| May,
2005. This time of the year in Minnesota
the weather always seems to be suffering from an acute case
of bipolar disorder. Beautiful, heady summer days are mixed
with dreary, blustery cold. There is a big snowstorm heading
for North Dakota that will drop 6 inches of snow!? Luckily,
I think the snow will miss us, and we have had breaks in the
weather to allow us to do our initial field planting. Our
beds of arugula, spinach, salad mix, and beets are up and
growing, and I hope to be able to harvest and deliver our
first orders the beginning of June! Finally, we are starting
to put all of our planning over the past six months into action,
and it feels good to see some results. But it still feels
like the calm before the storm; our big field stretching out
before us is a testament to all the work yet to be done.
While waiting for dry days, we received a letter from our
organic certification agency stating that our 20-plus page
application was reviewed and deemed “good” and
“well thought-out.” I know that organic certification
is a controversial topic among farmers, especially in places
such as California. But, in our area, the majority of farms
that set the quality standard for excellent, fresh, and local
produce (grown with or without chemicals) are certified organic,
such as our neighbors—Gardens of Eagan. Now don’t
get me wrong people—there are also great farms that
use organic practices without being certified, and I’ve
worked on some of them and learned a lot, but in our case
we decided to go for it. I think it is useful to illuminate
what it’s been like and why we decided to do it.
Our decision to apply for certification was based upon numerous
factors. We wished to challenge ourselves as farmers to meet
organic requirements. Then there’s the fact that we
rent land from a 30-year certified-organic farm; in order
to sell our product at their roadside stand and surrounding
co-ops, we needed to be certified. We also felt there would
be a marketing advantage to having the certified-organic label,
especially with regard to a CSA operation. More often than
not, CSAs that serve our area are not certified organic, thus
we felt we could fill a niche by offering a certified-organic
option. Additionally, in Minnesota (at least for this year),
the state will reimburse organic farmers for certification
fees.
The production plan (the first step for first-time applicants)
we wrote was a veritable 20-page essay that rivaled many of
my college exams. It really felt like a test of authenticity—“so
you call yourself a ‘farmer’, eh?”. We got
some help and guidance from farmers extraordinaire, Martin
and Atina Diffley of Gardens of Eagan, without which we would
have been lost. However, I did spend my fair share of time
reading, researching, and scanning old farm journal notes
I’ve kept from previous seasons to supplement my knowledge
of rotations, green manures, soil fertility, and the rest.
When all was said and done though, what we had was an extremely
detailed and thorough farm plan, and I am thankful for that.
We addressed details I would never have touched beforehand,
such as developing an audit trail that will log all of our
plantings, field work, harvesting, input applications (such
as compost) and sales. Yes, it will entail a lot of paperwork,
but I ultimately agree with our certification agency that
it makes one a better, more-observant farmer. Frankly, hell
would have to freeze over before I developed an audit trail
or something similar without prompting.
The completion and approval of our production plan is just
the beginning, albeit the most exhaustive. We still have the
inspection, the certification committee review of our inspection,
and then, if they judge our practices to comply with NOP standards,
we will be stamped verifiably, certifiably organic. But I
am confident that we laid out the process well enough to be
able to follow it with good practice. The certification committee
is excited to see our progress in implementing our production
plan. I am too. That is, if the weather ever gives us a chance
to “do” something with all these plans!
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