There's a lot to be learned.  Growing fruit Holistically is an uphill journey, as we seek to understand the environment, the pressures from pest and disease, the climate, and the effects of the topography and neighboring woods and crops.  

While pruning blueberry bushes with a friend this week, he was sharing about the process of Creation, and how God speaks and things happen, so why the process?  The world, the universe, and Life itself are INTRICATE.  Biochemistry teaches us of the amazing intricacy of genetic codes, of the vast volumes of information encoded on each strand of DNA, so vast that it has taken decades and innumerable researchers to transcribe the code, and resulted in so much information that it takes a Mega Computer to store the data.  

So why should I be thinking that raising healthy crops should be easy?  For my MS research, I worked on a disease complex in Strawberry, call Black Root Rot.  From this work, we came away with the deepened understanding of the necessity of a rich soil ecosystem, a robust community of microorganisms, arthropods, protozoa, earthworms, fungi, springtails, things seen & unseen.

During undergrad, I had a couple of soil classes, which were great introductions to soils & soil water. But the organic layer was typically understated, and looked at as a percentage, a very low but meaningful number (in Georgia, soils are typically 2-5 % organic/humic matter, which turns over or burns up so very quickly because of the heat & humidity). The humus was there.  And it was supposed to be nurtured, but as to why, this was not really addressed.

In my first Soil Ecology class, the Professor passed out a brochure put out by the NRCS, Soil Biology Primer.  And from there on, I started to see things differently, understanding that minerals themselves, whether derived from humus or soil particles, do not make a healthy system.  So here you go:

Here, at Bramberi Farm, we are taking steps to feed the soil, not with mineral fertilizers or special tillage practices, but with Life!  After all, God did form Mankind from the Soil, infusing Adam with His Life-giving Spirit.  Hence, shouldn't we, of all creatures, seek to steward the soil as a priority, an obligation to nurture that which nurtured us?

Here comes the complex problem: How to help steward a truly Healthy Soil (the foundation) which then leads to truly Healthy Plants, then Healthy Animals, and Healthy People?!?

Having grown up in the Great White North, I find myself, at this time of year especially, longing for the guilt-free excuse of staying indoors, sipping pipping-hot cocoa, and being enchanted by the starkness of a snowy landscape.  But, here, even in the Foothills of North Georgia, the growing season hasn't really ended, just ask Miss Blackberry, who even now, is protesting the fact the calendar, even the Sun declination itself, is proclaiming "It's Winter!" Miss Blackberry doesn't mind these voices, her ear is tuned to the reverberating pulses of heat through the crystal blue sky to the dark soil.  She hears the Thermometer chime out, "It's 50 degrees and all is well!"  

Tomorrow night's temperatures will cause some quaking, but will she allow it to affect her?  Miss Blackberry went through the deep chill in November (we had a low reading of 14F) without much of a set-back.  I'm praying she'll be singing a goodnight lullaby this week, so that we can give her a winter cutback without weakening the lot.

The other Berry Ladies don't quite agree with Miss Blackberry.  Madame Blueberry settled into winter's rest, and allowed a gentle pruning, yielding up the excess canes and twigs yesterday, a gorgeous, shirt-sleeve of a day.  Many-a swelling bud was pruned off, in hopes to leave the survivors all the more juice and energy to grow big and SWEET!

The Ladies Raspberry are reluctantly complying to Winter's Rest.  The Summer-bearers were pruned after they fruited, and are ready for Spring to awaken them.  The Fall-bears are slower to rest, but will soon have to submit to a Winter pruning, removing all of the canes, so that they can put their energy into NEW canes, yielding sugary berries in the cool of Autumn.