The (Sometimes Rocky) Road to Regenerative
May 2025
Welcome to the 2nd installment of our 3-part farming series. This one is a dense read, so plenty to dig into before our next drop in June. Our first installment in this series left off just after our 2018 farming season, when soil tests confirmed that our cover crop and composting efforts had increased organic material and added more nitrogen and bio-mass to our fields. It was also the year we decided to invest in equipment to support our growing commitment to regenerative farming. And you can’t talk about regenerative farming without talking about Mimi Casteel!
Mimi Casteel sitting on a compost mound / Photo by Aubrie Legault
Meet Mimi!
In the spring of 2019, we welcomed our good friend, Mimi Casteel from Hope Well Wine in Oregon to Branchwater. Mimi comes from one of the pioneering viticultural families in Oregon. Her parents co-founded Bethel Heights Vineyard in 1977 along with her aunt and uncle. Mimi went on to work in several National Forests which fueled her passion for studying botany, forestry and ecology. She earned her MS in Forest Science from Oregon State University and then spent the next several years working as a botanist and ecologist for the Forest Service. She returned to Bethel Heights in 2005 and in 2015 she started her own project, Hope Well with the vision of creating an environmental culture where her vines and family could thrive naturally.
Mimi is well-known in the wine world as one of the pioneers of regenerative agriculture in viticulture, and we wanted her to see what we were attempting to do at Branchwater. We needed all the guidance and encouragement we could get. Of course, there are some key differences between agriculture with annual crops, like what we are doing at Branchwater, and viticulture with the vine as a perennial crop. In viticulture, the cover crops are all grown in between the vines and are used to suppress weeds as well as to build soil. Many organic vineyards use the plow as the main process to reduce weed pressure, but plowing disrupts the underground mycorrhizal networks. These networks of fungal threads connect individual plants together, and help transfer water, carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients and minerals between them, which in turn increases the plants’ tolerance to different environmental stresses.
Mimi and Kevin identifying trees in our back field, the Secret Field
It's all about connection
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are fundamental microorganisms for soil fertility, plant nutrition and health, but they are fragile, and they are destroyed by tilling. In the vineyard, the cover crops used to increase soil health and reduce weeds can be rolled or cut down before grapes are harvested from the vine. So, the area between the rows of vines can be constantly planted, rolled and planted again to encourage fungal networks to grow and support the vines. With annual crops, like cereal grains, this approach isn’t possible, so our challenge has been to find other ways to support the soil.
As mentioned in last month’s post, our delay in securing funding for renovations allowed us to have some time to experiment. The cover crop mixture of cowpeas, buckwheat, and daikon radish—which we discussed in the last post—were grown in the normal growing season, meaning we couldn’t simultaneously grow our winter wheat and rye. We tried to no-till drill the rye and wheat into the cover crop bed in 2019, but the weed pressure was too high, and we weren’t able to harvest any viable grain. Our thinking was to get away from ploughing to encourage soil development. We tried this approach again in 2020 with similar results.
In 2021, after two failed crops, we experimented with just discing the soil to break up sod and weeds, and then we planted into that. We saw this as a middle way: not as intensive as ploughing, but aggressive enough to hopefully break up the weeds. 2021 was a very complicated year in the Hudson Valley. For fruiting trees, there was a hard frost on April 22nd, which reduced yields and eliminated the potential for harvesting any stone fruits. In May, we had well above average rainfall of 5.4”. June was like a desert, with only 1.68” total rain accumulation and over 6 days with above 90°F temperatures. With intense heat and very little water, the plants shut down just as they were heading out and entering the milky stage. Then came July with overcast skies, above average rainfall and heavy winds. The “normal” time to harvest grains here is the second to third week in July, but not in 2021. The overcast and wet July promoted weed growth in the understory and fusarium head blight on the grain.
Again, for the third year in a row, we had nothing to harvest. Those losses sound catastrophic, but luckily we had a grain bin full of wheat, one full of corn—which we grew only one year—and about 5 tons of rye, all from previous harvests.
Nevertheless, we made substantial changes in 2022. We started production of our gin in February 2021 and made 7,000 bottles over the course of that year. That depleted our wheat supply in storage, so the time for experimentation was over, and we felt that we needed to reset. In October 2021, we ploughed the fields for the first time in three years. The soil had changed.
A quick geological detour
Much of what follows on our geology was pulled from the Natural Resource Inventory for the Town of Milan, for which Kevin was on the Advisory Committee. The Town of Milan is rich in water. Milan is entirely within the watershed of the Hudson River and within the subbasins of six major tributaries that flow into the freshwater tidal reach of the Hudson River estuary, one of which is the Little Wappinger Creek, which bisects our farm. All of the water we use in production comes from our well, so having this natural resource is of immense importance to us.
Much of the Hudson Valley lies within the Hudson-Mohawk Lowlands, which are bounded on the east by the Taconic Mountains and on the west by the Catskills. Shale bedrock is commonplace, but also metamorphic rocks such as schist, phyllite, slate, quartzite and metagraywacke, and sedimentary rocks such as argillite, graywacke, and conglomerate, as well as Taconic Mélange. The subsoil at Branchwater is shale argillite and siltstone where the grain fields are; graywacke and shale to the west at the highest elevation, and a small section of limestone, dolostone and shale in forested areas.
The surface geology, however, is much more interesting. To the west, on what we call the steep slope, is bedrock outcropping. It’s a rocky, steep terrain, now forested, but potentially a great place for goats and pigs. The main part of the farm, and where all the grain fields lie, is made of glacial till and outwash of sand and gravel, which is to say, very poor, sandy/gravelly soil with very little organic material. A fourth section consists of swamp deposits, and these are the richest soils, often too wet for farming, but perfect for ducks in the summer and for overwintering the chickens.
Back to work
In the mid-20th century, this farm was conceived as a dairy operation. It was then rented out to produce feed corn in the 1980s, and, ultimately, it was just cut for hay for the 30-40 years before we came here. Although no herbicides or pesticides had been used in decades, the soils were depleted of nutrients. Taking hay off the fields to feed animals took necessary nutrients with it. When we first arrived, the planting of cover crops and application of compost was meant to help mitigate this, but we didn’t realize how much more we needed to do.
Ploughing in October 2021 opened up the soil for the first time in three years, and we could see a change in the amount of organic matter in the soil, worm castings, and a new layer of humus. Something positive had happened underground.
We planted our winter crops and Kevin continued talking to local farmer friend Stuart Farr of Hudson Valley Hops and Grains in Ancram. Stuart is a certified organic grower who also employs regenerative techniques. We sell his incredibly delicious cold pressed sunflower oil in our farm store. Stuart was putting together an order for a mixture of certified organic chicken manure and boron for the spring and offered to add a few tons on to his order for application at Branchwater. Boron is an essential micronutrient for plant growth, playing a vital role in cell wall development, hormone regulation, and overall plant structure, and the soils in the Hudson Valley have very little of it. We happily accepted Stuart’s offer and in March of 2022, on a cold morning when the ground was frozen, Kevin spread three tons of this organic fertilizer mixture on the fields. He then broadcast seeded red clover over the fields. The thinking here was that the nitrogen boost from the chicken manure would be available for the cereal grains just as they started tilling after winter and into the stem growth stage in May. The red clover would naturally sow itself through the freezing and thawing of the ground throughout spring and would start to grow at the end of May just as the grains began heading. The clover would also provide nitrogen, but more importantly, it would spread out like a carpet and help suppress weeds.
This approach worked and we had a respectable harvest in 2022. We then repeated this approach in 2023, but we made further modifications. One central tenant of regenerative agriculture is incorporating animals into the farming process, which we will expand upon next month. In 2021, we added ducks to the farm and we added chickens in 2022. We purchased chicken tractors, mobile chicken coops and feed bins from our friends Mimi and Richard Beaven of Little Ghent Farm, who were getting out of the farming business -- just as we were going even deeper down the rabbit hole!
After the 2022 harvest, we bailed our rye straw for bedding for the ducks, and then moved the chickens into the fields throughout the summer. They had fresh pasture and the opportunity to eat insects and glean the leftover grain, and the fields benefited from their manure. We did the same process in 2023.
In the 2024 season, we made another change by pulling 6 acres of the rye field out of production for a year. This field had been ploughed in October 2022 and planted with rye. It was harvested in July 2023. We had then moved the animals through the field for the winter, so we could have their manure input. When we mucked the coops into the field, the bedding also contributed more organic material. In the spring of 2024, we moved the animals to their summer location and then we planted a salad of cover crops - field peas and buckwheat, as we had before for nitrogen; oats, which help promote mycorrhizal fungi networks; and sunflowers for biomass and beauty.
Sunflowers provide biomass and beauty to our fields
Chickens aerate the soil, eat potentially hazardous pests, provide valuable nitrogen in the form of manure and provide us with eggs in the process
Animal bedding provides organic matter to the soil
Biodiversity matters
There is a growing body of evidence coming out of Australia that biodiversity amongst different plant families is very important for soil development and plant health:
Every plant exudes its own unique blend of sugars, enzymes, phenols, amino acids, nucleic acids, auxins, gibberellins and other biological compounds, many of which act as signals to soil microbes. Root exudates vary continuously over time, depending on the plant’s immediate requirements. The greater the diversity of plants, the greater the diversity of microbes and the more robust the soil ecosystem.
This is from an article “Light Farming” by Dr. Christine Jones who holds a PhD in Soil Biochemistry from the University of New England in New South Wales. She has written extensively on soil ecology and groundcover. Check out her website: www.amazingcarbon.com
So, back to the work in our rye field in 2024 . . . Peas, oats and buckwheat are all killed by winter frost, so we let them go from April until August, then we mowed the field down, ploughed the organic material under and replanted to wheat.
We are now rotating this plan, taking 6 acres out of production every year so that two-thirds of our fields are in production, while one-third benefits from skipping the plow for two years, and gets an added boost of organic material from manure, coop bedding and cover crops.
The plant diversity can be as robust as we want, but it can also be simple. Dr. Jones adds: “Something as simple as including one or two companions with a cash crop can make a world of difference. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly common to see peas with canola; clover or lentils with wheat; soybean, pigeon pea, faba beans, mungbeans or vetch with corn; flax with chickpeas; buckwheat and/or peas with potatoes.” If this is correct, the red clover we plant in the spring has more benefit than just adding nitrogen and suppressing weeds.
Farming is dynamic work that requires us to observe, question, research, read, and pivot when needed. It is systems within systems that we humans – equipped with highly evolved verbal language skills – are often ill equipped to read and understand. It requires patience and time and a willingness to be humbled again and again. We love this work and this farm more than we could have ever imagined and our roots grow deeper and more intertwined with this land with every passing season.
What We’ve Been Up To Lately
Thanks to all who attended our Dry Vermouth launch on April 26th! We mixed up martinis and spritzes and enjoyed being back in action. We needed a party and you all delivered!
We look forward to hosting you for our Fridays at the Farm series and for the other spirit launch parties we are plotting for the year ahead. 2025 is gearing up to be another busy year for our distillery and our farm and we are excited to share some new milestones with you in the months ahead.
SHEEP!
If you missed the memo, we got sheep back in February - five Fine Fleece Shetlands from our neighbors at Quarry Hill Farm in Rhinebeck.
Sheep are simply wondrous, and we continue to be enchanted by the gentle natures of our tiny flock. Kevin has always wanted sheep, but because the fields we have are mostly used to grow the grains for our spirits, we don’t actually have a lot of pasture available for grazing. We’re working on getting infrastructure in place to access our back field, which would be ideal for a larger grazing program and more SHEEP! Time. Patience. Money.
Gracie, the matriarch and Robin Photo by Julibeth Corwin
Robin has only recently embarked on what will undoubtedly become a lifelong journey down the fiber rabbit hole, exploring wool and its versatile applications. It was super rewarding to participate in our very first on-farm shearing day here last month. We were thrilled to get on the schedule with Aaron Loux, one of the region’s most respected and sought-after shearers. And we were fortunate to have the guidance and support of our unwavering friend and mentor, Mimi Beaven on shearing day. Mimis are very special people, especially in the world of agriculture!
Aaron shearing Fauvio Freshly shorn sheep A very giddy sheperdess with her very first fleeces
In the fields:
Kevin added 3 tons of certified organic chicken manure and boron to our fields as fertilizer this past week. The wheat field is looking really great and we’re hoping for a good harvest this year. The wheat is the base of our Gin as well as our limited production Wheat Whiskey.
Nothing to see here, folks- just another farmer excited about animal excrement!
Wheat babies
RAMP IT UP!
For those of you who have visited our farm store, you may have seen the cookbook titled “Duck Duck Goose” by Hank Shaw. We have this copy on hand to provide customers with recipe ideas for the ducks they buy from us, since we are often asked how best to prepare them.
Hank Shaw is an avid hunter, angler and gatherer, as well as a James Beard Award-winning author and chef. He is a specialist of all things wild: fish, game, edible wild plants and mushrooms.
Since it is officially ramp season here, we wanted to share one of our favorite uses for this wild beauty. Ramp pesto is easy to prepare and easy to store. You can find Hank Shaw’s recipe online here as well as below:
Hank Shaw’s Ramp Pesto:
Any green onion, wild or cultivated, works with this recipe. I've done it with ramp leaves as well as the leaves from Sierra Nevada wild onions, chives, garden-variety scallions and whole three-cornered leeks. If you don't like pine nuts, pecans, walnuts and almonds are fine, too. If you've never toasted nuts before, put them in a steel pan over medium-high heat. Shake the pan frequently so you don't burn the nuts; pine nuts are especially persnickety this way. Pour the nuts out of the hot pan when they get a little brown on the edges.
Ingredients
· 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
· 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts or chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds
· 3 tablespoons grated cheese, such as pecorino
· 2 cups ramp or other wild onion leaves, about 2 dozen
· Salt to taste
· About 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
· If you are blanching your leaves, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt to make it taste like the sea. Set a large bowl of ice water nearby. Plunge the ramp leaves into the boiling water for 1 minute. Remove and quickly cool them down in the ice water. Squeeze dry with a tea cloth or paper towels.
· Chop the ramp leaves and set aside. Pesto is best made with a mortar and pestle, thus the name, which means "pound." You can of course make this in a food processor, but it will not be the same. To start, add the toasted pine nuts and garlic and crush them.
· Add the cheese and ramps and commence pounding. Mash everything together, stirring with the pestle and mashing well so it is all fairly uniform.
· Start adding olive oil. How much? Depends on how you are using your pesto. If you are making a spread, maybe 1/4 cup. If a pasta sauce, double that. Either way, you add 1 tablespoon at a time, pounding and stirring to incorporate it. When it's a nice rough paste, taste it and add salt if you need to; sometimes the cheese makes the pesto salty enough by itself. Serve as a spread on bread, as an additive to a minestrone, as a pasta sauce or as a dollop on fish or poultry.
Notes
If you are using a food processor, add everything but the oil and pulse to combine. Then, turn the motor on the processor and drizzle in the olive oil. Be careful not to let the mixture become a smooth paste!
What we’ve been mixing up lately
Have we mentioned that we just released our dry vermouth?! We’ve always felt our gin lends itself well to martinis and what do you need for a great martini? A citrusy, dry vermouth! Our good friend Jake Lewis was the opening Beverage Director at Stissing House, a local restaurant of great acclaim. He created their original cocktail list in 2022, including The Pine Plains Martini, featuring Branchwater Gin, which is still a fixture on their list today. Jake did a twist on the original which has become our house martini.
Jake’s Martini aka the “Branchtini”
2.5oz Branchwater Gin
0.5oz Branchwater Dry Vermouth
0.25oz Simple Syrup
1 dash Hella Orange Bitters
Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with orange twist.
Looking ahead…
Crafting in Community -our first “crafter in residence” series kicks off today, with Jacqui Rose leading the first of her 3-part Travel-Ready Sewing Series. If you are interested in hosting something creative here, please reach out. We are committed to making our space available for creativity and for community.
Introduction to English Paper Piecing Workshop with Jacqui Rose Sun, May 4th 11am-1pm
Introduction to Sashiko with Jacqui Rose Sun, June 8th 11am-1pm Information and tickets here
Introduction to Embroidery with Jacqui Rose Sun, July 13th 11am-1pm Information and tickets here
Fridays at the Farm is back! We introduced this series last year as a way to showcase the spirits we make here, serving up cocktails and specialty food boards against the farm’s casual and calming backdrop. We’ll be hosting Fridays at the Farm the final Friday of every month from May through October, so mark your calendars! (May 30th, June 27th, July 25th, Aug 29th, Sept 26th and Oct 31st 4-7pm)
North Salem Farmers Market - for friends further south, you can find us at the historic hamlet of Croton Falls in Westchester a few Saturdays this season. We will be there on May 10th, July 12th, and Sept 13th. The market runs from 9am-2pm and showcases quality foods, organic produce, flowers, and handmade goods from local farms and artisans.
IN MEMORIAM
We lost a beloved family member, Kevin’s Aunt Joyce on April 24th. Joyce transferred from Columbus, Ohio in 2018 to be close to family. We were very fortunate to live just around the corner from her, especially during Covid, and for day-to-day issues like dealing with the cable company or getting her to doctors appointments.
Joyce made fast work of adjusting to her new surroundings, joining the local garden club and getting involved in St John’s Reformed Church in Upper Red Hook. She made new friends while maintaining a vast network of friendships back in Columbus. The volume of mail she sent and received was noteworthy!
Joyce was a Midwestern girl at heart. She was committed to family, community and being of service to others. She was on a fixed income and still managed to give to 20 different charities every year. Some of the organizations she supported were Habitat for Humanity, Mid-Ohio Food Bank, and Doctors Without Borders. She was an avid gardener and former teacher, two passions that came together beautifully in her later years.
Joyce was very involved with our farm and a huge help to us. She kept an eye on things and cared for our animals (including a diabetic cat needing insulin shots twice a day!) when we needed to travel. She provided feedback and encouragement. And she helped us plant many things. Joyce will continue to live on at Branchwater.
