On Monday, we woke up, fed the goats, and had our Monday morning team meeting. Then we continued working on grant applications and received helpful feedback from our partners at Delta. After making significant progress on our applications, we went outside to collect wood in preparation for a Tuesday biochar burn. That evening, we sent Jason off on his next adventure! We will miss his beautiful guitar playing, and we’re so happy he came to visit!

On Monday, we inoculated our biochar and then had a team meeting about our goals for the farm! After our meeting, we researched agroforestry policy for Kate and the Savanna Institute, specifically about forestry commitments in the US. It’s fascinating to learn about the minimal agroforestry policy and brainstorm how implementing widespread policy could be beneficial for climate change mitigation. While a group of us worked on policy research, the rest of us tirelessly finalized one of our grant applications. We also started building our greenhouse raised beds. At night, we all came together to edit and submit our grant!

We can store carbon from the atmosphere, rebuild degraded soils, increase plant yield, invigorate our urban tree canopy, filter stormwater, remove toxins from the air and soil, and upcycle waste. All this can come from biochar: a special type of charcoal made from wood waste, nutshells, and other organic waste material.

We have arrived! After months of conducting research on biochar and agroforestry, networking with farmers and organizations, applying for grants, developing research questions, renovating the farmhouse, and imagining what our time here would look like, we have finally made it.