Soil health is everything at Jackson Road Farm
Jackson Road Farm is entering its second growing season. The fields are waking up after winter, seedlings are popping up in the greenhouse, and the worms are hard at work preparing the soil. The coming months will surely prove challenging, especially in the heat of summer, but if we stick to our guiding principles, I am confident that our efforts will reward us with an abundance of beautiful produce to share with our friends, neighbors, and greater community.
The farm was born of an idea that large quantities of diverse, clean, and highly nutritious food can be cultivated in an ecologically responsible manner on a small plot of land. That idea began brewing during my years as a chef in high-profile restaurants across the country. My experiences in the kitchen made me increasingly curious about the origins of the food I was serving. Not just the where, but the how became somewhat of an obsession. How was this food grown or raised? How did it impact the environment it came from? How did it affect the individuals involved in getting it into my cooler? How did it affect the guests in the dining room?
I spent several years working with chef José Andrés, whose culinary creations and humanitarian efforts have touched lives around the globe. José instilled in me the mission that drives his work: Change the world through the power of food. At Jackson Road Farm, we are aiming to do just that.
Our farm, located just north of Holly Springs, Mississippi, is not a solo operation. While I handle most of the field work, I am lucky to have the support of my parents, Jane and Tom, my sister, Becky, and my wonderful wife, Larisa. At some point, each of us has found our hands dirty, our foreheads dripping with sweat, and our backs sore from working in the garden. And hours of planning and troubleshooting conversations dominate our family gatherings.
The farm takes many ideologies from the “no-till” movement in agriculture (which focuses on minimal soil disturbance) to maintain natural processes of growth and decomposition to build a healthy foundation of fertile and organically rich soil.
In short, we are leveraging nature and guiding this piece of land to perform without subscribing to the war-like mentality of larger-scale agriculture. Unlike conventional growers, our core goals do not center around crop yields.
Instead, we believe healthy plants and high yields can be a byproduct of responsible soil and ecosystem management.
One of the most important pillars of our soil management is that the garden beds receive no synthetic inputs. Our fertilization methods consist of cover cropping (non-cash crops grown in beds not currently under cash crop) to draw nutrients from the subsoil and pump nitrogen from the air into the root zone, and compost (produced on-farm), which is accelerated through the decomposition process by our rustic yet scientifically sound compost aeration system.
Our pest control consists of netting placed over young plants until they are resilient enough to endure minor pest damage without threat to the crop, occasional manual removal of things such as tomato hornworms, and a strong reliance on natural processes (such as predation by birds and beneficial insects) to balance the population surges of undesirables around the garden. Fungal and bacterial issues are addressed on a case-by-case basis, and it has become evident that thinking of these things systematically, that is, addressing the root cause, often points to soil health, which is the core of our growing methodology.
As a result of these two basic management practices, I have witnessed the soil in the garden turn from lifeless sand and compacted clay to a vibrant ecosystem of earthworms and other soil-dwelling organisms that are constantly at work turning our compost and other organic matter into a nutrient-rich topsoil perfect for growing produce year-round. On our small hilltop, we grow over 30 different vegetables and herbs, with over 100 varietals including lettuce, carrots, beets, kale, cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, onions, fennel, peas, beans, peppers, squash, and the list goes on.
Beyond ecology and soil building, I believe small-scale agriculture can empower individuals and communities to be more self-reliant by providing food security in a way that large-scale, consolidated agriculture cannot.
Imagine a physical landscape dotted with small farms, each under a few acres in size. Now, imagine one of those farms experiencing hardship resulting in crop failure. Instead of the area around that farm not having access to fresh, local, healthy food, the other farms in the area step in and fill the gap until the affected farm can regain its stride. There is security and safety in numbers.
The empowerment aspect of small-scale farming is the driving belief behind another, unwritten goal of our farm: to serve as a working model for others to learn how to grow food. We can only produce so much here on our quarter of an acre. We are not reinventing the wheel, keeping secrets, or worried about competition from other farms.
We need more farms, not fewer.
It would be incredible if a dozen more quarter-acre diversified food plots popped up surrounding the greater Memphis area. Imagine having access to clean, nutritionally dense, affordable produce from your own neighborhood, all while knowing who grew it and how.
Jackson Road Farm will be open for on-site sales this spring. Keep an eye out for us at your local farmers market, and feel free to reach out to us at jacksonroadfarm@gmail.com with any questions or just to say hello.
John Heineke spent over a decade working as a professional chef across the country. He has since returned to the area to found Jackson Road Farm, a small-scale regeneratively-minded market garden outside Holly Springs, Mississippi. Here, he brings his passion for quality food and ingredients to life through a focus on revitalizing the soil and ecosystems surrounding his farm to grow the most natural, sustainable, and nutrient-dense produce possible. @jacksonroadfarm
Tim Barker is a chef, restaurateur, consultant, and photographer. He’s also a coffee snob, sparkling-wine enthusiast, and avid supporter of a Weiner Wednesday. A real Renaissance man. @timabarker