North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>]

On Dec 13, 2007, at 8:04 PM, halegp@aol.com wrote:

> As a newbie I would like to know if the general theme of this site is the promotion of so called "organic farming/gardening/orcharding"?  I do not hold to many principles of the organic movement.  I compost and try to keep everything grown on my land, on my land.  I will use chemicals when they are called for.  I have seen the pitiful organically grown fruit and vegetables at local markets and noted that they were at a much higher price for a less desirable product.

NAFEX is not a specifically organic list and it's my impression that most people posting on it are not organic growers. My own posts are from that viewpoint but that's no reason for others to be, and I'm not trying to convert everybody; though I will sometimes post if I see what I think are misconceptions by others as to what organic growing is.

I don't know what's wrong with the organic produce being sold at markets in your area; my guess is that the growers are inexperienced either at growing organically or at growing at all. I do my best to put out a more desirable product than is generally available, and think that I succeed at this; though there are a couple of conventional growers at my market who have equally good-looking produce. I've seen beautiful organic produce in markets around here (as well as beautiful conventionally grown produce). I've also seen terrible looking produce, in markets and in groceries, much of which was not organically grown. So I think that the problem is not with whether the growing method is organic, but with the skill and/or desire for quality of the individual grower and/or produce manager.

-- it occurs to me, I've been presuming that by "pitiful looking" you're talking about genuinely poor quality. In some cases, nonstandard looks can go with better quality in other aspects. I've had people refuse to taste my heirloom tomatoes because they weren't perfectly round and bright red, but instead odd shaped and pink. The crowd of people who've found out what they taste like and are anxious to buy them, however, reassures me. And some people only want huge strawberries, even if they're tasteless, and won't buy small ones, even if they're delicious. But if what you mean is, for instance, insect holes in the peppers, or brown rot in the peaches, that's not the same issue.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly