Soil is the foundation of growing health crops.  Healthy soil means health crops.  We have been composting for a fee years for our greenhouse soil mixes.  We are now expanding our compost operating to enrich our vegetable ground.  We mix straw, hay and cow manure, horse manure, chicken manure, and green plant material to generate compost.  Spread on the fields this nutrient rich compost enhances the soil, creating a healthy environment for roots to flourish.  All of our tilled land is planted with cover drops in the fall.  Legumes such a hairy vetch and clover take nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil.  Winter rye aids in erosion control and they all add organic matter to the soil.  Enhancing our soils naturally aids in growing healthy, disease free crops.  One of our goals is to reduce pesticide use and starting with healthy, soils is the first step.  Crop rotation and careful monitoring of our fields also helps us reduce pesticide usage.  We make use of IPM, Integrated Pest Management.  IPM is an approach used to manage pests in an environmentally responsible manner.  Only when pests reach threatening levels (known as actions thresholds) would pesticide application be necessary.  Insect traps are monitored throughout the state as well as plant disease conditions and forecasting using Penn States' IPM  Network.  This alerts us to insects and diseases to watch more closely in our own fields.

Many of our crops are planted in successions.  When the earlier crops become diseased or infested with pests we can just start harvesting the next planting, rather than making pesticide applications.

Seed varieties are evaluated each season.  Characteristics such as plant vigor, yield potential, eating quality, natural disease, and pest resistance all play a role in the selection decision.

Years of observation have proven the benefits of companion planting.  We began planting flowers for production on the farm over seven years ago.  Not only were we able to diversify our crops but we noticed an increase in the bee population.  I feel the extra bees have aided in the pollination of other crops such as beans and squash, therefore more production.

We have found an inverse relationship between plant vigor and eating quality in most cases.  Eating quality is our primary concern and we will forgo plant vigor and yield potential, e.g., Brandywine tomatoes have a high field loss due to cracking and ugly fruit.  Plants often get diseased faster than the resistant Hybrid, but the flavor is unbeatable so we keep growing them.