Our family has carved out a small 10-acre homestead on a ridgetop in Port Orchard. Western Washington soils are generally heavily leached and devoid of nutrients due to our wintertime rains, and our soil is almost pure sand and could not hold nutrients or water. We imported large amounts of organic matter but found it infeasible to add enough organic matter to the soil every year to make it productive. After doing some research we began experimenting with biochar and found that it was the solution. Our homestead has become highly productive, and we are now spreading the word and making biochar available to our Northwest neighbors.