https://www.dopemagazine.com/dragonfly-earth-medicine/
These days, sustainability usually brings to mind buying organic food, avoiding plastic bottles, and shopping locally. Most of us have never seen sustainability in action, but it can be achieved in our own backyards!
Dragonfly Earth Medicine, a small family company of five, has turned this dream lifestyle into reality. All their food, water, shelter and cannabis is produced on-site using a flourishing closed-loop growing system.
Josh and Kelly felt the tug of organic life in the early ’90s. From backyard gardens to farmers’ markets, they took advantage of all the resources around them, but ultimately wanted more. With the social climate of Oregon increasingly urbanizing, British Columbia seemed like a better place to start a family. Coming from a large city with everything at their fingertips, the countryside was a drastic change.
The gardening they learned in Oregon had the benefit of local manure, soil amendments, and bottled nutrients, but their new home was hours from everything. Using what was available, they began studying homesteading books, Korean and Japanese farming techniques, and playing cause and effect until they found what they needed. By composting nettle, grass clippings, weeds, and other plant materials, they quickly cultivated a healthy, thriving garden.
didn’t stop there. Needing to provide more food while safely growing their cannabis, they began tilling gardens hours into the country side. As you can imagine, they weren’t hauling hundreds of pounds of compost and nutrients by foot. Following some of their early lessons from Korean farming, they began playing with fermentation to help make nutrients available as well as increase bioactivity in the soil. They also began brewing whole plant ferments from nearby alfalfa, nettles, and comfrey. The results were astounding.
In 2007, Dragonfly Earth Medicine wanted to share what they had learned by releasing their first line of nutrients derived from organically produced plants. Using their nutrients as a starting point, their end goal isn’t a customer, but a partner. Consumers have to learn how to brew aerated compost teas with indigenous plant life. With open sourcing of both products and percentages, Dragonfly ultimately wants consumers to make their own plant brews and ferments without their help. After all, sustainability is sharing.
