There is Always Paperwork

With moving land this season the workload is more than just hauling my supplies to a new location and setting up a new field. There is the ever important paperwork. There is the lease agreement of course, the contract between the farmer and the landowner regarding what you can do with the land, what you have access to, and how much you will be paying for the term of the lease. As a certified organic farm, I need to have any new land certified organic. This involves completing an add acreage form to be included in my organic systems plan. Adding new acreage to an organic operation requires a statement from the owner of the land regarding its use for the last three years. Then that new land must be inspected prior to harvest and must be approved by your certifier before you are able to sell any of the crops as organic. So I have finished all of that paperwork, but there is still more.

Since I sell at farmers’ markets I have another piece of paperwork to adjust, my certified producer certificate. The certified producer certificates are issued by each counties agricultural commissioner’s office and required for any farmer selling at a California farmers’ market. With the move, I am growing in a different county so it is not a simple update. I have to file all new paperwork with Solano county where I list not just the types of crops I grow but each variety of each crop. As a diverse vegetable farm my certified producer certificate is about 20 pages. I’m hoping to check off this next paperwork task this coming week.