Beneficial Farm

Beneficial Farm, also known as Mesa Top Farm, lies on a magnificent parcel of land on Glorieta Mesa, just southeast of Santa Fe. The farm practices the sustainable techniques of biodynamic farming (developed in the 1920s by Dr. Rudolph Steiner) to enrich the soil while producing an abundance of wholesome food. In place of pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers, we use only natural means to build the soil and create a balance between all the elements of the farm: land, water, people, livestock, wildlife, and plants.

The farm is a living laboratory for the advancement of sustainable farming and ranching principles in high-altitude, dryland locations. Irrigation at the farm employs a drip system using primarily captured rainwater. Plants are nourished with compost produced on the farm. Weeds and pests are managed organically. Solar power provides electricity for the farm and hot water and heat for the farmhouse.

Since 1994, owner Steve Warshawer has managed the farm as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In Community Supported Agriculture consumers and farmers work together on behalf of the earth and each other. The farmers tend the Earth on behalf of others, the consumers share the costs of supporting the farm and share the risk of variable harvests (and consume the abundance in fruitful years!). Individuals or families sign up for a full share or a half-share of the farm's produce, which is distributed on a weekly basis during the growing season.

Cooperative CSA is an approach where multiple farms support a single membership body. This method enables members to recieve a wider variety of food, and to extend their supportive relationship to many more family farms. Regional and Season thinking underlies the cooperative CSA.

Biodynamic agriculture is a method of farming that aims to treat the farm as a living system which interacts with the environment, to build healthy, living soil and to produce food that nourishes, vitalizes, and helps to develop humankind. The underlying principle of biodynamics is making life-giving compost out of dead material. Biodynamic farmers and gardeners treat the farm as a unity, in the context of its ecological environment. They work to increase the cosmic formative forces that enhance plant and animal health and growth. It is important that they develop their powers of observation, since biodynamic management relies on working with the natural life processes in soil, plants, and animals of each farm or garden's unique microenvironment. MORE INFO ON BIODYNAMIC AGRICULTURE

The farm uses a variety of approaches to reach its goal of sustainable rural living. Surface water runoff is captured in ponds for irrigation, and roads are designed to direct runoff into the ponds.

Intensively planted gardens use the principles of biodynamics and permaculture, including contours and swales to prevent erosion and conserve water. Electricity for irrigation pumps and household use is supplied by photovoltaics. The farm buildings get water from a catchment system for roof runoff, and a passive solar system provides space and water heating. Tertiary treated waste water from the house is recycled for landscape irrigation and compost making.

The Farm opens it's doors to visitors through it's apprenticeship program, working guest program, and occasionally workshops, and open houses are hosted.

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