Organic cropland

White Violet Center for Eco-Justice at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., manages the 343 acres of state certified organic cropland owned by the Sisters of Providence at and around Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.

After experiencing one of the wettest springs in many years our crops are finally in the ground. We have 100 acres of wheat, about 130 acres of soybeans and about 95 acres of corn.

David Harris, of Greencastle, is the farm manager. He and Farm Assistant Jeremy McKenzie are finding it hard to keep up with everything coming on at once, David said yesterday.

We accomplished some sporadic field work in May, but didn't get any corn out until June. David said the plan was to plant in May, then harvest hay, and maybe start doing some cultivating before harvesting wheat the July 4 weekend. "Since we didn't get done planting until the end of June it's just been crazy," he said.

Now everything needs to happen at once. White Violet Center staff members and volunteers put hay up in the barn yesterday and once last week. David was hoping to get the wheat harvested this week. More rain came this morning.

Despite the stress of getting all the seeds planted and having to switch from corn to soybeans in early June, David said the crops are coming up well and everything has a good stand.

We're having trouble finding buyers for our organic crops in these difficult economic times. Prices are fluctuating and buyers aren't willing to commit right now, David said.

So the wheat is off to the grain storage bins...

Aaahhh, life on the farm.