Organic fraud

I consider myself an organic gardener. In some ways beyond organic.  That being said when I post in "Organic" or talk about growing organic I feel a little like a fraud.  That doesn't sound very nice, maybe organic flexible.  Mostly everything that goes into my veggie garden is organic. Some things I'm very strict about like fertilizer. If it doesn't have that ORMI stamp for get about it!  Pest killer I have only used diatomaceous earth a couple of times in the last few years. Nothing else, well 3 years ago I used soap to spray aphids, but I haven't needed even that for the last two.  Soil mostly I use organic. A few times over the years I have used mushroom compost. It didn't say it was organic. I have stopped using it because I'm becoming more of an organic snob, but it's mixed into many of my beds in small portions.
When it comes to buying seeds I prefer organic, but if it's a seed I want, and not readily available, I will buy non-organic.
The worst strike against me is I live between a almond orchard and a walnut orchard. You know when they drive by on there tractor in a hazmat suit something very bad is being sprayed.  This is the worst, because I have no control over it.  I can't erect a bubble around us. I certainly can't afford to move.
I just do the best I can do. I don't use weed killers, or any other chemicals. Grow lots of veggies, fruit, herbs and flowers, and hope I'm doing right by my family.
Hi I'm Jen and I'm organic flexible.  ( Just a side note I don't sell what I grow. If I did I wouldn't call it organic)

I thought this was going to be a post about businesses buying conventional produce and reselling it as organic. That happens all the time.

I'm not concerned about certification at all, and am not that much of a stickler for perfect purity considering I'm inhaling tires all the time just by existing. But I am concerned that the farmer is farming ecologically and not doing anything toxic, environmentally hazardous or intentionally deceptive.

I used to try very hard to be organic as possible, food and otherwise. Then I wanted to be home with my kids so that had to adjust. Now my goal is natural gardening. First utilizing the resource's the land provides, then if outside inputs are needed, using as close to natural as possible. I've used bT for cabbage moths, after years of no issue moving to a new climate introduced me to those little pests, and neem oil for fly control. I've dabbled a little with salt and vinegar for Canadian thistle and Japanese bindweed (patiently awaiting results this spring).  I plant flowers and plants and have left dead standing trees to attracted pollinators and predators.

As far as my compost it currently gets non-organic inputs like rabbit and chicken manure that had conventional feed along with local hay, produce scraps that weren't organically grown, coffee grounds, leaves from neighbors that may be contaminated. It's still way better than anything I could purchase near us.

Our yard was conventionally gardened for around a century, my current goal is to put back as much organic matter as I can in the ways that I am able. Continuously improving feeding systems for my animals including getting away from pellets, rinsing conventional whole grains, fermentation, tree hay and growing green fodder wherever I can are goals I'm working towards right now. I've already been breeding rabbits that can handle the dietary changes without issue. This years laying hens are being transitioned to fermented feed at two weeks. Those things will help improve the compost and the overall quality of our small environment.  It will also reduce overall costs.

Our property lines will probably never be organic, currently have conventional lawns on both sides. One neighbor is a farmer and mows almost weekly. He uses toxic ick on his edge of our gravel driveways. It definitely gets over the line. But so does my trifolium. I don't plant edibles there and he doesn't complain about the creep. We keep it a happy line :)

I think it's healthier to accept the good over waiting for the perfect. Most of us have learned the latter never arrives.

Now that I have been on the forum for several years, I know how easy it is to be organic within my own life.

Years ago, I heard Neil Sperry talking about using compost tea.  I wanted to know what this was and where to buy this compost tea.

I now know how easy it is to make compost tea:

https://permies.com/t/53922/composting/Compost-Tea-easy

https://permies.com/t/225277/Compost-tea-results

Now I have figured out how easy pest control is.  Basically, I only need two things: vinegar and soap.

I had known about vinegar since finding out that when I cleaned my kitchen counters with vinegar that the vinegar would also kill ants and other critters like food moths.

Then I found out last summer that rubbing soap on my legs and arms would prevent chigger bites.

A soap solution will also kill a lot of bugs and also fungi like powdery mildew.

https://permies.com/t/93537/toxic-Fungicide

The end of the story is that I can do everything in my garden with three things:  compost tea, vinegar and soap.

I empathize, Jen. I don’t use chemicals on my garden, and I make my own compost, so I think of my garden as organic. But I buy conventionally grown produce often, so my compost is not all from organic sources. And i sometimes get seedlings grown in unknown potting soil.

Anne wrote:Then I found out last summer that rubbing soap on my legs and arms would prevent chigger bites.

Wait. What? Like rubbing a dry bar of soap on your skin?

Organic...

everything that has a life is organic, isn't it?

If I am looking nowadays in the shelfs of big supermarkets it's meanwhile all organic and bio.
Then I step outside, start my Enfield and drive 100s of miles passing only monoculture fields..

Yes the plants are in the dirt growing, have been fed with "chemical" fertilizer and get sprayed with "bio" pesticides,
but because they are alive, they are from my point of view "organic"

Then I enter my food forest and forage for my veggies, harvest what I need and shalke some bugs off. Hey that's organic too..
But you cannot tell me that these veggies are found by the metric ton in the supermarkets..

I not worry if a seed that is not readily available has an organic label. It's a little embryo that has one root and 2 small leafes, in total maybe 2 grams when it pops out of the seed shell.
As soon it hits the resources in my soil it will grow into a 100% clean and organic plant in pounds of weight, full bio to eat..  

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

Anne wrote:Then I found out last summer that rubbing soap on my legs and arms would prevent chigger bites.

Wait. What? Like rubbing a dry bar of soap on your skin?

That probably would work to though I like to add some water.

I read a leg cramp hint somewhere and just that helps leg cramp.

Or course when we go to the big city I get really bad leg cramps from lots of walking so I use magnesium bath flake 1 cup to a spray bottle and then rub in.

Anne Miller wrote:

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

Anne wrote:Then I found out last summer that rubbing soap on my legs and arms would prevent chigger bites.

Wait. What? Like rubbing a dry bar of soap on your skin?

That probably would work to though I like to add some water.

I read a leg cramp hint somewhere and just that helps leg cramp.

Or course when we go to the big city I get really bad leg cramps from lots of walking so I use magnesium bath flake 1 cup to a spray bottle and then rub in.

If this works it will be a skin saver and I'll feel I owe you something...I have actually started using OFF for the first time in my 42 years. Pure desperation. I heard spreading sulfur on the ground can help but haven't gotten that far as it's a half acre.

I was looking for the Mother Earth recipe for taking sulfur internally to ward off chiggars and ticks, etc, and found this.

This is still working for me:

Anne said, In the last couple of years, chiggers keep getting worse each year. Using sulfur after being bite was my go-to until this year.

I was trying to wash them off after coming inside though I had to stop to take the dog so I was lathered up with soap.  Dear hubby likes Irish spring so that is what I used.

I found I didn't have a single bite.

When I did get some bites I tried the same thing.  I could hardly believe that just soap will kill them when you have already been bitten.

Anyway, I am happy to find something that works for me.  sometimes it takes a couple of applications though the intching is so much than without the soap.

https://permies.com/t/39978/Chiggers

Jen Fulkerson wrote:I consider myself an organic gardener. In some ways beyond organic.  That being said when I post in "Organic" or talk about growing organic I feel a little like a fraud...

The fact that you are hyper aware of it, and are trying the best you are able in this wild world, tells me you're no fraud. Keep it up!