Rich Vermont Soil

Black Soil

Thanks Jim for helping us!

The sky was clear as our plane landed in Jackson, Mississippi on Thursday morning. My daughter and I flew down to look at a college. Looking out the airplane window I could see the many roads, trees, and winding rivers. What struck me most though was the red clay. Growing up in North Carolina, I became accustomed to seeing red dirt and the challenges it presented to gardeners. Since living in Vermont though, I have gotten spoiled by our rich black loamy soil. It takes going back to the south again and seeing the soil there to remind me of how blessed I am here at our farm in Vermont.

Today, we had our neighbor drive down on his small tractor to scrap out our paddock area behind the barn. We had not scraped it out for several years and a nice rich layer of well composted manure lay waiting for someone’s garden. We just needed the help of our neighbor to get the manure where it needed to be. He scraped, dumping his bucket full into the back of our truck. We then drove it up to the garden and unloaded it with our shovels. Our neighbor was thrilled to get a load of the compost to put on his garden, and a few farm raised goods out of our freezer as payment for his work.