Growing Food

Beginners Steps to Becoming an Organic Farmer

Becoming an organic farmer requires faith and commitment into a different mindset in farming for the masses.  From a social responsibility angle, it's irresponsible for food farming to continue in a mass production fashion aided with chemicals with total disregard to developing heathly soil. healthy plants and nutrious produce.

1. Knowing Your Compost.
The most important step to becoming an organic farmer is knowing proper composting methods. As your compost is the fertilizer and the nutrient holder for your produce, it is critical to learn the correct methods. To create your compost you will need all biodegradable materials such as old food, dried leaves or animal manure. After mixing all of the ingredients into your compost bin, you will need to let them sit for at least one month. After your compost has sat for the 30 days, it can be added directly to your plants. Keep in mind there is a much longer list of what you can add to your compost container, so be sure to do your research!

2. Organization is The Key!
You may not think this plays a large role in organic farming but, organization is the key to maintaining your farm and keeping your produce in outstanding shape. By separating your filed in do multiple parts for veggies, fruits and spices you will easily know where everything is positioned. A great 'common' idea used for farm organization is creating small posts with signs stating what is in that particular row. This will save you loads of time when searching for the correct produce items to water or harvest. Another great tip to organizing your farm is keeping a log book of the dates you have watered your plants and on what day they need to be harvested.

3. Talk to your community.
Even before you start harvesting it is important to talk to the local individuals in your communities on where you can sell your produce items. Whether it is a grocery store, farmers market or just on the side of the road, people in your community will be able to point you in the correct direction for success. Even if you are turned down from grocery stores at first, be sure to keep your chin up, chest out and keep coming back with sample of your produce and sooner or later your luck will turn.