Community Soil Science Cooperative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7d8XRBU0ZM

Little Mushroom by Pierce Freelon & Nnenna Freelon "Little Mushroom" shows gratitude to the fungi out there who help make the cycle of life on this planet possible by breaking down dead things and transformin...

Get up. Get out. Get to market! It’s a beautiful day in Get to one of coalition farmers markets- , Turner Community Market, or meet at ! Tomatoes, peppers, herbs, winter squash, greens, garlic, flowers, and so much more!

Neighbors Respond Together to Climate Crisis
Neighbors live near each other. We can have a unique role in responding to climate change. We can find ourselves depending on each other more than we have imagined. Let’s explore how this might look. We all bring different talents to the table. Blocks and neighborhoods might become central to our enjoyment and our needs. Let's join together at the Urban Wilderness on the corner of 57th and Charlotte from 1:00 to 3:00 PM on September 30. Questions? Let me know if you are coming. Thanks. Marty 816-400-2277

Thursday, May 18 at Joel and Kathy Adams farm at 18103 E Courtney Atherton Rd Independence MO 64058, at 10:30 AM. It will be a standard round reactor.
816-400-2277
Joel and Kathy's farm is worth a visit independent of the bioreactor build. They are working to be regenerative and carrying out experiments to understand better what's needed.

"Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.
But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said."
We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.

Soil Critters--Life in the Great Underneath 2001
Steve Diver's words with permission.
My friend Stuart Hill, professor emeritus at University of Western Sydney and founder of the Ecological Agriculture Project at McGill University in Canada, reminds us that "soil biology" is not just bacteria and fungi -- microarthropods are an important link in soil foodweb processes; they taxi microflora around, they function as microfaunal grazers especially feeding on fungi, they improve soil aggregation and porosity. Microarthropods shred and mix plant litter, making it more accessible to chemical decomposition by bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi. Decaying bodies of microflora is food for microfauna. All of these interactions contribute to nutrient cycling — how plants grow in natural ecosystems and likewise how farmers can “manage” for soil habitat.
This prompted me go out and look for a rare video, and here it is.
Patricia Richardson -- also known as the Dung Beetle Lady -- produced this homemade video during her tenure as ecologist at University of Texas; "Soil Critters--Life in the Great Underneath 2001". This was presented at the Texas Organic Farmer and Gardeners (TOFGA) conference and other sustainable farming conferences during the "soil foodweb explosion" which rattled agriculture in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Life in the soil is a vast milleu of soil organisms who provide ecosystem services. You don't need to know all of their names but it helps to remember that a central role of natural farming and gardening is to provide a "habitat" that encourages a rich diversity of these soil micro- and macro-organisms: Minimize Soil Disturbance, Keep the Soil Covered with Organic Mulch aka Crop Residues, Grow Cover Crops with Living Roots and 3-Dimensional Symbiosis in the *Rhizosphere*.
Soil Critters--Life in the Great Underneath 2001

Soil Critters - Life in the Great Underneath Dr. Patricia Q. Richardson gives us a fascinating look into the critters living in healthy soil -- Soil which can be improved and maintained through the prac...