Lida Farm

Eggplant, where have you been? Taken out by a maraudering band of Colorado Potato Beetles.

Farming is a gamble and organic farming even more so. I sometimes like to use the phrase ‘without a safety net’ to describe some kind of risky behavior. When it comes to dealing with pests, growing organically without a whole arsenal of pesticides at one’s disposal is pest management ‘without a safety net’ and sometimes you fall off the wire.

My general attitude after being at this nearly 20 years now is ‘so it goes’ (a la Kurt Vonnegut). Maybe I have a cavalier attitude–especially if you were looking forward to eggplant–but I’ve found there’s a balance to controlling and letting go each season.

We certainly do have control issues. Farming is about us humans asserting some authority over the ground in order to get the Earth to produce the crops we want. Without some control, we’d all be eating the seeds of whatever weeds popped up each year. In many respects, the tools of conventional agriculture are too good and allow a lot of control. Precision agriculture is very real and precise. If you follow this thread long enough, you will find yourself in a future where drones and robots do all the farming and humans are just an ornamental accessory or behind-the-scenes programmers. I’m a romantic and I just hate this vision of the future of farming, but I know this inspires others because of total and precise control that this super-human tech can muster.

In contrast, I think of organic agriculture as art to conventional ag’s science. Humans are part of the system, our feet are on the ground daily. If conventional producers have the outlook of a military general commanding the battlefield, I’d like to think of us organic producers as humble artists painting en plein aire, intuitively drawing a brush across a canvas. Part of painting is what you leave unworked. At times, instead of working harder and pushing harder, you let something go. The crop too far gone in the weeds and the eggplant under attack by a force to great to battle. Fast forward this image into the future and you’ll find a very different landscape, one where people and nature co-exist. Wild and lush landscapes with many small farms tucked within where crop fields and pasture mix, a world healing from the ravages of mankind’s ambitious and industrious hubris. Sorry – that got a little preachy there. 

In the box:

• Melons: Mostly watermelons, some cantaloupe
• Yellow ‘Satina’ Potatoes
• Grape Tomatoes
• Roma Tomatoes
• Slicing Tomatoes
• Anaheim Peppers
• Red Bell Peppers
• Fresh Dill
• Leeks 
• Onions
• Asian Cukes
• Beet Mix (Red and Gold)