What do you do with your extras?

We get this question a lot and we are very lucky to have a bountiful farm that has so much extra! In the spring, we plant extra seeds in case some don't germinate properly and we end up with extra plants. Many times, we even have extra seeds. We always over plant in the field to allow for loss and oftentimes we have extra plants in our fields that we don't harvest. Even you, our CSA members, may forget to pick up, or arrange for a friend to pick up, your CSA box. We always come home from markets with extra produce. You get the picture!

So we do our best to give back and donate these extras. Here are a couple of things we do:

- Gleaning of Lake County - This is a program organized by several good people at the PC farm. They collect everything from seedlings in the spring to produce when it's available. Their goal is to get more high quality produce and varieties growing locally. They provide to Mano a Mano, the AvonTownship Food Pantry Garden and to backyard gardeners participating in the Ten Thousand Gardens project.

- Deerfield Food Pantry - This is a program where a local food pantry visits farmers, vendors after the market to collect any extra produce/fruit to donate to the Deerfield food pantry.

- Compost - We donate to compost pile on the farm any produce that doesn't meet our standards. The compost pile is maintained and through a fairly complex process, mixes into a high-nutrient compost that we spread on cover crops each fall before the winter snows.

- Feed - Pigs love our overripe tomatoes, which they get a as treat in late summer.

Dea Dia Organics' mission to be a environmentally, economically and socially sustainable business. We believe giving back to our community helps us to achieve this goal!