In April of 2001, Bob Wilt walked through his conventional blueberry field and noticed something was wrong. He noticed that his current year’s fruitwood was half to one-third the length that it had been three years previous, and instead of six to seven fruit buds per limb, there was only one to two. As he walked down the rows the ground he walked on was like concrete. As he studied the dwarfed limbs, he recalled that crop quality had been diminishing over the past three to four years. At the same time, his fertilizer and pesticide bills were increasing inversely.

 

This is the typical dilemma that many conventional farmers are facing today. So what is the answer? For Bob, it was to change his philosophy to regenerative farming. In the beginning years, it was slow progress because he had to repair the soil that had been abused for many years and he had to self-teach himself about regenerative farming because there were no schools to teach the subject.

 

As the years past using good science-based practices, that according to his neighbors, were outside the box, but his farm healed and is now thriving. The soils are soft and porous; the plants are vigorous with more fruit buds than ever before giving heavier crops than he has ever had, with some of the highest quality berries in the country. At the same time, the fields no longer have diseases of harmful insects. 

 

In the past five years, Bob has become very focused on nutrient density. Now that his quality is at this level consistently his crops are always sold out at the top of the organic market.

 

Bob has developed a very strong passion for regenerative farming and wants to share his self-taught education with other growers who may be experiencing the same dilemma he did fifteen years ago when there was no one to talk to, let alone teach.

 

The beauty of regenerative farming is that the rules are universal; they apply to all crops not just berries.