All About the Greenes...
We are the Greene family: Todd, Corrie and our daughters, Chloe, Cammie and baby Carson. We are farmer's market growers here in Van Wert, OH. Although we are not certified organic, we adhere strictly to the rules put forth by national organic associations. Read more about us below...
A little bit about our practices...
We believe in not only the importance of fresh, healthy, produce... but also in keeping our earth fresh and healthy. That's why organic growing is so important to us. It acknowleges the intricate balance between what is put in the soil, and the quality of what we get out of the soil. Currently we feed our soil with compost, alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, greenesand, and trace elements. We also practice green manure cover cropping, which is simply the practice of growing a crop for its ability to grab nitrogen from the air, and then turn it under to act as a source of nitrogen for the next season's crops.
   We use
absolutely no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, and we hesitate to use pesticides that are approved by national organic committees.We prefer to first try, trap cropping ( growing something the bugs like better,) , integrated pest management ( introducing a bug predator into the garden), hand picking, or soap and water. Also because of recent concerns about e-coli pathogens being found on produce fertlized with manures; we are currently using no animal products to fertilize our crops. This includes no composted manures, no blood meal or bone meal, and no guano.
   We are also concerned with water conservation, and try to keep our use of it to a minimum by using
heavy mulches, black plastic mulch, and drip irrigation.
Update on our growing practices:
20/20's perpetuation of the organic industrys role in spreading e-coli pathogens by its use of manure was the cause of much controversy for farmers and consumers. 20/20 issued a public apology and recanted it's story due to faulty data analysis (read data manipulation) as well as grouping the results of meat testing in the same category as organic vegetables.

Due to fact that the fervor has died down, we have resumed our use of FULLY COMPOSTED manures, but we continue to ban the use of bone or blood meal on any of our fields. We have also decided to try out fossilized sea bird guano this year (2001) and will have a report on it'seffectiveness posted.