How We Grow Your Food
Lady Bugs are our friends!
New Oaks Farm believes in feeding our soil and preventing pest and disease problems through crop diversity, livestock and crop rotations, and integrated pest management. By proactively providing the most favorable growing conditions possible, we reduce stress on crops, naturally preventing many of the problems commonly dealt with through pesticide and herbicide spray programs on large monoculture commercial farms. When circumstances require intervention to manage a pest or disease problem, we always opt for materials approved for organic production, if available. All of our Farm Partners also farm sustainably. We know that because we know they share our beliefs and we trust them.... but we also visit them regularly for any number of reasons and we have a chance to see first-hand how they grow your food.
Crop Diversity
As in life, diversity helps keep things on the farm in balance. Its a lot of work planting, caring for and harvesting hundres of varieties but doing so helps ensure that a particular pest does not overwhelm our crop. To understand what i mean, imagine a set of identical twins that are forced to spend their entire lives side by side eating and drinking from the same sources. Each time one twin gets sick, its a pretty sure bet the other is going to come down with it. Diversity creates natural fire walls within our fields that keep pockets of pests or disease from multiplying to the point that they might overwhelm even healthy, vigirous plants.
While we work to establish our livestock and crop rotations and rebuild our soil, we use synthetic fertilizer to keep our produce strong and vigorous. Doing so helps minimize the chance that a pest or disease problem might take root and require chemical intervention to save a crop. We are actively seeking to reduce and eventually eliminate synthetic fertilizers in favor of on-farm composting.
Livestock and Crop Rotation
Before big tractors and store-bought fertilizer, all farms were small and diverse. Small farms existed and in many cases thrived growing vegetables side by side with milk cows, chickens, horses, and mules. As the price of fuel, fertilizers and other petroleum prices rise to "new normal" levels, we think that having livestock in rotation with vegetable crops creates sustainable systems, both environmentally and economically.
Crop Diversity
As in life, diversity helps keep things on the farm in balance. Its a lot of work planting, caring for and harvesting hundres of varieties but doing so helps ensure that a particular pest does not overwhelm our crop. To understand what i mean, imagine a set of identical twins that are forced to spend their entire lives side by side eating and drinking from the same sources. Each time one twin gets sick, its a pretty sure bet the other is going to come down with it. Diversity creates natural fire walls within our fields that keep pockets of pests or disease from multiplying to the point that they might overwhelm even healthy, vigirous plants.
While we work to establish our livestock and crop rotations and rebuild our soil, we use synthetic fertilizer to keep our produce strong and vigorous. Doing so helps minimize the chance that a pest or disease problem might take root and require chemical intervention to save a crop. We are actively seeking to reduce and eventually eliminate synthetic fertilizers in favor of on-farm composting.
Livestock and Crop Rotation
Before big tractors and store-bought fertilizer, all farms were small and diverse. Small farms existed and in many cases thrived growing vegetables side by side with milk cows, chickens, horses, and mules. As the price of fuel, fertilizers and other petroleum prices rise to "new normal" levels, we think that having livestock in rotation with vegetable crops creates sustainable systems, both environmentally and economically.