The mobile refinery is pretty cool, but we were even more impressed with Dorn’s radishes. He plants daikon radishes in the fall as part of his cover crop. The radishes grow a deep tap-root and then die over the winter. The root decomposes in the spring, leaving behind a deep vertical tube of compost. This breaks up compaction of the soil, allowing crops to grow better and improving water drainage. The radishes also capture nitrogen in the fall and release it in the spring when needed, reducing the need for added fertilizer. PLUS—if you harvest a few radishes in the fall, you can make a killer kimchi.
Research Farm Visit
December 27, 2011 by Omar Khudari
Last week, Steve and I took a trip with Marty Michener to visit Dorn Cox at his farm in Lee, NH. Dorn has developed his own mobile biodiesel refinery, and he is planning to publish his design so anyone can build one. By Dorn’s calculations, farmers in New England could produce all the fuel for their operations by setting aside about 10% of their land for growing vegetable oil crops such as sunflowers.
This is fantastic. John makes his own fuel from old deep fryer oil. And i also am way impressed with these daikon radishes. We are recovering land from years and years of intensive cropping and i am always looking for ways to enrich it. I can sow these this spring in the new fields! Awesome. c