Aaron Perry
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Nick DiDomenico is Co-Founder of Drylands Agroecology Research (DAR), which educates, designs, installs, and maintains regenerative land stewardship projects throughout the Boulder County region in Colorado. Utilizing terraforming, agroforestry, silvo-pasture, holistic grazing, and other strategies, Nick and his team are working to restore hundreds of acres. By shaping the land to collect, store, and distribute water throughout the landscape, and planting thousands of rootstock and sapling trees and shrubs using the “S.T.U.N.” (Shear Total and Utter Neglect) method, they are establishing hearty, drought-tolerant food forests in this semi-arid region and are helping to reverse desertification that is threatening thousands of acres in the region due to mismanagement. At Elk Run Farm, DAR’s demonstration and education center, the team grows Blue Corn, Amaranth, Hopi Black Beans, Chihuahua Blue Beans, and dozens of vegetables, herbs, and medicinal plants in the forest garden nucleus of the property. Sheep, pigs, chickens, and ducks provide a variety of ecological functions to the system, along with endless hours of entertainment for visiting children, students, and volunteers. Part of a global network of regeneration projects, Elk Run is the first Ecosystem Restoration Camp to be established in Colorado. Describing a deep spiritual connection to the land, water, and restoration work, Nick talks about the importance of reciprocity, community connection, collaboration with indigenous leaders, and weaving “technologies of prayer” into this lifestyle of service and stewardship.
HIS and HERS
This episode with Nick is a special “HIS” episode, which pairs with the “HERS” episode with DAR Co-Founder Marissa Pulaski (Episode #123). Through DAR, the couple offer Permaculture Design Certification workshops, regenerative agriculture and drylands silvo-pasture design workshops, retreats for pre- and post-partum healing and restoration, and delightfully grounding dance parties.
ABOUT NICK DIDOMENICO
Hailing from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Nick is a regenerative designer, farmer, and builder. Inspired by indigenous culture and ancient farming practices, he works passionately to design the future of living systems. In 2015, Nick began farming on a barren and desertified 14-acre parcel of land in rural north Boulder County, now called Elk Run Farm, also the pilot research project for Drylands Agroecology Research (DAR). Today, Nick is working to develop climate change solutions through regenerative farming, working with private and public landowners across Boulder County.
RESOURCES & RELATED EPISODES
- DAR.ECO
- Facebook.com/drylandsagroecology
- @elkrunfarm
- Episode 94 – Tom Chi, Founder, At One Ventures
- Episode 95 – John Liu, Founder, Ecosystem Restoration Camps
- Episode 121 – Oliver Retzloff, Co-Founder, Wild Nectar Farm
- Episode 123 – Marissa Pulaski, Co-Founder, Drylands Agroecology Research
- VIRIDITASBOOK.COM
IMAGES
Transcript
(Automatically generated transcript for search engine optimization and reference purposes – grammatical and spelling errors may exist.)
Welcome to the YonEarth community podcast. I’m your host, Aaron William Perry. And today
we’re visiting with a good buddy of mine, Nick DiDominico, the founder of Elk Run Farm
and the co-founder of drylands aggro ecology research. Hey Nick, how you doing man?
Hey, doing pretty good. Hello everybody. Good to be on with you. Yeah, likewise man. I’m
psyched to have this chat with you today and we’ve got so much to chat about with
respect to the work you’re doing in the regenerative agriculture and regenerative
culture movements and yeah just really looking forward to being able to share
your story with our audience. Thank you. I appreciate it, Ian. Right on.
Hailing from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Nick is a regenerative designer
farmer and builder inspired by indigenous culture and ancient farming practices
he works passionately to design the future of living systems. In 2015, Nick began
farming on a barren and dissertified 14 acre parcel of land in rural North
Boulder County, which is where we are currently now called Elk Run Farm. Also
this is the pilot research project for drylands aggro ecology research or
Dar. Today, Nick is working to develop climate change solutions through
regenerative farming, working with private and public landowners across Boulder
County and so Nick, we have a deep connection obviously with Y on Earth having
headquarters here at Elk Run Farm and us living in community together these last
couple years, which has just been an extraordinary experience and it’s to me
remarkable to witness all that is unfolding here on this property under your
leadership and what’s what’s really amazing is that we’re sitting in a in a
beautiful lush abundant garden but that this was truly a really barren and beat
down land not too many years ago and I was wondering to kick things off could
you could you describe for us you know what this place was like when when you
first got here yeah sure thing so this was a rental property for many years it
appeared as though there had been cattle management many years before that there
was an old infrastructure like a cattle chute behind it was all kind of falling
over and most likely pretty overgrazed by cattle for years before and as far as
we know nobody had ever tried to grow crops here there’s not ditch rights here
so the water situation is pretty minimal so it wasn’t really looked at as an
agricultural property my family acquired the land originally just to restore
some of the buildings and fix it up and I decided to start farming here and it
was been it’s been like a beautiful experimentation of how to use regenerative
agriculture practices and especially design intensive like thoughtful holistic
design to build systems that would restore the land and that was really my
inspiration to come here to do that and there the bottom five acres was
completely desertified there was no topsoil no vegetation there was a large
colony of prairie dogs just kind of a controversial issue in Boulder County
where we are but really the prairie dogs and that damage ecosystem was just like
a representation of what’s possible in Boulder County what’s happening on a lot
of different parcels of land to something not very uncommon around here and we
started using different practices I brought NRCS out in 2015 that’s a natural
natural resource conservation services a department of the USDA started
after the dust fall in the 1930s to help farmers and ranchers conserve
resources on land in America and you know originally I asked them hey I showed
them around showed them the different conditions of the site asked them what
kinds of conservation practices should I use I’m a beginning farmer really
excited to grow here really excited to run livestock and they basically said
now we don’t have a lot for you we don’t have a lot of practices that can
actually repair this land we think it’s better if you go farm somewhere else so
that was a little disheartening at the time but it really stoked this
inspiration to develop these different practices that we’re using now I suppose
successfully you know it’s been been some years now seven years since I moved
here and a lot of beauty has occurred a lot of community has now joined us here
in what we’re doing and we’re able to feed a lot of people off this land that
was considered marginalized was considered you know useless for agriculture by
by common understanding until we began working it so that’s just a little bit
of the background that’s then yeah yeah it’s really in look I not only is this
desertification happening in this specific area Boulder County next to the
Rocky Mountains in Colorado but this is happening all around the world in many
different situations and localities and so you know from my
perspective much of what you’re doing here is not only applicable right here in
Boulder County and in the semi-air and Rocky Mountain West but really in
places all around the the world and I know you’re increasingly connecting with
folks in other regions of the planet and I’m so excited to know that there’s
more and more collaboration getting underway there but before we kind of talk
about this global context tell me wake what are what are you growing here I
mean I know I get to see this so often and yeah but by the way the soil itself is
this amazing almost pulsing rich dark chocolate cake fluffy soil now and it
wasn’t like that a few years ago right so yeah maybe describe for us what’s
what’s being grown here and you know plants and animals yeah definitely so we’re
sitting here in the forest garden which we always saw as like the nucleus of the
property I thought of it in this kind of way like if we could bring fertility and
an ecosystem into the nucleus that would spread throughout the property and so
that’s really where we began working really with this forest ecology model in
mind so dug this forest garden dug the contour swales that now collect the
gray water and the rain water from the house and begun planting perennial crops
so different fruiting and berry crops that create this natural ecosystem and
then planting it with other beneficial plants flowers and other plants that
bring bugs that work against the other pests and things like that but
basically we’re growing fruit crops as the overstory in this forest garden and
then while the canopy is developing we’re growing vegetable crops sort of in
the alleys between the contour swales and that’s helping to build soil using
these no-till gardening practices that we’re using so all the vegetables that we
grow in this property are in this forest garden here and then we are also
growing staple grain crops so mostly bioregional crops I originally got those
seeds from Rich Packararo of Mossas seed foundation one of the elder seed
farmers and seed libraries in this area and got from him some of the most
drought tolerant grains that we could that he knew of and especially the
Southwest traditional foods really so blue corn amaranth and dry beans we
tested a couple different varieties and then settled on Hopi black beans and
then we’ve been breeding his Chihuahua blue so those are all in breeding trials
and grown in drylands fields just a little bit south of here and then there’s
rows of contour swales in between those fields also that create these moist
micro climates and hedgeros to block wind and then at the same time we are
raising sheep on pasture in regenerative systems and then the pigs really were
a major force here for a long time and now our our pig herds are on other
properties which is pretty cool we use the pigs to build a lot of soil and to
prepare the ecosystems for later planting which is really neat just utilizing
this concept that directing livestock to certain areas with certain goals in
mind of hours to transition the ecosystems into more fertile places for
growing so pigs were used for a lot of that and then we have chickens for eggs and
mobile coops and then we have ducks that hang out in the ponds and then
deer and elk come through the property which is pretty neat as well and then at
the same time we’ve been able to establish over a thousand fruit and useful
trees in the dry land systems as a way to create ecosystemic resilience to
create food and habitat for livestock it’s been really beautiful to see that
I think one of our claims to fame I suppose is the thousand trees that have been
established without supplemental irrigation and so at the same time we’re
breeding those drought tolerant silvo pasture and agroforestry crops for use on
other projects as we continue to grow and expand which is pretty neat too and I
think it’s important just to mention that this site has really been an
experimentation site for a long time and now a demonstration of these dry
lands restoration techniques using agro ecology as an overarching concept and
especially nestled in holistic design methodologies yeah it’s so great like
not only is the forest garden here a nucleus for this farm really elk run as a
demonstration has become a nucleus in a broader ecosystem here with a number of
other farms and properties and even some public lands where you’re now doing
this regenerative work over a lot of additional acreage right and so that
there’s this great ecosystem community ecosystem of other farmers and other
stakeholders who you you’ve really helped anchor and catalyze what is really a
movement occurring here in this part of the county now and I’m wondering you
know if you might share with us a little bit about what what’s that like for you
as you’re going to other sites and working with other landscapes and
dreaming and visioning and designing what what’s possible on these other
properties yeah it’s been really cool so it’s been three or four years now since
some landowners began kind of knocking on our door intrigued at least and
sometimes impressed by what we’ve been able to create with such little water I
mean just for context to all the water for this property comes from a 40-foot
deep well often runs dry as Aaron knows to sometimes we go to turn on sink
water shower water nothing nothing comes out irrigated a little too much
tonight before you know so there’s been a lot of boundaries challenges like
restrictions on this property and so it’s been really amazing getting to
design bigger systems on bigger properties sometimes with irrigation you know
at times people come to us and want to develop regenerative patterning right so
build systems where regenerative farming can plug into quickly and easily that
really models natural ecosystems and so that’s been super fun and then just
starting to get into this world of okay the city and the county or different
landowners have these parcels land they’re incredibly dry and credibly
barren can’t be leased for agriculture can’t be used in any agricultural models
that are commonplace in this area right now so just being able to pioneer these
new systems and like starting with design and then implementation of systems
that continuously upgrade the land even if there aren’t people tending and
managing the land but then of course in like very strongly stoked by management
especially livestock so really falling in the footsteps of Alan Sabre’s
models and using holistic management and regenerative rotational grazing
patterns to restore land and that’s been really exciting too and just really
again with this concept that the trees and the shrubs anchor the ecosystem so
building perennial systems that can support pollinators and support wildlife
like birds and just create these thriving thriving agricultural ecosystems
that continuously produce more and more food every year so that’s been really
cool and our dream is to see all of Boulder County utilizing regeneratively
grown meat that’s sinking carbon every year that’s continuously building
ecosystems and demonstrating how using these practices we can actually reverse
desertification over large acreage just by using these design methodologies
with the plantings the contour swales to collect store and distribute water and
I think that’s something important to talk about too that really sets us apart
from most to is just using holistic water management strategies especially
terraforming to collect and store moisture which creates soil conditions viable
for planting trees where otherwise that wouldn’t be possible and then a lot of
the patterning that we use is in these contour systems and then running the
livestock through contour alleys and building soil fertility using the livestock
and then cropping thereafter where it’s appropriate and it’s been really cool
we have some bigger partners locally all of our pigs right now are at
Medicarbon organic farm which is just across the street so it’s pretty fun if you
go to the top of our hill you can look over and see beyond our gates beyond our
contour swales and trees in the distance another 10 or so acres of contour
swales at Medicarbon and our pigs are over there preparing a dry pasture field
that a hardy our partner wants to turn into vegetable production so just these
really low input systems that will eventually grow a lot of veg which is
really neat too and then using the livestock integration interseasonally to
clear and fertilize the fields which is really neat so that’s limiting
tractor use limiting carbon carbon output and then over at yellow barn farm
another big partner of ours we just got big grant funding to design the
back 60 acres of that property so the next really large drylands silvo
pasture demonstration there you have this idea that silvo pastors the concept of
planting trees within pastures or in more wet areas turning woodlands into
silvo pastures by thinning trees but in this area for us it’s really like
planting trees within pasture to create food and habitat for livestock and really
anchor the ecosystems like I’ve been saying so it’s been really cool just being
watching the patterns grow outside of our gate and seeing how it’s thriving in a
lot of different conditions locally which has been really neat yeah it’s so
tremendous and in look I don’t I don’t know if the cameras or the mics are
picking up any of the we’ve got some kids it sounds a little upset in the
background and one of the other things happening with the organization and
with the property is a full farm school for the little ones who from the
community here get this really special experience of basically being outside all
of the time that they’re here experiencing the animals and the landscape the
plants learning about different plant edible plants and herbs and and yeah
it’s it’s wild of course it’s not exactly funny but sometimes you know we
get to hear the kiddos getting a little upset or whatever going on and
miss Jess and the rest of the team do such a good job of helping helping the
youngsters learn some of these emotional management skills and sort of
embodied awareness skills and as a parent I really marvel at and and
admire and respect the work that those teachers are doing with those kiddos
and I know that it’s just another way in which you guys have created a hub for
the community here so you know not only are these kiddos getting to
experience this land and ecology but of course their parents as they’re
coming and going each day also gets to have an experience that’s perhaps a
little different from their you know otherwise day-to-day reality and so
yeah it’s it’s really amazing to me Nick the way you guys have layered in so
many functions right to kind of borrow a permaculture idea of stacked
functions you’ve layered in so many functions to this to this property and to
this area this region and look like when when you’re doing these installs on
other properties like we did a season or two ago at yellow barn farm several of us
got together and planted I don’t know how many hundreds of trees and it was a
great fun time there’s a food truck and I think some music and you know it’s a
real is a really like wonderful weekend experience for all of us who were there
and we managed to help basically install a significant part of this alley
cropping out agro forestry silver pasture system that you’ve designed there
and I wanted to ask you’re thrown out some terms and I heard you you know
describing the agro forestry silver pasture piece I I want to ask you to
describe the terraforming as well and also a term we haven’t yet mentioned
called stun I think it’s a really interesting way to cultivate certain certain
plants in these systems that’s so maybe you could tell us a bit more about what
is terraforming mean and then what’s the stun method yeah totally which
reminds me I mean that term came from Mark Shepherd so I think just just for
context to explain like where we got the inspiration to use these models and
where like the tell up terraforming and water management systems came from and
Mark Shepherd is a farmer up in Wisconsin and he was a region one of Bill
Molison’s original students in the 80s and he Bill Molison being the founder of
the permaculture movement right with the original literature and all of that
exactly yeah so you know Bill Molison for my understanding collected a lot of
understandings and learnings from different indigenous tribes all over the
world and was really fascinated by traditional farming practices and started
this movement where called permaculture and I’m sure there’s many many more
resources on that people could explore but Mark Shepherd was one of his
original students and was really excited to expand the permaculture
philosophy and build systems that were agriculturally focused and at scale that
were profitable at scale and so Mark Shepherd wrote a book called Restoration
Agriculture and I’ve had the opportunity to learn and receive teaching from him
and just utilizing this Restoration Ag model which the first the beginning of
using that model is really shaping the land to collect store and distribute all
the moisture that falls on the property and in wetter climates at times that
means diverting water so there’s not flooding or topsoil erosion and things
like that but the terraforming concepts that we use really come from Mark
Shepherd and the permaculture kind of framework in that as sheep as water is
flowing down the hill it can either be an erosive force or a force for good in
that we need that moisture to grow the plants and the crops that we want to
to raise and cultivate and so again using this idea of key line design
these are concepts that Bill Molison and Mark Shepherd really inspired by
so collecting and storing water high in the landscape and then slowly dispersing
it outwards across the slope so with the concept that water is usually moving
in wet valleys and so if we’re able to collect and store water high we can
distribute that water onto the dry ridges on the property
and just create way more opportunity for cultivation basically
and that really lays the groundwork so those are all really intensively designed
systems and then dug either by hand or with machinery
so these small basins that we call contour swales like a ditch on the contour of
the land that slows and spreads the moisture and then creates a
location that we can plant perennial crops like trees and shrubs
and then Mark Shepherd came up with this concept called stun right
sheer total utter neglect so this concept that we’re not really bathing
anything that we’re planting or growing here
we’re just witnessing watching observing what’s thriving what’s doing well
and in a way this is created a really wonderful opportunity for us when we
began planting that these thousand or so trees on contour
we had no idea if they would grow or succeed or not
and so we planted them very dense like about a foot apart assuming we would
lose at least half the trees and amazingly in year one we had lost less
less than 15% of them which we’re really shocked and stunned us
as well as the other folks in the area especially other farmers that
really discourage me from practicing these techniques thinking that would be
a big expenditure of resources and not be fruitful
and what’s amazing is that the trees have grown really well
and set in motion a breeding program so as the years go on we’ll be able to
select and then breeding cultivate what does well here
in these really intense harsh dry conditions and then those crops will be
what we use later to plant on other projects and so creating this huge
opportunity to develop agroforestry crops for
drying and drought prone areas which has been really neat too
I don’t think agroforestry is a it’s not really utilized much in
drier areas where trees don’t grow as easily and so we’re
using these terraforming techniques to create opportunity to grow many more
trees that again really anchor the ecosystem create more micro
climates and all the other ecosystemic functional benefits that
allow us to grow crops and livestock more easily in
difficult conditions yeah that’s really so interesting
you know it’s reminding me I learned something
when I was interviewing Tom Chi at one ventures and he’s a remarkable
technologist and investor who is finding these
technology opportunities to help restore coral reefs to help
on a massive scale replant parts of the
tropical rainforests around the world and one of those plays is a
a drone seed planting technology and I was asking him well
what are the success the germination the survival rates of the seeds you’re
putting in the ground and I forget exactly what the numbers were
they’re actually also pretty high but he said and by the way
what are we comparing to as a baseline he said because in nature
you know trees and plants are dropping
huge quantities of seeds in general yeah and and only a small percentage of
those is typically going to mature into a a big
tree like this and what is this like the crab apple we’re
adapted with apple and you know and so okay interesting if we’re looking to
nature as the example that that’s quite quite
quite different probably than when we’re thinking about conventional
agriculture yeah and we’re sort of pushing for that last
percent of yield all the time and I’m just I’m struck because what
happens in this stun method in these drylands environments right is those
trees and shrubs that do get established and do get going after a couple
few years are so hardy yeah they’re they’re essentially ready to
tolerate kind of anything that gets thrown at them
or so it seems yeah and so this is also I think a really important
strategy for resilience building in these regions of the world and
virtually all the world right now is at risk where we’re anticipating
greater extremes and weather patterns and in
climatic shifts and so on and I guess I want to ask
in that related to that what are you seeing in the way of
policy conversations and even some of the funders you’re working with
as these strategies and solutions being specifically
apropos for climate stabilization and dealing with things like water
in time and carbon sequestration and so on like is that a big part of your
guys conversation yeah definitely I mean from our research
we’re understanding that about 40 percent of the earth’s surface has been
degraded by human influence and so most of those areas are what Alan
Sabre would call brittle ecosystems places that if
if degraded to a certain point kind of start to roll towards
desertification and so there’s many places on earth that are facing the same
crises that we are and just with the industrialized
food models that are so prevalent on earth right now
it’s like food can be brought long distances to places that have already
been desertified but really understanding that by having local food everywhere
people are especially in desertifying places we can really build huge
resilience in our communities and also understanding that
the health of the land really is the health of a community and when you really
boil it down and in a way like our values as a culture on earth maybe have
strayed away from that and valuing other things but really
all natural resource comes from the health of the land and so
in these practices we are growing food resiliently in really difficult
conditions that were otherwise not seen as applicable for growing food and at
the same time building resource in our communities
building skills by bringing other people onto the sites and projects to learn
about it there’s just huge opportunity to
implement these practices all over the world for
major benefit to society and humankind as we know it
yeah absolutely now i’m also reminded of our mutual friend and colleague
john lou who helped establish the global
ecosystem restoration camp movement right and yeah i remember learning from him
that the Sinai peninsula you know that whole region
had a very different gulf stream flow of air and moisture off of the Indian
ocean and it was probably because of these human impacts of
desertification that that all shifted so that it became even more extreme uh
in its uh drought and uh desert uh situation
but the good news is there are efforts underway in places like Sinai and
elsewhere nearby like in Egypt there’s an ecosystem restoration camp there
that’s doing extraordinary work of uh literally
reinforcing and greening the desert and so you know one of the things i’m
really struck by uh thinking about some of these
marginal and in risk areas like we have here
and then places that have already been so extremely
desertified that it’s a matter of really bringing them back really restoring
regenerating and healing those in a big major way
and i’m curious i know that so much of your
your work and your focus is right here in this area and thank goodness right
yeah um and may the world have a whole lot of nic d to minicos and
lots of other places but uh also how do you see yourself
in time in the coming months and years and maybe decades um
you know helping to expand and proliferate your work
and knowledge and expertise into other regions of the world that might benefit
from that yeah that’s a great question i mean for us
we’ve caught some interest and have some potential projects in Ecuador
potential project in Baja California and yeah there’s many places on earth
have been degraded and mostly by industrial culture so
we’re just excited to see how that grows and right now we’re just
stabilizing in our local communities and in our local county here in Boulder
County i mean there’s just so much to do right around us right now that
seems like that’s what’s captivating most of our focus but in the years to come
we’re really excited to start taking projects other places and
involving local place-based cultures in the in the um work that we’re doing
and just really bring in nurture and support communities
to live in healthy thriving ecosystems where their food is growing
close by and especially lifting up and utilizing uh bioregional food crops
from the different areas that we want to work in so
we’ll see where it all goes but we’re excited and so more on that soon i’d say
right on that’s great yeah Nick well and look you’ve you’ve uh also
really connected deeply to a lot of the indigenous people and
indigenous cultures of this region yeah and i’m so excited uh to
to hear from you uh what what that process and that part of your
adventure over the last few years has looked like yeah and how has that
informed what you’re up to i know you had some really tremendous
experiences in the Amazon and Peru yeah obviously not local
yeah but but you’ve also cultivated some very deep and beautiful
relationships with indigenous elders and wisdom keepers and others
here right in this region can you share a bit with us about that
yeah definitely and for me i think my path towards land stewardship really
began when i was in South America and i left what i was doing in the
United States left a competitive skiing career that i was deeply involved in
and sort of had an existential crisis and left and went to South
America just to immerse in indigenous culture and learn about different
medicine traditions and study and practice and interestingly enough what i
found there were off-grid communities and some of them beginning to
implement permaculture design practices and i was just a kid at the time but it
really left an impression on me and so after some years living and working
around there i came back up into the United States and
really inspired by a traditional indigenous ceremony of north
america and especially plains native culture so
southwest plains and then up you know these different tribes shayan or apoho
apaches different ones that usurome these areas in the in the recent past that
we’re living in now and just seeing that they’re their ceremonial culture
and they’re they’re understanding of elemental forces and how
how life is these are just inherent patterns that that all of nature is
following with and so just learning about their techniques of prayer and like
really technologies of prayer i would call it that have inspired how i approach
all living things how i approach the land how i approach people and just
these really fundamental and foundational
understandings that help me navigate in this world today um
and just this inspiration to want to be close to the land it’s such a
goes beyond values it’s like a way of being it’s a way of living it’s a way of
thinking that’s just in respect and reciprocity with all of nature um
and so then of course paying homage to these different tribes and
communities as well and supporting them how we can
we have a really cool food sovereignty project just beginning on the shashoni
reservation up in win river and that’s been really exciting to just support
them beginning to grow their native foods again and to use livestock and like a
more um innovative way um you know not as much traditional for them but
using livestock to develop land that they can then garden and just
be able to take care of themselves again be able to rely on their own food
sovereignty to support their tribal communities and everything that they do
which has been really beautiful to see but it’s just been such a deep part of
how we move how we live in life and so i’m really thankful for those
relationships and getting to practice those traditions
and ceremonial ways and it’s been really fun to be able to bring that
to the land and to our communities that we work in as well so
absolutely wonderful yeah yeah what what an amazing and rich experience and
opportunity and you’re helping suffuse some of that wisdom and knowledge into
other parts of the community and culture here with those deep connections that
you have with many of the indigenous communities yeah
yeah it’s beautiful Nick thank you let me uh let me
remind our audience this is the YonEarth community podcast i’m your host
Aaron William Perry today we’re visiting with Nick D. Dominico
the founder of Elk Run Farm and the co-founder of drylands azure ecology
research you can find a lot more information about
dar at dar dot eco that’s d-a-r dot ecio
on social media you’ll find nick and rissa and the rest of the team
putting out a lot of great posts at at drylands agro ecology
and i want to also take a quick moment to thank a few of our partners we’ve got
purium the organic superfoods company yeah we’re enjoying some purium right
now as a matter of fact some can’t beat this and cocoa hydrated it’s amazing
and delicious we’ve got a special partnership with purium so that anyone in our
network or our audience can get a $50 discount on an initial purchase or
25% off whichever is a greater amount when you go to why on earth dot org slash
purium and you’re going to find a whole variety of
dried organic superfoods basically coming from
really well-managed and regenerative farms in a variety of different
locations waylay waters of course is one of our
social enterprises regeneratively and biodynamically grown hemp infused aroma
therapy soaking salts which yeah i know a lot of us around here enjoying
appreciate i had one just the other day i was feeling so
hard and tired and just needed to recuperate a little bit
yeah waylay waters dot com of course got a throw in a quick mention to
my new book Veridi toss this epic visionary eco-thriller
in part because Nick’s actually in the story
and the characters Brigitte Sophia and her
not really friend at first this guy Leo and yeah this is probably a love story
you know what’s going to happen but they end up coming to elk run farm
and this is part of her experience of awakening and opening up to what’s really
possible what’s really going on right now in the world that many of us in our
city lives are industrial lives our hyper technology oriented lives might not
even realize you know what’s really happening in the world right now and so
big part of the story Veridi toss is revealing that sort of thing to you as a
reader so Veridi toss book dot com if you’d like to learn more about that
and of course our other podcast episodes we mentioned Tom she and John
Lou we’ve got a lot of other wonderful episodes for you so be sure to check
that out winers dot org slash community-podcast will get you there
and Nick are there any other like web or URL resources on your end that we
should mention um i think the main instagram handle uses elk run dot farm
some of the disposing for this farm and that’s really a beautiful way to get
to see what’s happening on our pilot research project and
demonstration site and keep photos of the kids and the ducklings and all kinds
of fun stuff like that to inspire your gardening and home
studying efforts yeah the and the ducklings are ultra cute
this is uh so much fun Nick and you know i we we could be talking for hours and
hours and and we often do and i’m really excited too that our
organizations are actually launching some collaborations to help bring even
more uh resources out to folks uh that that hopefully can help
in this globally merging regenerative movement
yeah and uh really grateful we have that that opportunity
to collaborate i i want to ask you because you mentioned and uh we both grew up
in Colorado i think you’re a true native uh are you a true native
i grew up in Boulder yeah yeah yeah and uh the skiing thing so
so you were deep in in competitive skiing and then uh
turned away from that and into some other things um
what’s your relationship like with these mountains and and as we’re recording
it’s yeah beautiful kind of late summer early autumn and
you know we’re we’re getting ready anticipating there might be some snow on
its way in the coming weeks hey hold on but uh yeah what you know what’s that
like that seasonality around here is obviously pretty significant right
yeah definitely i mean for me the mountains you know i’ve grown up along
these these foothills here my whole life and tried my best to
make away away from the mountains but always found myself back here
and for me just being able to go up into the hills and pick medicines and be in
nature and just feel the feel the the essence and the
inspiration of what comes from the natural habitats has been so inspiring to
me and just as home setters too it’s just so important to be in rhythm with
the seasons too you know right about now we’re starting to collect our
firewood and stack it you know we’re starting to process our foods make our
salsas and our jams and our chutneys for the years to come for the next
year to come you know and putting away all of our food and preparing for the winter
and in a way there’s uh you know melancholy bittersweet feeling around that
you know as the season begins to close but then also the the excitement around
like a good long resting time in the winter which has been really nice for me
too so for us it’s just such an integral part of watching the seasons and just
being staying connected to that and how our food culture really
and moves around the seasons so it’s been really cool yeah yeah absolutely
man yeah it’s been fun for me to witness some of the sick locality the
seasonality around here and yeah in the winter months it can get pretty
pretty quiet and and really tranquil I mean it’s almost like a meditation
retreat yeah right and in the summer months I probably wouldn’t describe it
that way it was all kinds of folks coming and going in events and yeah I mean
one of the other things we didn’t talk about yet is the way in which elk run farm
has become a cultural hub for a variety of uh festivals like equinox and salsas
celebrations and dance parties and all sorts of workshops that you guys are
putting on and I really encourage folks if if you haven’t yet to
plug in and come and check out some of the workshop offerings that Nick and his
team have there’s an amazing array of knowledge sharing and
experiential learning available and yeah and these dance parties are a lot of fun
right yeah sure enough yeah I mean there’s this really no way to talk about
all the cultural stuff without mentioning Marissa to my amazing partner
life partner and co-founder of dryland’s agro ecology research and
I think it’s worth mentioning you know the way I see it the what really
initiated the founding of dar was her skills and my skills kind of combining you know
being a really strong influence in the community a dancer performer event producer she decided
she wanted to throw a party to help bring funds and resource and attention to what we were doing
which at the time was planting trees on this property that now people can come back and see the
plants that they planted and it’s really incredible to see that success that’s coming from that
but just really seeing how community has fueled this entire project the entire work of
of dar and like Marissa would say just really embodying this feeling of joy and and living
in positivity and really sharing that with the greater community so it’s been amazing to have
volunteer days once a week where everybody comes and has an amazing lunch afterwards good farm
fresh food and just feeling that excitement you know we have off-site interns that come twice
a week we have on-site interns that are training and learning how to do practice for generative farming
here and community has just been the momentum the entire time and so for us like having parties
you know here and again it wants a quarter at most really big big wild parties and good time to
let loose and to really just let go of the season behind us and to celebrate all the beauty that we
get to live and you know the beautiful privilege that it is to live on land and to be able to share
that with our communities so in that same way the different ones that support us and fun about
our projects and also just come to lend a hand and the different volunteer things that you’re talking
about like the tree planting so if anybody’s around Boulder County next spring we’re going to do
another large tree planting at yellow barn and then a couple more plantings at private projects too
so really involving the community to get behind this regenerative movement and see that that
proliferation of these regenerative practices using communities so it’s been a really fun time for
that it’s so wonderful Nick yeah and I love it and you know I’m not much for going to these really
big concerts or whatever anymore I just I’m a little I guess I’ve grown a little sensitive over the
years but the the kinds of gatherings and celebrations and parties that occur here are just perfect
I mean they’re just so perfectly scaled perfectly curated and yeah Marissa obviously brings such
a energy of joy and beauty and creativity and cultural connection to the to the project and the
property and I’m excited because we decided we would do a his and hers set of podcast episodes
right so we’re not exactly sure which one’s going to drop first but we are recording first with
you Nick and so theoretically I guess it might go in that sequence and yeah it’s going to be a lot
of fun for our audience I think to be able to hear from each of you your perspectives and offerings
and highlights you know of what what you’re holding what you’re stewarding what you’re creating
and what you’re excited about yeah yeah so just Nick what a joy to have this opportunity to
visit with you today and and before we sign off with our podcast episode and go into our behind
the scenes segment which if you’d like to access you got to become an ambassador we’ll do a little
behind the scenes piece and get into a few other threads but before we sign off with our podcast
episode I just want to invite you if there’s anything else you’d like to say or share with our
audience or generally you know about the work you’re doing yeah sure thanks a lot Aaron I mean I
think it’s just important to share through drylands anger we call you research Dar we really see
this this land regeneration piece is the foundation right in the hopes of and the inspiration that
Marissa and I have and all of our community members now in building this regenerative culture seeing
that we are mostly living integrated landscapes and so if we want to live in a thriving resilient
way we really need to work on regenerating the landscapes that were a part of first and so then
from there recognizing that by researching that by doing active data collection and really documenting
effectively how these processes are developing the land we can then share that with other community
members other farmers ranchers and also share it to the greater community and then from that really
recognizing that without see we we have to see that many cultures and marginalized communities have
been placed on degraded ecosystems and this is just one part of our culture that’s kind of
challenging to face at times but recognizing that if we’re not reintegrating these communities
and supporting these communities and building regenerative systems then where we’re really not
making an influence on culture in a positive way and so from there educating people about that
educating people about the work on the land the work in communities and sharing different
permaculture classes that we have here different events and workshops mindfulness events that we
have on this property as well as yellow barns so those four pillars are really the main the main
pillars of Dar, Dryland’s Agrary College research and the work that we’re doing in our communities
and definitely excited to hear what Marissa has to say about all this stuff too the cultural advocacy
part portions and the education portions are more what she’s focused on and involved in and just
through our teamwork and partnership we’ve been able to just share a lot of this with the greater
community and so just excited to continue that work and to plant thousands more trees this spring
in the years to come and see these regenerative patterns really grow and and affect an influence
culture in a really positive way where we live and outward into the world so just really happy to be
with you here thanks for honoring me in this way and getting to spend a little time in our magical
forest garden and talk a little bit so just feeling thankful now absolutely Nick yep thank you man
it’s been wonderful chatting with you today say a thing bro the YonEarth community stewardship
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