Methods

Some early crops are planted in the fall for harvest next year. This includes onion and garlic.These will sprout during our mild winters and wait for the warmth of spring to continue growing.

We begin seed starting in January using home made soil blocks. The containerless blocks eliminate the use of plastic pots and the rich organic mixture feeds the rapidly growing sprouts. The seeds of lettuce and cabbage are among the first to be started. Early potatoes are "green sprouted" by warming them for a few weeks until the sprouts appear. Other early crops include carrots, peas and spinach.

After the threat of frost passes the garden expands with beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers and other warm season selections.

After the crops are harvested in summer and fall the fields are lightly disked and sown with a cover crop. We often run our layer pens across the garden. The hens love the fresh green forage! The cover crop reduces erosion during the winter. Next spring it is incorporated into the soil to add organic matter and nutrients.

Varieties

Not only are heirlooms more flavorful than supermarket varieties, they are more nutritious than the more common hybrid supermarket varieties. Ours are fresher, too, almost always allowed to ripen fully and delivered quickly to you. The reason for the use of these inferior varieties is due to factors of economics and commercial farming. Demand for fresh produce has driven a marked increase in U.S. production and yields as farmers have turned to the fastest-growing and greatest producing plants. Large-scale farming needs produce bred for maximum yield, transportability, disease resistance, and consistency of product. Hybrid varieties are used for these ends. Plant breeders select strains that mature quickly, have large size, and are fairly disease resistant. Most of the time, the plant devotes more energy growing a large fruit than storing the nutrients in the fruit. Plus, nutrient storage isn't complete until the fruit is ripe, and almost NO packing company is going to harvest ripe produce. They pick it pretty green and it ripens artificially. The tradeoff is that the faster-growing plants aren't able to acquire the nutrients that their slower-growing cousins can, either by synthesis or from the soil.

Our produce is better for you. We think you will agree it taste better!

The Dept of Agriculture found the following decline in nutrient levels between 1950 and 1999:

Calcium -16%

Phosphorous -9%

Iron -15%

Riboflavin -38%

Ascorbic acid -15%

Protein -6%

There were no detectable changes for vitamin A, thiamin, niacin, fat, or carbohydrates .

Philosophy

Our farming practices are based on sustainable methods. Cover crops, rotations, fallow fields and other techniques are employed to sustain and improve soil and plant health.

Our garden produce is grown using organic and on-farm produced supplements rather than chemical fertilizers. Seeds are time proven heirloom varieties with better taste and nutrition than modern hybrids.

The garden soil is enriched with compost from the previous years poultry operation. Any purchased ferilizer is certified organic.

Pest managment is accomplished by row covers, hand picking and organic sprays. Weeds are controlled using mulch and hand cultivation. Some of the crops are undersown with cover crops to supress weeds and attract beneficial insects.