07/23/2026
Thinking a lot about circular economies, mycelial networks, if you will—
We have a little over 6 acres of land on our farm with great plans for it—including prairie restoration, passive solar greenhouses, an education center, flower field, and edible food forest—-but for now, it’s much too much for us to manage on our own without any heavy equipment! Last year we hired out people to mow the field a few times over the summer, and discussed the idea of partnering with a farmer to let their animals graze it, but it never came to fruition. We were reminded of this idea this spring when we hired Jessie’s son Rowan to mow and he suggested finding someone to hay it. I put a post up in marketplace offering up our land to be hayed (for free) to someone who has the equipment to do it. I got a lot of replies and we now have a relationship with a farmer who mowed our field for us (for free—so we don’t need to hire someone to do it) and in exchange they get free feed for their animals. This is a circular economy, and it’s win win for everyone. (Pics one and two of our newly mowed field, Pic 3: a monarch enjoying our crimson clover along with some volunteer sunflowers.)
Building circular systems like this are easy and hard all at once. We are challenging how our current system functions because we’re not trying to squeeze exorbitant profits out of every relationship, which is incredibly rewarding and just feels right—but can also be hard because our current system isn’t built like this, so we have to imagine, dream, develop, define and build what we want to see—what we want to be.
Another example of a rewarding circular economy we’re creating: we’ve recently partnered with fungi to take their used mushroom substrate and add it to our compost. This substrate is a great addition to our piles as it has the mycelial networks in it that will help break down the piles and potential contaminants, add nutrients and carbon while also helping to hold moisture in our compost. In the end—we will have a high value mushroom compost to give to our members and eventually sell in bulk to garden centers/farmers etc.
As I picked up our load today, Chasidy remarked how this relationship has made their life easier because they don’t have any curbside waste—in the past people were happy to take their substrate if they delivered it and unloaded it for them, but that was extra work on their end. Now we pick it up on our route, pay them a nominal amount and make a high value product. (Pics 4 and 5 show our van full of nettle bins and bags of mushroom substrate and pic 5 shows how I break down the blocks to add to the top of our wood chips at the end of every route), —oh and speaking of wood chips, that’s yet another circular economy we’ve built: we take wood chips from a landscaper—their waste, and use it to build our piles. The guy we work with loves how easy it is to dump his piles on our land—something he otherwise needs to find a place for, and we are happy to receive them!
Building something new isn’t easy. We feel like we’re constantly coming up against new obstacles and challenges, but dang if it doesn’t feel good to be building something to be proud of. 🫶🏼💚🫶🏼
