Growing Rice in Northern Vermont

What's the only grain crop that's been grown on steep land for centuries without destroying the land or exhausting infertility? The same crop that feeds more people than any other. Store it for years with no energy input. Feed to any farm animal. Currency. Why aren't we growing rice in Vermont?

In 2012, we began experimenting with terraced rice farming. Inspired by terraced farming techniques in Northern Japan, we set out to build a similar system that might work in Vermont.

Earthwork & Planting

Oil to soil: we can't eat petroleum but we can eat for thousands of years off of the infrastructure we can make with it. Nothing new of course, but such infrastructure used to take decades, centuries, and often forced human labor. Today, I figure about 20 gallons of diesel can power enough swale-mound and terrace earthworks for the typical small farm or homestead to capture, store and infiltrate 90%+ of the stormwater landing on-site during the growing season, while greatly building soil and increasing food yields from the system in the process.

The video above shows stripped topsoil from the site being put back into the paddy before the 1200-1500 seed starts were transplanted into it in May. It's interesting to see a high nutrient, low-flow system (ducks will fertilize the water input to the paddies), next to an aquaculture pond — they stay separate, and no silt-laden water from the paddies ever leaves the land. It fertigates via gravity feed to tree and berry crops in the field below. The water storage capacity of each paddy makes it apparent how much more intense flooding in monsoonal Asia would be if the landscapes did not contain massive amounts of paddies, as they serve as wetlands for hilly land.

Year Two
The second year of our rice research testing developed a beautiful full terraced hillside of short grain brown rice paddies. Sound like Java or the Philippines or Japan? Indeed, but this sloped-land technique for perpetual grain production on marginal land has proven possible for centuries in other cold climates. Our site is testing this crop in what's likely the coldest place on Earth anyone is attempting rice. But the climate is shifting and we haven't tried all possibilities besides. So far the results are stunning: 4,000-5,000 lbs/acre on the subsoil of grain that can be stored for years and used by anyone on the farm/homestead be it human or farm animal.

Year Three