Bugs vs Bugs!

One of the most common things we get asked by people visiting the farm is: ‘How do you control pests without resorting to chemical sprays’?

The answer is that we use a mosaic of different strategies, coupled with a lot of hard work and diligence. We have a range of preventative strategies, including constantly improving soil health, crop rotation and companion planting. But when these measures don’t work or we have had a particularly harsh season, we use a range organic traps to curb their population, plus a few other out-of-the box strategies that we’ve been testing out. One of these is the use of parasitic wasps, who feast on the whitefly that typically cause damage to our brassicas. These guys are not harmful to our local ecosystems and releasing them in our kale and cabbage patches seams to really be controlling the whitefly population.

The more we build our local biodiversity, the more these kinds of relationships will happen naturally, hence our enthusiasm in rehabilitating our native rainforest along our creek lines. The goal is not to eradicate the pests, but to balance the agro-ecosystem out, so that we have multiple insects doing their thing, rather than a few exotic pests dominating the ecosystem.

We’re hoping you enjoy the work these bugs have done on your kale and cabbage this autumn!

Enjoy

Cal Champagne

Green Connect Farm Manager

In your box:

20210428 in box

What’s that in my box: Lemongrass is a tropical plant native to Southeast Asia and a common ingredient in Thai cuisine and is widely used as a natural remedy for digestive issues. You may recognise it’s scent from candles and soaps and you can consume lemongrass as a tea or in a healthy smoothie. Lemongrass can be used in marinades, stir-fries, salads, spice rubs, and curry pastes. To cook with this herb, trim the top and base of the stalks and use like a spring onion (the base of the stalk is more desirable). For more information on how to store & cook any of our vegetables, visit: https://draxe.com/ and type in the veggie you’re looking for.

You can find all of our recipes here!