There are a lot of reasons for consumers to choose organic.

There are the environmental factors: Certified Organic produce helps protect the bees and other pollinators, maintains and improves biodiversity, prevents erosion, protects and improves soil and water health, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sequestering cover crops.
There are the economic factors: not only does Certified Organic production preserve important natural resources, which has an economic benefit, and ensure long-term viability of farmland, Certified Organic farms are also more resilient to weather extremes such as high temperatures and drought than conventional farms, which provides more economic sustainability. Studies have also shown that higher levels of organic production in an area reduces poverty levels and increases in median income in that area.

And then there are the human factors: Certified Organic produce protects farmers and farm workers from chemical exposure, as well as their surrounding community, improving health outcomes. It also reduces chemical exposure and hormone exposure to consumers. Studies have also shown that Certified Organic produce has higher antioxidant content (20-40% higher), which helps to reduce the consumer’s risk of chronic disease.

So what does organic mean to us?

Our farm philosophy is based on the concept of organic farming as originally defined by Lord Northbourne in Look to the Land in 1940: we think of the farm as a “organism” where each part plays an important role in the whole, one part supporting another part to create a functioning whole.

The foundation of our farm is our soil. We like to think of it as a pro-active approach, nurturing the soil to avoid having to use fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides.

Each year we cultivate crops on less than half of our cultivatable acres. The other cultivated acres are maintained in a cover crop rotation. A cover crop is a crop (typically a combination of a grass and a legume) planted to improve or maintain soil fertility, improve soil tilth or quality, reduce erosion, suppress weeds, control pests, provide nectar for bees, and increase biodiversity. We seed cover crops as our fruit and vegetable crops finish to maintain soil health and prevent erosion. This rotation also allows us to break weed, pest, and pathogen cycles, which makes it easier for us to grow without the use of any herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides (organic or conventional). As part of the farm organism, our cover crops act as food for our chickens and sheep, who free-range on our cover-cropped land like pasture crop. Their manure, along with the nutrients provided by our cover crops at till-in is usually all the fertility our crops need. Our soil has improved such that we no longer use irrigation.

We also focus on biodiversity. Not only do we protect biodiversity by not using any herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides (organic or conventional), we also have several acres of farmland permanently planted in native grasses and flowering plants, which helps to support native bee, pollinator, bird and predatory insect populations.

In addition, we perform extensive variety trials, so that the varieties we grow are drought, disease, and insect resistant. Also, almost all of the seed we use is grown on our farm, which means it is well-adapted to our region.

Our organic philosophy is based upon sustainability. That said, complete self-sufficiency is not one of our goals, as we do always want to be part of a larger whole.