I hope everyone had a wonderful and joyous Easter celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Do each of you have an Easter tradition that you observe on that day? We used to go to my mother-in-laws on Easter for Sunrise services and then go over to her house for a big Easter breakfast of biscuits and gravy, sausage, bacon, eggs, and donuts along with plenty of chocolate milk. Now that is my kind of breakfast! However, since her health has declined that tradition has gone by the way and has been replaced with a family get together. This year we got together on Saturday night. The three of us who farm were late because we were in the field. We were planting cauliflower.
I have been fortunate this spring that I have been able to get in the field before many. We have a lot of vegetables in the ground. The peas are just starting through and most of the other early vegetables are up. We are still trying to get beets and carrots out of the ground. We had a little odd triangle in one field so I decided to throw out some old radish seed just to get rid of it doubting if it would even come up. Dad said it looks like every seed come up. So we may have some Chinese white and Icicle radishes this year.
Our plants in the green house have done really well this spring. We set out some really nice broccoli and cauliflower. I am thinking of planting some tomatoes this week. It is a little too early but I don’t want them to go south like they did last year. We got carried away when we started our seed for tomatoes for the hoop house so I may take a chance on them and hope the frost doesn’t get them. We hope to get the rest of our potatoes in the ground tomorrow and the onions this week. We have a lot of cabbage and lettuce ready to go out and the sweet corn field is dry enough. I’m sure hoping we can provide you with a wonderful assortment of organic vegetables this season. We thought we had lost most of our strawberries this winter but our two new rows are coming up a little bit. I don’t know what they are going to do yet but I’m sure they will still be in short supply.
On a sadder note, I talked to a good friend of mine this week and he told me he had sold most of his farm. He said it went to some neighbors who were good farmers but were not organic. I could hear the sadness in his voice when he told me the land would no longer be farmed organically. He has been an organic farmer for thirty years and I know the sweat and toil he put into the soil to get it where it is today. To have to turn it over to someone who doesn’t continue our work is like the loss of a loved one. I know that when the field I had farmed chemically free for thirteen years sold it was discouraging. It is hard to go by that farm and to see all the work and success I had on that piece of ground ignored.
For those of you who are not associated with farming I’m afraid you may be getting an over optimistic view of what is happening in the food production field. You hear the news reports about the growth in demand for organic food which is true and it is starting to grab the attention of industrialized agriculture. However, industrial agriculture has a huge competitive edge over us and although many are trying to legislate these farmers out of business (which I totally disagree with) these folks are not the evil empire trying to destroy all of us. They are honest hard working folks trying to make a living the best way they know how. We just happen to have a difference of opinion on what is the best way to farm. I think for organic farming to become sustainable we are going to need more support than just purchases at the checkout counter. It is going to take you educating your friends and neighbors about the benefits of what we do. It is going to take investment from those able to help us get to an even playing field with those who have had such a head start on us. We need young people getting into this field and farms to train them on. Please consider taking action that extends beyond your dinner table. Keep checking the website for ways that you can get involved.
Your friend in farming bringing you food with integrity,
