Thursday, February 19, 2009

Organic vs Sustainable


We love organic produce. It's good for the earth and other living things. Last year, our first year of farming, we went through the process of becoming USDA certified organic. This is a fairly expensive process even for a small farm like ours: it ended up costing about 20% of our gross sales for the whole year - it was a little more expensive in our first year because of the application fee, but it's expensive for a small operation regardless. We think it's important for our customers to know that we don't use harmful chemical fertilizers, genetically modified or chemically treated seeds, or toxic weed and bug controls. We want you to be able to come out to the garden and feel good about eating a bean right off the vine, and we want your kids to play among leeks that are as Mother Nature intended. In November we found out that the organization that certified us got its certification authority taken away by the USDA. This didn't affect our certification status, but we were supposed to find a new certifier and keep the paper trail going. Well. We're not going to do it. Instead, we're going to keep right on providing you with the best produce we can, grown with completely organic methods, but relying on our sincere promise rather than the government to assure you that your food is healthy and chemical-free.

This year is going to be a really interesting one on the farm. The new WWOOFer teams are starting to form up, and we are delighted to know that such wonderful people will come to be our guests and to work to provide you and your family with deliciousness. We know that we will learn a lot (again), we are really looking forward to seeing you at the farm. If you haven't joined our mailing list and you'd like to keep in the loop on a monthly (now) to weekly (in the summer) basis, please send a quick email to addme@locavorefarms.org of course we promise we'll never sell or divulge your address, and it's easy to unsubscribe any time. Of course, we'll also be keeping this blog updated regularly, so do come back and visit soon!