🧑‍🌾 For this month's #farmer feature, we’re sharing the story of veteran organic farmer, Larry Kandarian of @KandarianOrganicFarms. Larry is a mainstay at many of the best farmers’ markets in Southern California and is well known for his ancient varieties of wheat and legumes. 🐑 In 1999, Larry bought the 130-acre property he currently farms in Los Osos, CA. 🌊 In the winter, Larry grows wheat, barley, rye, millet, teff, sorghum, and legumes, and in the summer grows lentils, peas, fava beans, fenugreek, and beans of all kinds (which are also irrigated by movable, lateral sprinkler lines). There are often 70 different varieties of crops on his table at the farmers’ market and 1,000 crops on the farm. Three years ago, Larry started grazing on the property with seven St. Croix sheep from the Virgin Islands. Today, his flock has grown to forty-two sheep, a guard donkey, and Harlequin ducks and geese. 🦆 🌿 Through Kiss the Ground’s Transition Program, Larry attended Soil Health Academy in 2018, a three-day in-person school taught by leading regenerative farmers and ranchers. This education formed his farming philosophy of “growing soil.” He grows soil, and as a result, his crops are nutrient-rich because of that soil. 🌾 Larry estimates that his Elytrigia (aka kernza) field, which hasn’t been tilled in 23 years, has roots that run 30 feet deep and can hold about 30 inches of water per hour. When he had the soil tested, he said it looked and felt like a forest floor. 📢 “Regenerative is the only way to go, and we need more people involved,” says Larry. The “roof on the ground” is key, he says. Growing soil results in increased water-holding capacity and carbon drawdown. The runoff from a creek on his property has decreased by half, from 4,000 gallons to 2,000 gallons, in recent years. “We’re in a real dilemma; we need people like you to change the mindset,” says Larry. Click the link in our bio to read the full feature!