In harmony with nature

This afternoon I went to see the documentary Biggest Little Farm. Molly Chester had been a traditional foods chef. Her husband John is a documentary filmmaker. In 2011 they left Los Angeles behind to start a farm, one of Molly’s dreams. This farm, though, was to be in harmony with the environment. And John turned his camera on himself.

The land looked pretty lifeless when they started. With the advice of Alan York and a team of people with similar goals they got to work. Ground cover plants under the fruit trees. Sheep to keep the ground cover from getting too tall. Pigs and cows to supply the manure. And lots of chickens.

Of course, it wasn’t a smooth transformation. Coyotes attacked the chickens, yet they needed coyotes to keep the gophers in check. Starlings ate the fruit on the trees, but soon the hawks moved in. Snails munched on the ground cover – and a few other plants – until they noticed that ducks like to eat snails. And the chickens like to eat fly maggots. They put up roosts for owls to keep the mice in check. The soil, now healthy and productive, drew pests, but also eventually drew the predators of those pests. Their ground cover prevented their soil from being washed away in a torrential rain. So by the time the film came out they felt they really were running a productive farm in harmony with nature. They began to show the world how they did it.

There were a few cute moments. When they bought Emma the pig they knew she was pregnant. They figured the litter would be 8-10 piglets. When she started giving birth they kept coming. And coming. Total litter was 17. They got a rooster, who decided to keep Emma company. A ewe died, leaving a young lamb behind. We watched it try to find another ewe that would nurse it.

As I watched them turn their rough terrain into a little paradise I saw that it took a lot of manual labor.