Adelante Soil Co.
“Improving soil health, which is directly tied to the health of our community, will allow for continued positive transfers of life to occur. Our intention is to continue to slow and spread water down to saturate drier areas of the land, allow mulch and compost to activate the microbes which will make nutrients available for roots to uptake, incorporate old tree trunks, limbs, leaves, and more organic matter into the soil to create a habitat for diverse microbial communities. These practices in addition to thoughtful tree planting, re-establishment and support of native plant species, berm and hugelkultur creations, and intentional water harvesting and irrigation methods, will continue to support our long-term efforts to improve the life within the soil, and everything that engages with it.”- Michael Martinez, Adelante Soil Co.
Adelante Soil Co. is the Martinez family’s collective landholding in Temecula, about halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles, in Riverside County. Raul Martinez had come to California from Mexico in the late seventies to work as a seasonal farm laborer before becoming an upholsterer and raising a family in Los Angeles. Raul taught his children to garden and compost in their backyard and instilled a love of soil that continues to this day. Now, brothers Michael and David Martinez are co-directors of Adelante Soil Cooperative, but really the entire family is taking on 22 acres of land with about a hundred species of native plants including Coast Live Oaks, Western Sycamores, and Laurel Sumac, which will share space with fruit trees and other food crops.
Adelante is located in a region dominated by avocado groves, Adelante has three distinct microclimates on their land, the family can plant an unusual variety of fruit trees, and Michael is looking forward to growing mangos, papayas, pomegranates, Pakistani mulberries, Malaysian guavas. The idea is to create a diverse ecosystem that works well together, supporting plants, animals, and microbes simultaneously. “I want people to remember that people are a part of the trees and the streams and the native plants and pollinators. The more we care about their livelihood, the more everyone benefits,” Michael said. ‘It’s about creating more ecological systems that are diverse and thriving.” Based on modeling from COMET, Adelante Soil Cooperative could pull down carbon for less than $12 per ton.
Adelante is supported by the 11th Hour Project and has received a Restore grant from Zero Foodprint for compost application, mulching, and tree planting. “I was excited to create some coverage to add some life, and to prevent erosion on hillsides, and also being intentional with where we plant our fruit trees--not just going with the norm of stripping the land and planting avocados. If we put the compost and mulch down to prepare the ground for the trees, I just know that there is quite a bit of joy to be able to plant and apply these life-giving materials to land that is bare and exposed.”
In this spirit of creation and growth, the Martinez family named their farm Adelante, which means onward or forward in Spanish. At the same time, Adelante can be used as an expression of welcome, similar to saying “come in,” and Michael wants the farm to communicate the family’s intention to steward the land for future generations and share with the larger community.
