Beautiful Living

Just southwest of Duluth, the Fisher-Merritt farm, Food Farm, is a carefully plotted set of fields set around a collection of small greenhouses, chicken coops, and a climate-controlled vegetable storage building. John Fisher-Merritt and sons Janaki and Benjamin, work the farm along with long-time employee Dave Hanlon. Jane Fisher-Merritt has an art studio above the vegetable storage facility. A seasonal intern usually works spring through fall, and a community supported agriculture (CSA) members sometimes help with weeding and other chores.

“We really enjoy beauty, and we consider that to be one of the major assets of farming – to be surrounded by beauty all the time,” John says. “And that’s one of our goals: to make things beautiful. People not growing things organically are sensitive to these issues too, but there’s a lot to be said for living within the bounds of nature, cooperating with nature in a way that benefits everybody. I applaud any farmers who are hanging in there and doing their best.”

Just six-and-one-half acres of vegetables support the Food Farm’s operation, along with some chickens for meat and eggs. One hundred shares are sold in summer, and 50 shares are available in the winter from the Food Farm’s climate-controlled root cellar. The root cellar was a big addition to the farm, providing year-round income through storage and distribution of root vegetables for CSA customers. A computer controls a heat exchanger, maintaining a temperature of 34°F to 36°F. Bins are modular and allow John to easily check the vegetable inventory.

From June to October, CSA members get about 50 pounds of vegetables and a dozen eggs per week. In the winter, members get one delivery a month. For members on the poultry list, chickens are delivered in late July, and a fresh turkey is delivered for Thanksgiving. Butchering is done on the farm. Vegetables not sold to members are sold to the Whole Foods Co-op in Duluth.

Taking Care of Critters

Chickens are on pasture as part of the farm’s rotation. Potatoes are put in after the chickens have been on the land, then squash and carrots, then mixed vegetables. “We have two acres of potatoes, so the rotation has to get around so we have two other acres to rotate with the potatoes,” John says. “The stuff we grow less of gets rotated in a fourth rotation.”

In summer months, the 65 hens have half an acre of pasture. In winter quarters, they get five square feet per chicken. “We don’t believe in crowding chickens,” John says. “We believe we have to take care of critters as well as they take care of us.”

The Fisher-Merritt farm has “Always been organic,” John says. The first season on this farm was in 1988, ands John has been farming organically since 1973. For weed control, a tractor-mounted flamer is used frequently. On carrots, “We flame the entire bed where we’ve planted, for one final lush of weeds before the carrots come up,” John says. “We also use the flamer in a different configuration in potatoes. We can deal with weeds in between rows, but in between the plants we mount a flamer on a potato cultivator and the flamer is right above the plants.” On plants six inches or smaller, the flamer scorches the plants and kills both potato bugs and weeds.

A new plan is in place for 2002 – planting potatoes about half a mile from the usually potato crop location. John believes this will be far enough away so the bugs will have a difficult time finding them, and the crop can be moved back in a couple of years to accomplish the same goal. “It will be August by the time the potato bugs have developed wings to fly to the new site, so damage will be minimal,” John says. “We’ve been equipped with these big old brains, so we may as well use them,” he explains in one of his regular letters to CSA members.

Promoting Life

We have the feeling that what we want to promote is life, always. The reason we don’t have to spray for cabbage moths is that we take fence posts and put one every 15 to 20 feet down the rows, to give bluebirds a place to roost while spotting cabbage worms. When we put Bt on, those birds can still eat worms and it won’t hurt them. Soil life is the most important thing on the farm, the microbes are the most important thing. To kill something to protect the crops is not a concept we like.”

The Food Farm’s organic practices “certainly have an effect on the community of people who buy our food,” John says. “One-hundred-eighty families get food from us, and the main comment we have from these people is the quality of food they’re receiving, how good stuff tastes. I’m sure it has an impact on their quality of life. We don’t have pesticide runoff, or nitrates in wells. I assume that’s got to be good. Birds that thrive on our place go to the neighbors’ gardens too. There are a lot more birds around here than there used to be. We find nests in the most amazing places!”

____________________________________________________________________________

This article is one in a series which can be found in “A Bountiful Harvest: Minnesota Fruit and Vegetable Growers Manage Pests,” Sept., 2002. The publication was produced by the Minnesota Department of
Agriculture (MDA) with funding provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, Chicago, IL. For the entire article please go to the MDA’s web site at:
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/ipm/fandvipm.html