{"id":6485,"date":"2024-07-30T15:28:40","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T19:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/?p=6485"},"modified":"2024-10-09T15:16:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T19:16:23","slug":"know-your-farmer-studio-farm-and-its-soil-health-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/know-your-farmer-studio-farm-and-its-soil-health-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Farmer: Studio Farm and Its Soil Health Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Soil Health Shorts: Studio Farm soil health practices\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IYmJ5tHYHEQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If there\u2019s one thing that the Wingate Family of Studio Farm in Voluntown, CT stands by, it\u2019s understanding where your food comes from. \u201cMy sister always says, \u2018You gotta know your farmer,&#8217;\u201d said Matt Wingate in a recent interview with Connecticut Farmland Trust\u2019s Conservation and Stewardship Coordinator, Cat Wang. Cat set out to do just that, to get to know the farmers of Studio Farm and learn more about the soil health practices implemented by him and his parents, Dick and Dot Wingate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A Brief History of Studio Farm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dick and Dot moved to Studio Farm on April 10, 1963. At the time, Dick worked as a high school teacher, and Dot was a stay-at-home mom to four children. Having the ability to grow their own food proved to be vital in making ends meet, and as a result, agriculture soon became a way of life for the family. \u201cI was a spoiled rotten kid, and I never knew it. I know now,\u201d Matt said to his mother, reflecting on how she tended to the animals, grew vegetables, and canned food to provide for the family. Once Matt and his siblings left for school, Dot also pursued a career as a high-school teacher. For a while, the couple maintained their small-scale farming on the side, but it wasn\u2019t until the late &#8217;90s after the couple retired, that they dove into a more serious, commercial farming operation. Today, Studio Farm sells a little bit of everything, from Asian greens to zucchinis and strawberry rhubarb jam,&#8221; Matt explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the Wingate children, growing up on a farm fostered a love for agriculture and the land that provided for them. To this day, the four children are all still involved with the family\u2019s farm, and two of them have even decided to pursue farming as a full-time career. Previously an engineer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), six years ago, Matt decided to return to Voluntown to farm with his parents at Studio Farm. His sister, Belinda Learned, also left her full-time job to pursue farming full-time at her own dairy and vegetable farm operation, Stony Ledge Farm. Studio Farm and Stony Ledge Farm work in tandem with one another and attend two farmers markets a week. Each also run their own CSA programs. \u201cWe\u2019re a total partnership between my mom, my dad, and my sister,\u201d Matt concluded when describing the farm operations. Paying homage to their humble beginnings, the Wingate family has now long thrived from working together and making decisions in the best interest of the land and the people they are feeding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"793\" height=\"596\" src=\"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-front-field.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6489\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-front-field.jpg 793w, https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-front-field-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-front-field-768x577.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 793px) 100vw, 793px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><em>The front fields of Studio Farm with many of their crops in full bloom.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Soil Health Practices<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Studio Farm has long prioritized the well-being of\nthe land and its community, it was only in the last ten years that the family\nbegan to pay close attention to the health of their soil. Why, you may ask?\nWell, \u201cany farmer will tell you, the weather is changing,\u201d chimed Matt, \u201cand\nyou\u2019re seeing mass run-off and dust bowls similar to those of the 30s. I\u2019ve\nbeen on the tractor where I\u2019ve needed goggles because we had bare soil and a\nlittle wind would blow and there goes my top soil.\u201d Matt\u2019s background as an\nenvironmental engineer at NOAA compounded with the real life changing weather\nevents in CT as a farmer were driving forces in deciding to actively partake in\nsoil health practices to combat these issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having no prior expertise in soil health, Matt relied on\ninter-farm collaboration and farmer knowledge sharing when implementing soil\nhealth practices on Studio Farm. \u201cI like hearing from farmers and how they do\nit and then try to just make it better,\u201d Matt continued. \u201cMy parents are\nmembers of the grange \u2013 for farmers to get together and ask, \u2018Well, what do you\ndo? What do you do?\u2019 Farmers need to do that more.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seeking to learn more about soil health practices, he\ntook an online course with UConn Extension\u2019s soil scientist, Kip Kolesinskas,\nand toured Bryan O&#8217;Hara\u2019s farm in Lebanon to see how he implemented soil health\npractices. Over time, Matt and his family strengthened their own soil health\npractices by emulating practices from other farms that saw success from\nfocusing on their soil health. \u201cA lot of what [Bryan] does I try to do here,\u201d\nMatt elaborated. \u201cSo we do cover crops, we rotate our crops, and we make our\nown compost.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>COVER CROPPING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most effective practice that Studio Farm has\nimplemented has been cover cropping. Studio Farm has had cover crops on their\nland for about ten years. This year, after many seasons of fighting weeds\nbetween potato plants, the Wingates tried cover cropping between the rows of\nplants instead of using methods like weed fabric. \u201cI\u2019m thinking the potato crop\nthis year will be stellar because the plants didn\u2019t have to fight for water\nsince there aren\u2019t weeds.\u201d Matt said. With the cover crops suppressing the\nweeds, he estimated that \u201cweed reduction went from probably 100% to 5%\u201d from the\nprevious year alone.\u201d Moreover, cover cropping has enabled the farmers to move\naway from intensive manual labor days to more days where they can just sit on a\ntractor to do their work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"708\" height=\"528\" src=\"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-row-crops-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6492\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-row-crops-1.jpg 708w, https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-row-crops-1-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 708px) 100vw, 708px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"478\" height=\"532\" src=\"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-potato.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-potato.png 478w, https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-Farm-potato-270x300.png 270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 478px) 100vw, 478px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><em>With a successful harvest anticipated due to the effectiveness of their most  recent cover-cropping project, the entire family was excited for a bountiful harvest of red, white, and blue potatoes for their Fourth of July celebration.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to weed suppression, cover cropping has been\nbeneficial for many other reasons. Matt explained, \u201cWe also cover crop to not\nhave any brown soil (bare soil). We no longer seem to have nice gentle rains.\nIt rains with attitude, and this past winter, almost every rain we had was\nextreme wind and rain, it was horizontal.\u201d The heavier the rain event, the more\nsusceptible to compaction and erosion soil is. For the Wingates, having a cover\ncrop has alleviated these issues significantly by fostering healthy microbiomes\nunderneath the soil that allow for more water filtration and retention, as well\nas taking on the brunt force of the rain, helping to reduce soil compaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, Matt is also experimenting with new kinds of\ncover crops to further enhance the soil. After finding a seed supplier that\nlists which kinds of organic matter each crop can add to the soil, Matt has\ntaken to deliberately choosing cover crops based on which nutrients they will\nadd to the soil. Being able to use a cover crop to build organic matter rather\nthan relying on expensive and toxic fertilizers has resulted in a great sense\nof satisfaction for the Wingates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>COMPOSTING AND PEST MANAGEMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next to Studio Farm\u2019s rows of potatoes interspersed with\nalleys of grass cover crops, is a large compost pile that has already sprouted\na large squash plant. \u201cWe don\u2019t use fertilizer here; I just make as much\ncompost as I can,\u201d Matt beamed. Though the farm has been composting from the\nvery beginning, they have now scaled up their composting operations, using\nmostly manure from the neighbors\u2019 farm animals, and all the leaves they collect\nin the fall from trees. For a long time, their simple composting method has\nbeen an extremely effective way to increase the organic matter content of the\nsoil without relying on toxic chemicals to help their plants grow. \u201cWe try not\nto sustain the soil but build it. That&#8217;s why we do so much with compost and\norganic matter,\u201d explained Matt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"722\" height=\"543\" src=\"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-farm-compost.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-farm-compost.jpg 722w, https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Studio-farm-compost-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 722px) 100vw, 722px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><em>Dick, Dot, and Matt standing in front of their ever-growing compost pile.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caring deeply about the well-being of their community and\ncustomer base, this non-toxic philosophy has extended to all matters on the\nfarm, including pest management. This has resulted in more creative solutions\nto deal with the farm\u2019s harmful insects. Matt explained how he learned from his\nsister\u2019s success on Stony Ledge Farm with the use of nematodes. \u201cNematodes are\nlittle microbial bugs that you put in the spray rig and spray all over your\ngarden,\u201d Matt explained, highlighting how this method controls pests such as\nsquash bugs while benefiting soil health. \u201cMy sister\u2019s really big on it but\nit\u2019s expensive&#8230; But after a couple of years \u2013 I think two \u2013 she said she can\nreally see a difference in her high tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Moving Forwards, Looking Backwards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seeing how far the Wingates have come in their soil\nhealth practices, Cat inquired further about their implementation process, specifically\nthe challenges they faced when they started as well as what they think is\npreventing other farmers from starting. Matt responded firmly, \u201cWell, unless\nyou\u2019re like a Kip who went to school for this, I think our impediment was just\na lack of awareness&#8230; But I\u2019ll also say they\u2019ll be the first to tell you \u2018I\nhave no time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps a universal trend for farmers across the country,\nthe sheer lack of time is often a large obstacle to implementing new practices\non their farm. Yet, Matt emphasized how worthwhile he found these methods to be\nfor his family\u2019s farm, from increased yields and climate resiliency to\ndecreased labor and input costs. Though requiring an initial investment in time\nand resources, being open to learning from other farmers has proven to be\nextremely valuable to Studio Farm when looking for solutions to their problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Soil health practices vary greatly from farm to farm,\ninfluenced by factors such as ecology, time, goals, and access to information.\nWith intensifying weather patterns, these practices have become increasingly\nimportant. For Matt, soil health is about \u201cdoing the right thing \u2013 to build the\nsoil and leave it better than what we had.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If there\u2019s one thing that the Wingate Family of Studio Farm in Voluntown, CT stands by, it\u2019s understanding where your food comes from. \u201cMy sister always says, \u2018You gotta know your farmer,&#8217;\u201d said Matt Wingate in a recent interview with Connecticut Farmland Trust\u2019s Conservation and Stewardship Coordinator, Cat Wang. Cat set out to do just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6485"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6581,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6485\/revisions\/6581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}