Growing Practices

Our kids and dogs play in our fields, and as keeping our family healthy is our top priority, we have always limited our use of commercial fertilizers and pesticides. Our main method of weed control has been good old-fashioned elbow grease, and we use non-toxic products like horticultural oil whenever possible. For 2009, we've committed to grow all of our food crops using organic methods and inputs. Our eventual goal, however, is to eliminate the need for all off-farm input purchases altogether through an integrated farm management plan and crop diversity. That is, the meat we grow will produce manure to compost, which will build soil fertility naturally, so that our plant crops will grow vigorously without any purchased fertilizers, synthetic or organic.

One small example of this integration is the pasturing of our laying flock in the annual flower beds over winter. The hens are very happily eating the leavings of our flower operation, scratching around for weed seeds, putting down nitrogen, and when spring arrives, eating bugs and larvae that would otherwise be sprayed to avoid crop damage. They also have quite a taste for our unsold dried flowers, many of which are ornamental grains like amaranth and sorghum.

Most importantly, though, our practices are transparent to our customers. Our CSA members and other customers are able to visit the farm and judge our practices for themselves, which is surprisingly rare in modern agriculture.