I heart small organic farms

I was thinking about what a nice time I had at the organic farm I visited this past Friday. How green and lush it was. I was also thinking about the bug biodiversity there. It was a haven for all types of insects, good and bad. When I was talking with the owner he was saying his farm is an ecological haven. And he is right. They don’t use pesticides there, they use guinea hens to take care of the pests. Whatever is not eaten by the guinea hens will eat their crops. because they do not use pesticides they are not killing off all other insects, including native bees.

The bees have safe places above ground to nest in and the soil is not dangerous so they can nest there as well. This is why I try to support local organic farms. In the long run they will be helping us because they are preserving the pollinators. Here are a few more pictures that I had taken on my trip there.

I just loved these flowers. There were so many butterflies and bumblebees on these flowers. I couldn’t get close shots of the butterflies or bumblebees because the row of flowers was surrounded by tall grasses. And in this tall grass during this time of the season there are rattlesnakes. So just take my word on it. These flowers were getting lots of action.

There were also about a dozen sunflowers. They were also attracting a lot of insects. The bumblebees really loved these flowers. I also caught a fig-eater beetle on a sunflower.

There were also lots of “other” non-crop flowers growing all around the farm. Like these flowers called Cowboys’ Fried Eggs. You can see all the tiny tiny bees on it. There were also honeybees gathering pollen from this flower.

This gorgeous flower is an Okra blossom. I love the cream and maroon color combo. It knows how to be attractive doesn’t it.

Not only does this farm help insects (especially bees) by not applying pesticides. They also allow wild flowers to grow around their crops so that bees have a variety of good food resources to choose from. R and I told the owner that we will be making them some bee nests to hang up around the farm. Hopefully G will come with us (hint hint) and help us. The owner also told me that he was thinking about doing an educational talk to grade school kids about bees. How cool would that be for the kids…ok, and me.