Rianna and I crossed paths at a friend’s farm.  I was happily hauling buckets of manure, and she was curious.  “What are you doing with that?” she asked.  I explained my quest to make real compost – compost with high, balanced numbers of soil food web organisms in it.  Rianna was intrigued.  “I can haul poop too!” she said.

Weeks later I was standing in Rianna’s garden, talking microbes.  Rianna explained that she and her daughter were having digestive health issues.  She had a strong feeling that the answer to their microbiome woes lay at our feet, in the soil’s own microbiome.  And she wanted to know why her vegetables were having pest and disease problems, despite years of careful organic inputs.

In a healthy soil food web, microbes are not only busily working below ground to support plant growth and nutrient density.  They also make their way up to the above-ground portions of the plant, covering foliage surfaces to protect against pests and diseases.  From here they hitch a ride into our own systems every time we grab a fresh tomato or crunch on a cucumber direct from the vine.  This sharing of microbiomes between humans and soil has existed since we have.  Until industrial agriculture came along.

Through microscope analysis we learned that Rianna’s soil contained high levels of bacteria without any predators to keep them in check.  Fungi was low, and root-feeding nematodes had moved in, a sure sign that things were headed in the wrong direction.  Root-feeding nematodes plunge a spear into roots and consume the contents, thriving in conditions where beneficial organisms and their protective mechanisms are lacking.

Rianna was curious about the static compost pile she had been adding to all year.  Would applying it help?  The numbers were slightly better, but nowhere near being able to restore the soil food web.  And so began Rianna’s own thermophilic compost quest.  Today she has two aerobic piles, steadily working their way toward being fully balanced, empowering her with both a tool to restore her soil food web and a pathway to health for her family.