Pioneers of No-Till Farming in Sebastopol

To start a farm you need three things: dirt, sun, and water. In recent years, researchers have taken a closer look at the dirt piece of the farming equation, studying how soil quality impacts the nutritional value of crops and, more broadly, the long-term viability of farms. Healthy, vibrant soil is biologically rich on a macro and micro level—in other words, full of life. Compared to depleted soil, soil rich in organic matter can absorb more water, store more carbon, and produce better, more nutrient-dense food. Good dirt is the lifeblood of a farm.

For “no-till” farmers Elizabeth & Paul Kaiser of Singing Frogs Farm, retiring the plow was an essential first step for preserving soil health, though they didn’t realize it at the time. When the couple started on their no-till journey, there wasn’t even a term to describe this unique method of farming that plants crop after crop in unturned soil. Over the years they refined their techniques through trial and error, and as they did so, the no-till farming movement evolved and became established right along with them. In the process, they’ve experimented their way into the enviable position of managing a profitable, highly productive, fully organic, pesticide-free farming operation.

The couple met as Peace Corps Volunteers in The Gambia, West Africa. After returning to the U.S., Elizabeth earned her Masters in Public Health and Paul his degrees in Natural Resources Management and International Development. They were inspired by John Jeavons and Eliot Coleman, intensive farming experts who specialized in growing large volumes of organic food on small plots of land. In 2007, they found eight acres in Sonoma County where they could start their regenerative farm while remaining close to family. The property would eventually employ the equivalent of seven full-time, year-round workers and produce more than six times the state average for crop output per acre.

In their second year of farming, while plowing under his cover crop, Paul was barely able to stop the tractor just inches in front of a mama Killdeer—a plover—dancing in front of her camouflaged ground nest, trying to pull his attention away from her eggs. The Killdeer was shaking from the shock of staring down a tractor to save her eggs. Paul plowed around her nest for the rest of the season. This highlighted the dichotomy the Kaisers saw between trying to promote life and sometimes inadvertently killing it, and the memory of this experience was one of their first steps away from tillage.

Tillage refers to the practice of turning over the soil to loosen it, break up and bury weeds away from the sun, and mix in fertilizer. Tillage also dries out the earth, exposes the beneficial insects within to predators, and creates a fine, silky soil with little biological complexity. This practice also puts a hard stop to the development of micro- and macro-biological life in the soil, rendering it dependent on added inputs. As Paul explained in a 2017 keynote speech he and Elizabeth gave at the Northeast Organic Farming Association:

“Tillage breaks up your large aggregates in the soil, reducing the soil size so you have a larger surface area to volume ratio—which means more volatilization of nutrients. A lot of your nitrogen and carbon gets volatilized out of the soil, [and] combines with the oxygen from the tillage in the air to form nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, two of the most potent greenhouse gasses. And yet, as a farmer, the two things you need most in your soil are carbon for soil structure and nitrogen for plant growth. So the very act of tillage is taking the two things you need most in your soil, removing them, and creating greenhouse gas emissions.”

At first, the motivation for pursuing a no-till approach was threefold: social—they had great employees and wanted to keep them, so they needed the farm to remain productive throughout the year; economic—property taxes were looming, and winter season crops would help pay for them; and ecological—they knew that leaving the soil undisturbed was better for the overall ecology of the farm (as with the Killdeer). At first, they continued to aerate the soil by “broad forking,” using a tool devised from a horizontal bar with long vertical tines attached to it. The broad fork can be sunk into the soil and gently pulled to break up compacted beds and allow more air to circulate beneath the surface. It’s a helpful tool for farmers transitioning away from tillage.

By leaving the soil unturned, the micro- and macro-biology—also referred to as organic matter—can build up naturally. Photosynthesizing plants turn sunshine into sugars, complex carbohydrates, and other micronutrients. They use some, but also exude about 40% of what they generate into the soil through their roots. Farms in the U.S. average less than 2% organic matter in soils that contained 6-10% before humans intervened. By planting a diversity of crops and leaving the soil undisturbed, Singing Frogs Farm built up the organic matter in their soil to over 11% in less than five years.

Except for a few crops like carrots, radishes, and beans, most plants are started in the nursery. That way, only the best and strongest are moved into the beds. By transplanting mature, healthy seedlings into soil rich with organic matter, they consequently need less water, are more disease and pest resistant, and possess larger leaves which shade the ground, benefitting the soil biology and outcompeting the weeds. On the rare occasion when rows are dormant, they are covered with a breathable black fabric to expedite the decomposition of roots and trimmings left behind by former crops, building up that crucial organic matter. This approach means the team spends virtually no time at all on weeding—a task that is the bane of organic farms everywhere—all without using pesticides, organic or otherwise.

Another essential component of the no-till methodology is biodiversity. Planting a diverse mix of species keeps the pests guessing, and welcoming animals onto the property, both wild and domestic, provides natural pest control. In addition, multi-cropping in the same beds adds health and resilience to both the crops and soil while reducing watering, wind and sun stress, and weed management. Hedgerows, which Elizabeth calls “biological infrastructure,” protect the plant rows from wind and frost, stabilize field temperatures, and create healthier microclimates for crop growth. Hedgerows also host all manner of critters, from owls and snakes who hunt rodents to bees and other pollinators. She understands how beginning farmers, faced with their endless to-do list, can be tempted to postpone hedgerow planting. But the bushes and trees take time to mature, particularly in a temperate zone, and since the hedgerows play an essential role in the land’s biodiversity, crop health, and farm productivity, she recommends planting them as early as possible.

About 70-80% of the time, a thin layer of compost is added to a bed after its plants are harvested. After all, the mature seedlings they will move into that bed are the plant equivalent of growing teenagers, and all teens are renowned for their endless appetites. But the farm uses less compost than you might think. The Kaisers subscribe to the notion that “a farmer’s footstep is the best fertilizer.” In other words, maintaining frequent, direct contact with the land and its crops will allow a farmer to provide hands-on care, as well as the opportunity to spot and address issues before they get out of hand. Consequently, they advise new farmers to start small, to “do less really well,” as Elizabeth puts it. When they have a patch of land that is struggling, they plant short-term crops in it to ensure it is visited often and gets extra attention.

And the rows get a lot of attention. With the exception of those that can’t be used for food crops due to rainy season flooding, the beds grow 3-8 sequential crops—all generating income—over their 12 month cycle. If the transplants need generous space but take a while to grow—like leeks or cauliflower—a short term crop is planted in the open area so the row can continue to produce revenue while the slower plants mature. By the time the quick crop, like lettuce, is harvested, the cauliflowers are large enough to shade the space where they grew and prevent weeds.

At first, all of the food grown on the farm was sold through the Singing Frogs Farm CSA. These days, the CSA has a substantial waiting list and distributes 40% of the farm’s output, while 50% is sold at farmers markets, and 10% to local restaurants. Almost all of what they grow remains within a 10-15 mile radius of the farm.

When asked what she enjoys about living and working at Singing Frogs Farm, Elizabeth mentioned the pleasure of working outdoors, the satisfaction of watching things grow, and the joy of working with “tremendous people.” She motioned across the field to a CalPoly graduate who studied sustainable agriculture and is there to gain experience before starting his own farm. Working a different row is a woman who had her own farm on the East Coast before relocating to the area for her husband’s new job. She showed up one day asking for a part-time position so she could get her hands back in the dirt.

The team is hard-working, highly valued, and necessary for the exceptionally productive farm to continue operating. As a result they are paid well, and burnout is avoided since no one on the property works more than 40 hours per week. This is possible since almost all working hours are spent in production (planting and harvesting) rather than maintenance (tilling and weeding). The sum of all these parts is a farm that generates $145,000 in revenue per acre per year. The state average for organic, tilled farms is $14,000 per acre.

With results like this, one might think it makes sense to scale up. While that would be possible, Elizabeth is quick to point out that 70% of the planet’s food is grown by small producers. She and Paul would rather see 100 three-acre farms in and near population centers rather than one 300-acre farm located remotely.

The success at Singing Frogs Farm has generated a lot of interest from other farmers, researchers, and agriculture specialists. Elizabeth and Paul are generous with their knowledge, shared through farm tours, speaking gigs, and workshops. They conduct studies all the time, from studying the quality of water runoff to measuring organic matter at various soil depths. In 2019, they agreed to participate in a study on how soil health impacts the nutritional value of crops. Cabbages from the same seed pack were grown at both Singing Frogs Farm and a nearby, traditionally tilled organic farm, then analyzed. The Singing Frogs Farm cabbage contained more vitamins, calcium, carotenoids, and phytosterols than its counterpart. In fact, when compared with a previous USDA study of organic vegetables, the nutrient density of vegetables from Singing Frogs Farm was 100% to 400% greater. The book containing the study, What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health, is by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé, available in June 2022, and is another piece in the picture of how vital soil health is to the quality of our food.

Restoring organic matter to the soil is not just good for us, but necessary to keep our world livable. An EU/UN(1) study found that agriculture has the greatest capacity to reduce carbon emissions at the cheapest cost compared to other sectors: 89% of that capacity is better soil management—putting all that carbon back in the soil where it belongs. “There are so many solutions to climate change,” Elizabeth shared. “I just love our answer.” Looking over the fields of crops, green and bushy as they turn sunshine into sustenance, it’s easy to agree.

Singing Frogs Farm
1301 Ferguson Road, Sebastopol, CA | SingingFrogsFarm.com

1Hoglund-Isaksson et al. EU Low Carbon Roadmap 2050, Energy Strategy Reviews, vol 1 #2 2012