{"id":2117,"date":"2011-04-15T09:29:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/?p=2117"},"modified":"2011-11-15T17:59:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T22:59:14","slug":"oley-valley-organics-keeping-a-healthy-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/2011\/04\/oley-valley-organics-keeping-a-healthy-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Oley Valley Organics &#8211; Keeping a Healthy Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2118\" title=\"sparrowgrass\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sparrowgrass.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sparrowgrass.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sparrowgrass-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The day I visited Barb Dietrich at Oley Valley Organics a few weeks ago, it was still pretty chilly. That was probably a good thing because had I waited to schedule our little chat, chances are she&#8217;d be knee-high in asparagus weeding, harvesting, or both, right now!<\/p>\n<p>To maintain a certified organic farm takes dedication, to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>We know, here at our place, the level of work involved to combat weeds without the use of chemicals.<\/p>\n<p>Yet to be a certified organic farm goes beyond that. It means you&#8217;re pledging your practices for the safe maintenance of the environment that surrounds you. And maybe, like the Dietrichs, you&#8217;ve also taken extra steps toward recovering an area (be sure to watch our webisode about <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/2011\/04\/usda-certified-organic-farming\/\" target=\"_blank\">Oley Valley Organics <\/a><\/strong>to see what I mean by \u201crecovery\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>Finalizing the paperwork for our farm purchase in 2004 meant sitting in the realtor&#8217;s office with the former owners as we exchanged signatures. I remember a particularly somber moment for them when the place officially became \u201cours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was a pause&#8230;and then I believe I thanked the former owner&#8230;he looked up, smiled, and said:\u00a0 \u201cI believe we never truly &#8216;own&#8217; a place&#8230;we&#8217;re merely the keepers for a while\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s to all of those who \u201ckeep\u201d healthy farms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The day I visited Barb Dietrich at Oley Valley Organics a few weeks ago, it was still pretty chilly. That was probably a good thing because had I waited to schedule our little chat, chances are she&#8217;d be knee-high in asparagus weeding, harvesting, or both, right now! To maintain a certified organic farm takes dedication, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[35,18,19,180,36,181,39],"class_list":["post-2117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-family","tag-farming","tag-hobbyfarm","tag-organic-farming","tag-pennsylvania","tag-usda-certified-organic","tag-vegetable-garden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homegrownonahobbyfarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}