Farmers’ Market: A ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ sequel

    Most folks are familiar with the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” in which the purchase and haphazard planting of “worthless beans” proves the key to an epic adventure of exploration, investigation, and presumably, trepidation. The end result of the bean planting was a dramatic change in the fortunes of Jack and his mother.  Few people, however, are as familiar with the Presque Isle version of this children’s tale, featuring Jim Brown of Whole Earth Farm. Like Jack in the earlier story, Jim started out in a fairly conventional manner, managing the family farm, growing “the usual crops” and carrying out agribusiness in “the usual way.” Like Jack, the change in Jim’s life story was the result of a handful of seeds, squash rather than bean, planted somewhat haphazardly in a section of newly exposed earth where only trees had grown before. The seeds not only “took,” but grew and grew with no sprays, fertilizer, or other chemical supports.
    Jim did not have the opportunity to climb a huge vine to the kingdom of a giant who lived in the sky, but nonetheless, he pursued those vigorous squash vines to a new business plan here on earth. The success of those vines with few inputs drew his attention to organic vegetable production and encouraged him to investigate further. As a Vietnam War veteran aware of the damage done to his peers by exfoliate sprays, he was, in his words, “kind of anti-chemical anyway.”
    Jim’s hillside farm permits early planting to get a jump on the season. Intensive hands-on management and cultivation practices control insects and weeds. Crop rotations, companion planting, and cover crops maintain the fertility of the soil.
    Whole Earth Farm on the Easton Road in Presque Isle now grows a vast variety of vegetables and fruits “… on horse manure from the racetrack, fish emulsion, and a limited quantity of organic sprays, but not too much because they are god-awful expensive.” The land has been managed as a commercial organic market garden for the past 15 years; Jim and his co-workers have been members of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market since its inception.
    Produce at their market stand reflects a healthy respect for the traditional favorites, but also a native curiosity toward innovation — both red and white varieties of potatoes, both shell peas and snap (edible pod) peas, summer squash, raspberries as big as your thumb, both beets and beet greens, kale, chard, kohlrabi (“Surprisingly popular!”), lettuce, onions, winter squash, and, though not Jack’s magic beans, bush beans in green, yellow and purple(!) varieties (Phaseolus vulgaris var. Royal Burgundy: “They turn green when they are cooked.”).
    Produce is picked and dug daily, early in the week for their FarmShare customers (“We deliver.”), later in the week for the P.I. Farmers’ Market, and an ongoing U-Pick most evenings (“Call ahead, 769-2107, for times and availability.”). It makes the farm crew productive, busy, and, this summer particularly, muddy, but most importantly, guarantees the highest quality, most flavorful produce possible.
    Jim sums up the philosophy of Whole Earth Farm quite succinctly, “Fresh is essential.”
    Editor’s note: This weekly column is written by members of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market. For more information or to join, contact their secretary/treasurer Steve Miller of Westmanland at 896-5860 or via e-mail at beetree@xpressamerica.net.