It may seem like an exaggeration, but I can not even describe the joy I felt pulling this carrot out of the garden this week. Yes, the bright orange and vibrant green of the carrot felt like holding spring in my hand, but that was not the reason I was so delighted. This carrot shows how far we have come in building Ma’alot Farms, it is the image of progress and the payoff of hard work. Here is that story.
When we started out building the dream of this farm on this piece of land, the soil was almost entirely hard clay. A mud puddle in the winter and a hard cracked landscape in the summer, it was difficult to dig down even a few inches. Some native grasses, thistle, and lots of poison oak managed to grow through the clay, but that was about it. This is what the area that is now our vegetable garden looked like the summer of 2020.
Seeds sown in this soil would not have grown, particularly not root vegetables like carrots that need a soft bed to burrow in. We knew that the only way we could succeed in growing anything here was to improve the soil by adding lots of organic material. It has been a lot of work, but gradually the soil is coming back to life. Everywhere we look plants of all varieties are growing an thriving. Errant seeds dropped on the soil all over the property now have chance to sprout and grow. This carrot represents that progress. Almost a foot long and perfectly straight, this carrot did not have to struggle to grow through what is now soft rich soil.
I keep a jar on my desk with a brick of our original clay soil to remind me of where we started, and I can’t wait to see what we will be able to grow as the soil continues to improve in the years to come.