Bridging the gap between science and tradition in soil health
HAVE you ever dug your hands into healthy soil, held it to your face, and it just smelt wonderful?
HAVE you ever dug your hands into healthy soil, held it to your face, and it just smelt wonderful?
Have you ever felt the texture of soil being just the right amount of moisture and crumble? And it felt just perfect?
Have you ever walked over land and felt just the right amount of spring underfoot - or no spring at all, and you know that the soil is compacted and dry?
How much do you trust those instant sensations?
Do you give them any credit? Have you ever thought about refining those instant responses into skills to assess your soil?
Our bodies constantly respond to our environment. Whenever we move into a different location, our body reacts with physiological changes, like increased heart rate and blood pressure, drop of oxygen in the blood, change in skin resistance or muscle tone - this is called biofeedback.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to read those physiological changes the moment they occur? Even use them to make decisions about our soil?
This is less complicated than it sounds. By far, the easiest biofeedback to measure is our muscle tone. A quick movement of our fingers tells us if and how our muscle tone changes.
My grandfather taught me the basics of what I know about soils today. He farmed substantial acreage and managed horses with a yield many of us can only dream of these days.
He knew everything about soil biology and biodiversity. He trusted his nose, his hands and his muscles - he had nothing else.
With all the scientific knowledge, research and technology we have at our fingertips today, the majority of our soils still produce a by far poorer outcome per acre than two generations ago. As a result, our food has lost half of its nutrient content and has increased toxicity.
So, technology alone does not seem to provide the answer.
I love modern technology. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it - I don’t want to be without my washing machine, dryer and computers and certainly not without my GPS anymore. I work a lot with drone footage, soil tests and microscopes to assess soils - but I never exclusively rely on them.
I still step physically onto the land wherever possible and ask my body to complete the picture. By combining and integrating both worlds - tradition and technology - we achieve the most accurate picture and the best results. Both technology and our instincts have their place in our toolbox. Let’s extend the toolbox.
With a bit of practice, we can check the fungal/bacterial balance in the soil via muscle tone, ascertain the pH, and many more with incredible accuracy.
And don’t dismiss the good old dowsing sticks in a hurry. Dowsing sticks do nothing else but amplify the ever-present biofeedback and make it visible. In other words - your body detects the water, and the dowsing sticks make it visible.
Workshop
The next two-day Soil Workshop is on April 2 and 23 in Foster North.
I teach about soil biology, why it is important and how to re-establish it. We talk about regenerative solutions for weed control, erosion and water management. And, of course, I teach muscle-testing and other traditional and modern methods to assess soils. Email
hello@stefaniehildmann.com for more info.
