This is not one of our regularly scheduled CSA emails.
We are a certified organic farm and we are proud to grow certified organic produce for you.
However, at approximately 6:50pm on Friday, July 27 a plane applying Lorsban, Sniper and Stratego tried to apply to the field to our north and west. The wind at the time was low, but still there. It was out of the NNW. Not only was the application bound to drift some because of this wind, the applicator did not turn off the spray when they flew over the farm.
The short story is this. The pasture with our turkeys and laying hens were hit with spray. It was still daylight, so the birds were outside. The plane took a path over the poultry building and continued to spray. The bee hives were directly in this path. The high tunnel was also in the path, as is our field with the peppers, eggplant, some green beans, some dry beans and all of the okra. We still smell the spray around our house 3+ hours later. Rob was also outside and felt droplets of the chemicals land on him as well.
We are doing all that we can to pursue this issue. Of course, this occurred on a Friday evening - so no one is readily available to help us.
What does this mean for you and for the farm?
1. We will have testing done to see what is affected and how much. We have questions out to try to deal with it.
2. It is likely that we will lose organic certification for our SW field.
3. It is likely we will lose organic certification for the high tunnel's east field. It is possible we closed up the high tunnel soon enough to save the crops in the tunnel now.
4. We have questions out to determine what we can still harvest out of the SW field and high tunnel. Best case is we spend alot of time cleaning the fruit with whatever is necessary. Worst case is we cannot give you anything from those fields. Please, no jokes about whether you like or dislike any of the particular crops that were hit, we are not in the mood for that right now.
5. We also have questions out to determine how we need to clean up things that were outside during the spray. We will do all we can to insure that you will not get any residue from the spray in anything we distribute to you.
6. We have questions out regarding what we need to do with the hens, turkeys and ducks.
We are, understandably, very upset by this. We're upset on your behalf and we're upset for ourselves.
We will keep you informed as we learn more. We're not sure what recourse we have at this time, but it is possible that we will ask for some future support in this issue.
Rob and Tammy
We are a certified organic farm and we are proud to grow certified organic produce for you.
However, at approximately 6:50pm on Friday, July 27 a plane applying Lorsban, Sniper and Stratego tried to apply to the field to our north and west. The wind at the time was low, but still there. It was out of the NNW. Not only was the application bound to drift some because of this wind, the applicator did not turn off the spray when they flew over the farm.
The short story is this. The pasture with our turkeys and laying hens were hit with spray. It was still daylight, so the birds were outside. The plane took a path over the poultry building and continued to spray. The bee hives were directly in this path. The high tunnel was also in the path, as is our field with the peppers, eggplant, some green beans, some dry beans and all of the okra. We still smell the spray around our house 3+ hours later. Rob was also outside and felt droplets of the chemicals land on him as well.
We are doing all that we can to pursue this issue. Of course, this occurred on a Friday evening - so no one is readily available to help us.
What does this mean for you and for the farm?
1. We will have testing done to see what is affected and how much. We have questions out to try to deal with it.
2. It is likely that we will lose organic certification for our SW field.
3. It is likely we will lose organic certification for the high tunnel's east field. It is possible we closed up the high tunnel soon enough to save the crops in the tunnel now.
4. We have questions out to determine what we can still harvest out of the SW field and high tunnel. Best case is we spend alot of time cleaning the fruit with whatever is necessary. Worst case is we cannot give you anything from those fields. Please, no jokes about whether you like or dislike any of the particular crops that were hit, we are not in the mood for that right now.
5. We also have questions out to determine how we need to clean up things that were outside during the spray. We will do all we can to insure that you will not get any residue from the spray in anything we distribute to you.
6. We have questions out regarding what we need to do with the hens, turkeys and ducks.
We are, understandably, very upset by this. We're upset on your behalf and we're upset for ourselves.
We will keep you informed as we learn more. We're not sure what recourse we have at this time, but it is possible that we will ask for some future support in this issue.
Rob and Tammy
Legal action. That's pretty inexcusable...
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