I would be more inclined to believe a farmer who would be ok with customers visiting the farm at any time as many farmers who sell at once a week markets often do.
I’d also be more inclined to take the word of am Amish farmer since they eschew technology, automation and live close to the land.
That’s one of the things I appreciated about Reading Terminal Market in Philly. Many of the produce stands were Amish and they also welcomed visitors during the week when they weren’t at the market.
They’re not Amish but this is also the regular policy of Polyface Farm and many of their previous interns who now have farms of their own.
And if you’re doubting the veracity of the info they’re giving you, that might also be a good litmus test question to ask. Most farmers who do practice organically (whether officially certified or not) are usually quite proud of their practices and being a cut above the rest and not mind showing off their operations.
When I looked on the local harvest website shortly after moving here, there were many smaller farms who mentioned in their blurbs that they utilized organic practices even tho they couldn’t afford the certification.
And there were also others who were in the process of switching to organic and listed an estimate of what percentage was organic vs. what was in the process. (evidently the land has to be a certain way for a specified number of years to be considered free of pesticide residue.)
Also as previously mentioned, lying about if for the sake of a short term sale could come back to bite them in the butt in a major way later especially in an ongoing organized market as opposed to selling out of the back of a truck somewhere.
polyfacefarms.com
localharvest.org