I was speaking with Kevin at Klippers Organic Farm today and learned some very interesting things I didn’t know before about how they process their certified organic produce.

For example did you know popping corn is made by simply leaving the husks to dry on the stalks out in the field till October? Or that when apples are put together with carrots in the fridge crisper, the scent the apples give off makes the carrots go bitter? I didn’t. And that some people are allergic to the natural chemical apples give off when stored but only in the spring when there’s pollen in the air. Go figure!

I asked Kevin all about what they do and do not put on their soil and the plants pre and post harvest. The good news is that Klippers Organic Farm never uses any of the chemicals that have sometimes been allowed on certified organic produce (of course there’s a lot of changes in the works now that the National Organic Standards are law in Canada at the end of this month). You can count on Klippers Organics as a source of clean unadulterated food.

I also got some insight into what’s been ending up on so much of our fresh fruits and vegetables lately. For one thing, growing regions have experienced a wet season in the past few months… and since the application of sulfur has been allowed pre-harvest to control mildew, it helps explain all the sulfur that’s been on our food supply. Lime sulfur has been allowed post-harvest on tree fruits like peaches, nectarines and cherries (if it’s strong enough to kill the slugs, it’s not doing us any good either, is it).

Plus not to gross you out or anything, but some certified organic farmers have been putting blood and bone meal around plants to rush their growth. Now, it’s even worse than it sounds because the blood and bonemeal has not had restriction… animals fed with genetically modified organisms for example.  This has as yet not been dealt with with under the new standards coming into effect this month. Until it is, this is a factor that will need to be investigated on a source by source basis when purchasing food, to determine if it has been grown under such conditions, even if certified organic.