Big Little Farm - Helping growers grow
What is the Big Little Farm?
Big Little Farm is a small producer of various soil amendment products, and a service provider to apply those products. We also grow a small amount of produce and microgreens for mostly personal consumption, but a small amount grown is for sale.
The soil amendment side produces:
- Aerated Compost Tea (ACT+);
- Biochar;
- Worm castings and compost on a limited basis;
- Spraying and application services;
- Consultation, planning and installation of gardens, and organic property management.
Big Little Farm has morphed over the past couple of years. Initially, growing organic/natural food in a suburban setting and marketing that to like-minded customers was the initial goal. But markets and opportunities change with time, and now the emphasis has switched to providing growers, farmers and ranchers Aerated Compost Tea (ACT+) with additional additives to improve soil quality, which improves the condition and quality of their hay fields and pasture forages, while saving them money over the long term.
Big Little Farm is a proud American business, as we produce tangible, physical items you can hold, smell, taste - who produces things any more? - and organic practices and products ONLY are used throughout this enterprise.
I am now in preparation for a fall/winter garden. From my experience in growing I also want to help others who ARE growing things, and we do that by producing biochar, worm castings and our fresh on-demand ACT+.
People are beginning to realize that by growing your own clean food, you and your family can have better health, cut food costs, provide a fun and educational activity the whole family can be involved with, and improves the quality of your property. These are just a few things growing your own food can provide.
We hope this site will encourage readers to begin growing and maintaining your lawns, landscapes, food gardens and pastures with organic products and practices. If you are in the DFW area, we can help you get started with planning, installation, and maintenance of your garden. Call or e-mail us with your questions or suggestions, and if anything, just to chat.
Our service area for ACT+ spraying includes all of Wise County, Montague County, western Denton County (west of I-35), southwestern Cooke County and eastern Clay County in North Central Texas.
Organic Soil Building vs. Synthetic Fertilizers . . .What's the Difference?
We here at the Big Little Farm subscribe to an organic/natural approach to growing things. Organic simply means "having carbon". All living things contain carbon, and all living things consume carbon in one way or the other. Essentially, carbon is life. In science fiction terms, EVERYTHING living, or has died, is or was a carbon life form.
An organic program focuses on building soil health by partnering with and utilizing microbial life in the soil. Our various products provide food, energy, minerals, microbes and trace elements to soil life, consuming and being consumed by other life forms present in the soil, thus increasing carbon within the soil. These microbes (both in the soil, and in the ingredients we apply) provide food to the plants efficiently through their life and death. The plants, in turn, provide root exudates (carbon) to those microbes as food.
In an organic program, you feed the soil, and the soil takes care of the plant. An organic program also reduces pest and disease infestation and helps improve the soil's water-holding capacity, among many other things.
Synthetic fertilizers (basically, ammonia in it's various forms, which is basically nitrogen) take a HUGE amount of energy to produce. The Haber-Bosch process is the most common way of producing the world's supply. Natural gas is super compressed with air and heated to a very high temperature, which produces liquid ammonia. It contains no carbon, and also produces salts. Salts "preserve" things by killing microorganisms. When you apply synthetic fertilizers, you are essentially killing soil life, which is the antithesis of an organic program. And, if that nitrogen is not taken up by the plants soon, it either volatizes into the atmosphere, or is washed into ground water sources.
We help you apply life. We think that's a better way to go. Please let us know how we can help you do that.