About us
Riverdale Nature Based Farm Systems
In 2009, at 47, I sold my tree care company to pursue agriculture. After 30 years in arboriculture—focused on observation, science, and ecosystem management—I thought the switch to organic farming would be easy.
“How hard could it be to grow seeds?”
I quickly learned the answer.
About Us
Zero Budget Natural Farming
What followed were years of failure, financial loss, crop failures, and emotional breakdowns. Farming challenged me more than any previous business had. At my lowest, I finally found the breakthrough I needed.
I realized I had forgotten the most important skill I ever learned as an arborist: the art of observation.
Not observing with intention.
Not observation clouded by bias or expectation.
Just pure observation—clear, patient, undistorted.
It is far harder than it sounds.
When I began observing nature again—not only from the ground but also from an aerial perspective—everything at Riverdale Farm and Forest changed. Nature revealed what modern agriculture often overlooks: there is no waste, no hierarchy, and no need for industrial inputs. Nature thrives on diversity, recycling, efficiency, and synergy.
That missing insight became the foundation of our philosophy.
It led to the birth of Zero Budget Natural Farming at Riverdale.
Over the next decade, our goal was straightforward: to source and develop every nutrient our crops needed, focusing on improving food taste within the farm’s boundaries, then expanding to our local community. Along the way, we uncovered a wealth of microbial diversity along untouched fence lines, forests, and wetlands. These ecosystems became the biological foundation of our compost systems and liquid extracts—systems I designed, built, and now sell.
Our composting methods have evolved from static piles to Johnson–Su bioreactors, and we currently use both. Waste from our firewood and kindling operations became an opportunity, not a waste. I designed and built biochar retorts—first for our own use, then for sale. Biochar was incorporated as a soil amendment, mixed with our animal bedding to absorb urine and control odour, and then returned to the compost system, thereby dramatically improving its quality.
Later, I developed and now sell a small-batch biochar-and-wood-vinegar kiln that produces high-quality biochar and premium wood vinegar.
Wood vinegar—containing over 200 organic compounds—is a powerful biostimulant. It accelerates microbial activity in soil and compost, boosts plant immunity, improves seed germination, and helps suppress pests and disease.
The economic impact was transformative.
I eliminated the need for fulvic and humic acids, fish hydrolysates, kelp, and foliar stickers like yucca extract. efficiently produce our own plant-based hydrolysates and use waste from our maple sugar operation to replace molasses.
I rented, then built, a custom micronize/stone crusher and began re-grinding fieldstone piles lining our fields, returning minerals directly to the soil. Within our community, we established leaf-collection drop-off centers and composted. They are just a few of the successes I enjoyed over the years, never taking my eye off the prize for food taste.
Why do we farm?
Is it purely economic—or is it fundamentally about growing good-tasting, nutritious food?
It has to be both.
About Us
Why We Farm
Across all forms of agriculture—organic, regenerative, or conventional—farmers are paid for yield, and only occasionally for quality. Too often, quality is sacrificed for economics. This must change. Western culture has lost its understanding of what real food provides. Humans are the most advanced chemical factories on earth, and our physical, mental, and spiritual health depends not only on nutrient density but on the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of metabolites (compounds) found in real food.
A carrot contains over 600 metabolites, yet only about 10 minerals. How we manage soil directly determines food quality.
Ironically, the greatest advancement in my farming career did not come from discovering new organic inputs or designing custom machines. It came from rekindling a spiritual connection within myself.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” Greek physician Hippocrates
Food can become medicine again
Farmers can change.
Farming must change.
And that change begins with the power of observation.
We need a new approach—one rooted not just in production, but in purpose.
Zero Budget Natural Farming
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Riverdale Nature Base Farm Systems provides practical, experience-based consulting to help farmers design and implement resilient, biologically active systems with minimal off-farm inputs.
