Few people think of a decision to purchase fruit as a moral choice but every decision has consequences.  Take bananas.

Bananas are the top selling fruit in the United States.  An astonishing 6.5 billion pounds were sold in the United States last year; that’s 28 pounds of bananas per person!

American consumers have long been conditioned to expect perfect looking, blemish-free and inexpensive produce, and what nature doesn’t give us we look to science to provide.   What is often overlooked is that in order to achieve the perfect banana, plants (and workers) on commercial plantations are subjected to a toxic soup of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides.  According to the United Stated Department of Agriculture Pesticide Data Program nearly three-quarters of all bananas consumed in the U.S. contain residue of thiabendazole, a fungicide known to cause cancer and to disturb hormone balance.  Residue of another known human carcinogen imazalil is found is about a quarter of all commercially produced bananas.   Residue of many other chemicals have also been reported.

Although the absolute amount of residue found on bananas purchased in the supermarket is small, the cumulative effect of carcinogens in our food supply and that of our children cannot be neglected.  Further, the use of these chemicals on Central American plantations often exposes local workers and their children to acute toxic levels.  And the deleterious effect doesn’t end there; the jury is still out on the long term impact to the environment of releasing hundreds of tons of these chemicals on wildlife and oceans.

We made the decision several years ago to grow our own bananas in our greenhouse.  While initially supplying the needs of our family we increased production and are now supplying bananas to For Goodness Sake, a local whole food store in Leesburg and Market Table Bistro in Lovettsville.   Our mantra is “best practices” not “best chemicals.”  Our banana production has been the subject of an article in Northern Virginia Magazine!

We have also added a hydroponic system in the greenhouse to produce high quality lettuce year round.  We are currently growing green and red butterleaf and green and red oak leaf lettuce.  We are also producing a variety of microgreens including arugla, claytonia, sylvetta, persian cress, minuza, sorrel, komatsuna, mustard and spreen.

We also produce fresh rosemary and bay leaves and several varieties of basil in our greenhouse.

We’ve recently added a new 46 foot high tunnel to extend our growing season on heirloom variety produce.  We are currently producing butternut and hubbard squash, an heirloom variety cucumber, artichokes and mixed salad greens.

In addition to production in our greenhouse and high tunnel, we have a flock of about 40 Rhode Island Red hens producing several dozen farm fresh eggs each day.  Our hens are free range and are supplemented only with non-GMO feed.   We market our eggs through For Goodness Sake in Leesburg, Virginia.  You can check out their web site here: http://fgsleesburg.com/.

 Please contact us if you are interested in fresh herbs, spouts, lettuce, salad greens or other heirloom variety produce.