Dragon Heart Farm Family
The Dragon Heart Farm family passionately supports respect for the well being of our soil and community.
Bennett Dorrance, Owner
Bennett Dorrance, Jr., moved to Hawai‘i in search of a different way to be on Earth, to be a practicing heartist. What he found was the combined teachings of our fundamental right and need to be connected in service to Earth (Malama ‘Aina), and the possibility of collective healing and awakening supported through Aloha-based culture.
These passions are rooted in the operation of Dragon Heart Farm where regenerative practices fuel both how the land is farmed as well as what is farmed. It is also why the farm is committed to creating partnerships and programs that help perpetuate ‘‘aina and aloha based practices.”
Bennett is a BS graduate of Princeton University, started his contemplative path in 1994, with the help of Naropa University, and earned an Executive Masters in Sustainability Leadership from Arizona State University, in 2010.
Brooks Thomas, Vermi Meister
Like many entrepreneurs, Brooks Thomas discovered his passion for vermiculture through trying to solve a problem. In this case this was his awareness in the mid 1980’s in Del Mar, California of the contrast between the outward appearances of “cleanliness” and manicured lawns vs. the reality of suburban wastefulness as exemplified by everyone’s food waste in trash cans out on the curb contributing to 50% of landfill space. He began his backyard experiments in raising compost worms (with spectacular results) and then continued after he moved to Hawaii in 1988.
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Around the year 2000, Brooks got a significant boost from studying with Korean Natural Farming founder and expert, Master Cho. Not only did he deepen his understanding of the beneficial aspects of even a few worms and their castings, but discovered that, by way of earth passing through the worm’s gut (“the miracle inch”), the output is pathogen free. The potential is wholesale rejuvenation of terrestrial life from the ground up through these probiotic factories!
Brooks has been furthering the strength and abilities of his amendments up to this day which has led to including the nano-porosity of inoculated bio-char as well as fermentation to unlock the properties of amino acids, all of which our plants can benefit greatly from. For Brooks, “The ethos underlying everything is to source locally and to re-purpose materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Whether its fish heads into plant food, table scraps into topsoil, mac nut shells into biochar, or used up coco coir into potting soil, everything is sourced on this island and lovingly alchemized into the soil that sustains us all.”
