Our Growing Practices: The Nitty Gritty

Certified Organic Produce?

From 2017- 2024, our vegetable operation was USDA Certified Organic. We chose not to continue our certification in 2024 for several reasons. Because we sell almost all of our produce directly to consumers, we felt like the third-party verification of organic certifiers was not adding significant benefit for our customers; if you can see for yourself what are farmer is doing, and ask him our her your questions directly, why rely on an inspector who visits a farm once per year? Additionally, we had grown frustrated with the ways that organic regulations, designed to thwart intentional “cheating” were interfering with out ability to, in good faith, grow clean food (ask us about the onions!). And finally, we were tired of the paperwork, and figured that if our word was good enough for our customers, we’d rest on that rather than rather than a 20 page recertification application.

What does dropping our certification mean? In truth, very little has changed in the way we operate our garden. In the vegetable garden, we begin all of our crops from seed or seed stock or sets. We control weeds by occultation, hoeing, mulching, and hand weeding. We discourage pests by encouraging and importing beneficial predatory insects, using row covers as a physical barrier, timing successions, and when necessary, squishing bugs! We cover crop our outside fields in between plantings to build soil organic matter and protect topsoil from erosion. We amend our soil with our own compost, and certified organic soluble fertilizers. We irrigate with water from our pond or well and wash our vegetables with our well water, which has tested negative for any pathogens. We never use GM seeds, and most of our seed varieties are certified organic. We do much of our winter growing in unheated high tunnels, which allow us to provide fresh green produce locally even when the temperatures outside are below freezing. On rare occasions, we spray organically approved pesticides, for example a soil bacteria called baccilus thurengiensis, Neem oil, or soap. We don’t want toxic things on our food, or our bodies!

We sincerely want our farm to be an “open book” to our customers. If you have questions about what we do or do not do, please ask us! We are committed to honestly describing our farm, and are happy to explain all of our management practices.