Our Aronia Berry crop adventure has been a rocky one. The first year draught, following years involved hail, tornado, and destructive beetle attacks. Two years of fighting the beetle and we thought last year we were finally going to have a big enough crop to sell when the deer decided they liked the buds, so out of 3 acres we got about five buckets of berries. The plants aren't near the size they normally would be after six years, but they are surviving. It would be so easy to forget all the "organic" rules, expense and paper work and spray the beetles and fertilize the crops but that isn't what we set out to do. Tomorrow we have our inspection to get our organic certification renewed. Fingers crossed it is approved.
Below you can see the plants in a couple of photos. The other two photos are surrounding areas around the field. We do have that. It is beautiful out there and this time of year the farm crops are just going in.
1 comment:
One of the challenges of farming is having to fight the elements and the critters that seem to think they need their fair share. Each year is a new beginning. Good luck this year.
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