Luke Peterson uses regenerative agriculture to cultivate a range of grains

Award-winning farmer Luke Peterson is focused on the future of farming by applying regenerative, sustainable methods to growing grain.

Consumer choices matter. When you buy something, you’re essentially voting with your dollars to support whatever system created the thing you’re buying and when you buy something like Baker’s Field’s bread, you’re not only supporting the baker who baked the bread, you’re supporting the farmer who grew the grains along with the way those grains were grown. Luke, the farmer Steve relies on to deliver grain that is grown organically through regenerative agriculture practices, grew up farming and chose to not only farm organically, he’s using regenerative techniques in his fields.

When we stopped by on a snowy day in December, Luke brought us out to his fields. Even in the seeming dead of winter, if you push the snow aside, you can see radish tops poking out of the un-tilled ground and there’s a distinct cabbage-y sulfuric aroma hanging in the air. After harvest, rather than tilling his soil, Luke plants items like cabbage and radishes, allowing them to grow and then die in the field, feeding the soil as they decompose and helping to insulate the soil to protect microbes and the microbiome that help feed his crops. The radishes serve purpose beyond becoming fertilizer as they break down: The huge root — the part we typically eat — pushes into the soil as it grows, aerating the soil naturally, alleviating the need to till.

Read more about why Luke wants to go “beyond organic” in this outstanding piece by Forbes.