Farm hosts weekly tours on practices
Regenerative farming is a growing form of agriculture that takes conservation into account throughout the process. A major proponent of regenerative farming happens to be right in Vacaville: Be Love Farm.
The Bucktown Lane farm, operated by Matthew and Terces Engelhart for the last 18 years, emphasizes the diversity of plants and animals too reate a diverse soil biology, keeps tilling to a minimum, places an emphasis on perennial and drought-resistant crops, and provides a venue for patrons to purchase locally produced crops. A small group got to see this process in action Wednesday when Matthew Engelhart served as a tour guide on the weekly Kid’s Farm Walk.
Engelhart said the idea was born out of the COVID-19 pandemic to give families an outdoor activity where they could also learn more about the food consumption choices they make and strive to create a healthier planet. A walking tour aimed at adults, which also features a wine tasting, is also held at 11 a.m. Saturdays, and although Wednesday’s event placed an emphasis on educating children, adults were also a part of the tour as well.
The tour began and ended in Be Love Farm’s store, which offers a variety of items made on the farm, including tomatoes, olive oil, pesto, zucchini tamales, squash and even some sugar-free ice pops to beat the heat. The store is entirely self
serve, meaning people simply leave the amount they paid for their items without the presence of a cashier.
Engelhart also gave some history on agriculture, which he said began in the Fertile Crescent and has since become what he considers “the most degenerative, destructive process that we all participate in,” due to its impacts on soil and biodiversity, particularly in the practices of plowing and tilling.
“Every time we go to the grocery store and we buy a product, we’re voting with our dollars for how land was taken care of, stewarded somewhere in the world,” he said. “Most of our choices are degenerative because humanity doesn’t treat soil, give it its full due. WE treat our soil like dirt instead of something that’s very complex and alive.”
Be Love Farm, he said, was founded in response.
“Be Love Farm is an experiment in regenerative agriculture,” he said. “As farmers, all we do is collect solar energy in the bodies of plants and animals. We export that energy to our customers in the form of calories…Every year, there’s gonna be more life here, more waterholding capacity, more microbes, more fertility, more life, not less.”
Regenerative agriculture, he said, puts human health, soil health and climate health all into one conversation. The principles of regenerative agriculture include minimal disturbance, diversity and utilizing animals.
“If you’re gonna have a natural farm, you’re gonna wanna integrate animals into it because animals have specific ecological resources,” he said.
One service is that provided by sheep, which graze down on weeds and tall grass in the orchards and minimize the need for
spraying glyphosate.
“We move them every other day through our orchards,” he said. “We move them all through the farm, they fertilize the trees, they cut the grass and we get two crops: we get walnuts, and we get lamb.”
Among the crops grown at Be Love Farm are pecans, guava, mulberries, pistachios and figs, all of which are grown on perennial plants such as trees and shrubs, which Engelhart said are more regenerative than “annual” cropproducing plants such as sunflowers.
Engelhart posed a hypothetical question of which grocery item was more regenerative: organic sunflower oil or olive oil. The answer, he said, was olive oil, because they grow on trees and require less tillage.
“Anything that’s grown on a tree would be better than something that’s plow plan, plow plan, plow plan,” he said.
Engelhart said there are a number of ways people can participate in regenerative agriculture, whether planting their own tomato gardens or buying items from farmers markets. He told The Reporter that he hopes the tours will provide knowledge on the role that agriculture plays in everyone’s daily lives.
“We can be much more responsible by voting with our dollars with how we eat,” he said.
Ashley Bogue of Vacaville brought her 4-yearold daughter, Alice, as the two have an interest in farming. Bogue overheard somebody at Costco talking about milking and asked where they got their information from, the answer being Be Love Farm. When she visited the website, she saw they were offering tours for kids, she signed up.
“It’s awesome,” she said of the tour. “There’s lots of natural gardening.”
Bogue said she hopes Alice learns more about where her food comes from.
“It’s possible for her to
grow it sustainably if she wants to,” she said. “If we can’t, we can help farms do what they do by supporting them.”
Sergey Komardinkov is a native of Moscow who has been visiting his mother, Irina Komardinkova, in San Bruno and has been interested in regenerative farming for the past year and a half, which stemmed from an interest in the similar concept of the circular economy. During his stay, Komardinkov researched regenerative farms in California, came across Be Love Farms and brought his mother along for a tour.
He felt Engelhart gave an effective presentation, especially in citing historical examples.
“A lot of my recently acquired knowledge got confirmed,” he said. “When I started reading about regenerative agriculture and I started speaking up on some of the concepts, today, I saw them in action, so it was very important for me to witness it and know that it’s actually done the way I understood it’s done.”
Komardinkov said the tour was a reminder of how people should treat nature.
“We shouldn’t impose
“When I started reading about regenerative agriculture and I started speaking up on some of the concepts, today, I saw them in action, so it was very important for me to witness it and know that it’s actually done the way I understood it’s done.” — Sergey Komardinkov
our understanding of how things should be, but we should learn from nature more and trust it more,” he said.
Be Love Farm’s Kid’s Farm Walks are at 3 p.m. every Wednesday through Aug. 25. Participants must register in advance, and the cost is $10. For more information, go to Belovefarm.com/registration/ kids-farm-walk.