Последние посты
Living Soil Gardening
1 сент., 20:49
Friends,We meet again on the far side of August, when in theory the air should be cooler and the soil damper. I hope that’s how it is where you are. Here in Florence the rain finally gave us the relief we had been waiting for after a scorching, drought-ridden summer that somehow still managed to feel more humid than ever. Then the heat came straight back. This, which seems to be the new normal, puts real pressure on the traditional timings for summer transplanting.So here below, as usual, a series of things I hope will give you something to think about and to take away.https://en.cortesedario.com/post/september-newsletterDario CorteseSeptember newsletterFriends, We meet again on the far side of August, when in theory the air should be cooler and the soil damper. I hope that’s how it is where you are. Here in Florence the rain finally gave us the relief we had been waiting for after a scorching, drought-ridden…Living Soil Gardening
1 июл., 21:09изменён
This video was shot in the early hours of the morning, a few days ago. This is OrtoForesta, an agroforestry market garden in Florence, Italy.Our journey here started 3 and a half years ago, in February 2023. This was little more than a parking lot full of rubble, derelict polytunnel frames and brambles.That a place as difficult as this can become a productive ecosystem is a testament to the importance of working with natural processes.OrtoForesta feeds 40 to 50 families from May until Christmas, hosts 6 regenerative agriculture courses a year. However, it is, first and foremost, an open-air experiment of connection with our deepest nature.Can we produce food without overstepping our ecological role? If so, agriculture will have to look like a continous back and forth between accumulation and disturbance.Living Soil Gardening
21 июн., 15:48
On 17 June 2026 the European Parliament gave final approval, at second reading (431 to 201, with 29 abstentions), to the regulation on New Genomic Techniques — NGTs, or in Italy TEA, tecniche di evoluzione assistita, “assisted evolution”.Whenever something like this comes up, I hear people take very strong positions — often understandable ones, but emotional, and almost always cast the same way: what I think is sensible and good, and the opposite is reckless, dangerous, a disaster. On a question this tangled, ethically and biologically, that isn’t a frame I trust. So I’ll try the duller route instead: set out what happened, then the case for and the case against as fairly as I can, and only at the end what I make of it — with no pretence that my view is especially enlightened. My customers and fellow growers can read it and know where I stand, and I hope it starts a conversation.httpDario CorteseNGTs and GMOs - what happens?On 17 June 2026 the European Parliament gave final approval, at second reading (431 to 201, with 29 abstentions), to the regulation on New Genomic Techniques — NGTs, or in Italy TEA, tecniche di evoluzione assistita, “assisted evolution”. It splits NGT plants…Living Soil Gardening
10 июн., 14:42
When syntropic agriculture arrived in Europe, it took on a very specific form, codified around a course that Ernst Götsch taught in São Paulo, Brazil, about a decade ago. Speaking to an audience of non-specialists, Ernst showed how one could plant all the stages of ecological succession from the very start, in a single row holding plants meant to populate the system's various layers (emergent, high, medium, and so on) over the short, medium and long term.Lately I've been paying close attention to the excellent work of Scott Hall — mostly on his paid platform, Syntropia, but also in what he shares on YouTube and social media. Scott has developed a syntropic approach that mimics natural processes more closely; and in nature, clearly, ecological succession doesn't unfold "all at once" but in stages — in his words, through successional accumulation. He's the first to point out that heDario CorteseWhen syntropic agriculture arrived in Europe, it took on a very specific form, codified around a course that Ernst Götsch taught in São Paulo, Brazil, about a decade ago. Speaking to an audience of non-specialists, Ernst showed how one could plant all the…Living Soil Gardening
21 мая, 14:29
It's mid-May, at last the night temperatures stop dropping below ten degrees and the garden lets out a long sigh of relief. Spring, around here, always arrives late and a little reluctantly, and by the time it does it already has one foot in summer. It feels like the right moment to take stock, to set down what the field has taught me — and today I'd like to do that on a subject that has been with me since my very first day here: support plants.Support plants are the species we include in an agroforestry system not for what we harvest from them, but for what they do for the system itself — producing biomass, shading the soil, suppressing weeds, hosting pollinators and predators, cycling nutrients, opening up compacted ground, stimulating ecological succession via strategic disturbance. They are the invisible infrastructure on which the productive species depend, and in a well-designedDario CorteseSupport Plants for Temperate Climate Agroforestry - a few observationsI'm writing in mid-May, in those few days when — at last — the nights stop dropping below ten degrees and the garden lets out a long sigh of relief. Spring, around here, always arrives late and a little reluctantly, and by the time it does it already has…Living Soil Gardening
16 мая, 08:59
Four landscapes. Four continents.Tell me that you got everything you want.There is a huge chunk of poetry that is only accessible on a grey morning, on a diet of Youtube videos and almond butter.Tell me that you’ve heard every sound there is.I look around myself and I see decay - powerful, dramatic, soul-crushing. A green light flashes. An answer is in the making, for the question I thought of and couldn’t hold on to.It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out.Thinking of a friend, of harmonies come and gone - of threads, voices, crippled arpeggios and wonky chords.And nothing to get hung about.The dishwasher in the corner, the sun shouting in the background. At the slightest turn of my head, I get showered with life.You’ll say you’ve seen seven wonders, and your bird is green. Your bird is green.Living Soil Gardening
16 мая, 08:43
Living Soil Gardening
5 мая, 13:57
A Regenerative Agroforestry course here at Ortoforesta last week. This time, I tried a different format, with more interactive moments and a group pruning session to observe the management of an already established system in its various components: fruit trees, shrubs, support trees, and herbaceous plants. For those interested, we will repeat the same course during the autumn pruning, on September 20th. More info at cortesedario.com/corsi-presenzaLiving Soil Gardening
5 мая, 13:56
переслано из @orticolturarigenerativa
Living Soil Gardening pinned Deleted message
5 мая, 13:56
Living Soil Gardening
23 янв., 13:15
Living Soil Gardening
23 янв., 13:14
🚜 Next season, 60% of our sowings at @ortoforesta will be F1 hybrids. This shift from our usual focus follows autumn trials with undeniable results: in our regenerating system, many F1s offered superior uniformity and disease resistance. We must be honest about field data, even when it challenges our ideals.🧬 F1s are the offspring of two inbred parent lines. This triggers "hybrid vigour", but thi comes at a cost: the offspring won't breed true.⚠ To produce these hybrids, breeders often use Cytoplasmic Male Sterility (CMS), rendering the "mother" line pollen-sterile. This creates a genetic bottleneck. Unlike Open Pollinated (OP) varieties or Landraces—which evolve with the land—an F1 is genetically static. It lacks the variability to adapt, and its dominance shrinks the planet’s agricultural gene pool.💰 F1 seeds often cost many times more than OPs. The selection we made for thisLiving Soil Gardening
13 янв., 16:14
In syntropic systems, pruning is utilized to mimic natural ecosystem disturbances such as herbivory or storm damage. By pruning a support plant, practitioners create a temporary, managed gap in the ecosystem structure. Field observations suggest that this intentional disturbance initiates a beneficial chain reaction. While the above-ground benefit—increased solar access for lower strata—is well understood, the working hypothesis of syntropic agriculture posits that a significant portion of the benefit is derived from a "pulse" of resources and signals triggered underground, theoretically stimulating the surrounding plant community.In this article I discuss this phenomenon and cite some studies that support the anecdotic evidence.https://www.cortesedario.com/post/the-growth-pulse-how-pruning-one-plant-feeds-an-entire-systemDario CortesePost | Dario CorteseLiving Soil Gardening
17 дек. 2025 г., 19:12
Similarly, if I lose an apprentice because they go off and start their own farm, I celebrate it. They will return not to buy a product or to work, but to exchange advice, seedlings, and expertise.Living Soil Gardening
17 дек. 2025 г., 19:12
🗣️ There is a recurring argument in our field that farms relying on WWOOFers or volunteers are undermining the economic stability of professional agriculture. The logic suggests that if a farm cannot afford to pay full wages for every hour of labour, it is a failed business model that shouldn't exist.💸 I find this critique ironic because it ignores the rigged game we are playing. Industrial agriculture is propped up by massive State subsidies (CAP) and artificially cheap fossil fuels—invisible supports that allow big farms to lower costs despite their ecological inefficiencies. For small-scale farms that operate outside this subsidy bubble, volunteer energy is a useful counterbalance. We are trading non-renewable energy for labour, and machinery for human hands. In a market that heavily penalises labour-intensive restoration, the volunteer model is often one of the most effectiveLiving Soil Gardening
12 дек. 2025 г., 16:56изменён
🧑🌾 I recently received many comments on a post arguing that small-scale farms are more efficient than large, mechanised ones; and that without State subsidies, this reality would be undeniable. While largely positive, the response made me realise that efficiency is a deeply misunderstood concept.🚜 Efficiency is a thermodynamic quantity: the ratio of work done to energy required. We often assume that because a machine is faster, it is more efficient. We hold this perception because running a machine is financially cheaper than hiring a person. But if we audit the calories rather than the money, the logic inverts.📉 Consider moving 1 m³ of compost (500kg). Manually, a fit person can do this in 30 minutes. Burning roughly 250 kcal, I expend about 1 Megajoule (MJ) of biological energy. A small tractor, doing the same job, burns at least half a litre of diesel. With diesel’s energyLiving Soil Gardening
5 дек. 2025 г., 20:40
🌱 Friends, colleagues, I invite myself and all of you to observe this fact. We can make our farms as efficient, optimised, and lean as we like, but this will not change the substance. We lose because the rules of the game are written to ensure we lose. If one day we cease to be "economically unsustainable", it will likely be because we have become controllable like everyone else, or because the entire social system has changed.🤸♂️ I believe it is our responsibility to push for this systemic change, starting by challenging this tendency to streamline our farms at the expense of complexity.⚔️ Efficiency is a weapon of class war. It serves to push the independent producer towards wage labour. In the case of agriculture, it is not only a weapon, but also a lie. If we want to survive, we must stop looking for validation in a market constructed in this way.🥕 I am not saying weLiving Soil Gardening
5 дек. 2025 г., 20:40
🗣️ Lately, within the ecological small-scale farming movement, I have heard efficiency discussed with increasing frequency. Allow me to develop a line of reasoning on this topic. Bear with me, for this is a somewhat lengthy argument.🏡 Many of us feel that, as smallholders, we struggle to remain economically viable because we lack access to economies of scale. Furthermore, we cannot—or rather, we choose not to—employ shortcuts such as synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, which would allow us to spend little and produce much.🚜 We look at the big players, at the mechanised monocultures, and think they have it easy. Their hyper-simplified models appear more efficient and, on the free market, seem to hold a distinct advantage. Thus, to defend our complex, diversified models, we often appeal to externalities. We point out that we produce not merely food, but something healthier andLiving Soil Gardening
29 нояб. 2025 г., 06:26
30 CSA veg boxes this year so far. 3 more to go!Living Soil Gardening
9 нояб. 2025 г., 05:27изменён
The nomination process has just opened for Top50Farmer, a program that allows you (if you live in Europe , including the UK and Switzerland) to recognize the value of a farmer's work work in your life and encourage them to join a community of like-minded peers opening up new opportunities for business, connection, and learning.Amongst many, some of my good old friends in the UK and my new friends in Italy do amazing work that would benefit from such a recognition and stimulus.I will be nominating the great Martin and Sara at Hilltown Organics in Oke, Devon. Don't forget to vote for your favourite farmer. There are only 13 days left!https://www.top50farmers.org/farmer-nomination
