Weeds

Here's a little extract from the 'Notes from the farm...' section of the CSA newsletter I wrote. I think it sheds some light on why we weed:

We harvest for your baskets as near as possible to the pickup times so that your veggies are as fresh as they can be. We harvest on Tuesday morning for the farm and Oakville, Thursday for Guelph, and Friday for the Georgetown market and drop-off.

On the other days of the week we spend most of our time in the fields and the greenhouse tending to the crops. One of our main tasks is weeding! A weed-free garden is essential because weeds steal nutrients, light and growing room from the crop, plus they can provide a home for pests and make harvesting more difficult. Conventional farmers use herbicides, pesticides, and genetically modified crops to manage weeds and pests. These chemicals have harmful or unknown health effects on humans and the surrounding ecosystem, besides which the weeds or pests that do survive are generally more resistant to the toxins -- making this a never ending escalation of attack!

Organic farmers choose to use other methods to control weeds. Day to day this often involves mechanically uprooting the weeds. A surprising amount of the weeding on our farm is done by Jeff on the tractor. With his sharp eyes and lightening fast reflexes he maneuvers two blades or claws to within one or two inches along either side of the rows of plants. This quickly kills most of the weeds. Any weeds that remains are pulled out by hoe or just simply by getting down on our knees and pulling them out by hand. Quite a task for the six of us in the ten acre garden!

But the result is worth it: superior fruits and vegetables grown without using chemicals!