Cooks Valley Farm: Interacting with Insects and IPM

Cooks Valley Farm opened in 1705 in Wrentham, MA and continues to be run by the Cook family. It is now owned and operated by Warren Cook, his wife Marilyn, and their son Nate. The farm first began as an apple orchard. Although the farm has always produced crops, the Cook family also intermittently worked in the postal service. Marilyn also grew up on a farm in the area, and the Cook family continues to cultivate crops on both properties. When I visited this farm, I was stunned by the differences between this large farm and the other two smaller farms that I have previously visited. This entry will consist of pointing out the changes in practices that I observed on Cooks Valley Farm; I attribute most of these changes to the size of the farm.


The first big, and frankly obvious, difference was the size of Cooks Valley Farm. There is an old barn, which now acts as a large farm stand. There is plenty of room and space for produce to be sold. When their crops produce fewer products than expected, they are even able to purchase produce from other farms in the area and sell them at their stand. Unlike the two smaller farms I saw, the farm stand was a very important source of income and main attraction of the farm. When I was taken on a tour of the farm, there is a vast amount of land- so much so that it is necessary to drive to some parts of it. It took about ten minutes to drive between the different plots of land. The farm is spread out for multiple reasons. The main reason being that Marilyn’s family’s farm is not right next to the Cook’s family’s farm, but as a married couple they have portions of both family’s land. In addition, the land is spread out because the Cook’s land has been divvied up over the years between family members. However, a positive consequence of this division is that most of the Cook family has remained in the area and continued to do some farming.


The size of the farm has also resulted in some changes of farming practices compared to the other farms that I’ve visited. There is a lot more work to be done on a farm of this size, and, in a way, a lot less control. Unlike smaller farms, it would be difficult for the family to walk around the entire farm every day and treat each plant individually. Therefore, the Cook family has hired some help; however, they have had trouble finding good, motivated labor. This has forced a lot more responsibility onto the three family members. Also, given the heat of the 2010 summer on the East Coast, Warren told me that they haven’t been able to plant the fall crops yet because they have been so preoccupied by trying to keep the current crops alive and hydrated.

The size of the farm also means that they have more conventional growing practices, which includes an integrated pest management system (IPM). This system mostly consists of nets and traps.However, they do also spray pesticides when necessary. Pesticides are sprayed when the insect population has reached a quota. Hopefully, this means that they only spray every so often, but when the populations get out of control, they do have to spray several times a week.

On a personal note, I felt a little uncomfortable with this frequency of pesticide use. As much as I want to support family farms, I felt that there were other local farms out there that use pesticides more stringently. However, after talking to Four Town Farm about their pesticide practices, an entry to come, I began to learn about responsible spraying. Hopefully Cooks Valley Farm uses pesticides as informed and hesitantly as Four Town Farm does, and I am going to try and follow up on this matter.

In addition, I would encourage everyone to try and visit a farm that uses pesticides in order to understand how repulsive pests can be.  When the Cook family took me on a tour of their cornfields, they cracked open the stalk of the corn and showed me a cluster of eggs inside of the corn stalk. Suffice to say this was gross. Then, Warren cracked open the stalk a bit further and out popped a pale, slimy, slightly translucent, worm-like insect! A week later I am still shivering and physically retracting at this experience. I do not want that bug in my corn. If pesticides and nets are what keep this critter out of my food, I am much less opposed to it than before this experience. Although I would prefer to have no pesticides and no unfavorable insects in my food, I am much more understanding of the needs of these practices after this memorable day.

Another difference between Cooks Valley Farm and the other farms I visited is crop diversity. Since the farm is so large, they grow a variety of different fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs. Previously, the family raised a range of goods such as apples, dairy cows, and vegetables. Today, Cooks Valley Farm grows about five acres of fruit trees and thirty acres of vegetables. They also have a green house for certain plants and herbs. Some of the products that they offer are apricots, apples, onions, potatoes, lettuce, eggplant, peppers, and of course many more.

The final distinct difference I noticed between this farm and the smaller farms is their opinion of the government. For smaller farms, it seems that there is a greater government dependency. Christina, from Blue Skys Flower Farm, explained that unless a farmer inherits land, it is very difficult to build a farm from the ground up, and therefore would not be able to have a farm without government subsidies. On the other hand, Warren wants the government involved as little as possible in Cooks Valley Farm. He feels that government programs are intended to keep a farm dependent, not viable. At the same time though, not everyone is as lucky as the he is since Warren not only inherited the land, but also farming knowledge and experience that has been passed down in the family for generations.

When talking to the Cook family, it is clear how much they care about their farm. All three of them enjoy working on the farm, and Nate looks forward to continuing the family tradition. Marilyn said that she loves that everything is always changing and new. There is also something very special about their land and how it has changed both in size and in purpose over the generations. And as many stories go, the history of Cooks Valley Farm is not flawless, and has had to make adjustments to their practices that have not necessarily occurred in smaller or newer farms. It will be interesting to continue visiting farms of varying sizes because I am interested in seeing if the changes that have occurred on the large Cooks Valley Farm are consistent with practices performed on other large farms in the area.