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Know Your Farmer Story
“I walk by your house everyday… didn’t you just spray?”
L. Rieber No Spray Staff Writer“Know you farmer”, it should be more like, know who is growing your food. Will that “farmer” lie to you just to make a sale? Or does he really care about why he grows food and how he does it? Does he farm by protecting the soil or to make money? People now days seem more interested in the money aspect of growing food than in growing the food itself.
Humans need a few basics to live in life. If you think about it, we all really only need, food, water, shelter. With these three and these three alone, we could survive. We do not need a cell phone, we do not need a car, heck we don’t really need the big beautiful house we all live in.
We do however, need water to survive. An average human can only live for three days without it. Those three days are miserable by the way. We do need shelter, a human could only live in severe weather for so long before the “elements” will kill you. Imagine a snow storm, how long would you really last? But we also NEED food.
Food contains the minerals, vitamins, proteins and sugars (among other things) that humans need to survive. We have always needed food to live. It is our fuel. It is our energy. In the past, entire civilizations was built around the need for food. There are countless stories of hunting, gathering and then cooking food. Food nourishes our very existence.
But today, our food is in the hands of several large corporations. Corporations have no soul, no heart and are not human. They are driven by profit, by
“Natural gardening saved my recently disabled husband!”
money, by reports. Although run by humans, those humans usually are following policies and rules. Those who are making up those policies and rules are governed by the principles of business. Business needs to make money, they need to be profitable. This is why knowing your farmer is so critical. You
want to feed yourself the best you can, you want to know your farmer.
I have been gardening naturally for over five years. I obtained a degree in agriculture from the University of Hawaii in Hilo with a focus on sustainability. Although I have the “formal education”, I feel a lot of my knowledge has been gained through reading books of the past and present, talking with others and hands on learning and understanding. We understand a lot about the chemicals that are being sprayed on our foods and we choose to grow our own, No Spray produce
for that reason.
My boyfriend Jesse, of over seven years sells our homemade (Hawaii’s Simple Gourmet Chocolate) at the downtown farmers market. One of our most popular flavors include turmeric or olena. It has such a unique taste and combined with our chocolate is unbelievably healthy for you. We take pride in knowing that our No Spray turmeric is homegrown. It was grown with absolutely no chemicals. We use no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. We grow turmeric for its medicinal properties and it is extremely important to us that it be of the best quality.
Jesse was talking with an older Hawaiian Aunty downtown. She makes handmade, all organic, all natural and amazingly beautiful shaped soaps. She also uses the finest of ingredients and only organic products. She understands the importance of doing so, and that chemicals can be absorbed within. We talk story with her often and she never ceases to amaze us with her knowledge depth.
One week, Jesse had mentioned to her that we might be a little short on our turmeric to add to our chocolate the following week. The aunty smiled and told Jesse about a farmer she knew that grew the No Spray way! All natural and all organic. In fact he sold produce at the same farmers market. She said we should talk to him about purchasing No Spray turmeric for our chocolate if we were going to be short.
Jesse, a little excited to meet another farmer who also practiced No Spray agriculture excitedly walked over to the farmers booth. The farmer said he had about 10 pounds of No Spray turmeric that he could sell to Jesse. Jesse was very interested. He knew the aunty had said that he never sprayed and that he was an organic farmer. Jesse then took a double look at the farmer
and asked where he lived. The farmer described his farms location.
Jesse knew the area very well. We walked right outside of his fence everyday. Jesse told the farmer that we were neighbors and we passed his house with our dogs. At that moment, Jesse realized something and asked the farmer, “Didn’t you just spray your turmeric a couple weeks ago?”
Literally two weeks prior to this conversation, Jesse and I had a conversation about this very same farmer. We live in the middle of some large farming plots and we walk our dogs on the maintenance roads. Not knowing who our neighbor was at all, we, had several conversations about him. We could not understand why this farmer would spray a pesticide to kill the weeds surrounding the turmeric plant, literally one month before its natural die off. We were amazed at why someone would do that. At that stage in the plants life, the rhizomes are absorbing the rest of their nutrients for the dormant stage.
Jesse asked the farmer “Why?”. The farmer said to rid the weeds, it was easier. It is too hard to keep up everything I got through hand clearing. I only do it sometimes.
Jesse is so thankful that he asked the farmer about his farm. That he took the time to ask its location. He will forever more ask to go to the farm before picking up other peoples turmeric. Especially for use as medicine. Some farmers don’t always tell you the truth when trying to make a sale.
We take a teaspoon of our very own sun dried, organically grown, No Spray turmeric powder every evening before we go to sleep for the medicinal qualities. Our turmeric is all raw. I can not even imagine taking that much turmeric that was sprayed with round-up literally a month before.
This was our experience of why it is important to know your farmer. I hope that this has inspired you to know your farmer. Buy local : Know your Farmer (personally)
No Spray
find the other way!
If you would like to share your “Know Your Farmer” experience, both GOOD and BAD, please contact us by CLICKING HERE!