Maggie's Farm

For me, too, organic farming is not about changing the nutrition in the produce but about treating the soil properly and maintaining a population of beneficial predator insects. I don't want a sterile garden, I want one that works in balance. That's not to say that we never intervene, but we try to keep the intervention to a minimum.

We find that we have less trouble with insect predation if we're careful about when to plant and we avoid both monocultures and plant varieties that are marginal for our climate. But we're so far south that insects are a major problem, so when they threaten to overwhelm us we fight back as necessary. We rarely fertilize with anything but compost and manure. When we do supplement with commercial fertilizer, we choose slow-release types that have a minimal effect on the humus culture or the water runoff -- those are my wells, and my pond!

It's more about making the system self-sustaining than about making its output pristine, though of course the fewer pesticides on my finished produce, the happier I am.