Located several miles west of Columbia, BLH Farm is in the rolling hills and woodlots of central Missouri, sitting atop a hill in a former pasture and hay field that slopes gently to the southeast. The garden plot is composed of permanent raised beds for both perennials (peony, narcissus, allium, crocosmia) and annuals (sunflowers, zinnia, marigold, amaranth, celosia, cosmos, snapdragons) as well as a small selection of herbs, which are incorporated into bouquets and wreaths.
Focusing on improving the health of their soil, owners Matt Arthur and Laura Hudson apply their own hand-mixed hot aerobic compost and vermi-compost, both of which are produced from their residential compost business. They treat new beds with a deep treatment of bokashi — fermented food waste — that is used to improve both the quality and texture of the soil. They make their MO-kashi bran from organic wheat sourced from Janie’s Mill and have incorporated over 15,000 lbs of fermented food waste into the root zone of their beds, which provides accessible organic matter to feed the soil microbes to grow healthy plants.
Every bed spends a season each year in a diverse cover crop mix to provide insect habitat, provide a multi-species set of roots to feed soil microbes, and to add organic matter in the form of living plants. In the spring, they identify beds for our late-season CSA and plant a warm-season mix of 20+ species, including cowpeas, broom corn, vegetables, radishes, and buckwheat. For their fall/winter cover crop, they use a mix of hardy cereal rye, oats, and peas.
Matt and Laura love interacting with their customers at Columbia Farmers Market. "We love the time talking with market customers, exchanging recipes, and explaining our production methods. It connects us, and that connection is invaluable."
Visit their website at BLHFARM.COM.
