Organic Certification....the Long and Winding Road

When I heard about the reams of paperwork and meticulous record keeping required to become a certified organic farm, I knew I had to do it. Who doesn't love desk work? Well, me for one... I disdain down time and love to keep moving, but it seems like such an important component of our venture and I'm pretty sure Sam won't do it ( can you say ADD?). Maybe this will help hone my attention-to detail skills.

Open Sky Farm is the perfect place to start. A fallow hayfield, Open Sky hasn't felt the pierce of a plow in over ten years. That makes organic certification easy. We haven't made any mistakes yet and we can begin meticulous record keeping RIGHT NOW!

Chard Ranch is a different story. We will have to provide documentation of our farming practices over the next three years. That's a good thing. Nothing will change, but as a consumer, you can rest assured that the produce you purchase is wholesome. That's important. Although our practices will be no different, you now know we will meet national standards.

As for Open Sky Farm, well, it needs some work. It's not like we intended to buy a piece of property with the poorest soil, it just turned out that way. We both like a good challenge. Our first priority is soil building; we will only be planting cover crops for the first two years.

This May, our organic wheat farmer neighbor Jonathon, will till up about 20 acres. We will plant buckwheat, thickly sowed, to suppress weeds, add tilth and scavenge phophorus. Old hay fields are notoriously depleted in phosphorus. With any luck, we'll plant two buckwheat rotations.

Come August, the buckwheat will be incorporated and we will plant a mix of hairy vetch and winter rye. The perfect combo. Again, these cover crops will suppress weeds and improve soil tilth. Additionally, the vetch will fix nitrogen and plants need nitrogen! The winter rye will die back with the fall frost, but the hairy vetch will emerge again in the spring. Tilling in a leguminous cover crop, such as vetch, in the spring increases the amount of nitrogen available to the soil.

So, why spend a year or two cover cropping? Our belief: good soil= good produce. Enough said. We think you're worth it! If you want to check out our certifier, here's the web address: http://www.naturesinternational.com