July is Fruitful on the Farm

By Ron Eichner

Hi folks, July marks the heart of summer, kicking off with Independence Day on July 4, celebrating America's birth. This month also brings Parents' Day, celebrated on the fourth Sunday (July 27 this year) to honor the hard work of parents and caregivers. No matter where our parents may be, this day serves to celebrate their important role in each of our lives.

Our multi-generational family farm has reflections of the sacrifices and efforts made by each generation of parents in supporting our family farm since 1897. It can be viewed as a multi-chapter book, with each generation having its own chapter. Our great-grandparents are chapters 1 and 2. Our mom and dad are chapter 3. Don and I represent chapter 4. We have chapters 5 and 6 at the printers. We are hoping for more chapters.

Our daily farm efforts throughout the year, which include nurturing our seasonal crops, poultry, livestock, greenhouses, and farm market, are designed to support our community. We rely on our community's support to sustain our operations. Our valued, year-round customers are a vital part of our family farm's success, and we look forward to welcoming new customers.

There are several benefits to supporting local farms, as opposed to shopping at grocery stores. You drive into our farm, and you see our farm market greenhouses, smokehouses, the sound of livestock, examples of seeding and harvesting, and you see where vegetables are harvested.

When customers are seeking high-quality eggs, they hit a grand slam because our laying hens produce high-energy eggs because of our exclusive nutritionally fortified poultry feed that we have developed for decades. Our market meat case is stocked with our homemade pork sausage, slice slabbed bacon, and Canadian bacon to complement our eggs for a breakfast of champions. Our fresh pork, beef, and lamb are sourced from Thoma Meat Market in Saxonburg, which processes only locally grown livestock, not ones from large corporate farms.

In the second week of July, I will receive our first flock of day-old turkey poults and then place them in a heated nursery after giving each three drinks of a vitamin and electrolyte water mix. The poults then enjoy 19 weeks of a happy life, eating a vegetable-based feed supplemented with probiotics, minerals, and vitamins to support their health during their time on the farm. The second flock of turkey poults comes in the third week of August, and we do it all over again. We then process the turkeys fresh for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

July is a month when local fruits and vegetables start coming from area fields and orchards. Most farms like ours practice succession planting to have a season-long supply of fresh vegetables available until a killing frost in the fall. Fresh rhubarb is our first cash crop. I plant a field or strip of sweet corn every seven days, four rows of green and yellow beans every two weeks, early and late planting of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, vine crops, cucumbers, zucchini, pickles, and cole crops such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and five types of kale. The challenge is to keep the deer, groundhogs, and raccoons from turning our fields into their salad bar.

This spring had many challenges for gardeners and farmers. Cold, wet soil hampered those who planted certain flowers and vegetables that wanted warmer soil. As a "gardening angel," I help our customers with suggestions for successful gardening. There are countless reasons why plants do better when you plant in late May when growing conditions are better for the plants. Our greenhouses still have beautiful hanging baskets, potted colorful plants, vegetable plants, and herbs for those who want to add color and life to their yards and gardens.

We are attracting new customers who want to change their shopping and eating habits and seek to move away from big corporate farms. They know how fruits and vegetables are grown, processed, and sold at grocery stores. 

 We are nestled in a valley, and our farm market and greenhouses are open seven days a week. Bring your kids and grandkids to see our lambs, calves, cows, and farm memories that last a lifetime. We welcome you to come and visit Eichner's Whole Farm and Greenhouses at 285 Richard Road, Wexford, to experience farm-fresh and get "the rest of the story."