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The DeepRichDirt Project

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The DeepRichDirt Project team includes:

  • Nate Crew, orchardist and writer

  • Dr. Amanda Crew, PharmD, owner of Wagram Orchard

  • Joanna Nunez, MSW, LCAS, LCSW, author of Finding Peace With PTSD

  • Ashley Grubb, NCSU Extension Agent, Agriculture - Horticulture

  • and one or two other friends.

Some primary research and drafting has been AI - enabled. Our process is described in detail below. But first...

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A few years back, DeepRichDirt Publishing sprouted and grew organically alongside our family orchard lifestyle, with Nate writing and publishing a handful of his own books. Just ask whenever you stop by, and we'll share a copy of a poetry collection or a kids' book. Now, the "DeepRichDirt" title has grown into being a community-rooted initiative focused on growing a perennial food future -- restoring Carolina soil and soul, nourishing people, and rebuilding rural belonging.

 

 

 

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How We Explore & Write

 

Our process of authorship is, we feel, unique. Essentially, "The DeepRichDirt Project" serves as a pseudonymous collective for the research and promotion of agroforestry. The human "brain trust" is our collaboration circle introduced above. In October 2025, the project was driven by Nate prompting and directing AI tools to scan and integrate data, clarify issues, conceptualize solutions, and formulate white papers or similar language tools illuminating the case for our style of regenerative farming. After a detailed process of personally editing and refining each written piece, Nate and the team seek to send the end products where they might do the most good.

 

So, our written product of 2025 comes from a blend of AI-powered data combing, analysis and wordsmithing skills with the guidance of Nate and company. Resulting work is credited as being composed by "The DeepRichDirt Project" (with the URL to this page added in parentheses). Our view is that seeking truth together is paramount, and leveraging technology to tackle parts of the research and mental synthesis of data can help. While caution is needed regarding AI's flaws and shortcomings, this method has proven to be a pragmatic way forward. A limited partnering with select AI models has been a way to leverage their superlative skill at exploring useful ideas.

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A note from Nate

From where I sit quietly at the dining room table, I can look straight through the kitchen and outside along a footpath that winds past garden beds and around a little pond, meandering on to disappear among the trees.

 

From where I sit reflecting in stillness, I can see a path ahead very clearly. To look down this path and follow this path is both an art and a science. Personally, I lean toward the art side of it. So, for those who need the science -- research, data, analysis -- I decided October 2025 to try out the capabilities of ChatGPT and Gemini for the first time. Now, from The DeepRichDirt Project you can find the fruits of a collaboration between me, AI, and my trusted and discerning wife and friends. Although I'm not sure I'll engage much with chatbots anymore going forward, our larger work is only just getting started.

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Standing up from the dining room table, I grab a water bottle and some familiar old tools, put on my shoes, and walk outside to do the daily work of an orchardist. I hope more people can learn and experience the joy of this way of life.

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