The mission of Crows’ Feat is to educate and empower people, using the principles of permaculture and regenerative farming, to grow nourishing and affordable food. We are committed to cultivation practices – no-till farming, regenerative grazing, and the avoidance of all chemicals – that support human flourishing while protecting native flora and fauna. The farm serves as both a classroom and a model for collaboration with other farmers, conservation groups, and technical experts. By restoring these Kensington farmlands to peak fertility, we aim to provide abundant food for our Seacoast neighbors.
Our mission is deeply spiritual, rooted in the legacy of hard work and respect for the natural world embodied by our ancestors. We seek to foster, in ourselves and others, an attitude of self-reliance, cooperation, generosity, and appreciation for the gifts of nature and community. We see and seek the divine in all beings.
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a systems approach to cultivating food and community that works with and within the rhythms of the natural world. By emulating natural environments, permaculture plans create resilient, self-sustaining systems of cultivation. By mimicking features observed in nature, this approach promotes environmental conservation, stability and biodiversity.
The term “permaculture” was coined by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison in 1978, as an abbreviation of the idea of “permanent agriculture,” with a focus on edible perennial crops. A related concept is regenerative farming, whose methods create the resources and conditions to restore soil fertility, ensure productive yields, and support natural habitat. A central goal of both approaches is to achieve a self-contained, self-sustaining ecosystem. In addition, permaculture methods revitalize landscapes, promote the return of native species, enhance community connections, and support balanced ecology.
By relying on locally-adapted resources, methods and wisdom, communities that embrace regenerative farming methods are better able to achieve food security and sustainable living. Masanobu Fukuoka’s “One Straw Revolution” illustrates what is possible when one ceases trying to dominate nature, but instead simply listens.
Cultivating a Better Future
Our permaculture design plan envisages a self-sustaining system of cultivation that is geared around the production of tree fruits and nuts, other perennial fruits, and a wide variety of annual vegetables. We raise chickens for meat and eggs, and plan eventually to graze goats and/or sheep. Presently, we host a small number of beef cows from a neighboring farm that are rotated through our pastures to enhance the fertility of the soil, and provide bugs for the chickens. A neighboring beekeeper tends a dozen hives on our farm. We also grow a wide variety of perennial and annual flowers, to support these pollinators and bring joy to the community.
Sustainable Growing Practices
Soil Management
Living soil is the key to healthy plants and nutritious food. We do not till the soil, but build it up from year to year by allowing plants’ roots to remain intact after harvest. By rotating crops throughout our various gardens, soils are exposed to a wide variety of micronutrients. We support the fertility of newly-established beds with compost generated from the farm’s plant residues and chicken manure – although this becomes less necessary after a few growing seasons. Below the surface of the mature garden beds lies a microscopic civilization teeming with life: worms, centipedes, ants, nematodes, beetles, bacteria, fungi - and miles and miles of mycelium. Fertile terrain is key to the cultivation of healthy plants, which provide the variety of nutrients our bodies need.
Irrigation
Rainfall provides the majority of water for our plants; terraces on the hillside follow the earth’s natural contours and are tilted inward to gather and hold moisture close to where it is needed. Swales and trenches are positioned strategically to direct water toward (or away from) the gardens. We gather rainwater from the roof of our barn, which is held in a cistern and gravity-fed to lower-elevation growing beds irrigated with drip lines. Extensive mulching (primarily with cut grass) retains moisture in the beds, while preventing soil erosion and combating weeds. In a prolonged dry spell, we pump water from a spring-fed pond in the woods up to the cistern.
Propagation
Given our short growing season, we propagate many plants as seedlings during March-April, then harden and move them into prepared beds during the month of May. We rely on “air pruning” via high-quality composted soil blocks to promote healthy roots that make a successful transition to the outdoors. We combat garden pests primarily through mechanical means (fencing, netting, have-a-heart traps, removal from plants, and non-chemical deterrents) and have observed that plants rooted in healthy soil usually outpace their pests over the course of the summer.
Agroforestry
Our agroforestry operations comprise fruit and nut trees that are adapted to the climate of the northeast, including almonds, hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts, mulberries, pawpaw, persimmons, quince and kiwi berries. We also grow pear and peach trees, as well as rhubarb, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. While the trees’ canopies are developing, we are cultivating annual vegetables in the understory.
Season Extension
We rely on hoop houses to extend our growing season from early spring (February/March) through the fall (late October), with some varieties of flowers overwintering in the high tunnels. Trees cut from our woodlot provide logs for the fireplace, lumber for the construction of shelters for the animals, and siding and shelves for our farm store. We dry the wood in a solar-powered kiln, which allows a faster pace that Mother Nature’s time.
Future Plans
Looking forward, we hope to complete a retention pond to expand our rainwater storage, as well as a greenhouse to propagate seedlings, to avoid drawing on electrical power during the late winter months. We are working on improving our succession planting routines, and embarking on a comprehensive program of seed-saving and seed-sharing with the community.
2024 was the fifth season of our journey in learning and application of permaculture. We estimated it would take at least a decade to orient ourselves properly and establish competence in basic farm operations. That rings true today; we are now only half as dumb as we were when we embarked on this humbling odyssey.