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Inherent Value

“Come on! Let’s talk about waste, baby. Let’s talk about you and me. Let’s talk about all the good things and all the bad things, like trash we don’t see.” While iconic hip-hop crew Salt-N-Pepa may not have been singing about all of the good things and the bad things Americans dump into landfills each year, they were alluding to the inherent value of all people and the need to have tricky conversations about topics that can bring us all closer together. How do you measure the value of something, especially those things others might deem worthless?

Another great slogan I learned growing up in the 90s was “Reduce, reuse, recycle.” It also came with a catchy jingle when the public service announcements ran on TV. While I’m not an expert, I have to believe similar campaigns have run on social media in the intervening years since I was a teen. Yet, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates Americans generate over 292.4 million tons of solid waste each time the planet orbits the sun. Put another way, that’s about 585 billion pounds of bottles, corrugated boxes, food, grass clippings, sofas, electronics, refrigerators, used tires, and everything else imaginable ending up primarily in landfills every 365 days. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a culture built on principles of (over)consumption, over half of what sits in landfills could have been recycled, and every day we throw out approximately 30% of the food, from our plates, dinner tables, restaurants, and grocery stores. That’s real value, wasted.

In Connecticut, the situation is even more dire. Millions of tons of Nutmegers’ garbage is shipped off on trucks, out-of-state, to landfills in New York, Ohio, and other far-flung places, creating even more CO2 emissions and detrimental impacts on the environment. While taking out the trash for most of us is a chore, there are a few brave leaders among us who want all of that “waste” to stay in our state. Do a quick Google search and you can find composting programs cropping up all over the place. Local farms and farmers especially stand to benefit from in-state composting programs. For those of us attempting to build zero-waste farms supporting the entrepreneurial spirit of our neighbors, the solution is actually quite simple. All of that food can be composted and reintroduced into nearby farm systems rather than relying on the practice of importing fertilizers from overseas major multinational corporations and even out-of-state compost suppliers, thus growing the local economy, community, and quite literally the meals on our plates.

Believe it or not, low-odor kitchen and backyard composting systems are gaining in popularity in your neighborhood! Maybe this is the year you and your family start a compost pile or purchase a bin for old food, leaves, and grass clippings. When we begin to reimagine all of that “food waste” as a potential food and flower multiplier for our farms and gardens, our collective consciousness may potentially shift into a deeper recognition of the ways in which once discarded and disregarded items' can be renewed through their inherent value. If a zero-waste mindset, which celebrates and utilizes the diverse contributions of all organisms in a healthy ecosystem, is developing on more of our local farms, perhaps a zero-waste culture, which celebrates the diverse contributions and value of all people, can take shape in our communities, too.

Baylee Drown And Ryan “Quinn” Quinn Of Long Table Farm

I first learned about Baylee Drown and Ryan “Quinn” Quinn’s leadership at Long Table Farm located in Lyme through a posting by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture highlighting their recent Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry Grant award, which will allow them to construct a food scrap retrieval and composting facility capable of processing over one million pounds of compost annually for area farmers. Long Table Farm is a highly productive, fully sustainable, and radically LGBTQ-affirming vegetable and fruit CSA and market farm growing on more than four acres on Beaver Brook Road in Lyme while also stewarding several environmentally protected sites of perennial grasses and other heirloom species in partnership with the Lyme Land Trust. On a recent cold winter morning, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Baylee in the fully retrofitted barn-house overlooking the Berkshire pigs, ducks, cows, and high-tunnels sprawled across the thoughtfully designed landscape.

SGM: You have a great mural on your farm. Can you tell me a little about how and when it was made?

BD: Yeah, sure. It’s based on a photo of the fullest crew we’ve ever had, which was during the height of the pandemic. We found a lot of people wanted to come here during the pandemic for the security and the community. It felt really safe and abundant here when, often, those things were lacking in other parts of the world at the time. One of the crew members had a background in art, so I asked her if she wanted to do a piece on our storage shed depicting this little community after the potato harvest. And, of course, it has rainbows on it!

Growing up in rural Michigan, it didn’t always feel like a safe and welcoming space for queer people. I couldn’t be out in Michigan. I had to wait until I moved to Vermont to feel comfortable doing that. Pete Buttigieg’s husband wrote a book about a very similar upbringing and the realization that other people can tell you’re different often long before you even realize you're different in this way. So, it is important to me that queer farmers have a place they feel safe and welcome. Rainbows are good signs for that and a way for me, and anyone who visits, to remember we can be fully who we are and uniquely meant to be in this world.

SGM: That’s so beautiful, and it undoubtedly makes folks feel more comfortable.

BD: It does. A number of the people I met during my time in Vermont have also started their own farms in other parts of the country, as well. So, there is now a broad community of people and farms committed to making people of color, LGBTQ people, and anyone historically ostracized from more rural living feel more welcome and celebrated for their work and contributions to country life.

SGM: You’re growing community as well as food for the community! You’re doing so many amazing things here. Can you tell me a little about your plans for the composting program you’re developing from Department of Agriculture grant funds?

BD: Well, the vision really began with a desire to become zero-waste ourselves and utilize as many sustainable farming practices as we can here. So, all of our vegetables are grown with low-till or no-till practices to ensure greater soil and microbe health. We incorporate animal manure and tillage in some of the greenhouses on a seasonal rotation as well. There is always an emphasis on food safety when using livestock in the vegetable production, but it has dramatically increased yield and quality while reducing the pest load on the farm. There is something inherently natural and beneficial about using animals to help manage a vegetative landscape that I can’t even systematically quantify, but it is evident every year.

We use organic practices in our production and, therefore, purchase organic compost and fertilizers as necessary. However, because of limited quantities of quality organic compost in the state, we often have to get ours from other parts of New England. So, the animals also lower our costs by foraging and introducing manure in the vegetable beds themselves. Even with the number of animals we do have, it isn’t quite enough to cover our entire operation, and realistically, we know other farmers in the area who may not have the option or operation to use livestock in their vegetable production.

By developing our own composting production facility, we can utilize it here on-site and deliver it throughout the state to other sustainable farms. Simply put, it just isn’t sustainable to transport large quantities of compost and potting soil to Connecticut from Vermont, Maine, or other parts of the country. It’s too expensive to buy in the quantities we and other farmers need to build up a solid compost layer and weed-free barrier in the beds. So, this grant will allow us to produce both and reintroduce them into the local food economy. We’re calling it the Solar Community Composting Center, and there will be aerated static piles capable of composting one million pounds of food scraps combined with the bedded pack created by our small herd of grass-fed cattle.

SGM: Can you tell me a little more about your use of animals on the farm?

BD: We have ducks. We’ve raised turkeys. We have the small herd of cows and the Berkshire hogs, all contributing to the farm ecosystem here. I know there are some vegan farms that never use animals in their operation, but I have found by incorporating livestock into our farm it’s a better representation of a natural system, like the one existing in the natural world.

SGM: Does the aerated static pile have an advantage over other compost systems?

BD: Well, with these long open-holed tubes running through the compost pile, it allows us to slow down or speed up the process of material breakdown. Also, by keeping the piles in a controlled environment protected by overhead shelters, we can create a reliable and consistent product. I’ve been in situations when the compost I’ve ordered is still curing, and you can smell the nitrogen which would burn our plants if placed into the beds. So through this system, the material can break down much more efficiently, and the pile only needs to be flipped once a month as opposed to every week to ensure the weed seed culture and nitrogen production reaches a safe and balanced level for immediate use in vegetable growing applications.

SGM: You have such a deep understanding of your soil and ways to build greater soil health. Have you had soil analysis conducted on your farm? How have you come to learn so much about the quality of soil here and the best ways to support the microbe life invisible to all of us as we work on farms?

BD: Thanks for asking that question. I am holding so much gratitude right now. After my first year of farming, I received a scholarship to participate in a holistic management farming course hosted by Sherry and Art of Cranberry Meadow Farm. It was all women in the course except for Art. When Quinn and I decided to take the leap and look for properties to continue this farm vision, Art and Sherry helped us decide between two farms. The first farm retained way too much water, almost like swamp beds. This farm had the opposite problem, with about 80 feet of gravel below the surface, but Art helped me realize we could improve the soil and water retention through the consistent introduction of organic matter. That was about five years ago, after farming on rented land for about six years before that!

SGM: You’re doing so much responsible ag management while also supporting the growth of other local, small farms by really limiting the number of outside inputs and amendments you’re using and producing everything you need on-site.

BD: It’s all about becoming zero-waste. We want our whole community to be zero-waste eventually. So part of that is taking the food scraps– I prefer calling them food scraps rather than food waste– and saving them from going into landfills and supporting the natural process by transforming them into a valuable resource and amendment for further food production and redistribution back into our communities.

SGM: Thank you for hosting me and taking so much time to teach me about this project today! What else would you like readers to know about your farm and farming in our state?

BD: I love it. I love farming. I love growing food and improving soil. I love taking good care of animals, people, and the planet. It’s an expression of love… (smiling). It’s also really satisfying when I finish scuffle hoeing a vegetable bed, and I’ve killed all of the weeds!

Regenerative and sustainable farming practices are also taking hold on larger farms, as well. Out of necessity, farmers all over this state and country are having to use these practices, plant cover crops, produce compost, and find creative ways to restore soil health after decades of harmful approaches, which can lead to poor yields. These big farms are never going to go away and be replaced by our little farms, but they do have a lot to learn from what we do. And communities are healthier and more resilient when they have lots of healthy, resilient little farms producing good food, feeding people what they need through nutrition and connection to each other and the land. We believe good food is a human right, and all people should be able to enjoy it. The more you support your local farm, the more you support that reality, too!