on preparing the site conditions to nourish life and allow it to take hold.
What happened was amazing to us even after a decade of biochar experience. The synergy of providing the essentials was enough for the meadow to take hold – and explode with growth. A dying forest with no soil was transformed into a lush and thriving meadow, topping the charts for hay yields in our region.
Since building our meadow we have added nothing other than the carbon cycle of managed grazing – no fertilizers, biochar or compost. In the fall of 2018 we needed to subcontract someone to brush hog the Sky Meadow. His report to us after says it all - “I needed to switch to a lower gear to slow my mowing speed & I had to go over it twice to handle all the grass!” And this from a dying forest with no soils.
