| Dasher and Valley clean last leaves from chardonnay vines. White strips are pheromone strips to control European grapevine moth. |
Compost Cycle of Our Ranch
I think of our goats as kinds of blenders: they mix up the food stuffs of the ranch, then release what isn’t digested to be composted and put back into building soils. Here they are cleaning the last of the leaves off the vines, one of their favorite jobs!
They browse all the way to the vineyard, through the lavender fields and the forest, so our compost becomes a kind of essence of Harms Vineyards and Lavender Fields, made possible in part by Dasher and Valley (pictured), Gaviota and Agaleah, Lily and Petunia and Boey, Anna and Estella. One of the things that differentiates Biodynamic farming from organic and conventional farming is that animals’ role is recognized as being essential to soil building and healthy balance.