Rooted Here, Connected Everywhere
From the humid, temperate climate of eastern Vermont to the dry, arid plateaus of Namibia, there’s so much to learn from other farmers. Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center’s Research Director, Flora Krivak-Tetley, spent time in November with peers around Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, cultivating connections and exploring endless possibilities for learning and collaboration.
Flora visits the area each fall for her Dartmouth Environmental Studies course, which focuses on natural resource management and social-ecological systems research in Namibia. After working with her students and community members at a rural field station, Flora traveled to Windhoek, curious to see how organic agriculture was continuing to develop in Namibia. The movement is gaining momentum – the Namibian Organic Association (NOA) has developed a peer certification process in the country and several farmers are starting to sell under the Namibia Organic label. Meanwhile, as is true elsewhere, many farmers also sell produce that was grown organically, without the label. Transitioning farming practices and achieving certification can be hard but rewarding work. Our founders Will and Kate learned this during Cedar Circle’s early years; they started farming here in 2000, but it took a few growing seasons, until 2004, to receive organic certification through NOFA-VT.
In Namibia, Flora visited Farm Krumhuk, a biodynamic farm and community that grows vegetables and tends animals, has a dairy and a bakery, and hosts two Waldorf schools. Like Cedar Circle, Krumhuk is explicitly a community hub, committed to the education of kids and teens, as well as to events that invite the general community to connect and celebrate on the farm’s land.
The second farm, Humulus Horticultural CC, is an organic farm located on the banks of the Okahandja River and operated by Dirk and Belinda Wölbling. At Humulus, Flora toured two syntropic systems, growing asparagus, strawberries, and roselle, an edible flowering plant in the Hibiscus genus. In a syntropic system, rows of woody perennials are established first, bringing the benefit of shade for more fragile crop rows, which are planted in groups of six between the protective tree lines.
Both farms prioritize soil health by working to reduce or avoid tillage and using diverse cover crops, practices that are close to our hearts at Cedar Circle. At both Krumhuk and Humulus, alfalfa is a reliable cover crop, and is grown to be harvested for on-farm use or to sell, as well as for its nitrogen-fixing qualities.
Despite being geographically very far apart, finding community in shared commitment is always a motivating force. Knowing that there are dedicated farmers across the world, working with and for their communities to fill gaps, find solutions, and adapt to climate change, re-energizes us for the season of learning and growing ahead.
What will the future hold? Ongoing connections through Flora’s trips to Namibia, of course, and hopefully reciprocal visits to exchange ideas about these overlapping movements. On the home front, we’re diving deeper into our research priorities, including expanding perennials, reducing plastic use, and growing on-farm inputs in the form of more diversified cover cropping, green manures, and strip-tilling with clover.
Stay tuned for more about Cedar Circle’s practices and research. We’ll keep our community updated throughout the season!
