Is Organic Really Better?!

Hi Folks,

This weeks farm update is a little different…

We thought we could share with you all…

Something that you probably have NEVER received when purchasing your veggies!

And thats, a recent analysis of the nutrients that are actually in your veg.

There’s always been a big debate...

On whether an organically grown veg holds more nutrients and is, therefore, better for you than a non-organic veggie.

Well if we can ignore the horrendous chemicals used in non-organic farming for a second, then it really comes down to what is in the soil.

Whether your organic or non-organic really doesn’t matter (again....leaving the chemical issues to the side), it all depends on:

• what’s in your soil,

• how you look after it, and

• how you feed the billions of micro-organisms that release nutrients from the soil naturally.

Here at Sohip we have 3 principles in achieving our goal of growing the most nutrient-dense veggies possible.

No. 1 - Use Tonnes of Compost

Our compost is full of the good stuff, its packed with billions of micro-organisms in every teaspoon and busloads of organic matter which is food for these legends to chow down on and turn into nutrients for our veggies.

The organic matter in our compost feeds the little guys we cant see with our eyes and these little guys perform daily miracles to unlock nutrient-rich food to feed the plants.

To give you an idea of how much compost your veggies are getting, we apply 3 Bath Tubs of compost every time we plant into a single bed 20m long by 80cm wide. That’s a hell of a lot of nutrients I can assure you and all of it makes its way to your belly when you chow down on our VEG!

No. 2 - Disturb the soil as little as possible

Ok, so you’ve just heard that we like to use a hell of a lot of compost because we love having gazillions of little miracle workers feeding our plants 24/7 (Don’t worry, compost is like gold to them, so they're happy with their pay and we don’t expect any strikes to occur over unfair work conditions).

Well, these guys aren’t going to be able to do their job very well if someone keeps turning their homes upside down every week, so we do our best to leave them alone, let them build their ideal home with a white picket fence, get a decent job, get married and have at least 2 million babies (There’s no 2 child policy on this Farm!).

No. 3 - Focus on feeding the soil, not the plant

We don’t use any chemical fertilisers or quick fixes which only result in weak plants and weaker soil down the track. We use a basic mix of 3 natural components such as Seaweed, Rock Minerals and Composted Animal Manures to feed our soil. These components all need to be broken down by the biology in the soil to feed the plant, and over time, our aim is to reach a point where our soils life is so abundant that only additions of compost are required to maintain a closed-loop nutrient cycle within the fences of our farm (This is harder than you can imagine, but we're up for the challenge!).

After starting with a very infertile soil (a consultant gave us one star out of 5 when we began) destroyed by years of ploughing by tractors, we have applied copious amounts of Compost, Seaweed, Rock Minerals and Love we can share with you the results of our most recent leaf analyses by Craig Clarke @ Soils by Nature, see pic below!

The above can get a tad technical, so here’s what it basically means.......

There were no deficiencies in plant nutrients. If anything we had too many available plant nutrients that can out-compete with other minerals the plant needs. So the old saying less equals more could never be more true here.

What this means for you though...

Is that you are getting all the important nutrients your body needs!

And you’ll be getting even more as our soil health continues to strengthen.

The health of our soil determines the health of our plants.

And as the great Hippocrates once said "Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food".

We will continue to share with you information showing the increasing nutrient density of our food…

So you can know that when you eat food from our farm, you're getting much more than your ordinary fruit and vegetables!

Big Love,