THERMICULTURE
as a business 

We take great pride and attention to being good stewards of the land, using traditional organic farming practices on all of our ranches. 

bee on citrus flower

One of the things that makes desert agriculture unique is the landscape of so many produce varieties grown. 

Each produce variety allows for a diverse population of over-wintering and over-summering beneficial insect populations. This allows us to effectively utilize IPM (integrated pest management) strategies on all of our ranches. This is done by monitoring both pest populations and beneficial "predator" populations as they grow to help naturally keep tree and fruit damage under control.

 
Field of date trees with bags around ripening dates

We are proud to be one of the largest Organic citrus and Date farmers in the desert.

Growers are paying attention and valuing traditional and historical Organic farming practices, recognizing the amount of damage sterile chemical "conventional" farming has done in a very short time. We are excited and proud to work with all of our growers that respect all aspects of farming and land stewardship.

Ripe dates in crates
Ripe lemons in crate in field of lemon trees
Woman sorting dates in crates
Green lemons on tree branch
Citrus grove with desert mountains in the background
A hand holding citrus fruit cut in half
A red crate of ripe dates and a yellow crate of ripe dates placed side by side
a pile of lemons
Two men harvesting dates off of a date palm tree. One man is on a ladder and emptying a bag of ripe dates into a round basket held up by the other man.
Flowers on citrus tree
Citrus grove with rows of trees covered with a protective mesh
ripening citrus fruits on a tree

What is Organic?

Most people think the fundamental premise behind Organic is to provide a better nutrient dense piece of produce without synthetic chemical residues to the consumer. Most marketers think it’s a way to try to make more money from it.

IT'S NOT.

Those are the results everyone can benefit from down the line of organic farming. However the first priority and decision you have to make for Organic farming is land stewardship, building your soils, and making a pledge of awareness to what you are putting on your farm and in our environment.

 

ORGANIC IS:

  • land stewardship
  • building your soils
  • awareness of what you're putting on your farm and into our environment


ORGANIC IS NOT:

  • providing better nutrient dense pieces of produce

Rather, this is a BENEFIT of Organic farming.

The Soil Food Web

 
Illustration of the soil food web showing the micro-organisms feeding off the plant nutrients and the next level of micro-organisms feeding off of the others.

Mostly, if not completely, invisible to the naked eye, many beneficial micro-organisms call soil their home. They include bacteria, fungi, arthropods, nematodes, and protozoa. Together they interact to transfer energy between each other in a complex ecosystem that’s called a soil food web. The various energy outputs provide plants with the ability to survive and thrive through gaining nutrients and retaining them, suppressing diseases, and building the structure of the soil.

When a part of the soil food web ecosystem is off, that can lead to a sterilized environment, disease spread, and deficiencies in nutrients. Fertilizers, tilling of the soil, and pest killing chemicals all contribute to too much of some things and too little of others. To fix this issue, many farmers add even more chemicals which leads to furthering the kill off of the soil food web.

Creating and maintaining a healthy soil food web literally starts from the ground up. Using our various methods and services, Thermiculture helps growers bring life back to their soil and teaches you practices to maintain a full 360 degree approach to stewarding the land.

More resources: 

 

Big enough to handle large projects, small enough to care for the details.