The farm of course is much more than just the soil. It is the people working there. Half of the art of farming is being able to work with people, not just your crew. Of course the crew is extremely important, and so is managing your crew efficiently. But the same is true of your neighbors.

We’ve got neighbors and it’s very important for me as a farmer to cultivate good relationships with them. Cultivation goes so much beyond the crops and the soil and not hurting the earthworms so much. It’s cultivating relationships with other farmers. For example, where we get our manure to make our compost.

We have lots of relationships with local farmers and we always try to do good by them. My practice is to insist upon the highest price (for our suppliers). I don’t try work a great deal. I try to give the other farmers the very best I can give him.

So in this way I tend to get more help from neighbors and other farmers and treat them the way I would like to be treated. The same thing is true for our CSA members and the consumer. There is a trust relationship there. It goes much further than the actual biology of the soil. Relationships are of prime importance.