Assessing August on the Farm

By Ron Eichner

Hey folks, August, often referred to as the "dog days of August," is a slower month for events but a busy time for farms. As summer ends and schools prepare to reopen, our local farms are working hard to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to your tables. Supporting local family farms not only provides you with the best seasonal produce but also strengthens the farm-to-table connection, ensuring food travels less and arrives fresher.

Buying from local family farms reduces the carbon footprint and fosters direct connections between consumers and their food sources. Home gardening is another option that lets you enjoy the process and benefits of growing your own produce. Together, these choices support local agriculture and build a stronger community.

For decades, the largest corporate farms have produced crops at a lower cost, making it difficult for small family farms to compete on price. If you value quality and responsibly grown crops, it is worth the additional costs.

Fresh and nutritious should go hand in hand; however, food experts say that most fruits and vegetables have been nutritionally depleted for six to seven decades. I don’t argue the point because most crops are grown with chemicals, including herbicides, and often lack essential minerals. Mineral-rich soil is essential for healthy crops, and in turn, for our well-being.

When people and livestock lack minerals, they can’t utilize vitamins, etc., even the food they eat or the vitamin supplements they take. The focus is on crop yield and production while nutrition has been lost. There isn’t much good if you consume the crops grown on depleted heritage. Nutrition starts with the soil, it’s your health.

As part of a family farm and raising chickens and turkeys for decades, the poultry manure generated helps the cycle of yields. Poultry manure is a great source of natural, nutrient-rich fertilizer. It contains a form of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are macronutrients vital for plant growth and development. Poultry manure contains a range of these elements known as macronutrients that are essential for plant health.

Several decades ago, farms had livestock for the manure generated, as well as poultry and livestock. However, devotion and poultry are available seven days a week, and growing crops is labor-intensive. The amount of manure on the land when synthetic fertilizers came on the scene put a significant strain on the farm. You can grow as much synthetic fertilizer as you purchase, and you don’t have to care for livestock. I have read what is written, and it is about the recipe for fruit and vegetables being nutritionally depleted.

Going full circle, it all starts with how the fields are fertilized with modern synthetic fertilizers or compounds that focus on nutrition. This is why minerals are the key pocket, and manures are packed with minerals. Unfortunately, since the 1960s, naturally fortified feeds have been used for poultry and livestock to enhance their health and wellness. The question is, is this why the crops and foods have been depleted for decades? And as a whole, society needs medications to offset the lack of minerals in our diets?

So, if you digested this August Facts From the Farm and you’re seeking nutritionally sustainable farming as a better foundation of health and garden, you can be the destination you need.

With heavy hearts, our family lost a second family member. Don’s wife Carol passed away on June 2, – buy one’s fate of a beautiful mother, wife, and you all are invited to stop in our farm market for the beautiful produce. (Thanking our friends, family, and customers for the loving support.)

We are celebrating 40 years of our farm, market, and experience of nutritious, locally grown seasonal vegetables. We started as a small roadside farm market and greenhouse, and we’re open seven days a week during the growing season to offer fresh produce, farm animals, and a unique experience that creates lasting memories. Come and visit Eichner’s Whole Farm and Greenhouse at 285 Richard Road, Wexford, to experience fresh, nutritional, peak produce and get “the rest of the story.”