Sustainable building uses straw walls

SCHUYLER COUNTY--When Reynoldsville farmers Anne and Steve Sierigk needed more space at their Hawk Meadow Farm to process the products of their woods-grown mushroom business, they naturally looked to their land. "Putting up a building - any building - has an ecological impact," Steve says. "We wanted to do things in an ecologically responsible way, something that would be less intrusive [to the landscape] and fit into the native ecology."
The results of what they did can be seen at their open house Saturday, Dec. 5, noon to 4 p.m. at their farm on Mott Evans Road in Reynoldsville.
The couple talked to builders with experience in green building. Many of their finished structures relied on sophisticated technology. Wanting a lower-tech alternative, they decided to work with builder and almost-neighbor Jamie Carestio, owner of Live Edge Building [his wife Katherine owns Backbone Farm, a grass-fed Black Angus beef operation] who specializes in timber frame construction.
"We started in June with the trenches and foundation," Carestio says. The stone and concrete slip-form footers re-used stones from a barn that once stood on the property. Extending several feet above the ground, they form a base for the timber frame and the straw bale walls used to fill the spaces between the structural beams. Carestio has strong feelings about the materials used in the building's construction.
"At this point, I will not build something that isn't natural biodegradable material, out of principle," he says. It's a view that matched the Sierigks' as well.
While the building could potentially - eventually - compost back into the earth, the natural materials it's built from could also keep it standing for hundreds of years. Carestio points out that straw bales are so dense that if stored dry, pests don't get into them. "We seal all gaps and cracks." The finish used on the building "creates an impenetrable barrier that will not allow moisture or rodents to get through it," he says.
Much of the wood used was repurposed or cut from the Sierigks' land. The rest was purchased from local sawmills Straw bales sourced from a local farmer were used for the walls. Outside and in, the walls were surfaced with a clay compound using clay dug from the farm, plus sand and chopped straw. This part of the process was supervised by Matteo Lundgren of Cob Therapy. "Cob" is the Welsh word for a lump of mud and is used to denote a building style where mud is a major ingredient. Applying this to the walls was an entertaining and messy job enjoyed by the Sierigks, their extended family and farm interns.
As of this writing, the building's outside is nearly complete. It's still possible to see all the component materials in the smooth, almost-finished walls - the final exterior coating of a lime/clay compound is waiting for warmer weather next spring. Inside, another cob layer may be followed by a coating of plaster. The walls have an organic roundedness that invites the viewer inside.
Once inside, the building's occupants are well insulated from sound and weather outside. Even on a cool, gray morning, the unheated building felt noticeably warmer than outdoors. It was hard to leave. And it was easy to see how this building will be a lovely workspace allowing the Sierigks to process the mushrooms they harvest into packaged dry and powdered shiitakes for culinary use, and tinctures of some of the less-well-known mushrooms they grow for traditional Chinese medicines. It will also provide space for classes.
The 24 by 26-foot structure has many windows and a broad porch. The Sierigks are currently installing a wood stove and plan on putting in kitchen cabinets and a sink when the walls are complete. In a nearby shed, live-edge white oak slabs have been sanded and oiled - they'll form the steps to the building's second story, which will be used for storage.
"There's something about clay as a raw material," Steve says. "I had no idea this stuff would be so amazing." This building method is definitely more labor-intensive than many more traditional structures, he says. "But the trade-off is you don't have to get a lot of materials from the lumber yard." And the low-waste approach became evident when Anne decided to clean up at the building site. Unlike traditional construction, where a dumpster is often moved onto a site to collect building waste, after several seasons of building, Anne filled only three bags of trash that couldn't be composted or returned to the land.
"Because of the cheapness and local availability of materials, from a labor and equal opportunity point of view, you're shifting the money you're spending back to a local economy," Carestio says.
"The building is so beautiful! I'm so blown away by it," Anne says. When asked whether she'd like to move into it, she says she'd love it - but the family is also long settled in their farmhouse.
Find out more about this Saturday's Open House, which will feature their mushroom products and as well as products from other area herbalists. Attendees will be able to see the building, ask questions about its construction and talk to Matteo Lundgren in the first part of the afternoon. Guided winter mushroom yard tours are also planned. For more information, visit the Hawk Meadow Farm Facebook page or call 607-387-3424.