Friends and Neighbors Organic Farm is certified organic by Vermont Organic Farmers association and is a member of NOFA-VT(Northeast Organic Farming Association).  As such, we are required to source as high a percentage of our seed from organic sources.

Where we source rootstock or vegetable or flower plugs that are not certified organic, we are not allowed to sell these plants as organic.  There are a few instances where this happens on our farm, for the simple reasons that our resources would not allow us to feasibly grow these plants from seed, and purchasing these plants organically is either logistically impossible for our operation, or a non-existing option.

One such plant where we purchase non-organic rootstock are our strawberries.

 These come to us as bare roots from Nourse Farms in Whately, Massachusetts.  Course Farms certifies that there is no post harvest treatment of any kind before the roots are shipped to customers.  Once we receive them, they are grown in accordance with VOF standards, but can still not be labeled as certified organic by VOF.  It is our understanding that there are quite a few organic farmers who also purchase rootstock from Nourse Farms, as they provide some of the healthiest and most vigorous plants on the market.  We have had great success ourselves and from customers who’ve planted these puppies!

Our Lavender and Rosemary are two herbs that cannot be labeled as certified organic by VOF for the same reason.

Being very difficult to germinate and requiring a long time to start, we purchase these starter plants from a large grower in California.  As with the strawberries, once we receive the plants, we treat them as organic and raise them in accordance with VOF standards.

The only other plant which falls into this category, are the flower plugs for our hanging baskets.

Again, these are purchased as separate plugs from a large production facility, then transplanted into hanging baskets and grown out using certified organic methods.

We wish there were a way to support organic suppliers of these plants, but as of yet we have not discovered a source which was both logistically and economically feasible under our current operating conditions.