Growing Practices

At Lakes and Valley CSA, we view the Earth as a living organism. We recognize that every time we till the soil or remove a crop, we are using up organic substances and minerals in the soil. We also are gradually depleting subtle energetic life forces that sustain vibrant and nutritious plant growth.

 Using sound organic practices, we create and maintain friable, well-structured, and well-drained gardens and fields. We apply biological activator preparations to enliven our soils and plants. Timely applications of these biodynamic preparations replenish energy levels in the soil and in the air above the earth’s surface. These preparations stimulate root growth, soil micro-organism production, and humus formation, so crops grow in harmony with the rhythms of Nature and feed naturally from the deepening soil humus, not artificially through water uptake.

We fertilize our gardens with compost made from our animals' manure. We rotate growing beds and cyclically rest garden plots with grass and legume cover crops.

We suppress weeds with tractor cultivation, wheel-hoeing, hand weeding, and mulches. We don’t buy chemical insecticides. We do use approved biological sprays to control cabbage loopers and Colorado potato beetles.

Healthy plants resist fungal diseases. If prolonged adverse weather starts to affect our plants (e.g., blight on tomatoes), we apply homeopathic sprays of Biodynamic preparations made from specially prepared herbs.

Members voted several years ago to cut certification from the CSA’s expense budget.

Dewane and Anne share their experience in gardening and farming. Anne is the gardening columnist for Northwoods Woman magazine. Dewane is a regional advisor for the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association. He is a board member of the Yggdrasil Land Foundation, a national land trust for organic and biodynamic farms.