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"First you smell the heat, but then, you get that tropical scent."
—From Chris Cosentino, Chef at Incanto in San Francisco,
on the aroma of fresh habanero chiles.
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Dear Organic Gardeners,
 A few days ago I visited a local farmer to pick up some freshly baled hay for Jake, our Belgian draft horse. Predictably, the conversation turned to the weather and its effect on the hay crop. "It's been so dry," the farmer warned me, "that there won't be a second cutting this year. Even if it rains now, it'll probably be too late." All of this to explain the fifty-cent increase per bale and a warning that the cost of hay might double by the first of the year. As usual, rain is a popular topic of discussion among gardeners and farmers this year, but it seems as if there's a bit more desperation in the tone now. After the wettest spring in memory kept farmers and gardeners out of the fields at planting time, we've had close to eight weeks of severe drought (our third in five years), which has seen brooks run dry and dug wells fall dangerously low or dry up altogether.
The effect of the drought on the hay crop wasn't the heaviest issue weighing on this farmer though. He was deeply concerned for his investment in the twenty acres of sweet corn he is growing for the local supermarket: besides his expense in seed, fertilizer, and tractor time, he lamented the eighty dollars worth of pesticide he was spraying every five days and whether he'd recoup his investment. "What are you spraying?" I asked him. "Nasty stuff," he told me. "It has the longest re-entry time of anything I spray: I can't go back into the field for forty-eight hours. If people knew how bad this stuff was, they probably wouldn't want to eat the corn," he continued. I asked why he had to spray so much; he said that the supermarket wouldn't buy if the corn had any earworms, so he more or less had to spray to be able to sell the crop. The earworm pressure, he reported, was getting worse in his fields each year as the pests developed resistance, so he had to resort to stronger chemicals and more frequent spraying. After I shared a few ideas about organic controls, which were mostly dismissed as too costly (as if dousing our food and land with chemicals isn't!), I came home with my hay, as well as with a renewed commitment to organic food; I was happy to spend a bit of time in our corn patch placing a few drops of corn oil on the silks to deter the earworms on the developing ears.
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Delivering Flavor
Micaela Colley delves into the Farmer–Chef Connection ...
Read More >
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It All Starts with the Seed
Steve Peters describes Seeds of Change's process for developing stock seed...
Read More >
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Gardening in the Southwest
Emily Gatch shares her experience learning to garden in New Mexico....
Read More >
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While many of us found our commitment to organic agriculture as a reaction against chemicals in our food, others have come to it through a search for flavor, diversity, and community. This month, in her report from the field, Micaela Colley explores taste as it relates to diversity within cultivars, and the symbiotic relationship between farmers and chefs. Speaking of relationships, Emily Gatch—fresh to New Mexico from the benign Midwest—has done some recent exploration of her relationship with her new land and what it takes to be a gardener in the harsh conditions of the desert Southwest. Whether you're struggling against drought and pests or striving for the most flavorful and interesting varieties, consistently high-quality seed is essential. Steve Peters explains how a well-managed "stock seed" program helps Seeds of Change meet those needs for market growers and home gardeners alike. We also have a report from the Research Farm by Research Director and chief weed puller, Erica Renaud.
And finally, bearing in mind that some of us come to organic gardening simply for the profound beauty and infinite variety of scents that plants can offer, I've had the deep pleasure this month of putting together a profile of lavender, perhaps the most luxuriously scented of all.
However you've found your way to the organic garden, slow down and be thankful: it really doesn't get much better than this.
Happy Harvests,
Scott Vlaun, Editor
Photo caption: Lavender in full bloom at the Seeds of Change Research Farm
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eNewsletter #50
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