Harnessing the Korean Natural Farming Practices of JADAM

story by Torrey Douglass
photos by Nik Zvolensky

Food farmer Jason Jannone grew up in New Jersey, where his family always had a garden in the backyard. He and his friends would sit on the patio and smoke cannabis, tossing seeds into the garden bed alongside it. One year some plants popped up. “That cannabis was so much better than what we’d been smoking,” he remembers. It planted the seed that he might want to be a farmer someday.

At the time he was pursuing engineering, but his cannabis epiphany inspired him to leave that program for Evergreen College in Washington, where he studied natural history, ethnobotany, anthropology, ecology, organic farming, and natural systems instead. He even interned at a local farm, guiding plants from starts through selling the produce at farmers markets. After he graduated, he did construction and landscaping for a time before moving to Humboldt to grow weed. He was married with a one-year-old at the time. “It was the best thing to be home with our baby and farm all day,” Jason recalls. “In 2010 we bought the property in Willits, which was a cannabis farm until 2022.”

Jason’s partner in both business and life is Darcie Krueger. Darcie was raised in a family of avid gardeners and loved all aspects of growing plants—except for the weeding her dad required of her. She wasn’t particularly interested in cannabis farming, but her former husband had been, and the two of them had moved west because of it. “I kind of fell into it,” she shares. “I never thought my hobby of gardening would or could turn into a way to make a living.”

Jason and Darcie‘s shared love of growing things got a boost a couple years ago when Jason took an intensive 2 1⁄2 day course on JADAM in Sebastopol, taught by its founder, Youngsang Cho, who came from Korea to teach a series of courses in the U.S. JADAM is a Korean natural farming approach where farmers create their own fertilizers and pesticides with materials found right on their farm. The idea is that the resulting plant food is already optimized for the particular climate and conditions of that location, so the plants grown there will respond enthusiastically to its locally specific, nutrient-rich inputs. JADAM is flexible, effective, and best of all, affordable, replacing purchased additives with homemade ones. It takes the fundamentals of organic gardening and points them in a scrappy, MacGyver-inspired direction.

Last year, Jason and Darcie took the plunge and converted their old cannabis operation outside of Willits into Wild Hare Farm, growing food exclusively. The existing infrastructure was easily adapted to growing things like tomatoes, parsley, and cucumbers. The experimental and forgiving style of JADAM was a good fit with their “let’s see how this goes” approach. “We learned so much last year,“ Darcie recalls. “There were lots of fails, but I was really surprised by how well we did.“

They credit JADAM with the better-than-expected results of their first year. One of the primary tools it uses is JLF— JADAM Liquid Fertilizer. When harvesting or clearing, the farmer collects plant trimmings, grass cuttings, weeds—any plant waste, really—and puts them in a container with non-chlorinated water. Damp leaf mold is added, which can be found at the base of trees under decaying leaves or logs. That leaf mold provides an inoculant that kick-starts the putrefaction process that breaks down both the sugars and the proteins in the plant scraps. Once all of the plant matter is submerged and the leaf mold is added, the container is covered left to do its magic. (Warning: it can get a little stinky.) The length of waiting time varies. Typically, if the mixture contains plant matter from a fast-growing plant, it will break down relatively quickly into JLF, perhaps as soon as 10 days. Other crop-specific formulas, for example for corn, will utilize corn leaves, stems, and kernels and can take as long as 3-6 months. The resulting solution will contain the microbes, minerals, and nutrients the new plants will love, resulting in a healthy, abundant, pest- and disease-resistant new generation of corn. Once the solution is ready, dilute with 1 part JLF to 100 parts water before adding it to the soil around plants.

One of the recipes Jason learned about in his Sebastopol course was how to make a natural pesticide from California Bay trees by boiling the leaves in water then combining that liquid with surfactant (known as JWA—JADAM Wetting Agent, which you can make yourself). The wetting agent allows the concoction to stick to leaves, killing aphids and other pests. “I couldn’t believe the results with just one spray,“ Darcie remembers. “It’s non-toxic and we don’t have to pay for it.” Jason adds, “It’s cool to implement the practices and see the results.”

Another important part of using JADAM is JMS—Jadam Microbial Solution. This combines local leaf mold, cooked potatoes, and sea salt or sea water as a source for all the micronutrients. The mix is brewed for a day or two depending on the temperature, then applied directly to the garden, undiluted if there are no plants and diluted if there are plants. The JMS innoculates the soil with billions of local microbes that have naturally evolved to address ailments that target plants in that area.

While Wild Hare Farm benefits from the inland heat and abundant sun, making it perfect for hot weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, Jason and Darcie live on the coast where they also have a big backyard garden where they grow cool weather crops like kale, lettuces, and herbs. Between the two locations, they have a variety of produce they can bring to the Fort Bragg and Mendocino farmers markets.

For their first year, Wild Hare Farm sold produce through the MendoLake Food Hub and also to restaurants, catering companies, Mendocino Outland Bar Productions, and even a Montessori school run by a friend. But most of their harvest was sold at the farmers markets. Friend and fellow farmer, Mic from Mulligan Gardens, helped them navigate the paperwork and also answered various questions to prepare them for market selling. “It was such a great environment to be in,” Darcie recalls of the Fort Bragg Farmers Market in particular. “Everyone is so supportive and community-oriented.”

Darcie especially appreciated the regulars who came back week after week. “It just reinforced that we are good at what we do even though [it was] our first year,” she shares. She particularly liked introducing customers to new things. At one point they had an abundance of somewhat rare Japanese eggplants that are ripe when they are green. She and Jason had been eating and loving them, but customers were confused by the green coloring until she took the time to explain the variety. She would often throw one in for free with the rest of a customer’s purchase, asking them to try it. A lot of those customers would add some to their basket the next time they came back.

The two hope to support themselves just with farming someday, but until then, they both have other jobs. Jason does construction full-time while Darcie tends bar during special events held on the coast. Often Jason works those gigs as well, transporting supplies and helping with the setup and teardown involved in weddings and other big to-dos. It’s a busy life but they make it work, and both are optimistic for the 2025 growing season, eager to put all the lessons learned during their first year into practice.

They would like to expand, but as Jason says, “It’s a delicate dance. If we expand it will take more manpower. We both have other jobs and it’s already busy enough. If things go well this year, next year we might find a helper who can stay at Willits.” After a pause he adds, “I know I would rather be a farmer all day than go do construction.”

The name Wild Hare Farm was inspired by the wild hares spotted on the farm and also from the expression to get a wild hare, meaning to have a sudden, impetuous desire to do something out of the ordinary. Darcie admits, “Our wild hare outbursts are not as frequent as they used to be, but we still do have them.” Followed up with some Korean natural farming techniques, a lot of hard work, and a passion for growing clean, nutrient-rich food for the community, those wild hares have lead to some exceptionally tasty results.

Wild Hare Farm
Insta: @wildharefarmmendo

Torrey Douglass lives in Boonville and is a card-carrying cat lady as well as a web and graphic designer.

Tomato photo courtesy of Wild Hare Farm
All other photos by Nik Zvolensky