Soil Tasting: The Pleasures and Benefits of Healthy Soil

“All good farmers become connoisseurs of dirt and dust”- farmer, author Mas Massamoto

At first it seemed like an elaborate joke–hundreds of wine glasses filled with soil from five different farms elegantly displayed on white linen tablecloths. It must have taken hours to set up.

“They don’t really expect us to eat dirt, do they?” I said out loud to no one in particular.

Initially, a soil tasting had no appeal to me, but then I remembered a scene in the film, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, the outrageous documentary about how John Peterson resurrected his Midwest family farm amidst a failing rural economy by starting an organic CSA.

The scene shows Peterson on his knees in his field licking a handful of soil. I interviewed John and asked him if he could actually taste fertility in the soil. He said, “There was a time when people were trained in that, but I’m not. It’s just a daily routine of mine. It’s an old custom that preceded soil testing and apparently was a way that people evaluated their soil. I couldn’t taste the soil and say that it’s a little short on phosphorus, for example. The aroma that makes fertile soil really distinctive is a result of bacteria. It must go way beyond what happens in a bottle of wine.”