Produce NO waste
It really gets to me how difficult it is to escape the disposable society that’s being crafted around everything we need and use. We live in a world that runs on cycling all the energy produced in it.
There is no place called “away”. Everything comes back to us, whether it’s in a form that will harm us or help us. You can receive as much feedback from your environment but it’s nothing if it’s not acted upon.
The solution to this problem is in the “Three R’s” approach- reduce, reuse, recycle.
The First “R” Reduce
Waste reduction is the best method of waste management because it actually prevents the generation of waste, saving natural and financial resources. And unlike recycling it requires no energy or processing.
Adventure Farm being an environmental advocate, we advice our clients to bring their own reusable water bottle for refill. That way we would have reduced waste.
How we reuse?
Plastic containers are reused to store other things, as planters for new seedlings. Glass bottles are often used for irrigating trees. A great way to conserve water.
We also use cardboard boxes, tissue rolls and milk cartons as seed bearers or for Arts and Crafts.
It is better to use cloth bags in place of plastic bags for shopping.
Woodash from the oven is used on the farm as manure and also to act as a liming material to neutralize soil acidity and provide plant-available nutrients.
“Recycling is better- I won’t write “good” -for the environment.
What goes around comes around-in our case, its recycled water. Water can’t flow up and so we must learn to reuse it, moreover having a source of reusable water is very convenient and helpful. We wash our milking parlours, barn floors and irrigate our crops with the same water. Water drained from the fish ponds is used as irrigation water since it contains a lot of nutrients. We take an extra step to save water by collecting rain water and irrigation runoff in the fields and store it in a reservoir. Then, the water is redistributed via irrigation to crops to help them grow.
Who wants to get tired? No one right. So to make work easier, drop of your waste at a selected recycling drop-off site in accordance to organic, plastic, paper, glass and metal bins to ease the recycling & compost process.
Adventure Farm is also focused on circular production. Waste from the kitchen and from the vegetable garden is used as compost to increase organic matter in the soil, improve soil physical properties and supply some of the essentials nutrients for plants growth. With the help of our little best friends the ecosystem engineers of the soil (earthworms) we now have 4 vermiculture units. We are using the red wigglers that eat half their body weight in a day!
“Vermiculture is the process of using earthworms to decompose organic food waste into a nutrient rich substance capable of giving vital nutrients and sustaining plant growth”- The goal is to keep increasing the number of worms in order to have a sustainable crop also excess worms can be sold to customers.
Vermiculture feeding basically go “green”. Worms will eat almost every veggies and fruits that you would in a traditional bin. However, we avoid putting citrus, onions and garlic in the worm bin as it contains a compound poisonous to worms. This is the main reason why we have a specific waste bin for vermiculture.
Having integrated a biodigester in our farming system it has;
Provided a source of fuel for cooking, and lighting later in the years. Reducing the need for gas and electricity for boiling water and pasteurising milk. All our farm hands use BioGas to cook their own meals. A benefit that saves them money.
It has also improved the quality of the manure that is fed into the biodigester, resulting in high-quality organic manure for crops ,as wells as for water plants or fish cultivated in ponds.
The slurry, a bi-product of the biodigestor process, results in the best quality manure for plants. Due to the heat generated in the process, the resultant manure has no parasites or harmful bacteria. By de-contaminating manure and other organic waste, we use the best quality organic input into growing organic vegetables and fruits for our Farm To Fork restaurant.
We cook amazingly delicious food using our Biogas stoves. Our guests get only the best nutrition that is healthy and exactly what they need to enhance their well-being.
Life on a farm is all about making the most of what you’ve got. This is why the old adage, “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!” Is so often, applied to Adventure Farm life.
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