Two Feet in the Dirt

It’s been an exciting week for us, even while we’re still waiting for all of the snow to melt! Over the weekend, we made our first sale- several pounds of arugula to the Community Garden Market, a natural foods store in nearby Shepherdstown. And at the end of this week, we’ll be selling lettuce mix to the same store. I also harvested several pounds of baby kale from the hoop house, but elected to keep that for our own use, as well as giving away a few bags to neighbors. It’s been great to have fresh, home-grown greens on hand again!

In addition, we are now officially Certified Organic and have our certificate in hand at last! The process to become certified organic is no joke. In fact, it is backed by very strict federal regulation under the National Organic Program. Our road to certification began before we even purchased our farm as we had to check whether properties we were considering had a recent history of applications of pesticides or other prohibited materials. Now, we keep track of every product we use, checking with our certifying agent Pennsylvania Certified Organic to ensure it is in line with organic standards. Similarly, we have to be able to track every seed from seed packet through harvest. I used to think that being certified organic, as opposed to following organic standards but not getting the actual certificate, seemed like a waste of time and money. But having now been through the process, I realize how important it is. There is no option to cut corners to save time or money, which makes the food we grow truly guaranteed to be grown with your health and environmental sustainability at the top of our priority list.