The Sweet Spot
At SGTX we are proud to be part of an ongoing revolution in regenerative agriculture. From the beginning we have invested our time into learning the best practices to add value to the land and its yield without breaking the bank. Getting the land in sync with the water, carbon, mineral, and biological cycles that established the world we live in is essential for not only your plants and animals but for you as well. When all these aspects of your land come together you don’t just see the results, you live and breathe in them! Below you can read an article about how regenerative land management and Sweet Spots have been at the center of what Sustainable Growth Texas Does! After you can follow some of the buttons above to other great articles and resources to help you foster your very own Sweet Spot!
J.R.’s Gardens
Can you remember a time and place when your mind was completely at peace, when your head was clear and your life seemed perfectly in sync with the world? Perhaps you’ve felt this way recently, or perhaps it seems like it’s been too long ago to recall. At Sustainable Growth Texas, we found a way to recapture this wonderful sense of balance and symmetry. We discovered a path to connect to our internal sanctuaries.
Here at Betsy Ross Grass Fed Beef, our farm near Taylor, TX, we began a journey to develop the best practices for creating organic, sustainable habitat for our cattle. Without using fertilizers or pesticides, we sought a way to feed and pasture our stock with only nutritious grasses that we would grow and maintain ourselves.
We wanted to tap into nature’s own ability to maintain healthy ecosystems by connecting to naturally occurring processes and materials. After much research and experimentation, balancing and rebalancing, we succeeded!
Our program was so successful that others wanted to share our methods and reap the benefits of our formulas on their own farms and ranches.
Public entities wanted assistance with their parks and public spaces, and homeowners sought our help for their yards and gardens. Thus was born our company, Sustainable Growth Texas.
We shared our expertise and developed healthier ecosystems all across Texas. J.R. Builta, one of the founders of our family business, walked and inspected these improved properties. He began to notice how the places made him feel. Others noticed, as well. Walking on these lands often led us to “sweet spots.” These are places that make us want to stay, to sit and tarry. These locations seem to instill a sense of calm, to quiet our minds, yet give us clarity of thought. If you can remember a time when you wriggled your bare feet in fragrant grass or rich, earthy soil, and your mind and senses reveled freely in the smells and touch of those moments, then you know what we mean. These moments can give us a sense of renewal.
As years went by, we pondered how this sense of balance – in nature and in ourselves – could be shared with folks even when they weren’t able to physically visit a “sweet spot.” Finally, we catalogued all the common elements of these spots and realized that the most important element was the soil. Not dirt, not just any old mud from your nearest patch of unpaved space. Our “sweet spots,” no matter the location or habitat, all began with soil that had been perfectly balanced and freed of the taint of chemicals. This is the kind of soil that supports thriving roots and a diversity of healthy plant systems. So we started wriggling our own toes in the sweet soil.
We found a restorative sense of peace, just by letting our senses and our feet absorb the essence of this balanced soil – of course, it helps if you also turn off your cell phone!
Further, we found that even if we dug up some of the naturally enhanced soil and poured it in a box, and then snuggled our bare feet down into the soil, we still felt a sense of tranquil connection. We brought the soil home, gave some to friends, and encouraged people to let their toes experience the sensation of healthy, organic material “from the ground up.” We liked how we felt when we buried our feet in this special earth – even for 10 minutes. We felt better. So did our friends. Some reported that their blood pressure was lower. Others said they enjoyed a meditative sense of calm, or they felt more focused, or they slept better. It’s like organic mulch for your soul.
Now you can wriggle your toes in this special soil, and seek your own tactile connection to the natural world. We lost our dear J.R. to cancer, but we feel his energy as we share his contributions to our improved sense of wellbeing. He was instrumental in developing our methods of restoring balance to soil. J.R. helped develop and maintain many of the “sweet spots” on our own farm and elsewhere. We call them “J.R.’s Gardens.” Perhaps you will feel some of the prodigious energy and spirit he poured into our mission. Try our sweet soil. See where it will take you!
