At Henry’s Farm, BIODIVERSITY RULES!

Henry plants over 600 varieties of over 100 distinct vegetable types (e.g. lettuces, potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, etc).  He does so for a whole variety of reasons. For the full story, read Henry’s “Spring Imaginings. ”

Henry loves biodiversity because, first and foremost, he never wants to tell a customer, "No, I don't grow that."   Secondly, Henry is a curious fellow, and he likes to experiment and find out how different varieties taste and how they do under various weather conditions. Thirdly, biodiversity is a good insurance policy. Different varieties have different susceptibilities—to pests and to weather conditions--so if one variety succumbs to drought or to an invasion of flea beetles, another will do just fine and customers will still get their carrots or their choi. 

This year, for example, the early-bearing varieties of broccoli, which have always done extremely well, suffered from the hot May and June, and were not very productive.  Their late-bearing cousins, however, which normally do poorly, were producing head after large, luscious head deep into July because the rains and cool weather they needed finally came in late June.