Gavin, Thaddeus’ cousin and right hand man, and has been working on some long term soil-testing projects that will allow us to see how our actions affect the health and fertility of the soil over time and how we may best feed the land so that it will be able to feed our children’s children. This year, at least one of the fields where we have been growing chard will be planted with nitrogen fixing cover crops that will not yield sellable produce but that will rejuvenate the soil. These legumes include fava beans, peas and vetch and have root nodules that are colonized by anaerobic bacteria called Rhizobium. These rhizobium convert sources of nitrogen into a form that is usable by plants with an enzyme called nitrogenase. The presence of oxygen in a plants roots would greatly reduce the activity of the oxygen sensitive nitrogenase produced by these bacteria, but legumes are special. When the roots of most legumes are colonized by these bacteria, it actually causes the plant to produce an oxygen binding protein called Leghemoglobin (a similar protein to the hemoglobin that carries oxygen in our blood). It is thanks to this Leghemoglobin that the bacterial enzyme is able to fix nitrogen. Hurray for symbiosis! When the colonized plant dies (in this case when we till it under) the fixed nitrogen is released into the soil and is usable by the nitrogen consuming food crops that we grow.
This week Capay Organic is donating a great deal of mandarins to the Sacramento Food Bank and to a community gleaning project. We will also be in attendance and are donating produce to the EcoFarm Conference. For over three decades, the EcoFarm conference has brought food system stakeholders together for education, networking and celebration. We can’t wait!
Photo: Peas, Fava and Vetch
