Horse Powered Organic Farming at Karbaumer Farm

Klaus and Lee Karbaumer own 17 acres outside of Kansas City, Missouri. They have two acres of that in vegetables, which they sell to local upscale grocery stores, restaurants and on market day to the public. This is an organic farm that does not use any fertilizer other than horse manure produced on the farm. In addition, it is a horse-powered farm.

The horse power on the Karbaumer Farm comes from two Percherons, Sam and Nash who do the plowing and hilling. And a Haflinger named Ghandi does the cultivating. All the horses help with the winter logging which produces all the fuel to heat Klaus and Lee’s home.

Klaus was born and raised in rural Bavaria, Germany. He got his first horse when he was 16 and learned to use it for work. He soon hired out for work on other farms.
He moved to the US in the early 1990’s.

We see much footage of Klaus and his draft horses working in the garden. We also see and hear why Klaus uses hand cultivating in his closely planted rows.

Klaus uses the practice of rotational planting not only to produce the largest amount of saleable vegetables but also to keep and improve soil fertility. Successive planting of shallow rooted and deep-rooted plants is how he does this. He plants varieties of plants that feed from the soil (i.e. spinach) followed by varieties that add nutrients TO the soil (i.e. legumes). Here are just a few of his successions:

Spinach/green beans/kale

Peas/cucumbers/radishes

Radish/legumes/spinach

In the climate of Kansas City, he is able to plant fall spinach and kale, get one harvest and let the plants go dormant for the winter. Then he is able to harvest on more crop in the spring.

Lee talks a bit about marketing their produce. She sends a weekly email to update customers on what was harvested, what is available and the condition of the harvest. She educates her customers on the difference in appearance of organic plants vs. non-organic produce (bug damage, irregulars size…)

For information visit their website, email or call:
http://www.theamericanbrabantassociation.net
claybankmare@yahoo.com
951-551-9469

Видео Horse Powered Organic Farming at Karbaumer Farm канала Rural Heritage