CLAGETT FARM

CSA and Safe Food

We are not certified organic, but we do follow organic guidelines and are happy to make our farming practices as transparent as possible to our customers. So far, the extra time and money required for certification have not been worth the investment for us, since our customers can verify with their own eyes that we are doing everything we can to protect our eco-system. We encourage a wide diversity of animals, insects, and microbial life throughout the fields and forest on the farm. We do not use petroleum-based pesticides or fertilizers, we do not plant genetically-modified seed, and we closely manage our fertility and tillage to prevent erosion of nutrients and soil. While our very limited use of fertilizer often reduces the yields of our crops, it eliminates the chance of high nitrates in our produce, which is especially a concern for anyone making baby food. 

We have never known of an incidence of illness from E. coli or other dangerous pathogens on our produce. However, it would be sensible to follow the same practice of washing or cooking our produce that one would follow for any other fresh farm product. We do have cattle on the farm, but we do not use their manure on our vegetable fields, nor do we feed them grain, which is what makes cattle prone to dangerous bacterial infection in their digestive systems. Quite a few wild animals, such as deer, rabbits, birds, and groundhogs, do enter the fields, and they present a similarly low risk of transmitting dangerous pathogens.