Our Practices
Certification
White Pine Berry Farm is certified organic by Midwest Organic Services Association (MOSA) We strive to go beyond the requirements of organic certification by growing our fruits and vegetables pesticide free whenever possible. Many consumers believe “Certified Organic” means pesticide free, however many pesticides are used in organic food production. The approved pesticides must be naturally found in the environment, but they are pesticides nonetheless. There is currently not a certification that will ensure pesticide free produce. If you are curious not only about your food’s certified organic status, but also pesticide free, we encourage you to get to know your farmers and their practices.
To this day, White Pine has NEVER sprayed our Strawberries, Blueberries, Currants, Asparagus, Rhubarb, Pie Pumpkins and Squash. Due to a specific insect pest, Spotted Wing Drisophila (SWD), we have needed to spray our Raspberry crop with two certified organic sprays. If we did not spray against this pest, we do not believe we could raise a high enough quality fruit for our customers to enjoy. We do not raise our decorative pumpkins, zinnias, and sunflowers certified organic.
Weeds
Weed control without chemicals for our fruit and veggie crops is a constant battle. We have multiple pieces of equipment to control weeds including a walk behind rototiller, cultivator, multivator, rotary hoe, and eco-weeder. The ecoweeder is used to control weeds between young plants on strawberries and pumpkins and isn’t for the faint of heart using the machine. It is a two person job, with one team member driving the tractor and one team member getting an upper body workout using handle bars to move tine finger weeders in and out between the plants as it is driven down a row. The ecoweeder does a great job in between the plants, whereas most of our other equipment is designed to only control weeds in between the rows of strawberries and pumpkins. Even with use of these machines, many weeds on White Pine are controlled the old fashion way, pulled out by hand or killed by a hoe. This takes the work of a large group of team members braving the summer heat and working hard to keep the fields as clean from weeds as possible.