Growing Almonds, Walnuts, and Olives Regeneratively: Benina Montes on Soil Health Without Synthetics

0:00 Welcome everybody to the Green Cover podcast where we have really interesting conversations with some of the top agricultural producers and experts in the regenerative movement. Join us as we learn together how to regenerate God's creation for future generations.

0:17 You know, if you're like me here in the Midwest in Nebraska, we're very used to corn and soybeans and wheat and cattle and things like that, but there's a whole scope of agriculture that we have no clue about here in Nebraska in the corn belt. And our guest today is going to give us some insights into that. Our friend Bonina Montes from California from Burroughs Family Farms is going to be sharing some of the things that they're doing there in California, some of the things that they're growing. And it's just so much different, but yet the principles that they use to grow their food, to grow their crops, to improve their soil, it's the same principles that we use here. Same principles that you can use in your garden, your wildlife food plot, your farms, wherever you are. The principles are the same, the practices will be different. So, Bonina, thank you for joining us. Welcome.

1:11 Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and visit.

1:15 Yeah. Great. So, I'll just set the context a little bit. So, Bonina's family they've been in California for, is it five generations? Is that correct?

1:26 My kids are the fifth generation. They're about 90 miles southeast of Sacramento in the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, growing all kinds of things. Almonds, walnuts, olives, chickens, sheep, you name it, they're into it. And not only that, as if that wasn't hard enough, they're doing it organically. And if that wasn't hard enough, they're doing it regeneratively organically. So, Bonina, it seems like you'd choose the difficult path because it's the right one to be on. So give us a little bit of your background, your history there on the farm and just kind of set the broader context for our conversation.

2:09 Thanks Keith. So talking about our history, we were dairy farmers since the beginning. Both my brother and sister each also continued on by growing dairies. I always knew that I wanted to come back to the farm, but I didn't necessarily know what that all meant. And after graduating Cal Poly, when I came back, one of the enterprises that was available was almonds. And I'm really glad that that was part of my path because we had weekends off for the most part. And it just it's not like an animal where you have to feed it every day. So when I came back, that's what we kind of took over and we had about 650 acres of almonds. And that was a little nerve-wracking though coming from diversified beef, dairy, crops. Almonds, all of our eggs were literally in one basket of just having the almonds. So originally transitioning to organic was kind of a diversification. Meanwhile, my brother had started an organic dairy as well. And so as we just evolved and saw some of the benefits, we decided to go organic as well. And one of the things that you mentioned was God, how are we caring for God's creation? And we do talk about that, like how is it as Christians that people can continue to apply, you know,

3:34 These products that are not taking care of God's creation. And so regenerative organic just seems like the right way that we can steward this earth and help it being healthy.

3:50 That's a great thing and I think part of your mission statement is you want to leave the earth sustainable and healthy for the next seven generations. Is that right?

4:03 We want to definitely want to leave it better than how we found it. And that's an interesting concept that I hadn't heard until a few years ago was what decision are you going to make that like the decision that you're making is affect like how does it affect seven generations from now and that is pretty powerful when you really sit down and think about that. We just talked about fifth generation of my kids and so we to make decisions that are having lasting positive effects versus negative.

4:37 Right. Because whatever we do is going to have some impact. Whether it's positive or negative depends on what we're doing and how we're doing it. And I love how integrated you are as families, you know, because your mom and dad, dear people, you know, I've been there a couple times and met them. Really enjoy visiting with them. They're still very active not only in the farm, but also very active in working on policy and community involvement. Talk a little bit about why that's so important to your operation.

5:11 Yeah. Well, just to go back, my parents are the reason that we started going down the regenerative path. And I'm very thankful that they did that. They've been advocates for the movement. And yeah, it's important that we're talking to legislators and policy makers just to make sure that what decisions are being made are looked at from kind of all sides to see how it's going to be. Specifically in California, we have new legislation that was passed in 2014 that's now in effect today that's limiting how much water we can use depending on where you're farming. And so we want to show people that with regenerative farming, you know, you can use less water but still be productive and we don't necessarily just have to follow land and take it out of production.

6:04 Yeah, that that's really important because, you know, in the times that I've been there, I haven't seen any fallow land and things are growing well. So you guys are doing a great job of that. And talk a little bit about how your children are involved in the operation.

6:18 Well, so we have four children. My husband Eddie Berto and I have four children. Our oldest is Mariana and she's 14. Ward's 12, Juliana's 10, and then Ros's eight. And so when we ended up getting sheep in 2021, I definitely changed our whole dynamics with the family because the kids definitely needed to come start helping us. We ended up getting 750 ewes. And like I said, we had plenty of flexibility on time with these trees that, you know, are living but not hollering at you when you don't feed them or water them.

6:55 And then we started lambing. So the kids have been helping with that. Like a few weeks after we got the sheep, my third daughter was like, 'I want to be a

7:03 Sheep farmer when I grow up. And they've always loved animals, but they actually are really helping more and more now because we have these. My son this week was practicing driving a tractor with a mower. I know a lot of farm kids grow up doing things, but you want to teach them responsibility and also help them be capable of using this stuff, but then it's also nerve-wracking like, okay, are they, how are they doing with all this? So it's been good. I'm even remembering back to my four and a half-year-old when we got those sheep, you had to cross over the wires. I have to stand on it to get the Kubota over it. And she was like four and a half driving that thing, which is pretty cool. So they're with us and see what's going on on the farm and they have an appreciation. They'll help gather eggs when we need help and things like that.

8:05 It's a great lifestyle and when I was there, you just come into your house and you just feel like you're part of the family. So I'll say hi to all the kids, especially Juliana. Hi, Juliana.

8:18 A lot of fun there. So talk a little bit about the eggs as well. You mentioned you got started with almonds, but you didn't stop there. You've diversified far beyond just the almonds. Talk about the other enterprises that you have going and why you did that in addition to just doing the almonds.

8:38 My sister had been doing pasture chickens with her dairy, but she had her fourth kid and having the chickens out on pasture where you're moving them, it's not like the best, most efficient system. So you have highs and lows of production and she was just kind of wiped out. So it was a good opportunity for my husband and I. We ended up taking over their egg enterprise and starting Gross Family Farms, which was organic pastured chickens. And that's kind of where we started with our label and our logo and all that, which was fun. We've grown from about 300 hens to about 5,000. They've been in the orchards at times when the trees are young, but right now they're in one of the pivots where we move them a couple times a week. We were trying to diversify more. We were in this Mediterranean climate, so I thought, 'Oh, we should plant olives. That'll be a great diversification tool.' So we ended up planting some olives. And then as we continued on, we thought some walnuts would be a good addition to diversify and put them in some areas that are a little lower where on almonds they have more issues with frost. We thought the walnuts would do better there. So that's kind of what our main things are: almonds, walnuts, olives, chickens with my husband, and then we've got these sheep that are grazing in the orchards probably about six months of the year. When we're done with harvest, we let them clean up whatever's there. And then, we're hopeful that it starts raining and then we can keep grazing them through there. We do need to come off before we harvest so they're out of there because even though we catch and shake the almonds, we're still.

10:41 Laying them in a wind row in the middle of the row so that they can dry out. Now on the walnuts, we're lucky that we can just catch them and put them straight into the cart and take them to the elevator so they don't even touch the ground. I mean, the amount of biomass that's left on the ground and coverage in the walnuts is pretty extraordinary. They're young trees, so we'll see if we can continue to do it that way. I'm hopeful.

11:06 Yeah. So, I just want to go back because that was a big number you threw out there. Five. You have 5,000 laying hens right now. Is that right?

11:15 Yeah. Which in the chicken world is tiny. But not in my world. Okay. So, so how are you and I want to I do want to get into a lot of the marketing stuff because I think you guys are just as good a marketers as you are growers and it's difficult to do both. But how are you marketing, you know, eggs from 5,000 chickens? Are you doing some retail, some wholesale, some distributor type stuff? What are you doing there?

11:43 So we're basically going into Independence in Northern California and then we're also in Whole Foods Northern California. I remember our first call was to Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco and like I drove, we had a little Prius. I drove a little Prius with like one case of eggs and I was like so excited. It was like 15 dozen eggs and like oh my gosh, so not efficient. But we go Tuesdays and Wednesdays and mainly it's just all wholesale and then we also deliver to a distributor. So that's we've just kind of evolved. It's been 15 years now that since we started doing it or in some local stores and some restaurants as well. So we're just trying to make sure we can sell everything when we have smalls and mediums or whatever comes we want to be able to sell it. So, we're thankful for all of our partnerships with the eggs because obviously they're perishable, so we need to make sure that we can sell those.

12:46 Yeah. Yeah. And did that I'm assuming that a lot of those relationships evolved over time.

12:52 Yeah. We actually my mom had started making cheese, a gouda cheese and so that was actually already at she had gotten that into some of the grocery stores and was kind of phased out. We were able to get in with the eggs. And then, you know, we just did a lot of cold calling and saying, 'Hey, you know, this is what we have. Do you need any?' And it worked out that like one store specifically, their supply was super low. It's probably the winter time or something. And we were able to get in then and it worked out great.

13:27 And isn't that. Yeah. That that's how marketing is. It's one part tenacity, one part creativity, and there's probably a little bit of luck thrown in there as well, you know, being in the right place at the right time.

13:41 For sure. For sure. But I do want to say that for retailers, they have so much power in a yes or a no. And so if we really want to see a lot more of our food system change, we need the retailers to say yes and you know put the quality products that are being farmed with love and care and you know looking for the future versus.

14:02 You know, just a lot of the same old conventional stuff that's out there.

14:07 Yeah. And you know, part of the problem with our national mentality is that we've just become accustomed to cheap food. And unfortunately, we're reaping the consequences of having that cheap food in our health crisis, which is easy to see that we've got a health crisis in the US. Thankfully people like yourselves and many of the other great customers we get to work with are doing something about that and growing food, healthy food, nutritional food, regenerative food specifically, for people to consume. And I'm assuming that's kind of all you guys do is just grow food for people. But how does that affect your mentality of how you farm and how you operate when you know that what you're growing is going to be consumed by somebody?

15:03 I mean, it's really important for us. We actually raise our own meat birds as well. We've always had beef from the farm and recently in the last couple years we started raising our own pigs that are trying not to feed them grains, so we're feeding them some almonds and sweet potatoes. But I mean, that's kind of why we're here because I was responsible for anytime we were coming out for inspections from the county or chemicals mixing if they needed to be regulated more. And I was telling my dad that and he was like, 'Well, do you want the other team members to have to be exposed to that stuff too?' And I said, 'No.' You know, so that was a big thing for us to be able to produce clean food and watching how nutrient density changes. We got some of our almonds tested last year and they had two times the B vitamins and antioxidants, and so that's exciting to see that what you're doing has these implications that are positive.

16:15 Yeah, that is. And do you feel like you're able to capture a value or a premium because you do have a more nutritionally dense product?

16:26 You know, people at this point just taste the product and say, 'Oh, it's really good.' Or, 'This is the best almond butter. I really love your olive oil.' At this point, that's how we're capitalizing on that is just by selling these products that actually taste good, too. And I think as you come off of a lot of the processed foods, you can actually appreciate more of just the natural flavor that shines through when you're not saturating it with MSG or sugar or whatever.

16:58 Yeah. And it really is interesting how much correlation there is between nutrient density and taste and flavor. And you know, when I came home from your place, you were kind and generous enough to send home some almonds. I was actually going to show a bag, but I think we ate them all. They're right there. But my kids and my wife, they just love those. And you know, they taste different. And we've been serving them at some of our green cover events. And yeah, you can literally taste the difference. And you know, we can hit on this again at the end, but you are also retailing.

17:37 These directly to people off your website. Do you want to talk just a little bit about that?

17:42 Yeah. So we have boroughfamilys.com. And we're selling the brown bag which is just plain almonds, three pounds of that. The blue one's roasted, salted, we have olive oil, almond butters. And so yeah, we are also on Amazon where you can get it shipped super fast to you if you need it. So yeah, we're excited to be able to not just be a commodity, but have a brand and let people support what they want to see, what they want to support with their food dollars.

18:21 Yeah. And that's really the key is we need to be voting with our dollar of where we buy things. So I appreciate you giving people the opportunity and I was just on your website earlier and there is a 10% off offer on there for first-time customers. So go check that out if you get a chance and get some great products there. So I want to go back to some of the agronomic principles of how you're growing, particularly the almonds, but how are you integrating these principles of soil health, keeping the soil covered in a living root at all times and maximizing that diversity? How are you integrating all of that? And then what role do cover crops play in making that happen for you?

19:06 So as organic growers, we were still calling them weeds and I would say we were in a battle, right? Like we were always fighting them. And when you're irrigating, right, you got plants that are going to start grow that are just going to keep growing. So we definitely, it was more of a negative connotation. We did have micro sprinklers that had a bigger wetting pattern at the time, but we ended up putting in double drip so that we would have less of a wetting pattern because we were fighting with these weeds because for those of you that don't know, they're almonds on the tree and they become a catch because they get the L-shaped out of them and all of the nuts just go onto the bare ground and then they need to dry. And so trying to take these principles and incorporate them into our farm was like, well, how do we do this? Because it doesn't make sense to plant covers, have covers, and then go back to bare ground every year. It's like you're starting over every year if you're really trying to focus on soil health. And so we ended up investing in some off-the-ground harvesting equipment. So our rows are 22 feet long. And what we have been able to do, this will be our third year doing the whole farm, we're mowing 10 feet with a nobley mower, which I think they call them like a mow and blows or something, but so we're mowing and then auguring the material to the sides so that we're able to leave more than half of the orchard floor covered. And so it's not all aligned because the drip, you know, just goes along the tree root. But we embrace it pretty hard on leaving the soil covered. And you know, I'm watching and listening and you're right, it's so different from Midwest to California, but I'm like, if it works there and it works everywhere, we have to figure out how to make it work here. And I'm just sidelining, but part of the reason that we did jump in so hard was from the egg dasis research showing that.

21:15 Was six times better water penetration on these regen farms. I said penetration, maybe it was water holding capacity, I can't remember, but basically you could use less water. So that was one of my main motivations for going regen. And this cover, you know, we go out with our temperature guns and you can see the temperature varying 40, 50 degrees in the middle of summer. It's just reiterating why it is so important that we follow these practices.

21:52 I was just letting kind of now what I call volunteer vegetation come in so at least we still have coverage, but we're definitely moving into more of the cover crop. We planted everything in the fall of 2023. It was just amazing to see the variation that was coming up. We deal with a lot of foxtails, which isn't a good sign, but I'm hoping that by intentionally planting other things, we can get rid of that.

22:23 Almonds are naturally pretty no till unless you have some major issues or when you're taking an orchard out. One of my goals is to not have to deep rip when we take orchards out. We're not using synthetics already. We're integrating sheep like I talked about earlier, mainly in the winter. We're very limited because of food safety, so mainly we're going sometime in November through about April, having the sheep graze through. You can definitely see where they go because they prune the trees to a certain height, whatever they can reach. They use really good teamwork to be able to get up higher.

23:08 It's amazing to watch and how much more life is on the farm now. We have red tail hawks that are making nests in young walnut trees. We've got some milkweed planted so we can help with the monarchs. It's just we're trying to be more pro-life and more proactive versus reactive. That's what our goals are. Keeping the soil covered is just so important. I love having peas in the mix because my kids love to go out and just eat on them and they'll eat the leaf and the stem, not just the actual pea.

23:50 It's incredible. You're just out there walking and stepping on kale or whatever. It's fun. Just go make your whole salad right there.

24:02 You mentioned ecesis. That's Jonathan Lungren's laboratory and company. They've been doing this big thousand farms initiative and have been all across the country, including Burrows out in California. I think he's even been out there and you guys have done some educational workshops. The information that they're finding as they compare regenerative farms to other similar farms but conventional in the similar area is just stunning in water infiltration and holding capacity. The insect and bird life is just hugely different. So I'm assuming that being organic and all of this diversity, how is that helping with your insect pressures?

24:55 We haven't sprayed, we didn't spray last year at all for any insects in the summer. I'm not going to say that we didn't have any damage, but it's definitely pretty cool.

28:48 What are some of those challenges that you're facing and how are you dealing with them? Water and labor are two huge components for us, and so we're just trying to do the very best we can. It's interesting because politically there's been a lot of support from California for regenerative and organic. In fact, they had a really strong farm to school program that they were giving grants to farmers for working on that, which has been great. We got one for our eggs so that we could upgrade some of our equipment.

29:28 What I would like to look at is how can we incentivize farmers to change how they are farming, whether it's increasing organic matter or chemical reduction whatever it is, instead of legislating. How do we bring farmers to the table and get opinions? Farmers are some of the smartest, most resilient, capable, creative people on the planet. They're not just somebody driving a tractor. They're doing animal husbandry. They're plumbers. They're electricians. They're everything. So let's figure out how we can work together on these issues. Why don't we instead of legislating and having it be a negative, reactive deal, make sure we have a seat at the table to help design solutions to problems that are coming up? And that's what I would like to see a lot more of. Just incentivize farmers and they'll figure out how to do it in a better way.

30:38 I know that both your parents, Ward and Rosie, have been very active in being that voice for the farmer at many levels of government and communities. Why do you think that's so important? I think we need to make sure that we're sharing stories that are positive, but also a lot of the times we're just focused on what's going on on our own farm and we need to see what the neighbors are doing or what's working for other people.

31:16 California has a really great leadership program, so that you can go to the table even if you don't agree with the person sitting across from you and be able to connect and make it a win-win for whatever you're working on. And that whole program was designed so that we could get farmers off the farm at many levels of government from county all the way up to state and even nationally. But people are so removed from where their food comes from. They see unlimited supply of every single type that you want to buy when you walk into the grocery store, with international products coming from everywhere. Having less than one and a half percent of the population even growing the food, people just don't even know. So that's why it's so important to get off the farm to be able to talk to people or even have them come to your farm. And that's something that we've done—we've been pretty open with having people come on tours and seeing what we're doing and showing where we're successful and where we still need to get more help on.

32:21 We host a field day. We've done it four times. You were awesome to come and do a great talk for us. But I'm proud of my parents. You know, they've done a lot of effort to push and do that. Sometimes to my you know, to where I'm like hey don't you just want to be a grandparent but what you're doing is really important getting the message out.

32:49 Yeah, no that is, that advocacy for agriculture and inviting people in, that's a really big deal. I do want to lean into that a little bit more because you know I was out just this past January at your regenerative tree nut field day, and I know you've done a lot of other things. You've hosted soil health field days and different things. Talk a little bit about why because you've made an investment in facilities and you know, you have a passion for education and are willing to put your money where your mouth is on that and a lot of effort that goes into that. Have you seen that benefit your community, your own operation, agriculture in general in your area?

33:40 I think that we are just showing that there's another way. People are fearful. You know, farmers are also gamblers every single year. You don't want to worry that you're going to lose the crop or you're gonna have high insect damage. And so you want to just spray. But I think it's good that there are showing that there's other options that, you know, just because this is the way it's always been done doesn't mean that's the way that we need to keep doing it for the future. And it's just good to keep building community and have relations and know your neighbors and especially in this regenerative movement there's, you know, it's still pretty new out here in California and so finding people when you're having a bad day or you've had a mistake and you want to learn from it but just being able to brainstorm with other farmers and again have that community and connection I think is really important especially in this early stage where it's not just totally figured out and yeah, you got all the principles that you need to cover, but it's like, well, how do I implement that specifically into what I'm doing on my farm? So it's been really great.

34:54 Yeah, I sense that when I was there, you know, you're building that sense of community amongst a lot of the people that were there. And you know, we've tried to do that. You've been to some of our regenerative nexus events and it's really about building that community, having people that you can reach out to when you're having a tough day. They can reach out to you. You can share ideas. That's really really important. And with the technology that we have now, you can have that community locally because you're all neighbors and you're close, but you can also have it spread out because you have similar mindsets and you have now have the technology and the ability to communicate and to stay in touch. And I think both are important and both are needed.

35:38 Yep. I agree. So, you know, as we kind of start to wrap up here just a little bit, if someone is just wanting to get started and maybe they're, you know, in California and they're growing almonds.

35:53 Or some of these other things or maybe they're out here in our area and they're just growing more traditional crops, but if someone's just getting started and they're conventional mindset, that's all they've ever known and they want to go down this regenerative path, what advice would you have for them? What are some things that you would encourage them to do to help make that transition a little quicker, a little easier?

36:18 I mean, just to start off is narrow your strip that you're spraying. Specifically in almonds, narrow it up a little bit. You don't have to be quite so wide. Leave your actually plant a cover crop or even if it's just volunteer, let it go and leave it in longer. Try and if you normally mow it like in bloom, leave it an extra two weeks and just keep extending that each year. Specifically in almonds, there's such a fear for frost and that you have to have bare ground. I think you should question everything that we're told to. Those are some of the first things. And then just, how do we start reducing some nitrogen? How do you get more biology in there? And how do you have more diversity just in the ground itself?

37:08 There wasn't technology a thousand years ago when there was the concept of the three sisters, so that worked really well. So how do we utilize what God has already literally created and provided in a way for good?

37:27 You know, you're talking about all the technology and information that's out there. It's just start googling and if you see somebody, start asking questions, because there's so many people in this community that want to lend a hand and make literally make the world better. And I always hated that quote because my parents always said that what are you doing to make the world better? And I ask myself all the time now and it's just so valid and true like what are you doing? So that's what I would say and just start going to conferences as you can and there's so many good podcasts out here now. So just listen and learn as much as you can.

38:06 Yeah, I really like that. And I like the first part that you said about just try different things and I'm assuming you're not saying try it on the whole farm. Try it on a strip. Try it on a little portion.

38:18 You can learn as much on a strip or two or a small block as you can on the whole farm and then you can afford to push the envelope a long ways if you're doing it on a fairly small area.

38:30 For sure. Yeah. I wish I had followed more of that advice, but yes.

38:35 And then again, as you build those communities, get with other people who are willing to try these different things and learn from them and get together. You're very good at showing what you're doing and I'm sure there's other people doing similar things there. So that would be my encouragement as well to just not be afraid to try new things, even if it's on a really small area, small scale and then associate with other people who aren't afraid to try new things as well. Yeah, great advice for anyone who's wanting to push more into the regenerative farming space. What advice would you have?

39:16 Bonina, for someone who is growing good products but maybe isn't doing a very good job of marketing them? What would be some advice you would have for someone who wants to get either into selling online retail or setting up wholesale relationships, people that don't want to just sell the commodity but want to sell to a customer.

39:38 The food business is such a hard business and it definitely takes time and a lot of energy for sure. But you could start with farmers markets or partnering with other people that are already doing it. Maybe if somebody's doing a CSA, a vegetable box, and you have eggs, figure out how you could partner on that. Start slow but also see what the larger teams need—they want you to have enough for everybody or for a region, but if you can find some of the independent people they're more flexible, they can make changes quicker. Literally just go in and introduce yourself and start building relationships.

40:23 The other thing I would say is with the certifiers, whether it's organic or regenerative, see what they can help you with because they may have been approached by a retailer that's looking for a specific product that you could grow or maybe you're already growing. So maybe utilizing the certifiers as well.

40:46 When it comes to marketing, you can never have too big of a network because you never know when that next opportunity will pop up or where that will come from. So I like that advice a lot. Well, Bonina, any final comments, thoughts that you want to share with folks before we kind of close down here?

41:04 Just so thankful for you guys at Green Cover for the opportunities, the education, and all that you're doing to promote regenerative and keeping the soil covered and all of the great things that you guys do. Really, this movement needs to commend you guys so much for all that you do. Appreciate it.

41:27 Well, thank you. We're very grateful for that. And you know, one of the best things is we get to work with folks like you and lots of other great farmers across the country. So folks, if you haven't checked it out, check out burrowsfamilyfarms.com. You can get a discount on your first order of almonds, almond butter, and the olive oil is for sale on there as well. And then if you live locally, you can go to the farm and pick up some of the protein, the eggs, and meat products there as well. So Bonina, thank you so much. We would pray that you have a blessed year and a great harvest and that the rains come in their time, and we're grateful for your willingness to share your information. Thank you everyone for watching. Thank you and God bless.

42:16 My brother and I started Green Cover in 2009 because we understand what it's like to be a farmer starting out on the journey to improve soil health. We saw the power of plant and biological diversity on our own farm here in Nebraska. But we found that it was difficult to get the right cover crop seed mix. We also learned that there was a big learning curve in successfully implementing cover crops. That's why we built Green Cover so that farmers like you can access the highest quality cover crop seed put into the right diverse mixes along with the technical advice and the educational resources to help you successfully implement cover crops on your own operation. So contact us today and we'll help you with the right cover crop mix for your farm or ranch so you can regenerate your portion of God's creation for future generations.