Seven Springs Farm consists of a cooperative farm and an organic wholesale and retail business. The farm was founded 17 years ago, and the business 13 years ago. The business now has a national distribution network.

On a spread of 125 acres in Floyd, land is being put to healthy use. Since 1991, Seven Springs Farm has devoted acreage – currently, 4 ½ acres – to a community-supported farm to grow vegetables and herbs using organic and biodynamic practices. About 90 families participate in this shared labor effort, and in return, they get weekly bags of freshly-harvested vegetables. This farm is run by Polly Hieser, who uses ecoganic and biodynamic practices and is committed to providing high quality food and preserving the rural economy, explained Ron Juftes, who runs the other side of the Seven Springs’ business -- an organic farming and gardening supply catalog that sells and distributes farming supplies across the United States.

This business caters to backyard gardeners, landscapers, vineyard and orchard owners and farmers. “They buy our products because they want to have cleaner food or need to be certified organic, and they need a source,’’ explained Juftes. One such person is Clark Vest, who owns All Phase/Affordable Lawns in Christiansburg and has offered an organic lawn care service for about a decade.

Vest found that attending seminars in his industry was frustrating when it came to garnering organic information. “Ron educated me about what it took to become certified,’’ he said. But more importantly, Vest said he has found that his organic program has been a success. “We found that when we started applying organic material to lawns, it greatly reduced the need for herbicides and insecticides. It increased root depth and made sick grass better. Chemical fertilizers tend to bring roots to the surface, and organics increase root depth and make them stronger and more drought resistant.’’

Juftes distributes a direct-mail catalog but is on-line as well. He said he has a dealer network that stretches from Virginia and North and South Carolina to Tennessee and Alabama. It’s both wholesale and retail. “There are not a lot of people out there selling products like I sell. There’s a Southern States everywhere you look, but not somewhere with organic supplies; most just have a few little things.’’

He sells things from the earth as well as the sea – products that are mined, grown, and harvested. Stuff with names like “Sluggo,” “Oyster Shell,” “Fish Meal,” and “Hot Pepper Wax.” “I have a lot of sources, and I bring all those supplies in here and sell them.” He also distributes them by truck and UPS across the country. Among his biggest clients are farmers who want to produce organic crops, because there’s money in that. Consumers want to go organic. It’s expensive, but healthy.

Vest feels it is well worth the investment. “A lot of people have had chemical companies [treat their lawns] before, and their yards would get stick with the least little drought. Grass would burn off, but we turned them on to organic fertilizers and hematodes and eradicated the need for chemicals,’’ he said. Without good food, soil will grow poor, he explained. A poor, sick soil is no good, but chemicals don’t help.

“Chemicals make lawns become drug addicts. As soon as you take chemicals away, the yard will completely deplete,’’ he said. This time of year, Vest said he will be conducting soil tests and with those results, applying lime or sulfur to correct the pH levels.

Juftes feels strongly about organic gardening. “This whole business of lots of people applying lots of chemicals to their lawns is absolute nonsense. They are poisoning pets and their children, and affecting the groundwater.’’ He said the shame is that there are so many alternatives. “Having two dandelions in your yard is not the end of the world. Cancer can be.”

The Seven Springs Farm’s philosophy is to be “stewards of the land in the most ecological way possible.” And Juftes said he is helping by offering products so that people will have the opportunity to do what he is doing.

In the news

• Long & Foster Real Estate’s Blacksburg and Christiansburg offices will be holding their annual yard sale to benefit the American Cancer Society. The yard sale will be held on Saturday, April 7, at 400 Roanoke St. in Christiansburg (the Long & Foster Christiansburg office). Last year’s yard sale raised more than  $2,000. Donations are being accepted at either office.

• Because an estimated 70-75 percent of the homes bought and sold in the United States are first inspected by a home inspector, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors, Frank Lesh, has a few words of advise for consumers: caveat emptor, or buyer beware. “Work with an ASHI Member who follows the ASHI Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics, which have become the industry standard," he said.

• The National Association of Realtors has made a $1 million contribution to the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation.

• Data indicates the default rate for Alt-A mortgages has doubled in the past 14 months. These are mortgages made to people who fall in the gray area between "prime" and "subprime." A record $400 billion of these midlevel loans were originated last year, up from $85 billion in 2003, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.