When it comes to the advantage Ohio growers have over other growing regions in the country, Chadd Buurma, president of Willard, Ohio-based Buurma Farms Inc., says it’s location, location, location.
“We’re overnight delivery or 24-hour delivery away from 70% of the U.S. population,” he said. “I can get an order from a customer in the morning, and it can be going to Atlanta or Tennessee or up to the Northeast ... I can go as far west as St. Louis and Wisconsin, and I can do that all overnight delivery.”
Less time in a truck also helps give Ohio-grown produce a little more shelf life.
“Nothing against the California or Mexican produce, but you’re not going to get from California to New York City in 12 hours, and I can do it,” Buurma said, adding that the shipping time saved makes the product a bit fresher when it reaches the store shelf.
It can grow here
Megan McMaster of McMaster Farms in Columbiana, Ohio, says Ohio growers can grow almost anything thanks to the rich diverse soils in the state. She says the soil profile in the Buckeye State helps boost her family’s sweet corn production.
“A lot of sweet corn varieties just grow well here versus other places,” she said. “The nutrients and how they’re different in the soil, I think is why ... Ohio corn is just good corn.”
Kirk Holthouse, co-owner and director of sales and purchasing for Willard-based Holthouse Farms of Ohio Inc. agrees. Holthouse Farms grows squash, bell peppers, chili peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, hard squash, sweet corn and cabbage.
“We have the right kind of climate, the right kind of soil and then we have a good amount of customers here in Ohio that are looking for those items, so it’s something that we feel we do pretty well,” he said. “When you’ve got a ready market with a makeup of retail, wholesale and foodservice right in your backyard — all within basically 150 or 200 miles — that’s a good setup for success. We really liked the fact that we can keep a good amount of produce within the state of Ohio.”
Got a market
Holthouse Farms works with retail, foodservice and wholesale customers, and different markets have different preferences for the farm’s crops, Holthouse says.
“The chain stores like the bigger peppers and the wholesalers like the large and the extra-large and then the foodservice community like the off-grades — the top and dice pepper, the suntan pepper, the red pepper,” he said.
Buurma Farms grows about 35 different crops for retailers, foodservice and wholesalers, and what Buurma says makes his family’s farm unique is the ability to offer so many different crops from one grower.
“That gives the customer — whether it’s a retailer, whether it’s a wholesaler, whether it’s foodservice — almost this expanded menu where they can look at what we have to offer, and they could order so many different items to help fill a truck, whether it be cabbage and corn to cucumbers, zucchini to lettuce to radishes, the green onions, any of the variety greens,” he said. “We’d like to think that we specialize in 35 different crops to make that menu so expanded that it makes it attractive to the customers.”
Buurma says working with wholesalers, too, helps the farm balance out if there’s an oversupply of a particular crop.
“There are always periods where you might be long on one particular crop, and you’re not going to get your retailers, your grocery stores to move a bunch of additional product,” he said. “That’s where you need that wholesaler to be able to step up and maybe help you out by moving on a little bit of glut of product.”
And with growing 35 crops, Buurma says the farm constantly evaluates its crop mix for the next season, with the help of feedback and requests from customers, and it has added to the crop mix over the years based on that feedback.
“We’ve added napa cabbage. We’ve added bok choy. Those were items we didn’t grow five years ago, and our customer said, ‘Let’s do that,’” he said.
McMaster Farms sells into distribution centers and to restaurants and retailers such as Marcs, Giant Eagle and Sparkles.
McMaster says her family’s farm originally transitioned from potatoes to sweet corn. The family tried growing tomatoes a few years ago but found it challenging to balance the demands of tomato production with growing sweet corn. She says her family has found a niche with sweet corn.
“I definitely feel the sweet corn market is still really good for Ohio,” she said. “I’m noticing more that everyone does want local. I feel like the market is still good so far with sweet corn. We’re holding on and, hopefully, that it’ll stay that way.”
