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f a l l 2 0 1 8 | 9 level he calls "beyond organic": "We grow the soil, and the soil grows the crops," he says. Built on adobe clay–based terrain, Green String is located next door to Petaluma's original Mexican barracks, which were constructed by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's crews in the mid-1800s. While adobe can be fertile, it also hardens and cracks when it dries out during the summer drought, prompting Green String to spend "50 percent of [its] energy" on continuous soil improvement, Cannard says. As visitors toured the farm, Cannard and Cline led them to a planting of head cab- bage that showed none of the holes typical of damage from European cabbage worm larvae. The velvety-green caterpillars are vo- racious eaters, and if you've seen small white butterflies fluttering and twirling in gardens from spring through fall, they're most likely adult cabbage worms. When asked if they sprayed their cabbages with "Bt," or Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacte- rium that kills these caterpillars, Cannard and Cline were quick to deny. "Look at how waxy those leaves are—the wax repels the cabbage worm," Cannard explained. "When you get the soil naturally nutritious, the plants manufac- ture lots of wax and you don't need to spray." Many organic farmers use cover crops like vetch, alfalfa, fava beans, and clover, plow- ing them down once the plants are mature to enrich and give texture to the soil—but not Green String. "We rely on native weeds. They grow naturally, are suited to the local condi- tions, make their own seeds to replenish them- selves, and also give us straw," Cannard said. "We plow them under when it's time to plant farm crops. They may not be as nutritious as cover crops, but if you keep growing the soil with them, it amounts to the same thing, only with fewer inputs and costs." Sure enough, Green String Farm appears a little rustic and rough around the edges com- pared to the neatly cultivated rows of most farms: Flavor has always come before aesthet- ics here, and that was resoundingly proven by the salad served at dinner. Entirely composed of Green String ingredients, including carrots, radishes, multicolored leafy greens, arugula, and Forellenschluss lettuce, it was without a doubt the crispest, cleanest, most "alive" salad I've ever had. Now that's, I'd argue, what's most important. Founder of Cline Cellars and Farmhouse Wines, Fred Cline grows his grapes "the Green String way" without the use of synthetic fertilizers or herbicides. Thanks to his adoption of the "beyond- organic" movement, he's been able to produce award- winning wines while remaining a steward of the environment. ■cr

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