Most all my life I've lived in this area and heard my elders say many times, "this area is hard as a rock - it's nothing but clay and it takes a pickax to get through the dirt." And that's what I have always believed... until I heard rumors that this area used to have the most fertile ground seen in it's day, and was huge on agriculture. Walnuts, almonds, citrus, prunes, vineyards and cherries grew abundant. It wasn't til World War II that our product shifted from agriculture to industrial, but what happened to our soil?

As I continue to work the postage stamp sized plot where I'm currently living (renting), I compost what I have and with what I don't have, I have purchased at the local hardware store. Between the many bags of manure and shredded compost I've brought in, the texture and life of my soil has dramatically changed in just two years. I find it teeming with worms and crawlie critters and soft enough to sink into. I imagine if you try to replenish the earth with chemicals, as my elders have done, the clay soil remains clay soil. But replenish it with the right stuff, as nature would do it, it becomes alive once again.