erin riley’s Post

This is a giveaway babies! Cabbage Hill Fertilizer Co. will be at the SoCal VegFest in Costa Mesa October 26 and 27 and I have TEN tickets to give away! I’m giving two tickets to five lucky winners and I’m adding a Cabbage Hill granular fertilizer bag and soluble fertilizer concentrate of your choice! All you have to do is comment below. If you’re so inspired, tell me why this ecological, beyond organic, animal-free fertilizer movement matters to you. Thanks so much for your love and support and I look forward to seeing you at the SoCal VegFest!! Here’s some more info on the event. Parking is $12 at the OC Fair & Event Center. Festival Saturday & Sunday Hours: 11am ~ 6pm Festival Tickets are transferable easily to another person - no ID needed for purchased tickets. You can bring the paper PDF copy of the ticket OR show the ticket on your phone. You can use the ticket on EITHER Sat OR Sun. FREE for all people under 12, over 65, veterans, military, disabled - STILL MUST REGISTER FOR A TICKET online or will need to wait in line to receive complimentary ticket prior to entry. See here for Ticket Terms and Conditions: www.socalvegfest.org/ terms/ We look forward to see you at SoCal VegFest 2024!

Let’s talk.

Is regenerative agriculture really the climate solution it claims to be? While it aims to restore soils and increase biodiversity., it requires much more land compared to factory farming - and that’s a significant problem with a growing population. Factory farming is inherently cruel due to the way animals are treated, but regenerative agriculture isn’t the silver bullet it’s often touted to be. Regenerative agriculture involves grass-fed, pasture-raised livestock, which demands massive land use - land we simply don’t have. It produces more greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram than factory-farmed meat. Instead of focusing on such land-intensive methods, we need to look at real solutions. Let’s focus on reducing waste, shifting to plant-forward diets, protecting our forests, reducing fertilizer pollution, and rewilding agricultural lands. The push towards regenerative agriculture seems like an attempt to keep meat relevant despite the overwhelming evidence suggesting that a plant-centric food system is essential in mitigating climate breakdown. It’s time we prioritize sustainable solutions that truly benefit our beautiful planet - while we still can. Presented by Maggie Baird at Support + Feed Expert reviewed by erin riley at Cabbage Hill Fertilizer  Research by @foodfactsdotorg The Freedom Food Alliance Special thanks to Project Drawdown

We are nearing the end of summer. But a traditional fall is not around the corner. Where fall is a time of cooling and prepping for winter, our fall is burning hot and where we make preparations for a bountiful winter. It’s a little perplexing. I’m from PA and I understand why it’s hard to wrap your mind around. September and October are our worst gardening months. Whereas November through January are our best. This weather slowly changes, warming and extending and providing perfect garden weather all the way through May. Fall and winter in LA are like night and day. Fall burns and winter is lush and green. Time to harvest what’s left and then wrap it up and plan for winter. Cheers gardeners. You made it. Put your feet up and rest. 🥃

Let me explain why fertilizer is an urgent environmental issue. (This is an excerpt from my Substack. The🔗to the full article is linked below.) Fertilizer can leach from soil and enter the atmosphere and our waterways. The concentrated nitrogen, phosphorus and potash in organic and synthetic fertilizers, as well as animal manures, disrupts the balance of surrounding ecosystems and can cause their collapse. Fertilizer runoff is already responsible for numerous dead zones. Runoff from farms along the Mississippi River has created a hypoxic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where water can no longer hold enough oxygen for aquatic life. When nitrogen fertilizer and manure leach in liquid form they are called nitrates. When contaminated well water and other drinking waters are ingested by humans, an excess of nitrates can prevent the blood from carrying oxygen. This is especially dangerous for infants under 6 months who can die from nitrate poisoning. Fertilizer doesn’t have to be made from animals. It can be made from plants and grown with regenerative food forestry techniques. Instead of leaving behind vast wastelands and dead zones, fertilizer production can be ecological and sustainable. Fertilizer farms create bio-diversity and strong ecosystems, an important strategy for reversing environmental crisis. Plants grown alongside fertilizer crops provide food for microbes, habitat for animals and insects, create living mulch and compost and give shade and even water. Soil alive with microbes provides nutritious food while also sequestering carbon. Agricultural practices that center soil health will create resilience for our communities in the face of climate change. Nitrogen-heavy fertilizers have been found to produce vegetables with less nutrition, including less important antioxidants. It seems a plant needs to work and struggle in the soil to create antioxidants. A plant may grow big and green on nitrogen-heavy fertilizer but it can lack important nutrition. Long-term excessive application of nitrogen fertilizers can also affect a soil’s microbial health as well as the overall health of the crop. Plants fed high-nitrogen manures or fertilizers can more often attract insects and disease. Decreasing the use of animal waste and high NPK fertilizers, prioritizing soil and plant health, along with the installation of native plants and the re-wilding of ag lands, will help prevent further damage to our precious ecosystem. Read more below.

Supporting my lifelong friend Eric Fulmer. Mental health is widespread and gets a lot of talk but we are still so far from understanding it.

Huge thank you to Michelle Taylor Cehn for featuring Cabbage Hill in World of Vegan's fertilizer article. 🍓🍋🥔🍇🥦🥒🥕🥬🍅🫐🧄 “Whether you’re cultivating a backyard vegetable patch or tending to ornamental flowers, these vegan fertilizer options provide a conscientious choice for sustainable gardening practices. Cabbage Hill Fertilizer (100% Vegan Brand) Cabbage Hill is the first animal-free organic fertilizer company founded by pioneer Erin Riley. The company stems from Erin’s passion for organic gardening, ethics, and sustainability. Cabbage hill offers multiple formulas, made from plants and minerals—including soy, corn, neem, seaweed, kelp, alfalfa, and minerals like rock phosphate and sulfate potash and langbeinite. They also utilize humic acid and fulvic acid and mycorrhizae. Today, Cabbage Hill thrives as a beacon of education, transparency, and community, embodying the belief that feeding each other is a collective responsibility and joy. ‘For me, veganic means being able to eat right off the vine. I want to feel free to graze while I’m at work, to offer tastes to visitors at my garden and to know it’s safe for students to enjoy the fruits of their labor right off the plant. That’s what veganic means to me.’ – Erin Riley, founder of Cabbage Hill” https://lnkd.in/gKKWm4xH

Hey VegNews! Let me help you out with some sustainable, climate-friendly, regenerative garden tips for my favorite farmer: the home gardener. And you, my friends, would you share this video and tag @vegnews? Help me help them share the love of ecological and ethical gardening.

It really is my pleasure. I cannot recommend gardening enough. It’s satisfying and provoking and humbling and beautiful. I hope you find inspiration here to create a space in nature of your own or steward your own corner of the world whatever it may be. 🌏

If you consider yourself a gardener I hope you see yourself as part of something much much bigger and wiser than we humble humans. I hope you can drop your own agenda sometimes and let yourself be surprised. Even shocked if you’re lucky. Keep some areas of your garden full of debris and chaos. Allow disorder and unknown rhythms and foreign objects. Move slowly. Pay attention. Let go. Let nature nature. 🌾 #organicgardening #beyondorganic #sustainable #Climatechange #urbanfarm #climatetechnology #fertilizer #fertilizers #organicfertilizer #regenerativefarming #urbanfarming #hydroponicgarden #hydroponicfarming #hydroponic #vegan #veganism #veganic #beyondorganic #organicvegetables #organicfarming #sustainability #sustainable #climatechange #climategarden #animalfree #plantbasedgarden #crueltyfree #wildscape