{"id":4192,"date":"2014-11-17T23:35:20","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T23:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/?p=4136"},"modified":"2014-11-17T23:35:20","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T23:35:20","slug":"farm-focus-news-from-the-vegetable-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/farm-focus-news-from-the-vegetable-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm Focus: News from the Vegetable Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"Arguably the greatest hardship facing organic growers is pest control,\u00a0<\/span>specifically dealing with insects and disease. The issue is simple: the pests are\u00a0naturally present, the consumers demand picture-perfect produce, and the\u00a0organic farmer is left with few pest control resources at his\/her disposal. At\u00a0Frog Hollow Farm we deal with this every year, and in our new winter vegetable\u00a0garden the insects are already knocking at our door persistently.\n\nThis year, Farmer Al lost many of his Bosc pear trees to fire blight, an insect-vectored disease that travels through the tree\u2019s sap, killing first the flowers, then\u00a0the tree branches and eventually the whole tree. While conventional farmers\u00a0can spray to treat and prevent fire blight, organic growers like Farmer Al have\u00a0nothing to combat this wretched blight. Just this season, hundreds of Frog\u00a0Hollow pear trees were lost and are currently being removed. These trees were\u00a0in the peak of their production, and we are sad to see them go.\n\nIn our winter veggie garden, our newest intruder is the Bagrada bug. These\u00a0critters are an invasive relative of the stink bug. They first showed up in San\u00a0Diego in 2008 and have been making their way north ever since; finally arriving\u00a0in our county this year. Bagrada bugs stick their needle like mouths into the\u00a0plant tissue and suck up all the plant\u2019s juice, causing severe leaf damage and\u00a0wilting. Conventional farmers use a insecticidal spray to kill and prevent the\u00a0bagrada bugs. However once again, organic growers have no tools to combat\u00a0this pest.\n\nAs I drive to Frog Hollow, it is no surprise that we are seeing an influx of pests.\u00a0All of the neighboring farms that were just recently growing acres of corn,\u00a0peppers and alfalfa are now ploughed in for the winter, and the dusty soil left\u00a0behind is not protected by a cover crop. A mile in each direction of the farm\u00a0resembles a desert, and then as you turn the corner you see a lush green oasis\u00a0that is Frog Hollow. If I was an insect, I would choose Frog Hollow as my new\u00a0home as well. Ample water and green foliage to munch on, no nasty chemicals\u00a0to deter me, no tractors spontaneously plowing my food source and my family\u00a0in its path.\n\nDespite these hardships, we look forward to delicious organic veggies that will\u00a0come our way. Just as Farmer Al has found a way to deliver quality fruit despite\u00a0the pest pressures, our veggies will persist. The best pest deterrent? Healthy\u00a0plants and healthy soil. So this is our mandate.\n\n
\"Bagrada<\/a>

Bagrada bug<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arguably the greatest hardship facing organic growers is pest control,\u00a0specifically dealing with insects and disease. The issue is simple: the pests are\u00a0naturally present, the consumers demand picture-perfect produce, and the\u00a0organic farmer is left with few pest control resources at his\/her disposal. At\u00a0Frog Hollow Farm we deal with this every year, and in our new winter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[123,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5HwAU-15C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happychildcsa.com\/froghollowCSA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}