CHON and the 3 M’s

On the first day of the trip, the #agroCOUGology group took a trip to Pacho Gangotena and Maritza Rubio’s organic farm called Chaupi Molino in Puembo, Quito, Ecuador. Here, at this farm of four hectares with four dairy cow and ten workers, we were fed well and educated fully. Maritza Rubio nourished us with salads of freshly picked greens, tomatoes and homemade cheese, a soup of farm grown squash and the secret (but not so secret anymore) ingredient magui (an herb similar to angelica and celery), a lasagna, and a dessert of maduro bananas and cream. Pacho toured us around the farm and instilled in us the importance of CHON (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen) in the functioning of plants and agroecosystems and of the three M’s (manure, organic matter, and microbes). We learned how to grow our own beneficial soil microbes with a recipe including rock powder, molasses, rice husks (or wheat, corn), water, and mantillo soil (from a rich healthy soil). We sniffed, and even tasted, farm brewed biofertilizers. We walked among rows of flowers hosting beneficial wasps and other insects intentionally planted among the kale and other brassica crops. Their broccoli crops are undersown with a mix of oats and vetch. The zucchini is planted at the same time as radish, but the radish is harvested before the squash gets to a mature size. Weeds are embraced and allowed to grow, but are mowed down before setting seed. Pacho left us with the wise words of:
If you are looking for agricultural advice, “don’t go to the [agricultural] engineer, instead go to your grandmother or grandfather. But first, ask nature.”
“Con agua y mierda, no hay cosecha que se pierda.”
“After your degree, and you become a professor or an engineer, have a farm or a small garden. It is important to keep yourself grounded. It will be there for you when you are exhausted of teaching or your other profession.”
“If you are going to farm, do it together. Farm with your partner."

By Julianne Kellogg