USD Magazine Spring 2023

Sustainable agr icul ture, food just ice and ancient Jewish wisdom intersect at Coastal Roots Farm [ b y J u l e n e S n y d e r ] Wi th Hear t So i l On this particular warm fall day, Javier Guerrero is the personification of the word “stoked.” He’s as excited about the taste of fennel pollen (think black licorice) as he is about urging a taste of a fallen pineapple guava (tart, tasty and “chock full of vitamin C”). He waxes poetic about the more than 150 chickens in residence at Coastal Roots Farm but is adamantly uninterested in a suggestion that he consider adding goats to the mix. “Every animal you introduce is a whole ’nother deal,” he says. “We’ve got two flocks of chickens that are constantly moving, and that in itself is a lot of work.” Guerrero — who came on board as president and CEO of the Encinitas farm in 2018 — is perhaps happiest when he’s getting his hands dirty or building things, with the possible exception of when he’s expounding on the benefits that these chickens bring to the land. “Our process for farming in this regenerative manner is this,” he begins, as a preface to a private tour of the grounds. “We’ll finish a crop, and the chickens will come through. We move them around every couple of weeks and they just tear up whatever’s left. They eat the bugs, so that’s pest management. They fertilize the soil. They turn and aerate the soil. Once they’re finished, we’ll plant a cover crop like clover or barley, which will put nitrogen and nutrients into the soil.” At the moment, the chickens are taking a break from their duties. Most are drowsing in the shade of their coop, which is on wheels so it can be easily moved from one part of the land to another. p h o t o g r a p h y b y B a r b a r a F e r g u s o n

Spr ing 2023

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