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Benefits of Biochar

What if El Dorado, the city of gold sought by Spanish conquistadors, was actually a metaphor for another kind of wealth, Terra Petra – Earth that is, black gold, Amazon tea.

Pre-Colombian Amazonians discovered either by accident or ingenuity that charcoal in the soil increased agricultural yields.

The thought is that they consciously mixed charcoal into the Earth and saw their yields grow, to the point where they built kilns to create more charcoal.

If you haven’t heard of Terra Petra, perhaps you have heard of Biochar – the modern name for black Earth to make your garden grow.

Tony Saladino of Green Bay first read about the concept of Terra Petra – Biochar – in anthropological journals. Three years ago he conducted a controlled grow of lettuce in two 2’x3’ beds, one with one cup of Biochar to five gallons of soil, and the other without.

Not only did the Biochar bed sprout a week before the other, but Saladino said he harvested lettuce from the Biochar bed a week before the one without. By the end of the season, Saladino said the Biochar bed had double the output, and even when snow covered the non-Biochar bed, the Biochar-infused bed was still growing lettuce.

He explains that under the microscope Biochar looks like a sponge with all kinds of nooks and crannies that are shelters for a variety of bacteria and phytoplankton and viruses.

“All those tiny microbes, millions of them per teaspoon, they’re all metabolizing. They’re all a life form of some sort, and they create a little bit of warmth,” Saladino said. “It’s not much individually, but multiplied by millions, it actually melted the snow from the surface of the dirt on the one that had the char. It was completely unexpected. I consider myself fairly scientific. I had never seen any effect as strong as that.”

As a true believer in the power of char, Saladino is conducting a workshop on how to make your own Biochar through Greens N Grains Natural Foods in Egg Harbor. Participants will learn by producing batches of Biochar.

Saladino offers, “It all sounds so complicated, but it’s so simple.”

The Biochar Workshop takes place at 2 pm on Sunday, April 19, on the grounds of Junction Center Yoga Studio, home of Greens N Grains and Junction Center Yoga founder Kathy Navis. The workshop will last approximately three hours, and Saladino said as well as learning to make Biochar, everyone will get to take home some of the fruits of their labor. The cost to attend is $15. The workshop will be followed by a potluck dinner.

Reserve a spot by calling Kathy Navis at 920.868.9999 or email [email protected]. Space is limited and reservations are required.