The Smell of Soil

Steve’s working in the field outside my office window. Now, my “office” at High Ground Organics is a marvelous yurt that overlooks the apple orchard that overlooks the potato field that overlooks the Harkins Slough. I can’t imagine a lovelier place to work. I look out my window and see the tractor is discing up a little wedge of land in front of the apple trees. I think chard will be planted there. With each pass I get another burst of fragrance that few people get to experience. It’s the smell of soil being turned; it’s the smell of soil that has been allowed to digest the resources below the surface, it’s the smell of life.

Now, not many folks know how to appreciate the smell of good soil–I may be one of a small club. One Christmas I opened a present from my daughter and it was a bottle of perfume called “Dirt.” I don’t think it was a big seller, but I went back and bought several bottles…it’s an acquired sense–or should that be scents? As I breathe in the aroma of the field being turned, I also like to imagine what’s under the surface of the field, knowing that beneath the area that I can see, is a whole universe of organisms that are working hard to create a medium for plant growth and health. It goes along with the old saying that if you grow healthy soil, you will harvest healthy plants.

The soil that I see Steve cultivating out there is healthy. The organic material being turned under will produce nutrients that will feed the next crop, that material will retain moisture and prevent erosion, that material will provide for a multitude of microorganisms that will protect against pests and pathogens that are harmful. We don’t often get a chance to see that kind of activity when looking out our windows.

I’m not sure if my love for the smell of earth comes from some ancient memory embedded in my DNA of a past life spent growing food for my family to survive or the fact that I’m just a big kid who likes to play in the dirt. Whatever the case, I love my office window.