[CSA Update] Welcome to week 15

Hi everyone! I'm Farmer Joe, a fourth generation farmer on the same land in Northford, CT. I was honored to be recognized as an outstanding young farmer in 2015 and National Outstanding Young Farmer in 2016. I'm a proud dad of two and husband, and I love eating what I grow.

My wife and I drove out into the beet field and she commented that it didn't make a pretty picture.  I laughed and said, it's perfect, let's go.  She sees weeds and for these 14 years with the CSA she has been asking questions that help me see how I do things differently from other farmers.

The weeds in the field got me thinking about some "expert secrets" I've learned over the years that have allowed me to be successful. Here they are:

Secret 1: There are weeds in my field because they don't hurt the crops I'm growing. Beets for example, can grow through competition with other plants.  They take a long time to grow from a seed to be ready to harvest - and that means a lot of weeds sprout up.

Secret 2: Pulling weeds in acres of a garden is a lot of work - how many times have folks said "yay, I get to weed my garden today"?  Maybe it's only my kids.  My team and I manually pull weeds in the beet field about 2 times a season.

Secret 3: Fewer chemicals to kill weeds means less chemicals around your food and your table. I have maintained licenses and ongoing education since I was 18 and I eat what I plant too. Over a lifetime, it is better to be around less hazardous stuff - and if I don't want to ingest it, I'm not putting it on the fields.

Secret 4: If you get hot days, the weeds help shade the tops of the beets to prevent them from getting sunburned.

It's always fun to get to share my farming insight with members of the CSA.  You ask questions, share knowledge with each other, and eat seasonally with gusto. I hope these secrets give you a peek into the farming world, and maybe you'll think about letting them off the hook instead of making the kids go out and weed on Sunday.