Today, I made over a kilogram of char. This will be enough to enhance more than a cubic meter of soil. The most recent amazing thing I have found about biochar is that adding it to our highly expansive clay soils has allowed us to grow carrots successfully for the first time. Since moving here, nearly twenty years ago, I have planted them several times, but each and every time, they failed. I guarantee that this year we will be doing it again. The char I made today will be ready to use in about six weeks. To keep it from freezing, I will be processing it in the basement, at least for another moon or so. When I began making biochar, it was not something I expected to get so excited about, but as I researched more and learned about the host of benefits it provides, I became more and more excited.
I teach classes and consult regarding making and using char and transforming it into biochar to get the most out of the effort required to make it well. I have to make my char in small batches, but that assures that it is completely charred and ready to transform into healthy soil. The difference between carbon that has been charred and carbon that has not is that 90% of the carbon added to soil as compost leaves the soil within four years. Charred carbon lasts for geologic time. In working to transform the landscape, ECO-Tours of Wisconsin has used every tool at our disposal and through the years we have taken hundreds of people to areas that needed to have trees planted. We have planted many thousands of native trees and even more tree seeds and native edible and medicinal plants as well. The reason ECO-Tours was created is to help heal the rift between humankind and nature.
Making a difference is not something we try to do on a special day each year, but every day that we have available. For instance, I could beat myself up over the fact that it would take years to build enough soil to rehabilitate the land around my home, but instead, I try to focus on the fact that everywhere I have used it, my production has at least doubled. In the case of my lettuce beds, the production more than tripled when char was added. I have been teaching people classes in person for over seven years and using my blog, The Otherfish Wrap, also here at Blogger I am taking a sabbatical. After writing seven posts a month for over six years, I decided to take a year off. However, before I stopped posting, I wrote directions for making and using biochar in my last six posts. Already, hundreds more people have learned about making and using this important ancient miracle!
I teach classes and consult regarding making and using char and transforming it into biochar to get the most out of the effort required to make it well. I have to make my char in small batches, but that assures that it is completely charred and ready to transform into healthy soil. The difference between carbon that has been charred and carbon that has not is that 90% of the carbon added to soil as compost leaves the soil within four years. Charred carbon lasts for geologic time. In working to transform the landscape, ECO-Tours of Wisconsin has used every tool at our disposal and through the years we have taken hundreds of people to areas that needed to have trees planted. We have planted many thousands of native trees and even more tree seeds and native edible and medicinal plants as well. The reason ECO-Tours was created is to help heal the rift between humankind and nature.
Making a difference is not something we try to do on a special day each year, but every day that we have available. For instance, I could beat myself up over the fact that it would take years to build enough soil to rehabilitate the land around my home, but instead, I try to focus on the fact that everywhere I have used it, my production has at least doubled. In the case of my lettuce beds, the production more than tripled when char was added. I have been teaching people classes in person for over seven years and using my blog, The Otherfish Wrap, also here at Blogger I am taking a sabbatical. After writing seven posts a month for over six years, I decided to take a year off. However, before I stopped posting, I wrote directions for making and using biochar in my last six posts. Already, hundreds more people have learned about making and using this important ancient miracle!
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| This was at the MREA Midwest Renewable Energy Asociation's annual energy fair at Custer, Wisconsin. |