Ag Farms and Wind Farms

This week I got to visit two farms—an agricultural farm and a wind farm!

Kiselgarden Farm is a biodynamic farm that grows produce for Noma-- one of the most talked about restaurants in the world. 

Biodynamic farming is closely related to organic farming and employs many of the same ecological practices.  However, biodynamic farming also includes a strong spiritual component.  The farmer that we spoke with explained how he uses the position of the cosmos to determine planting patterns and demonstrated a ritual in which he takes the horns off of cows after they have died and fills them with manure and buries them underground.

 I can't guarantee that the farm's success has anything to do with such practices but I will say that whatever they're doing seems to be working. Providing food for Noma is not a bad gig and the tomatoes that I sampled on my visit were the best damn tomatoes I’d ever had!

On Wednesday, my Renewable Energy class visited Lynetten wind farm, which sits atop of the dike for a waste treatment plant.  The farm includes 20 turbines and was established in 1996 as a community initiated cooperative.  

And look! After an entirely frightening climb, I made it to the top of a wind turbine!! 

 I love this last picture.  It shows energy's past and future.  To the left-- wind turbines.  To the right-- a coal fired power plant and an incinerator.  


"Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all"
-John Greenleaf Whittier