Paul Gautschi's Back to Eden Growing Method

Raking wood chips, prepping to plant a small tree.

From the first time I heard about Paul Gautschi's Back to Eden gardening method, I have been hooked.  It has answered almost every major question I had about setting up a regenerative homestead here in the central Texas area, where the weather is so extreme -- either flood or drought, burning hot or freezing cold, etc.

The general philosophy of Back to Eden is: Grow Things as the Creator Intended. 

According to Gautschi, God revealed to him that he was gardening the hard way, which also happens to be how farmers have worked since recorded history. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, states that after the Fall, God cursed mankind and the soil so that "man would only be able to live by the sweat of his brow."  And, after mankind was expelled from the Garden of Eden, men took to growing food by "tilling the ground."  

This makes a lot of sense if you look at modern farming practices, where the ground is tilled and replanted every season on a massive scale.  But, as Gautschi points out, this kind of farming produces a lot of nutrient barren produce, which should not actually be categorized as "food," since it lacks the benefits that food was intended to have for us.   God intended food to be life-giving and healing.  But the modern American diet is the polar opposite of that. He points out that kids nowadays are overweight because they are eating "food" but their bodies are still starving, so they continue to eat, on so on.

Forcefully tearing up the ground discourages the kind of living soil produces life-giving food.  Then, when we add pesticides and fertilizers to the mix, the soil will be completely dead.

Huge pumpkin plant growing out of wood chips

I appreciate how many Biblical references to farming the Back to Eden brings to life.  For example, the principle that we can plant and water a seed, but only God brings about growth (New Testament).  We can put the pieces together to make something grow, but we can never force the miracle of multipliable life coming out of a seed.  

The Back to Eden method also fits perfectly with a "slow and steady," holistic approach to health. Eat naturally occurring, unprocessed food and (have a much higher chance to) live a long, healthy life as a result - no chronic disease or lifelong dependency on the pharmaceutical industry.  Said another way, rather than eating food that will cause your body to break down and die much faster than it should -- eat clean, life-giving food that was grown in accordance with God's design.  

There is so much richness in the Back to Eden method, it is far too much to fit into a single blog post.  I would encourage you to look up any of Paul Gautschi's videos on YouTube.  There are a variety of documentaries available, but this one by Justin Rhodes is my favorite.  The quality of Paul Gautschi's heart really shines through as he speaks about his journey, hearing from the Father over the years, putting it into practice and then sharing it with the world.

For related reading, check out this blog post about farming with wood chips that I wrote a few weeks ago.

Here is a recent video of myself and Neela (my daughter) planting a small tree in our wood chip field: