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Farmer Mark Answers Your Questions

Here are some of the questions Mark Marino has answered about organic farming and Earthbound Farm.

To view the answer to a question, click on the link. To close the answer section, click on the link again.

 

Question:
I want to worm compost with my children, but it gets hot here. If I keep the box in the shade, will my worms survive?

Thanks,
Sonja — Los Gatos, California

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Answer:
Great question. If you keep the box in the cool moist shade your worms should be fine. Remember to check them often to make sure that conditions are fine and that they have plenty to eat. I would also recommend checking out the following website for more excellent information about vermiculture: http://www.yelmworms.com/

 

Question:
Hi,

I've been buying your products for years. When I bought your bagged greens a few days ago, I noticed for the first time that the origin of the greens was written on the bag. It said they were from both the US and Mexico. I would like to know what the USDA requires be done to imported produce, particularly the greens you sell from Mexico. Are they fumigated? Treated with hot water? Or something else?

I'm a raw vegan, and I have stopped buying produce that comes from outside the US because I want fresh, untreated organic produce, not produce that has been fumigated or hot water-treated, etc.

I'm dismayed to find less and less US-grown produce in stores, and I don't know what to eat anymore. I used to find California-grown produce in stores when I lived in Manhattan (NYC). But since moving to Florida three and a half years ago, I'm finding hardly any produce grown in the US, let alone in Florida. And that includes organic produce.

This is a horrible state of affairs and I'm outraged. I'm not a farmer; I'm a writer and editor, and short of buying property and starting an organic farm (which I have zero interest in doing), I don't know what to do.

I would like to live in a community that has many organic farms and raw vegan restaurants. Maybe I have to move to California. But it's so expensive to live there.

I invite you to look at the online magazine celebrating the raw vegan lifestyle that I founded in 2001: www.RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com

I look forward to hearing from you in response to my questions.

Thanks, Judy — Sarasota, Florida

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Answer:
Thank you for choosing Earthbound Farm organic produce, and thanks for giving us the opportunity to address your concerns about crops grown in Mexico.

While most of the year we grow our salad greens in various locations in California, during the winter—when it's too cold and wet in California—we grow in Mexico, where we have access to high-quality organic farmland.

Although some of our winter farmland is in Mexico, please be assured that it is managed by the same farmers who grow our lettuces on our California farmland, and that our practices in Mexico are the same as our practices in California. In accordance with the USDA's National Organic Program, Earthbound Farm organic produce is grown without the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides. Our organic farming practices in Mexico are monitored by the same American independent third-party certifying agencies that certify our acreage in the U.S. (California Certified Organic Farmers). As in the U.S., no fumigation of the product is allowed, even in the transfer of product across the border. Due to the delicate nature of our greens, we would never treat our product with hot water.

I hope we have answered your questions. Please feel free to contact us with any additional questions you might have. Thank you so much for your inquiry.

 

Question:
Our family has started our first backyard garden. The first year, we planted in containers; the second year, we planted in a 10' by 10' plot in the garden; and this season, we've expanded to 20' by 30'. We have thus far used packaged soil and peat moss, etc., without any pesticides. Does our garden meet "organic standards"? If not, what are we to do to have that? Our kids would like an organic garden.

Denise — Kinnelon, New Jersey

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Answer:
It sounds like you're on the right gardening track. One of the important things in organic farming and gardening is tracking inputs and making sure they are on the acceptable usage list established by the USDA's National Organic Program or (NOP) Here is a link for that info: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop

This is a link to the CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) website: http://www.ccof.org. It is packed with all kinds of info that will help you on your quest for the perfect organic garden.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Happy Gardening.

 

Question:
I am searching for stores and farms that sell "purslane." It is a very healthy vegetable/salad. It tastes good (salad with olive oil and lemon, or cooked and served with yogurt sauce, etc). Recently, there has been news about its high omega-3 content. I was wondering if you plan to grow and sell any purslane anytime soon. Would you be interested in adding it to your list of produce? Actually, I am amazed that no one uses purslane in USA, while it is widely used in Europe, the Middle East, and Mexico.

Gulriz — Chicago, Illinois

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Answer:
We have actually grown five different varieties of purslane here in our organic research fields. It grows like a weed out here in our coastal California climate. I agree with you that it tastes good, and it is also highly nutritious.

Selling it is a different problem. We have had it on the produce rack repeatedly at our store in Carmel Valley, and even done extra marketing, yet it never seems to catch on or become popular. My theory is that there are so many other tasty and excellent choices of greens in our Earthbound Farm salad mixes that the purslane gets left behind. If there are any Hispanic markets in your area, I would suggest checking there to purchase purslane.

 

Question:
For Thanksgiving, I want to make a "totem pole" like the ones you have at the Farm Stand. What kind of pole do you use to thread the pumpkins?

Thank you,
Marlene — Rohnert Park, California, USA

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Answer:
We use a 3/4-inch diameter galvanized pipe. The 1/2-inch is too flimsy, and the 1-inch is too thick. The trick is to buy the pipe 3 feet longer than you want the actual height of the totem to be, so you can bury the extra 3 feet of pipe in the ground for strength and stability.

 

Question:
What exactly is organic farming?

Keegan — Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

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Answer:
Thanks for your question about organic farming. Take a look at the Organic Farming 101 section on our website; I'm sure that you will find the answers you seek. If you have any specific questions not answered there, I'd be happy to help you.

 

Question:
Hello Mark, and thank you for your dedication to producing healthy organic food for me to eat! Right now in my college speech class I a writing a persuasive speech urging my audience to switch to organic. I was always under the impression that no pesticides were used. Which pesticides are approved for organic use, and how can they be considered safe?

Kirsten — Medford, Oregon

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Answer:
The definition of "pesticide" is anything that kills insects or rodents. This could be as simple as the soap we use to wash our hands. The following link lists all of the substances that are approved by the California Certified Organic Farmers organization http://www.ccof.org/faq_detail.php?id=61.

You might also find the information about controlling pests in our Organic Farming 101 section useful.

 

Question:
Help! The cabbage worms are having a party in my cauliflower, red and green cabbages. I lost my entire broccoli crop. What suggestions do you have?

Thanks!
Kate — Los Angeles, California

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Answer:
The first requirement for any organic garden is healthy soil, so make sure that you have lots of compost incorporated around the roots of your plants.

Since the cabbage looper worms are already present, you can first hose the plants off with a fairly forceful spray of water, combined with hand-picking or removing the culprits. If that does not work, I would recommend spraying a mixture of bacillus thuringiensis, known in the trade as "BT." BT is a naturally occurring bacteria that messes up the digestive tract of all lepidoptera larvae (including cabbage loopers) without harming any "good" bugs. It is kind of like they contract a fatal case of the flu. You can purchase this and many other excellent garden products online from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply at www.goorganic.com.

One of the maxims of organic gardening is "careful observation of the obvious," so monitor your plants daily like the little babies they are, and if you have any more questions, please let me know.

 

Question:
Does sound have an effect on the way a plant grows?

Crystal — Chicago, Illinois

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Answer:
After reading the book and seeing the movie "The Secret Life of Plants" by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, I personally believe that music does affect the growth cycles of plants.

At Earthbound Farm, we believe that plants are much like people: if you nurture them and take the utmost care with their growth, they will bloom into healthy maturity.