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Regenerative Design
Journal Teachings, reflections, analysis and case studies from land, life and business that regenerate.
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In the Sun & Bloom Permaculture Farm School Village Journal, we document the real-time unfolding of a diversified regenerative farm in Zone 7A / 6B —where ecological processes, soil-building systems, seasonal rhythms, and community-based enterprise converge. Through weekly reflections from the land, we explore how working farms can become living classrooms—cultivating resilient food systems, restoring soil health, and nurturing relationships between Earth, People, and our shared Future. Week 9 in Zone 7A/6B - Soil Waking, Seeds Beginning, Forest Farming and the Next Chapter of the Farm School Village Ecological Context — The Landscape Holding Its Breath A few days ago the cold returned. Not dramatic — but enough to remind us that winter has not fully released its grip. Soil temperatures likely dipped again. The biological engine below ground slowed slightly. Not stopped — never stopped — but slowed. And yet the light is undeniable. Daylight is stretching longer into the evening. The angle of the sun has shifted. Even when the air is cold, the brightness feels different. The trees are still mostly bare, but buds are swelling quietly along the branches. Daffodils are pushing through the soil in scattered patches — small yellow signals of inevitability. Grass is beginning to green in thin streaks across the pasture. In the forest understory, tiny sprouts are emerging where leaf litter is thinning. This is the threshold: above ground, restraint, below ground, preparation. Late winter is not empty. It is foundational. Seed Starting — Timing Is a Form of Wisdom Inside the greenhouse and propagation space, spring has gone to a brand new level. Over the weekend we started trays of: Tomatoes, Peppers, Oregano, Rosemary, Lavender, Thyme, Marjoram, Parsley, Cilantro, Lemon balm, Basil (which we’ll attempt early inside a protected high tunnel), Mint, Chamomile, Monarda (bergamot), Hyssop and some sdditional medicinal herbs Anna Maria is preparing. Alongside these are earlier trays of lettuce, kale, cabbage, broccoli, and cut flowers — some nearly ready for transition, others just beginning to root into their cells. There is something deeply humbling about seed starting. A seed does not respond to our calendar. It responds to temperature, moisture, and light. Some crops will remain in trays for ten days and others for six weeks - hold them too long and they become root-bound, rush them and they weaken. Regenerative farming is not about pushing growth. It is about aligning with biological timing. When we seed carefully in late winter, we are not just growing plants: We are practicing patience. Microgreens — Living Nutrition in the Winter Gap While outdoor beds still rest, trays of microgreens continue to rise in waves of green. Late winter is when nutrient density matters most. When fresh field diversity is limited, microgreens become concentrated life — vitamins, enzymes, chlorophyll, vitality — grown just steps from the kitchen. Trays are available for local pickup this week. But what I love most is what happens when they don’t all sell: Nothing is wasted. This week we began drying surplus trays and grinding them into fine nutrient powders — rich green concentrates that can be added to:
High Tunnel Rotation — Chickens as Soil Architects One of our oldest high tunnels — now entering its sixth growing season — tells a longer story. From late October through late December, chickens lived inside that tunnel. They scratched through remaining crop residue. They devoured weeds. They broke down organic matter. They deposited manure directly into the soil surface. What looks simple is actually layered design. Five years of this rotation have transformed that tunnel into one of the most biologically active soils on the farm. The wood chips layered inside now hold embedded fertility — manure, microbial life, partially decomposed plant matter — ready to be redirected into a Johnson–Su compost system in the coming weeks. That compost will not be fast. It will not be flashy. It will be fungal, slow, and deeply stable. Soil wealth is not built in a season. It is built in cycles. Compost — Indigenous Biology at Work This week, the compost piles were warm again. Built from layered goat bedding, pig manure, chicken inputs, partially eaten hay, coffee grounds from local coffee shop, oak leaves and leaf mold from the forest, these piles are more than decomposing matter — they are biological reactors. We intentionally add leaf mold from the forest floor — that dark, fungal-rich duff collected beneath native trees. It carries indigenous microorganisms adapted to this exact climate, this soil type and this ecosystem. When we incorporate forest leaf mold into compost, we are not just adding organic material, we are inoculating the pile with place-based intelligence. Inside those mounds, microbes are multiplying. Fungi are weaving through fibers. Bacteria are metabolizing carbon and nitrogen. Heat is generated not by machinery — but by life. We have roughly one yard of finished compost ready to sift right now and about 4 "cooking". Soon we’ll host a Master Composting Workshop — not just about turning piles, but about understanding:
Mushrooms — Wood Becoming Food In the forest this week, we walked slowly and marked specific trees for cutting into mushroom logs. We are selecting appropriate hardwood species for Shiitake, Oyster and Lion’s Mane. In our upcoming workshop we will teach how to identify the right trees, how to cut at the right season, how long to rest the logs before inoculation, and how to stack them properly for fruiting. Mushrooms are elegant. Outdoor log-grown mushrooms are quiet production. No tillage. No fertilizer. No irrigation lines stretched across fields. Just wood, fungi, moisture, and time. To practice the stellar Permaculture Ethic of Earth Care, we also ordered native tree stock through the Missouri Department of Conservation — part of our long-term commitment to replace and diversify what we harvest. We believe that extraction must always be paired with regeneration - so we walk the talk! Forest Farming — The Long View Forest farming continues to deepen as a layer of the Farm School Village - mushroom growing is just one part of it. We are planning more plantings of species suited to Missouri woodland systems, including more: American ginseng, Goldenseal, Black cohosh, Pawpaw, Elderberry (we have lots planted already) and other Native medicinal perennials. We do it because we believe, forest farming is one of the most beautiful forms of regenerative agriculture. It does not clear land. It does not strip ecosystems. It integrates into existing woodland. It is slower - but it is resilient. This is medicine and food designed for decades, not quarters. Integration Insight — Stacking the Loops This week’s systems are not separate activities - they are loops:
Spring Teaching Season — Building Resilience Beyond the Farm While the soil is waking up here at Sun & Bloom, our in-person teaching season is also beginning. Starting February 28th and continuing through March, April, and into early May, we have a full schedule of spring workshops, field trainings, and regional collaborations. Of course, we continue to teach our Permaculture Year-Long Deep Dive, where participants are developing real-world design projects — not just in Missouri, but in other states as well. It has been deeply encouraging to watch these students apply regenerative design thinking to homesteads, farms, and community spaces across the region. AND this work extends beyond our farm gate. We are honored to continue to be invited to teach regenerative farming practices and permaculture design, and collaborate with regional institutions and organizations committed to resilient food systems, including:
Spring Workshops and talks Include:
For more than a decade, we have been building regenerative systems in different parts of the United States, and for the past eight or so years, Anna Maria and I have been crafting this work together intentionally. This is now our sixth growing season on this land — growing not only food, but community resilience. We are sharing the abundance and man are benefiting - and that is what we are all about! Building the Permaculture Farm School Village Sun & Bloom Farms has been becoming more than a production site for a long time. This evolution did not begin this year. It did not begin with a new tunnel or a new compost pile. It began more than a decade ago — through years of hands-in-the-soil work, experimenting, refining, failing, adjusting, teaching, and rebuilding. For the past decade, we have been intentionally building regenerative systems — and for the past nine years, Anna Maria and I have been shaping this vision together as a couple, integrating production, education, medicine, design, and community into one cohesive ecosystem. What is emerging now is not accidental. It is the natural unfolding of work that has been maturing quietly for years. This land is becoming a place where:
With the acquisition of the neighboring property, something shifted. We now have space — not just for crops — but for people. Space to host. Space to house. Space to collaborate. Space to expand beyond seasonal labor into long-term partnership. We are entering a new phase. We are beginning the process of inviting aligned individuals to plug into the ecosystem we have been building — not to start from scratch, but to step into living systems already established. We are opening conversations for:
This is not a casual invitation. It is a highly incentivized, percentage-based partnership structure where individuals can bring their own creative beauty, strengths, and leadership — while operating inside resilient systems that already exist. The compost systems are built. The tunnels are rotating. The mushroom infrastructure is growing. The forest trails are mapped. The event structure is defined. The enterprise models are drafted. What we are now building is capacity. Capacity for people to step in, grow with the system, and co-steward a regenerative, multi-enterprise farm school village. This is no longer a small experiment: It is the next chapter of something that has been forming for years — and is now ready to expand. View the full spring schedule & register here: https://www.sunandbloomfarms.com/farm-events.html If you are considering joining us for one in-person experience this season, the Mushroom Log Workshop is one of the most elegant practical regenerative skills we teach — a low-input, woodland-based food system that produces for years. We are teaching it both on March 14th and 21st (Saturdays). Grab you spot quick, they are more than 20% off till March 1st: https://www.sunandbloomfarms.com/store/p88/mushroom-log-workshop-lebanon-missouri.html Watch the Field Journal in Motion If you would like to see these systems in motion — the compost steaming, the seedlings growing, the mushroom logs stacked — we invite you to watch this week’s Field Journal video on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SunAndBloomFarms Subscribe to our Permaculture Newsletter Receive reflections like this — free, once, twice, or more per week — directly in your inbox: https://mailchi.mp/sunandbloomfarms/sjcl3tqy3f Upcoming Opportunities
If you are local, we invite you to participate. If you are following from afar, we invite you to learn alongside us. The soil is waking up. So are we.  |
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August 2026
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