Mama Tree

... AND THE 5 PRINCIPLES OF REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

In addition to its almost 600 olive, 1,500 tangerine, and 40 walnut trees, Mama Tree also grows Star Ruby grapefruits, navel and Valencia oranges, Eureka and Meyer lemons, pomegranates, persimmons, pineapple guavas, kiwis, apricots, and peaches. With the majestic Topatopa mountains towering in the distance, earth, sky, and air infuse the idyllic property with a sense of wholesomeness. The 20-acre orchard and 40-acre woodlands provide the perfect venue for land stewards Natalie Buckley-Medrano and Je rey Reidl to nurture and regenerate an ecosystem.

Mama Tree is owned by Holly Kretschmar and Loren Bouchard, who hired Buckley-Medrano and Reidl to manage the property in 2020. The foursome’s mission is to transform the formerly conventional orchard into a diverse, regenerative agroecological system that relies on permaculture design.

When Kretschmar and Bouchard first saw Mama Tree, they immediately fell in love. “The property’s physical beauty attracted us, and I had been quietly nurturing a dream of getting involved in regenerative agriculture,” Kretschmar says. “We were looking

by BARBARA BURKE

for a property where we could grow, literally and metaphorically, and be part of a community that supports positive change — it was already a working farm, but we wanted to tinker and experiment with the agricultural practices used.”

Bouchard agrees, saying: “We felt there was an opportunity to grow things di erently. In doing so, we’re doing right by the land.” When Reidl and Buckley-Medrano were hired, they immediately went to work, intent on transforming Mama Tree into a vibrant, diverse, nurturing, integrated system where animals do the work and the land is designed to maximize moisture levels in the soil.

“Our first plan of action was to call a halt to the spraying of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and cease any tilling,” Buckley-Medrano explains. “Now, we fertilize by strategically rotating our animals through and using practices such as spraying kaolin clay, a natural mineral, on the olives as a barrier against fruit flies.”

She discusses e orts to improve Mama Tree’s ecological health and functionality, including sequestering carbon by building living soil; integrating biochar; making their own compost using animals’ bedding; and having goats eat from perennial fodder o the land instead of alfalfa, which is an expensive, water-intensive crop.

Regenerative agriculture encourages choosing a diversity of water-wise and climate-appropriate plants, Reidl notes.

“It also encompasses keeping soil intact — i.e., not tilling, to protect microbial life and support carbon sequestration, as well as integrating grazing animals,” Buckley-Medrano explains. “Our goats are our four-legged composters — they turn tough-to-digest organic material into what are essentially little pellets of soil containing beneficial microbes and bioavailable nutrients to feed the trees. Our animals work both to help build soil fertility and control brush around our perimeter, which helps mitigate fire risk.”

Kretschmar explains that “regenerative farming, or what I think of as collaborative agriculture, traps carbon underground while it improves the health of soil, animals, and farmers.”

“If we have a healthy soil microbiome, then the food we eat is not only nutrient-dense, but also supports a healthy gut microbiome and that is how we have a resilient immune system,” Buckley-Medrano says.

Reidl, a steward of ecohydrology (how landuse practices and biotic processes influence hydrological cycles and vice versa), focuses on retention and rediversion of water and topsoil at Mama Tree. The practices he employs, he says, will also benefit nearby properties.

Before Kretschmar and Bouchard purchased the parcel and named it Mama Tree, its landscape was designed to drain water as e ciently as possible. Concrete diversions transferred rainwater o the land into nearby Lion Canyon Creek, which feeds the Ventura River.

In 2019, Ojai-based permaculturalist

Connor Jones installed several on-contour berms and infiltration basins throughout a block of the Pixie tangerine orchard. Then, Reidl installed additional berms, swales, and basins to slow and store rainwater runo and collect nutrient-rich topsoil that runs o of the woodlands above the orchard.

In the recent “atmospheric river” torrential rains, the drainage and collection systems at Mama Tree performed superbly, thanks in large part to the contour modifications Reidl and the consultants made.

“Through agroecosystem designs, we can increase the ecological processes that buffer climate extremes, and integral to that is to always have a plan for where water flows next,” Reidl says. “The steps we take in our orchard influence the woodlands above, as well as nearby farms and Lion Creek below us. If agroecology practices are used by others and we focus on overall ecosystem health on a holistic and larger scale, it will have positive, synergetic influences on climatic and hydrologic processes.”

Such practices to increase soil moisture levels also help make properties fire-resilient.

“There is a direct relationship between the moisture content of the land and the incidence and intensity of fires, and that reality demonstrates the necessity for ‘planting the rain’ and employing techniques such as building berms and swales to slow down and retain rainwater,” Reidl says, referring to a recent NASA study documenting the nexus between moisture content and fires. The e orts made at Mama Tree to retain moisture have already been successful.

“We’re using drone photos to measure the increase in moisture on site,” Kretschmar says. “We dug infiltration basins that attracted frogs as well as a heron! These measures really make a di erence.”

Reidl and Buckley-Medrano bring a world of expertise to Mama Tree. Kretschmar and Bouchard say they chose the couple because the four of them share the same ethical standards and ideals.

“Our land stewards help us take the long view and consider how our decisions will play out long after we’re gone,” Kretschmar says. Moreover, Reidl and Buckley-Medrano have a wealth of experience in working with animals, including using goats and chickens to work on the land and boosting the ratio of fungi to bacteria in the soil. They use support species, such as acacias and locusts, to support their tree crops.

The pair view regenerative farming holistically. For instance, when gophers were encroaching on the crops, they decided they didn’t have a gopher problem. Rather, Mama Tree had a raptor shortage. Raptor perches and owl boxes helped the issue, not pesticides.

“After getting my degree, I worked as an international consultant in East Africa, working in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania with nonprofit organizations and policy makers,” Reidl says. “I worked in various refugee settlements and orphanages on site, designing regenerative farming systems to grow nutrient-dense food for the children, and also working on gray-water and water — catchment systems.”

Jennifer Fill Crooks, executive director of Uryadi’s Village, an orphanage in rural southern Ethiopia, says Reidl “has gone above and beyond working with our project. From working on our food forest, to compost, swales to gray-water systems, he was there. He was open and engaged with the local sta and children, making his work also educational, while absorbing the local-based knowledge the community had to o er.”

With her experience in processing hundreds of seeds collected in the U.S. and during foreign expeditions to China and the Republic of Georgia, and her work cutting propagation to clone historic lineage specimens, Buckley-Medrano was well-suited to help Abudu Nininger, the Mama Tree’s resident carpenter and forester, design and build a shade house to grow plants needed on the farm. Some of those plants are hard to acquire elsewhere.

Reidl and Buckley-Medrano met at Quail Springs Permaculture, an educational nonprofit in Maricopa that o ers training in permaculture design and natural building, and Reidl now teaches there. Mama Farm o ers some o -site classes for Quail Springs students.

“There’s a feeling of Gemütlichkeit that I feel when I think of Mama Tree and the work of Je rey and Natalie,” says Quail Springs Permaculture Executive Director Ashwin Manthripragada. “I use that German word not just because it’s a language we were surprised to share in common, but it’s a concept that encapsulates the heart of their work — being at Mama Tree always puts me in a good mood and brings out a feeling of warmth.”

Owners Kretschmar and Bouchard join Reidl and Buckley-Medrano in having large, yet attainable, aspirations for Mama Tree.

“We want to be a model for our community,” Kretschmar says. “We want to serve as a demonstration farm for ‘collaborative agriculture,’ so others can realize the possibilities.”

Future plans for Mama Tree include investing in biochar experiments, reseeding native species to drive out invasive species, creating a cooler microclimate so that trees retain and recycle moisture, and increasing the orchard’s diversity of tree species.

“We take advantage of relationships between species; for example, by planting nitrogen-fixing support trees under citrus,” Kretschmar says. “We want to maximize the soil’s fertility so that the orchard will teem with life.”

She adds, “The goal is to increase the number of species thriving on the land, including birds, insects, fungi, predators, and humans — they all play a role in nourishing the system.”

Plans also include collaborating with other Ojai growers to build a movement to successfully employ regenerative practices.

“We envision Ojai leading the country,” Kretschmar says. “We plan to sponsor workshops, collaborate with community organizations, and create a network of people dedicated to building a cooler climate through regenerative farming.”

Readers can enjoy Mama Tree’s harvested products at various markets in Ojai, including Rainbow Bridge, and the Thursday Community Farmers’ Market. The farm’s products also are sold to two LA outlets, farmtocurb.com and earthmatterz.com.

Mama Tree’s product developer and seller is Madeline Mikkelson, who attended high school at Besant Hill across from Mama Tree.

Locals love Mama Tree’s olives, citrus, and fruits, and they are delighted with the walnut butter, which always sells out quickly. Mama Tree’s Olive Oil is also very popular.

“Our oil is made from Taggiasca olives, known for their rich flavor,” Buckley-Medrano says. “Mama Tree’s finishing oil has been described as grassy, buttery, and round with a peppery finish. The Taggiasca olive is notoriously mild and smooth. We intentionally harvest the olives early to get that spicy finish. The spice comes from the polyphenols (antioxidants) that give olive oil its health benefits, and coincidentally, increase the olive oil’s shelf life. I know I’m biased, but it’s seriously the best olive oil I have ever tasted!”

Mama Tree’s dedicated team of land stewards help fuel a community conversation about using regenerative farming techniques to create properties that are vibrant and have diverse trees, flora, and fauna, all in a coordinated, integrated system and all for the greater good.

For more information, visit mamatreeojai.org.