We are introducing the farms awarded in the 1st year of Farma živá. The first we visited was Dream Farm in the southern Slovak village of Ňarád, which focuses mainly on growing organic vegetables.
It may not be obvious at first glance, but talk to them and you soon realise that growers Michal and Eliška on Žitný ostrov love experimental farming. Their aim is for the soil to be truly alive and for the vegetables they grow to have high nutritional value. So they leave the soil undisturbed, but add nutrients through organic compost, increasing its fertility and resilience. The method they use is called “no dig”, and in a broader sense it could be described as regenerative agriculture. This means they do not disturb the soil, so they do not turn it, and they use no mineral fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.
They cover the soil with mulch and add compost. Regenerative agriculture also involves diversified production (you won't see large monocultures here) and rotating crops. This is borne out by the fact that Dream Farm grows as many as 40 – 45 kinds of vegetables in a season. It is also worth noting that they raise all their plants from seed, so they do not buy in young plants. During the season the farmers rotate crops in open ground divided into blocks and in polytunnels. They mainly alternate leafy, root and fruiting vegetables. They also sow in autumn, so they can harvest vegetables as early as spring (such as leafy brassicas and sprouting broccoli), and sow frost-killed cover crops. Vegetables grown on the farm are stored only briefly. They go into veg boxes or onto the market stall. Once a week, on Saturdays, you can also find them in Bratislava at Stará tržnica.
In future, Michal and Eliška plan to expand from vegetables into herbs, fruit trees and bushes. On the windward side of the polytunnel they have already planted hazels to produce their own mulch, and more bushes are to follow. For several years now they have also been trying out a combination of fruit trees - apples and plums with honey locust (which adds nitrogen to the soil). They will soon add soft fruit to their range. Michal also wants to create a test area for green manuring and a small ploughed area to compare yields.
The land, which was originally ordinary arable land, is now teeming with life. The story of this transformation is that after ploughing stopped, weeds “as big as trees” grew on the land. Before starting to farm, they levelled the site of the current farm and sowed rye, which served as mulch. They covered the areas of the future beds with silage sheeting and, instead of turning the soil in the beds, they spread imported manure, compost and wood chips.
They have replaced agrochemicals with mechanical protection in the form of crop tunnels (which protect the vegetables from flea beetles) and dish traps for mole crickets and slugs. Although Dream farm uses no chemicals, the drawback of today's farmed landscape, they say, is that these substances can drift onto the land from surrounding fields and from blanket chemical spraying to reduce mosquito numbers.
Dream Farm is a good example of a family microfarm that can produce a large amount of vegetables organically on a small area. The vegetables go straight to consumers without unnecessary middlemen, which reduces the burden on the environment. Membership of the Slowfood Pressburg movement speaks of a way of life in which intensive growing goes hand in hand with protecting soil, water and biodiversity. The farm has existed for only 5 years. Their journey is just beginning, but the words: “It's up to you how you do it. No one is forcing you to do it the way everyone else does.” say a lot.
Finally, we would like to thank VÚB banka for supporting the Krajina živá programme.
They cover the soil with mulch and add compost. Regenerative agriculture also involves diversified production (you won't see large monocultures here) and rotating crops. This is borne out by the fact that Dream Farm grows as many as 40 – 45 kinds of vegetables in a season. It is also worth noting that they raise all their plants from seed, so they do not buy in young plants. During the season the farmers rotate crops in open ground divided into blocks and in polytunnels. They mainly alternate leafy, root and fruiting vegetables. They also sow in autumn, so they can harvest vegetables as early as spring (such as leafy brassicas and sprouting broccoli), and sow frost-killed cover crops. Vegetables grown on the farm are stored only briefly. They go into veg boxes or onto the market stall. Once a week, on Saturdays, you can also find them in Bratislava at Stará tržnica.
In future, Michal and Eliška plan to expand from vegetables into herbs, fruit trees and bushes. On the windward side of the polytunnel they have already planted hazels to produce their own mulch, and more bushes are to follow. For several years now they have also been trying out a combination of fruit trees - apples and plums with honey locust (which adds nitrogen to the soil). They will soon add soft fruit to their range. Michal also wants to create a test area for green manuring and a small ploughed area to compare yields.
The land, which was originally ordinary arable land, is now teeming with life. The story of this transformation is that after ploughing stopped, weeds “as big as trees” grew on the land. Before starting to farm, they levelled the site of the current farm and sowed rye, which served as mulch. They covered the areas of the future beds with silage sheeting and, instead of turning the soil in the beds, they spread imported manure, compost and wood chips.
They have replaced agrochemicals with mechanical protection in the form of crop tunnels (which protect the vegetables from flea beetles) and dish traps for mole crickets and slugs. Although Dream farm uses no chemicals, the drawback of today's farmed landscape, they say, is that these substances can drift onto the land from surrounding fields and from blanket chemical spraying to reduce mosquito numbers.
Dream Farm is a good example of a family microfarm that can produce a large amount of vegetables organically on a small area. The vegetables go straight to consumers without unnecessary middlemen, which reduces the burden on the environment. Membership of the Slowfood Pressburg movement speaks of a way of life in which intensive growing goes hand in hand with protecting soil, water and biodiversity. The farm has existed for only 5 years. Their journey is just beginning, but the words: “It's up to you how you do it. No one is forcing you to do it the way everyone else does.” say a lot.
Finally, we would like to thank VÚB banka for supporting the Krajina živá programme.
