Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative agriculture is a big part of Ipswich, Mon Amour. When I started working on the book in early 2022, I knew almost nothing about the subject. I was living in Boise at the time. When I asked around, I learned that the farming in places like Idaho was very different from farming in New England.
Out West, farms are bigger. They average around 500 acres. In Massachusetts, it’s closer to 50. And for the fictional Boushay family farm in Ipswich, it’s 18. To depict that world accurately, I knew I’d have to spend time around farms on Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Ideally, I’d be volunteering at one to get hands-on experience. And that meant leaving Boise and moving east.
(A field of veggies at Iron Ox Farm in Hamilton, MA.)
An Evolution in Farming
Before packing up and hitting the road, I studied a few books on the subject and began listening to podcasts. I quickly found myself stepping into a world undergoing major transformation. The farming scenario I was familiar with involved fields being tilled on a regular basis. However, the whole idea of tilling, turning over the soil at the end of a harvest or to prep for planting, was being reevaluated.
According to new thinking around the matter, the act of tearing up the soil is not a good thing. It damages or destroys the ecosystem living below the surface, where a community of microorganisms lived. Plants rely on them for nutrients. When those microorganisms aren’t present, or not present in sufficient numbers, farmers need to buy those nutrients, called inputs, in bulk from an ag store. That’s chemistry over biology, and it can be a huge upfront expense at the start of the growing season before the first seed has been planted.
Books on Regenerative Agriculture
(Books on regenerative agriculture that informed the writing of Ipswich, Mon Amour)
Broadly defined, regenerative agriculture is farming in a way that improves soil health and biodiversity. The first book I read on the subject was Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown. His North Dakota ranch is spread over 5,000 acres. The story begins with a description of his debut in the world of farming, which involved one failure after another. There were so many that it threatened his marriage and his ability to support his family.
He took a scientific approach to solve the problem and discovered that he, and most farmers around him, were going about things the wrong way when it came to managing the soil. I’ll put this simply because I’m hardly an expert on the subject, but there’s a symbiotic relationship between plants growing above ground and the fungi and bacteria living below.
Through photosynthesis, plants produce carbohydrates as food. What they don’t need can be sent into the soil through their roots as exudates (one of the cool new words I learned). They feed the microorganisms, allowing them to grow. In turn, the microorganisms produce macro- and micronutrients (nitrogen, potassium, phosphates, manganese, etc.) that plants need but can’t produce on their own.
Tearing up the soil by tilling destroys that critical ecosystem of fungi and bacteria. Again, when the soil isn’t producing the nutrients needed by crops because of tilling, farmers have pay for them at the start of each growing season. Which begs the question: Why pay a lot of money for something you can get for free, or at least at a much lower cost?
New Principals for Soil Health
With what he learned about regenerative agriculture, Gabe Brown took a new approach. His principles of soil health can be summed up this way:
- Avoid mechanical, chemical and physical disturbance of the soil.
- Keep the soil covered with plant matter at all times to help prevent erosion from wind and rain.
- Increase biodiversity to break disease cycles and stimulate plant growth. Diversity, vs a monoculture, enhances and strengthens a farm’s ecosystem.
- Maintain living roots in the soil as long as possible throughout the year to feed the fungi and bacteria. Also, replenish the soil by composting, using garden refuse or manure, or growing cover crops.
- Integrate animals on a farm. The grazing of plants stimulates them to pump more carbon into the soil. Additionally, provide a habitat for pollinators, predator insects and earthworms.
The results of his new approach were dramatic. By the early 2020s, his crop yields were 20–25% higher than the average in his county. And the benefits didn’t stop there.
(Carrots growing at certified-organic Iron Ox Farm in Hamilton, MA.)
A healthy below-ground ecosystem can also increase the soil’s ability to absorb water and retain it for later use by the plants. That matters because conventional farming is not a sustainable model. Shrinking water tables in the heartland of America attest to that.
That’s a quick and simple take on regenerative agriculture. As a writer, I found the whole subject fascinating. I also realized that I would need to do more research than expected to get it right in the novel.
Some Helpful Podcasts on Regenerative Agriculture
Along with books on the topic, I found some relevant podcasts. I listened to them while packing up in Boise, during the long drive east, and while living in my temporary home on Cape Ann. To name a few, there was The Female Farmer Project, The Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, and The No-Till Market Garden Podcast, currently called The No-Till Growers. (As of this writing in 2025, I’m still listening to No-Till Growers Daily.)
(No-Till Growers podcasts by farmer Jesse Frost, author of the Living Soil Handbook)
The final part of my education would be hand-on research at a farm in the Ipswich area. After looking around for one with a volunteer program, I learned about Iron Ox Farm in Hamilton, a town adjacent to Ipswich. It’s run by Stacey Apple and Alex Cecchinelli, farmers who are growing organic vegetables in a sustainable way. They welcomed volunteers for occasional tasks through the growing season. Every hour I spent in their fields gave me a gem or two that I could include in Nora Mahoney’s farming life.
When I finished the first draft of Ipswich, Mon Amour, I reached out to Farmer Jamie Barrett at Marshview Farm in Ipswich. He agreed to review the story for agricultural accuracy. His feedback was especially helpful because Marshview Farm is located only a couple of miles away from the fictional Boushay family farm.
(Farmer Jaimie Barrett in the field at Marshview Farm in Ipswich, MA.)
If you’d like to read more about the research and writing of the novel, check out these other posts:
Death and Mythology in the Novel
Scenes in Paris and Southern France