Or should I call it “–Natural Farming?” Because I’m of Korean descent. Get it? Get it?

I had no idea there was such a thing until last year, when I met badass Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm–where she practices Korean Natural Farming (and grows Korean plants and I basically want to follow her around for a week). But back to the subject: I checked the notion of Korean Natural Farming in my head and put it in the dark recesses of my obsessive and twisty brain.

Recently, my friends A and J brought up Korean Natural Farming again. When I brought up the fact that I was trying out cricket poop/frass as a fertilizer, and how it was horribly stinky, J suggested LAB.

LAB?

Yes, he said. Lactic. Acid. Bacteria. Korean Natural Farming. Spray it on. One of the things it does is get rid of smells.

Huh, I thought. I’ll give that a shot. And I read up.

Korean Natural Farming (or KNF for short) is about strengthening every biological component of plant growth without using chemicals or outside fertilizers by using indigenous microorganisms (IMO) like bacteria and fungi. You avoid fertilizers and manure and instead, focus on what’s going on in the soil in your environment and encourage naturally existing processes within the ecosystem.

Its principles tie in well with permaculture and no-till farming, which are two practices I’m embracing these days. Go with what’s there, go with the flow of the land, the basic idea being that you want to cultivate based on the ecosystem and all the little critters within, making sure things are in balance and largely undisturbed (yay sheet mulching/lasagna gardening!).

It sounds hippy-dippy, yes. And I don’t subscribe to every hippy dippy thing out there. But some things work and do make sense–like acupuncture. Other things–like planting during a waxing and waning moon–well, I’m still not sold on that.

Plus KNF has…POTIONS aka amendments aka fermented items. There’s Fish Amino Acid, and Fermented Plant Juice and Oriental Herbal Nutrients…but I started out with Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB for short). Because stinky cricket frass.

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