This Sunday evening, we concluded the month-long rush of important Jewish holidays, beginning with the new year on Rosh Hashanah, and ending with Sukkot, the harvest festival. Sukkot is a holiday that lasts eight days, traditionally celebrated by erecting a structure called a sukkah.

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.

It’s week four and our passion for regenerative agriculture is burning brighter than the flames in our biochar kiln.

My favorite aspect of communal farm living so far has definitely been the food. At Zumwalt Acres, dinner is an event; every night, we all sit down together to enjoy whatever masterpiece that night’s cooking crew has spent at least an hour (usually more) orchestrating. Everyone brings their own cooking background into the kitchen, resulting in a wide variety of soups, stews, and salads. We haven’t yet had a bad meal.

It’s our third week here and we are thriving almost as much as our sourdough starter, Drew.

It’s our second week here and our days are fuller than our coffee thermoses. 

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.

Besides cutting CO2 emissions by storing the carbon from organic waste, biochar increases soil fertility, improves plant growth, promotes microbial life, increases water retention, and attracts heavy metals thereby filtering water runoff. Biochar can also be used to augment urban low-impact development such as green roofs, bioswales, and green space to manage stormwater and rebuild degraded soils.