soil pigments

Here is a short instructional on how to make soil pigments

If you want to purchase pre-made soil pigment kits from Dr. Karen Vaughn (included in right photo), please check out her amazing website, here.

winogradsky columns

Different soil microbes play key roles in recycling these and other nutrients. A tool that microbiologist Sergei Winogradsky invented to study these processes was a long, sealed column of muddy soil, now called a Winogradsky column. Within one of these, different gradients form. For example, over time there is more oxygen at the top of the column than at the bottom. These gradients affect where different microbes can live within the column. They are also really cool looking!

Here is a basic article on how to make them.

Here is a more advanced article on how to make them, and the science behind them. .

Soil Film Recommendations

INHABITANTS (2021, Documentary)

Inhabitants follows five Native American Tribes across deserts, coastlines, forests, and prairies as they restore their traditional land management practices. For millennia Native Americans successfully stewarded and shaped their landscapes, but centuries of colonization have disrupted their ability to maintain traditional land management practices. From deserts, coastlines, forests, mountains, and prairies, Native communities are restoring their ancient relationships with the land. As the climate crisis escalates these time-tested practices of North America's original inhabitants are becoming increasingly essential in a rapidly changing world.

Watch here with discussion questions.

Kiss The Ground (2020, Documentary)

Kiss the Ground the movie narrated by Woody Harrelson is a full-length documentary shedding light on a “new, old approach” to farming called regenerative agriculture, a practice with the extraordinary ability to balance our climate and feed the world.

Gather (2020, Documentary)

Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide. Gather follows Nephi Craig, a chef from the White Mountain Apache Nation (Arizona), opening an Indigenous café as a nutritional recovery clinic; Elsie Dubray, a young scientist from the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation (South Dakota), conducting landmark studies on bison; and the Ancestral Guard, a group of environmental activists from the Yurok Nation (Northern California), trying to save the Klamath river.

Fantastic Fungi (2019,DOCUMENTARY)

Fantastic Fungi is a consciousness-shifting film about the mycelium network that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors like Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions that fungi kingdom offers in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges.

How Soils Unite Us (2018; TedTalk)

Nic Jenlinski is a professor of... dirt. To Nic, his students and ultimately his spellbound audience, however, soil means much more than mud and bugs. In an unforgettable talk, Nic convinces even the lysol-lovers among us of the beauty beneath the ground that we all stand on.

Between Earth and Sky: Climate Change on the Last Frontier (2017; DOCUMENTARY)

In the vast wilderness of Alaska the earth is changing, threatening the history and culture of native peoples, natural landscapes, and the habitats of wild life. Between Earth and Sky examines how climate change is rapidly affecting Alaska, and will soon affect us all.

Symphony of the Soil (2013, DOCUMENTARY)

Drawing from ancient knowledge and cutting edge science, Symphony of the Soil is an artistic exploration of the miraculous substance soil. By understanding the elaborate relationships and mutuality between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, we come to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource. The film also examines our human relationship with soil, the use and misuse of soil in agriculture, deforestation and development, and the latest scientific research on soil’s key role in ameliorating the most challenging environmental issues of our time. Filmed on four continents, featuring esteemed scientists and working farmers and ranchers, Symphony of the Soil is an intriguing presentation that highlights possibilities of healthy soil creating healthy plants creating healthy humans living on a healthy planet.

Think Global, Act Rural / Solutions locales pour désordre global (2010, Documentary)

What are the common points of a couple of microbiologists in France, the millions of migrant workers in Brazil, Vandana Shiva’s experimental farms in India and the wold’s biggest organic plantation in Ukraine? They all share one goal: improving soil quality and preserving seed diversity – to protect the environment and to produce healthier food.

In this documentary, multi-awarded french filmmaker Colin Sperreau shows people fighting against the poisoning of our soils by the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides, and people opposing the few unscrupulous companies that control the seed supply worldwide and blackmail farmers. In “Think Global, Act Rural“, we meet fascinating personalities who have found a wide range of solutions for the smarter use of our limited resources.