Many times I get asked questions about how the signs at our stand differentiate Naturally Grown from Certified Organic and I would like to help clear this up!

When the government decided to start regulating the use of the word ORGANIC, in order to say the word, growers and processors have to be certified by an outside agency.  This process is extremely involved and costs money that many small growers don't have.  Additionally, the regulations became more relaxed in order to allow big Agriculture to become certified organic as well.  

Naturally Grown, on the other hand, is my definition of what consumers believe is truly Organic.  Our version of Naturally Grown uses our diversity on the farm to our advantage.  We grow one row of cabbage, one of Swiss chard, one beets etc.  This means that if the cabbage crop gets ruined, life can still go on because we have other crops to balance it.  And if the cabbage starts coming under heavy pressure from aphids, we allow it to keep growing and designate it a "trap crop".  The  spring brings beneficial bugs as well you cannot have a healthy balance of beneficial bugs without a food source, like aphids.  We also use row covers, which help keep the flea beetles off and induces growth, and keep the crops from suffering freeze damage.  Crop rotation is another tactic, keeping things moving is beneficial to the environment by maintaining balance.  We have no need to spray pesticides because I feel it is better to allow the crop to be eaten in order to maintain the nature's balance.  This is what nature does, and we should be happy to learn from it and let nature show us the way. This is what I feel Organic should be.  Unfortunately, as a grower, I still cannot say I am an ORGANIC farm unless I conform to the governmental regulations and pay  money to do it.

Conversely, a large Organic 40 acre plot of cabbage is always going to be threatened by bugs, in a way that a small row of cabbage will not be.  A large agricultural producer will have so much invested in the growth of a product that to allow bugs to ruin their crop is not practical.  The use of trap crops and rotation is not as easy, and row covers that smaller growers might use is impractical.   Thus, big Ag has convinced us that Organic Pesticides are natural and beneficial to us.  What most people do not know is that Organic DOES allow pesticides on their produce, just certain ones that are considered to be from more natural sources.  It is funny that this is exactly what most people think they are avoiding when they buy organic.  But you need to be aware that under USDA Organic standards, there is a huge list of approved products that IS allowed and the Chrysanthemum based pesticides are still killers.  Remember, if it kills bugs, it is a pesticide. 

In my opinion, it is balance that needs to be maintained, not a bug free, weed free, unnatural environment.  Click this link to see an article on Organic Pesticides and their impact on the environment. Do your own research by gathering information on Rotenone and Pyrethrin as two of the most common Organic pesticides. This is not to say that being from a natural source makes a pesticide completely safe or even harmless. Consider where naturally occurring arsenic comes from and ask if that is something you want sprinkled on your food! Everything has a trade off and sometimes the origins are a little more difficult to understand until you consider the perspective that Agriculture is a heavily subsidized and lobbied industry. 

Conversely, (and you can call me a fence sitter if you would like) I do not believe that GMO crops are always the evil demons that you may think.  For example, corn is almost always attacked by Corn Earworms, making the end result somewhat ugly and if you have ever opened a corn husk to find a worm, you know what I am talking about.  But increasingly, customers want a worm free ear every time.  So the AG industry introduced GMO corn, some of which is engineered with BT (Bacillus thuringiensis)a naturally occurring bacteria which kills the worms when eaten and is completely harmless to humans. This allows for less arial spraying of pesticides, Organic or conventional, and remember, the organic pesticides usually are somewhat less effective, and require more applications and more run off into the soil and water table.  Again, we do not use any pesticides or GMO seeds on my farm, but instead prefer to educate the consumer about the benefits of not so perfect produce, and my purpose for including this information is to help prepare the consumer with information so they can come to their own conclusions independent of some of the hype.

Also, do not make the assumption that ALL organically certified farms use pesticides, just because they can. The smaller the farm, the less likely that the farm will need to use pesticides. And the consumer's tolerance for not so perfect produce will make a difference in the grower's response to bugs in their fields. If the consumers are educated enough to know that the most perfect heads of cabbage are usually only grown with pesticides, maybe they will be more understanding and even start to look for the small little holes that cabbage loopers bring. Because the cabbage loopers are also pretty butterflies and feed the birds, which are beneficial and sing for us everyday!

Here's how!  It's amazingly simple and serves two purposes to have row covers at our farm.  Row covers keep the bugs out of the produce and help keep everything warmer which causes it to grow faster in cool weather.  Additionally, a happy, healthy market farm must have continuous harvests, which is amazingly harder to do than you might think, due to weather fluctuations and reductions in daylight hours, but I can encourage growth to be easier to pick on a twice weekly basis by covering only part of the leafy greens in a row.  The covered parts grow faster and harvest earlier even though they were planted at the same time. 

From a farmer's standpoint, I think the best way to start to understand the true meaning of sustainable is to make sure you are educating yourself about the seasons.  I often find it difficult to understand how people do not innately know what grows when and where, but then I pause to realize that I have been growing in the desert for almost 12 years now, and things that I know are just part of being a farmer.  I look back to  the days when I would go to Baker's Nursery and lock onto every word the patient Bakers daughters would impart to me!  It's a learning experience for everyone else too, as I am reminded every year when we have tomato transplants out in the spring.  The types of questions I hear  find me repeating the same concepts over and over, but I always end by saying, "Go ahead and try it!"  The worst that can happen is that your plant won't grow or die, but the best is that you will gain some insight into the nature of the world and the delicate balance that it requires.  

So as current politics have all eyes turned to high education fees and our right to have an education, I think that much of the education in daily life skills that we can gain in food safety and sustainability is not primarily from a class or an expensive university, but is free in hands on experience, and this is how we remember best what we have learned.  I still remember my many past failures and especially the successes, and always try to apply that to the next year, gettting better at what I do, simply by the try and try again theory.  So go ahead and plant something!  It really doesn't matter what or how well it performs, as you can weigh your success or failure at the end of the season, but once you know how and what grows here in the Valley of the Sun,  you will have an enormous advantage over the person who knows only what is published on the "Eat Seasonally" lists that come out in every Edible Phoenix Mag.  And since knowledge is something that you can build on, you will soon find you too have an innate understanding of what eating seasonally and especially what sustainable can really be in all of its many forms.  You will find that by starting small, and building on it, you can truly make a difference, and maybe someday, you might become part of my perfect version of the future of farming!

Crazy busy here with the new market starting on Central and Northern on October 1st and it is the middle of our very important planting season to boot!  Whew, busy busy!  Just wanted to take a second and show you a cool picture of our farm and the new perfectly sized new implement for making beds! 

You would think that with all the wonderful changes we would hardly have time to do any farming, but I gotta tell you, with the weather cooling off, this is the most optimistic time of year! So much is happening, and there is so much to look forward to even as other seasonal markets in cooler climates are packing their tents for the year, this is why we do what we do.  Every farmer is an optimist, because no matter what happened last year, this year is going to be even better!  And I know you are all waiting to see what the big news is for the farm, but so far-so good! (No, its not a bun in the oven.) But I do think many of you are going to really enjoy it!

So make sure you have marked your calendars for the opening day of the Central Farmers Market, and come down to see your old friends.  We know its going to be great!

First off, Thank you all so much for the nice things you said about us and the support you have given us not only this week, but over the last 10 plus years!  It really means a lot to me personally that I have made an impact in your lives too! 

Here are some, not all, of the great comments to Dee Logan and to me regarding the Roadrunner park issue, and I wanted to share them with you! Click here

If you wish to continue supporting us, you can still find us at Town and Country every Wednesday from 9 to 2 and Momma's Market this Saturday September 17th, from 9 to 2 at the NW corner of Northern and Loop 101. Click here for a flier. Crooked Sky farms and Pinnacle Farms will be there!  Keep up your support and help us create a great community of small Farmers who support each other and provide for our community at the same time.

And we will be continuing at a centrally located market on Northern and Central every Saturday, but are still working out the details like the start date. We are tossing around an October 1st start, with a little later hours for the soccer moms who can't come to Roadrunner because of the early hours.   Located at the Crossroads Methodist Church, there is lots of grassy areas, tons of parking, lots of neighborhood support, AND  it's right on the Bridle Path!

If you are a vendor and would welcome a new happy home with fair market management, please contact me or Bo Mostow at 602-859-5648 on how to make the new market the best ever for the sake of the customers who support us and the vendors who make it happen!  It looks like we will have lots of small vendors and big ones alike!  All your favorites and many who are new!  So far, vendors include Crooked Sky Farms and Horny Toad Farms, among others!  And of course, US!