McGreevy Organics

06/02/2017

A view from the mixed plot- Rosa di Milano onions for next year's seed crop, Dutch Shallots, French Shallots, and this season's Ailsa Craig onion seed ready to flower!

06/02/2017

McGreevy Organics's cover photo

05/11/2017

Freshly cultivated Dutch Shallots, clean as can be.

05/04/2017

Better late than never! Some seriously amazing storage on this crop of Rossa di Milano bulbs! Fourth Gen of selection by yours truly, and planted today with the intrepid Ali.

04/21/2017

Got the sidedresser all set and calibrated for garlic! 1948 Farmall Super AV in action.

04/20/2017

McGreevy Organics's cover photo

03/30/2017

First cultivation on French Grey Shallots and Chesnok Red garlic!

02/13/2017

One of many projects slated for 2017, we are quite excited and focused upon growing a new selection of Ed's Red Shallot for 2018 seed production. Ed's Red is a particularly beautiful and tasty open-pollinated shallot (Allium cepa) that proves itself, in both storage and yield, superior to any run of the mill hybrid. Although our crop failed to produce much quality seed in 2016, this year the focus is on the next generation. Make it so.

02/05/2017

Anyone else ready for the new season to begin?

11/15/2016

McGreevy Organics's cover photo

10/14/2016

Mustards going down ahead of garlic planting. Biofumigation!

10/14/2016

Alannah is ultimately responsible for quality control when we crack garlic.

09/28/2016

Cleaning up some seed samples for germination testing! Rosa di Milano onion being run through the Hobart flour mill for threshing. With the stones set wide open it does an excellent job separating seed from pod, making it a simple process of screening and winnowing to finish out the process.

08/30/2016

We have an abundance of quality organic garlic, for food and planting! Email [email protected] for details, bulk discounts available

06/29/2016

passing along great taste to the next generation!

06/16/2016

So inspired, I wrote the following for Organic Seed Alliance earlier tonight:

Humankind has inherited a legacy and responsibility generations-old: to keep and improve seed stocks in order that we thrive for generations to come. Our capacity to accomplish this responsibility is regenerative within the organic seed systems of today. With the combined efforts of researchers, plant breeders, and farmers, the organic seed of today is more robust, resilient, and capable of meeting the needs of an ever changing farmscape.

The modern farmer has many fine tools at their disposal, not least of which is the seed they rely upon for production. Without careful selection and maintenance, the very foundation of our agricultural system could falter. As an organic farmer, I look for many differing qualities when selecting my seeds to plant. Most important to any farmer is the consistency of the germplasm to provide a good crop, but I would offer organic seed goes well beyond this fundamental need. Organic seed provides the grower a resilient and robust crop, capable of meeting market demands as well as adapting to a farm system centered around the health of the land. Organically bred seeds have proven vital to our farm, for without them we would be reliant upon crops bred for an agronomic system dependent on synthetic inputs.

In some ways, the challenges facing the organic farmer in relation to organic seed availability have been subsiding- more varieties are becoming available, new breeding efforts are releasing improved crops for tomorrow’s farmer, and well known varieties of old are being improved for new growers. Despite better availability and increasing quality in breeding efforts, there are potentially long lasting challenges facing organic seed systems. The spectre of contamination by genetically modified seed crops is not only a threat to current producers, but for every generation to come. The best efforts in traditional plant breeding can be wrought asunder by a simple cross pollination event by a seemingly unregulated, short-sighted, and profit driven paradigm. The modern organic seed producer faces a challenge without precedent, the potential loss of millennia of natural breeding efforts that have provided us with the modern versions of vegetables we know so well. The need for new and widespread organic seed production has never been so necessary.

From insectary plantings to cover crops, vegetables to future plant breeding material, organic seed is vital to developing a true sustainability both on our farm and within the greater community of eaters. The future looks bright for organic growers, as seed catalogs add new varieties and improved quality to meet market demands become widespread. In many respects organic seed is enjoying a new dawn, with a long future as the keystone to so many farms across the globe. It is in this sense, then, that the absolute need for clean and well secured germplasm brings complexities to our future. The existential threat posed by the biotech community brings disregard for the needs of those which demand clean, secure germplasm. Without the freedom or space in which to produce new organic seed we will lose the long-term security inherent in the seeds, and potentially our ability to develop farm systems in a changing climate.

What we need to accomplish, in order to dissolve the barriers facing organic seed systems, is to facilitate a new generation of farmers in the ways of their ancestors. The farmer-as-plant-breeder made commonplace will bring about a new era for both organic agriculture and seed everywhere. In order to realize the seemingly infinite potential found within the germplasm of our crops, we must not allow a select few to maintain a stronghold, those who control and limit the seeds themselves. Our capacity to adapt as a species might very well find itself in relation to the capacity for our seeds to adapt. If we diminish these capacities, we throw away a legacy which has proven itself for millennia.

06/16/2016

McGreevy Organics

06/16/2016

McGreevy Organics's cover photo

06/16/2016

I'd say it's near time to harvest! The garlic library is expanding as I pull samples every few days to assess development. The artichokes are showing some particular beautiful color this season.

06/10/2016

Scarlet Nantes in flower

06/08/2016

Turban harvest 2016

Yours truly in action

06/08/2016

The garlic harvest has begun! Turbans are first to be lifted, artichokes coming on soon.

06/03/2016

McGreevy Organics's cover photo

05/24/2016

McGreevy Organics

05/21/2016

Isolation tunnel in progress

05/21/2016

Isolation tunnel going up for the shallot seed crop! 180' long tunnel will be covered in Agribon fabric and will house mason bees for pollination.

05/03/2016

Garlic Fields Forever

05/03/2016

Excited about this insectary seeding in between the garlic plots. The 'roads' are seeded to phacelia, arugula, red clover, and alyssum for pollinator habitat as seed crops nearby mature. At garlic harvest we will use the aisles for loading bins out of the field.

04/07/2016

Red core chantenay stecklings are set and ready to get planted #organicseeds

03/11/2016

Hey there, garlic, you're looking pretty! Alfalfa hay chopped and spread on the field creates an excellent w**d block as well as source for fertility throughout the growing season.

03/10/2016

McGreevy Organics

03/10/2016

McGreevy Organics's cover photo

03/10/2016

Gearing up for steckling and bulb selection for this season's production! Happy to have John Navazio out this last Sunday to help select the Red Core Chantenay crop. Gotta keep those OP's clean, folks!

11/26/2015

A few from the carrot cleaning operation today, some of the thresher I've put together, and loads of carrot seeds! Also the fine shed I'm holed up within, warm and busy as the winds whip around outside.

11/06/2015

We finished planting garlic today! It's been a long slog putting in about 1300 lbs of 28 varieties. Next up are shallots and mulch!