San Juan County Agricultural Summit Biochar Demonstration

March 7th and 8th Tom Miles ran a biochar making workshop as part of the San Juan County Agricultural Summit Biochar Workshop. Tom explained the guiding principles of char use and production, and the Larry James (Seachar) demonstrated the Estufas Finca. JD Tovey (Carbon Cultures) gave a great short introduction to the development of the Carbon Cultures biochar oven. We had about 40 people from a mix of agriculture, trades and small land owners. Sam Heller ran a quick demo of his home make TLUD retort, and Erin R. did a small cone kiln demonstration. Renel Anderson great information, posters and demos of char, and Jim Karnofski shared a lot of practical application advice.

Tom and Renel Anderson (Biochar Supreme) gave a great couple of short talks During the San Juan Island Agriculture Summit about making and using biochar at a farm scale. Renel generously shared her struggles with getting her biochar tested, certified, and the packaging issues sorted out for sale in retail and farm stores. It was a great presentation.

The San Juan Island farmers have an interesting challenge. It’s expensive to ship anything to the islands, so they need to integrate their use of each part of their farm cycle to improve their soils as well as their production. They have a mix of older farmers and young farm families just starting out. There was great information at the summit, and it will be exciting to see how these families take up the challenges and implement some of the ideas over the next year.

Download a copy of Tom's Presentation 4Mb pdf