SEGMENT: FOOD STORAGE, PESTS, & FARMING METHODS
Edward Van Drunen>ISM Interviews M-Z>ISM Interviews M-Z, Segment 15
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- MARKETING
- We have 7 or 8 people calling food distributors, we are also listed as a distributor, we also go to food shows, we supply people with samples.
- PESTS
- are not a large problem in herb crops, there are few insecticides approved for minor crops, we do get some bugs in the crop but in the cleaning and washing we can get most of the insects out of the food product, we send the herbs through a tumbler and they most fall out. Weeds are more of a problem than insects, when we tumble we try to just get rid of good insects like lady bugs grasshoppers.
- FARMING METHODS
- We are growing 25% organic, can not use any fertilizer pesticides herbicides at all, decided to grow organic just because there were no approved chemicals to use any way, the problem we have is the lack of fertilizer, we used to use manure, now that is limited because people do not want you to use factory manure, biggest problem in Organic business is lack of fertilizer, the problem with the industry is that people are worried about the chemicals so much that there is really no good fertilizer any more.
- DRAINAGE
- Just had six inches of rain and we lost 20% of our fields, one of the problems with farming is dealing with the weather, we some fields with tile and some have ditches, we are in good shape for drainage accept when we have a heavy rain, we will replant the lost crop, we lost one harvest or maybe two but we can still make a lot of that up.
- FOOD STORAGE
- Once the crop is dried it will keep for around a year, we store and ship from a big warehouse, frozen herbs need to just be kept frozen and then shipped frozen, shipped by truck loads, some goes out in smaller quantities, United Parcel is for the smallest, we ship everyday, a truck load is large at 40 thousand pounds and common.
