Notes from the Field / March 2024
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writings & media
Articles, photography, video, and writings sourced from our work in and beyond the field. Our “from the field” series features projects, daily life, and reflections inspired by our work at home on our two farm sites in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Our “beyond the field” series features, projects, collaborations, and partnerships we are engaged in with our broader community.
Popular subjects include permaculture, forest gardening, regenerative agriculture, plant medicine, ecological restoration, earth based spirituality, and other diverse musings on agroecology topics.
Gathering Seeds
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Now that the trees have assumed their sparse posture for the season, the ground is thick with a litter of leaves around which all manner of intricately shaped seeds are moving into the earth by way of a slow-motion burrowing. These seeds, the cores of nuts and fruits and the tiny and robust sheddings of wildflowers, have burrowed into my pockets as well. They are tucked in paper packets in the cupboard, tumbled in glass jars in the fridge, and awaiting my attention, spread out here and there on the kitchen counter…
Read MoreWater Management on Regenerative Farms - NRCS Staff Educational Event
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In our consulting work with farmers and land stewards beyond our fields and with our partner organization, Restoration Agriculture Development, we understand that water informs the basis of every ecosystem. The hydrological dynamics of every landscape are unique, but patterns can be lifted from the underlying topography and vegetation to elucidate and work with an appropriate water course.
Read MoreDecade in Reflection Part Four: Beyond the Field
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In honor of our ten year anniversary, we’re taking a trip down memory lane in a new multi part series. Through archival photos and retrospective writings, we’ll revisit forest gardening, water management, plant medicine, and other pursuits we’ve explored over the last ten years at Fields Without Fences with the kind of nuance and cosmic humor that only hindsight provides.
Read MoreDecade in Reflection Part Three: Plant Medicine for People & Planet
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In honor of our ten year anniversary, we’re taking a trip down memory lane in a new multi part series. Through archival photos and retrospective writings, we’ll revisit forest gardening, water management, plant medicine, and other pursuits we’ve explored over the last ten years at Fields Without Fences with the kind of nuance and cosmic humor that only hindsight provides.
Read MoreDecade in Reflection Part Two: The Way of Water
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In honor of our ten year anniversary, we’re taking a trip down memory lane in a new multi part series. Through archival photos and retrospective writings, we’ll revisit forest gardening, water management, plant medicine, and other pursuits we’ve explored over the last ten years at Fields Without Fences with the kind of nuance and cosmic humor that only hindsight provides.
Read MoreDecade in Reflection Part One: Forest Garden Farm
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In honor of our ten year anniversary, we’re taking a trip down memory lane in a new multi part series. Through archival photos and retrospective writings, we’ll revisit forest gardening, water management, plant medicine, and other pursuits we’ve explored over the last ten years at Fields Without Fences with the kind of nuance and cosmic humor that only hindsight provides.
Read MoreFrom the Field: Spring in the forest garden
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Photos and reflections of the farm in spring; * Our “From the Field” Series features projects, production, and reflections derived from our work at home on our two farm sites in near Frenchtown, New Jersey.* Earth day arrives just as I’m beginning to feel love drunk on a new spring. A few days ago, standing under an old pear tree, alive and buzzing, radiant in sun gold full bloom, I abandoned my farm chores…
Read MoreBeyond the Field: Cooks Venture Project
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One of the larger projects we've been working on beyond our fields this spring is taking shape across 17 partner farms in the midwest. Cooks Venture, a meat wholesaler based in Arkansas approached our sister organization, Restoration Agriculture Development (RAD), to design and implement an agroforestry iniative across existing farms in their network to enhance biological diversity, poultry health and wellbeing, and environmental integrity.
Read MoreArticle: Reading the Landscape in Snow
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Snow slows the mutable activity of water into a highly observable form. Its imprint on the landscape offers us a window into observing otherwise invisible water, wind, solar, and migration patterns that wield their influence across the earth and sculpt the natural world. Learning the art of landscape reading is a foundational step in developing a deeper relationship with the world around us, and understanding the natural forces that shape and shift its evolving form.
Right now, the streams and creeks are coming alive with rushing water flowing off of farm fields and backyards. It feels like the circulatory system of the earth is coming alive with the first sounds of spring! For this brief moment, between the freeze and the thaw, there are secrets to be gleaned and valuable insights to be revealed.
Read on to learn about the ways in which we can develop a deeper understanding of our landscape and context by reading the patterns of snow…
Read MoreBeyond the Field: Water Farming / Managing Agricultural Lands for Clean & Safe Water recently published by Pasa
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“Can agriculture transition from a major source of water pollution to a major force for improving water quality and, in turn, for protecting human and environmental health?”
That question was the subject of a white paper titled, Water Farming: Managing Agricultural Lands for Clean & Safe Water, recently published by Pasa Sustainable Agriculture late last year. The downloadable booklet features key approaches and perspectives on specific farming practices to protect and enrich watersheds.
Read MoreWATCH: Regeneration Conversations Episode 03 Featuring Mark Shepard of RAD & Johann Rinkens of Fields Without Fences
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“What is Regenerative? The answers continue to inspire us. In Episode 3 we get the privilege of hearing from Mark Shepard and Johann Rinkens.
Mark Shepard is a leader in the regenerative agriculture movement. Author of the award-winning book, Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers, Mark has had boots on the ground in the real world of restoring our planets food systems with his grounded approach to food production for decades. Johann Rinkens is the co-founder of Fields Without Fences, a forest garden farm and permaculture design service, and teaches extensively on the subjects of permaculture design and agroecology. Both Mark and Johann are playing critical roles in helping farmers understand how they can plan for succession as they plant their forest-based farms.”
Read MoreFrom the Field: Forest Garden "Greenhouse" Season Extension
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This is a late season snap shot of our unheated high tunnel, which is planted with perennial species that benefit from the heat gain and wind protection that the house provides in our zone 6. Figs, trifoliate orange, and passionflower grow into the vertical space, while a diverse understory of primarily mediterranean herbs clump and crawl across the understory (rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme, lavender, hyssop, lemon verbena). There is also a population of self seeding annuals (kale, mustard, lettuce, leeks, cilantro) that grow and flourish from late fall to early spring, when the warm season perennials are in dormancy.
Read MoreFrom the Field: The multitudes that surround us
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This season is shaping up to be a season of revision and revelation both on the farm, and in the wider world that surrounds us. There have been no markets here this year, no events, no classes, and barely a visitor on the farm to speak of. And in the silence and stillness, an opportunity for deeper listening has risen into focus. In the absence of rote imposition, the natural world rings out loud with its secrets - not really secrets at all, just intelligence that can go unheard in the heavy to-do of the day to day…
Read MoreBeyond the Field: Ironbound Hard Cider Project
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A couple of seasons ago, we were approached by Ironbound Hard Cider to help develop their new cider orchards within a regenerative design context. This summer we broke ground on installing a swale system on their sloped field to help mitigate erosion and run-off, while retaining water in the landscape and increasing soil hydration for tree roots. Their new orchard layout will follow the contours of the landscape creating a continuity between agricultural production, and the underlying geographic formations of natural landforms.
Read MorePermaculture Principles: Appropriate tools & technology
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Appropriate tools & technology: The plant nursery on our ten acre forest garden farm is active, robust, and as low tech as they come. Early in the season I’ll start propagating in a small unheated hoop house, but for the bulk of the year all the action happens in sprawling, shady area under an old maple tree with a few wooden pallets and raised bed boxes.
Read MoreWILD FARMING SERIES: "Up there, that's for the birds..."
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Friday flashback to a few weeks ago when fruit harvesting at the farm was in full swing! Each season, in what feels like a matter of moments (though it could be a couple weeks), elderberry, beach plum, seaberry, blackberry, and aronia all come into ripeness at once. At that point a flurry of activity commences as us and the birds race to liberate the ripe from fruit from its branches!
Read MoreShifting Seasons
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There is a shift in the air today, and I can feel the sun is beginning to set on another summer... Soon the landscape will change color and shape again.
Dynamics systems require dynamic response. Participating in a long term relationship with the natural world, means one must evolve in tandem.
Read MoreLISTEN: Fields Without Fences' Lindsay Napolitano Interview on the Nurture Your Nature Podcast
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New interview with Dina Costa of Nurture Your Nature Podcast! Lots of terrain covered in this one - and the waters wade deep! Dina is a charming and thoughtful host, and I highly recommend checking out this relatively new offering of hers… Nurture Your Nature Podcast available on iTunes
Read MoreREADING THE LANDSCAPE SERIES: Snow Cover
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From a permaculture perspective, late season snow presents a wonderful opportunity to read patterns in the landscape. By observing snow melt, we can easily identify where water naturally moves across the landscape, and this gives us insight into ways we might harness water flow, interrupt or redirect it, or choose select species that thrive in seasonal inundation…
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