We made a decision recently. And I’m afraid that you won’t be happy to hear about it. But bear with me, because I promise that once I share the bad news, I’ll share a bit of good.
This is usually the time of year when our ginger and turmeric seed shipment arrives and we start hashing out the growing plans for the season. But we’re not growing these plants this year.
Why?
It’s not because we didn’t enjoy the growing process. We actually really loved the challenge of working with these plants, and all the tender love and care they required over their long (6-7 month) growing season.
It’s not because they were hard to grow. They were, and our rocky soils and hilly landscape were far from ideal in terms of growing conditions. But we found creative ways to overcome our shortcomings.
And it’s not because they weren’t successful crops for us, either. We grew these plants for 5 years straight and with just one exception, we had incredible yields, year after year.
The crux of the decision actually comes back to the least sexy topic ever, that being soil health. You see, every plant or animal species has a rhythm.
And on a farm like ours, it’s imperative that the rhythm of each enterprise compliments each other and has positive net-gain for soil health – since this is actually where food quality all originates.
And ginger and turmeric? They neither nourish the soils nor pull nutrients off in a beneficial way (like the way our squash experiment did!). They have been their own separate enterprise, isolated, and off-pace with our livestock. And so, they’ve gotta go.
But here’s great news that I promised would come next: we’re passing the baton!
We’re sharing everything we know about growing these plants to two friends and fellow farmers right here in Rochester. We trust that they can grow enough for us all and when the time comes, we’ll happily make the introductions.
Your Farmers,
Jenney & Greg
PS – We have our pork, organic salad greens, as well as some new 100% grass-fed beef steaks to try out. If you would like to place an order, download the 5 Easy Steps to ordering HERE.