Rancho de la LibertadJun 3

We just released this season's Quarterly Update a bit early for the Solstice, as there is a lot going on in the next few weeks and we'd like the time to focus on Solstice prep and Practice in the time we will have.

https://rancholibertad.com/quarterly-updates-a-season-of-rest/

We appreciate, as always, all of you who are joining us in this journey and especially those of you who are supporting us in doing the work on the ground. If you benefit from reading anything we write, please consider subscribing at the paid tier for not only lots of additional value but also to help support our work. If you claim to care about #LandBack or #Indigenous sovereignty there's really no better way to do it than putting your money where your mouth is and supporting land stewardship efforts in place!

*Edit: typo

#MutualAid #CommunityResilience #Community #RegenerativeAg #Farming #Sustainability #ClimateJustice #Sovereignty

Quarterly Updates: A Season of Rest

For most of you, if part of your year's work requires hands in the earth, your busiest season probably has just started in the last couple of months. For us, however, our seasons of growth are closing for a time and we are entering our season of rest. It has

Rancho de la Libertad
Rancho de la LibertadJun 1

It's that time again! We would love to do another Quarterly Q&A if any of our paid subscribers have questions for us to answer in-depth! If you have them, please email them to us at [email protected] by 6/15 at the latest. If we don't receive any questions I will likely send out to our paid subscribers this month what I had planned for next month's paid post, which will remain a secret until such a time as it is meant to be revealed!

Thank you, and we look forward to reading your questions!

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #QA #Sustainability #ClimateJustice #RegenerativeAg #Homesteading #Permaculture

Agroecology MapMay 27
Welcome to Talking Tree Farm 🌿—a living poetry of soil, waste, and food sovereignty. Every cycle feeds our community and heals the earth. Join the dance! https://agroecologymap.org/l/453 #Agroecology #Permaculture #FoodSovereignty #Sustainability #RegenerativeAg
Agroecology MapMay 19
Discover the Nico Roozen Center: a poetic agroecological oasis 🌱 where permaculture, food sovereignty, and sustainability bloom. Regenerating soil, water, and life through diverse crops, livestock, and agroforestry 🌿💧🐄 https://agroecologymap.org/l/538 #Agroecology #Permaculture #RegenerativeAg
Rancho de la LibertadApr 28

I'll also crosspost this with the updated figures from today's harvest for those of you interested. Since January first, we've produced on-site:

111 dozen eggs (that's 1,336 eggs approximately)
175.25 pounds of meat
21 pounds of vegetables
16.5 pounds of lard
7 pounds of animal fodder

This does not count the 100 or so pounds of unrendered fat in our freezer, nor does it count almost all of our spring crops that have yet to come to harvest (only the early season ones that we already harvested). We've given lots away, and we have lots in our freezer and canned for later.

Our inputs are minimal: once a year we make a bulk organic animal feed order, we use some well water, and I did order seeds last year (though often I save them from our own vegetables). No fertilizers, no mineral inputs, no purchased soil, no pots, no trays, no tilling, nothing. We've transformed about a half acre or so (and growing) of our six acres of previously landfilled, compacted, and completely soil-collapsed land into cultivable soil. It's taking time, but the momentum is building and it's getting easier every season to rebuild topsoil and produce more on-site with less inputs.

#RegenerativeAg #Permaculture #Farming #Homesteading #Food #SmallFarm #IndigenousOwned #Decolonize #IndigenousAgriculture #FoodSovereignty

Rancho de la LibertadApr 28

This month's newsletter release for paid subscribers is a compilation of the six biggest things we think you need to consider before going off on your homesteading, permacultur-ing, or back-to-the-land-ing dream.

While this might sound corny, we see you. We know that lots of you are disillusioned with the polycrisis and the economic and social institutions we live under and you wish for either sovereignty or an exit from capitalism or just to get out of your day job (or all three). Alternatively, we see those of you who are just trying to figure out how to reduce your own impact while seeking to solve some of the more structural issues, because let's face it: there is a possibility that all we can do is what *we* can do, because we know that the powers-that-be really might not care that we need change.

So we sat down and thought about what mistakes we made, and what mistakes others make, and what it is that people are ultimately looking to do when they try to get into a life like this. The result is useful, we think, and we hope that if you can spare $5 you'll look into it. Any contributions help us with our own sovereignty project, and help us feed others, and help us rewild this section of the Mojave and (we hope) a big enough section to make meaningful microclimate impacts one day.

If you read it, or contribute in any way, or share it, thank you very much. We appreciate you, and you're helping to keep us going.

#RanchoDeLaLibertad #RegenerativeAg #Rewilding #Homesteading #Permaculture #IndigenousOwned #Decolonize #ClimateJustice #ClimateAction #ClimateChange #Polycrisis #FoodProduction #SeizeTheMeansOfCommunity

https://rancholibertad.com/6-things-to-consider-before-you-even-think-about-homesteading/

6 Things to Consider Before You Even Think About Homesteading

Dreaming of getting back to the land and starting your own homestead? Stop for a brief moment and consider these six things before you even think you're ready to dive in.

Rancho de la Libertad
Mount Alto VineyardsApr 17

Regenerative viticulture, ie, a fully vegetated soil surface can affect microbiome 3-feet deep even in a rainy area
https://www.psu.edu/news/agricultural-sciences/story/simple-vineyard-growing-practice-impacts-soil-microbiome-deep-below

#RegenerativeAgriculture #regenerative #RegenerativeAg #RegenerativeViticture

Simple vineyard growing practice impacts soil microbiome deep below surface

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Pennsylvania is the fourth largest wine producer in the United States, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture . The industry supports nearly 11,000 jobs and directly contributes $1.77 billion to the state economy annually. In an effort to produce more and better grapes at a lower cost and with less environmental impact, vineyard growers have increasingly planted grass between rows of vines. These "groundcovers" root shallowly, but can benefit vineyard soils and reduce the need for herbicide applications. Now, a team of plant scientists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has found that implementing this practice impacts far more than previously thought. It not only alters the biology and ecology at the surface, where the grasses are planted, but also alters the system far below the surface, the researchers reported in a new study published in Phytobiomes Journal . The team compared how vineyards with and without groundcover in the vine row impacted the soil microbiome — the community of bacteria and fungi associated with soil — across a soil profile about three feet deep over two growing seasons. They concluded that grass groundcover changed the soil microbiome far beyond the depth of its own root system. “The grass roots are primarily growing within the top six to 12 inches of soil, and the grape roots are going from the soil surface to a meter-plus deep,” said Hayden Bock, assistant professor of landscape sustainability in the Department of Plant Science and co-lead author of the paper. “What is interesting is that at deeper soil depths, up to a meter deep, the community of microorganisms that were there responded to the grass roots growing far above them. What we do at one point of the soil can cascade to other deeper parts of the soil.” Bock explained that vineyard growers have traditionally grown grasses between their rows — up to about two to three feet from the planted vine row — as a way of suppressing weeds and providing a travel path for harvest and maintenance equipment. The vine row has traditionally been left vegetation-free with herbicide to minimize competition between groundcovers and grapevines. But previous research site has shown that grapevines can successfully co-exist with groundcovers planted across the entire vineyard floor by deepening their root system. The deeper grapevine roots avoid the shallower grass roots and access deeper soils that usually have more available water and consistent supply of nutrients. It’s also thought that deeper rooted grapevines may be more resistant to weather extremes, Bock said. However, Bock said little is known about how the soil changes when groundcover is introduced, and how those changes might influence the vines. This project took place in the research vineyard at Penn State’s Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs. The research vineyard and this experiment were initiated by co-author Michela Centinari, associate professor of viticulture. Bock began to examine the soils in this vineyard as an undergraduate student, working with co-lead author Suzanne Fleishman, who graduated with a doctorate in ecology from Penn State in 2022 and is now an assistant professor of root biology. The team planted the first vines and groundcovers in 2016, giving them time to become established before sampling the soil at different depths during peak growth seasons in the summer of 2019 and again in the summer of 2020. While bacterial and fungal diversity varied year-to-year, overall, the researchers found that vines with groundcover had a unique microbiome signature with the abundance of bacteria and fungi species shifting across the soil profile under groundcovers. Based on the life history of these microbes, Bock said that there is reason to suspect that these microbial changes could also change the health and functioning of vineyard soils. More research is needed to understand how this shift translates to vine health, Bock cautioned, but he explained that this first step in understanding a change exists could eventually help vineyard growers more strategically care for their crops. “In this study, we show the effects of groundcover extend below the surface rooting zone and may have widespread implications for below-ground ecological trajectories,” he said. “Because vineyard soil microbes influence vine health, performance and can operate as a reservoir of microbes for above-ground tissues — the stems, leaves and grapes — adopting under-vine groundcovers may provide a biology-driven means for combining production goals with soil-health stewardship.” Bock said growers may spend extra effort getting groundcovers established in their vineyards, but the long-term payoff comes in less erosion, less weed management and improved nutrient management. Beyond vineyards, he said the same benefits of groundcovers could potentially be seen in other horticultural crops grown in Pennsylvania. “The novelty of this research is that we don’t often think about deep soil health, as far as the community of microorganisms and nutrients that are there, but many horticultural crops, especially grapes and apples, have very deep roots,” he said. “So, thinking about deep soils are crucial to the long-term sustainability and management of these systems.” In addition to Bock, Centinari and Fleishman, co-authors include Terrence Bell, assistant professor of soil microbiology and ecology; David Eissenstat, professor of woody plant physiology; and William King, previously a researcher with Penn State who is now a lecturer in plant-microbe interactions at the University of Southampton in the U.K. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Penn State News
Mojo ♻️Feb 22

Outback innovation or just fancy goat herding? Farmers in WA built a 9km-long solar-powered smart fence trap on Murchison Station to quietly nab thousands of feral goats. Low-stress mustering via smartphone-closed gates, protects fragile landscapes from overgrazing, and the goats get sold for meat. Pays for itself in 5 years.
Feral goats are declared pests wrecking ecosystems, so this beats choppers + bikes for animal welfare + planet points. Nature's lawnmowers turned profit?

#regenerativeag #feralgoat #sustainablefarming #outbackinnovation #animalwelfare

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-22/nine-kilometre-feral-goat-trap-murchison-station/106368604

Nine-kilometre outback goat trap catching thousands and paying for itself

When their station's fragile landscape needed protection from feral goats, Calum and Belinda Carruth seized on an idea that has become marvel of technology and pest management.

One CommunityFeb 19
Food forests flip the script on farming. Instead of constant inputs, they build living systems that renew themselves—soil gets richer, water stays longer, and food keeps coming. Canopy trees are the long-term anchors of this abundance.
#FoodForest #Permaculture #RegenerativeAg #OpenSource
Raíces de SoberaníaFeb 18
Cámara 4 desde Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico:

Como metodología, la foto-voz tiene el poder de capturar, imaginar y crear relaciones. ¡El proyecto de foto-voz en Puerto Rico fue un proyecto de amistad, solidaridad e inspiración! Sigue este espacio para informarte, ya que la revolución no será televisada, ¡pero será captada con una cámara analógica!

As a Methodology, Photo-voice has the power to capture, imagine and create relationships. The photo-voice project in Puerto Rico was a project of friendship, solidarity and inspiration! Follow this space for information, since the revolution will not be televised, but it will be captured on an analog camera!

#soberaniaalimentaria #fotovoz #agricultura #agriculture #food #nature #networks #local #autonomy #agroecology #puertorico #lares #upr #libertad #sembrando #grow #farm #agroecologia #foodsovereingty #foodsystem #photovoice #puertoricolibre #raicesdesoberania #organic #regenerativeag #future #fertile #soil #ancestors #decolonisation