About Us

I am Joe Gady and my daughter, Lauran, and I operate a one and a half acre organic farm just south of Argos. Our goal is restoring the soil and the life therein to sustainability, so that outside inputs are required less and less. The high nutrient density of our produce and value added products promote sustainability of health in our customers.

We grow and sell fresh romaine lettuce, carrots, beets, onions, garlic, leeks, root parsley, parsnips, cabbage, kale, basil, dill, cilantro, pickling cucumbers, winter squash, and heirloom pumpkins.

Based on the work of the Weston A Price Foundation, we started producing lactic acid fermented foods and beverages four years ago. For most of the year, our own produce goes into these products for sale. During the “off season”, when our production is limited, certified organic produce is purchased for inclusion.

Currently, we have nine 4-gallon Harsch crocks that we do fermentation in. All of our production is done in a rented certified kitchen, and right from the crock into jars, these products are refrigerated to keep the live cultures in them in a semi-dormant state for good preservation. For centuries, cultures around the globe have found that these fermented foods keep indefinitely in their lactic acid environment that the microbes produce. This has provided them an excellent way to have fresh vegetables year round.

It is important to include these lactic acid fermented foods and beverages to our diets regularly as Weston Price found in the healthy indigenous cultures that he studied. Frequent inclusion of these live cultures floods our digestive systems with a diverse array of live microbes and intact enzymes. These probiotic “condiments ” recolonize our systems and leave no space for pathogens to cause problems.

Our Practices

With soil testing, we restore a proper balance by replacing the missing minerals in our soils. Also, we stimulate biological activity with the addition of microbial mixes and enzymes, sea minerals, high quality compost, and plowing down of green manures. Learning that plants get 80% of their nutrition from the air, we regularly spray the leaves with foliar sprays that contain microbes and sea minerals restoring the leaf surface micro life.

Rene Quinton’s work around the early 1900’s showed that the balance of trace minerals found in sea water was identical to our blood content and the intercellular fluids of all living cells. From that and the later work of Maynard Murray it shows that the balance of sea minerals is key in human, animal, plant, and soil health. These minute trace minerals attract and feed microbial life that makes particular enzymes, unlocking and making both major and minor elements available for sustainable health.

We use heirloom varieties in all of our production. One of the reason hybrids were developed was to be able to produce crops in mineral deficient soils. The downside of this is that the resultant produce is also mineral deficient. Heirloom varieties have the ability to utilize trace minerals for a more complete nutritional profile in the foods produced.

Highlights

We regularly test the plant sap of our vegetables in the ( http://www.pikeagri.com/Frequently-Asked-Questions/6.-What-is-plant-sap-analysis.html ) field for pH and Brix. From that we can determine what the plants need and apply it in a foliar spray to the leaves. When the pH is 6.4 and the brix is 12 or above, the plant is nutritionally balanced and will not be attractive to insects or diseases. The resulting produce is of exceptional quality in taste, nutrition, and keeping quality.

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