Algarve, located in the extreme south of Portugal, has become an increasingly warm and dry region for the last couple of years.
Recently I heard this statement from Taimur Malik, when I was listening to the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast by John Kempf, that caught my attention: “Nature always overcomes whatever reductive approach you take.”
We must understand, respect, and work hand by hand with the ecosystems in which we operate.
Last October we seeded roughly 12 hectares with 5 different cover crop mixtures with a number of plant families within the same mixture varying between 3 and 5.
We are updating practices hoping to have a more effective rainwater use, decrease the soil temperature and water evaporation during the warm and dry season, decrease the loss of soil due to erosion, improve our soil structure, biology, nutrient cycling, and so forth…
If we’ll be able to stabilize even a small percentage of this plant residue into humus (what might be the most important single determinant in agriculture profitability), so that polysaccharides are pulled out of the carbonaceous material instead of going back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and polypeptides are drawn out of the protein instead of escaping as nitrogen, that will be an achievement.
We deeply believe that if we make those conditions a little less harsh for our grape vines, they will return with better grapes.
We will keep paying close attention to our soil indicators.
Credits to the great team at: Casa Santos Lima, Companhia das Vinhas SA
