Willing To Change

Kurt Alstede loves his job. As the owner of Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ, he loves everything about being a grower. You don't even have to ask him; it's written all over his face. He is excited to discuss the pepper varieties he is growing or to talk about the latest crops in his pick-your-own (PYO) operation.

Unlike most other growers, Alstede, the winner of American Vegetable Grower's 2010 Grower Achievement Award, didn't inherit his love of ag from his father. What he did learn from his father, who owned a Sunoco station that was in the family for 69 years, was a solid work ethic and how to treat customers. It was this solid foundation that led him to pursue a farming career that began in 1982 and later honed in on an agritainment business with several marketing arms.

Driven By Consumers

Running a 500-acre vegetable, fruit, and flower farm along with a farm market, a PYO operation, and an agritainment business is just the tip of the iceberg for Alstede. The farm also supplies 25 farmers markets in the area and this year launched a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In addition to those ventures, Alstede also is in the process of getting 10 acres of crops certified organic.

About The Award
Nominations for the 2010 Grower Achievement Award came from across the country and they were evaluated by a panel of judges that represented a cross-section of the vegetable industry in the U.S. Keeping in mind that the Grower Achievement Award recognizes operations that are industry role models, the nominations were evaluated in the following categories: consumer-oriented marketing efforts, innovative technology, food safety and quality, industry leadership, and spirit of achievement.
The 2010 Grower Achievement Award will be presented to Alstede Farms during the United Fresh Public Policy Conference on Sept. 16 in Washington, DC.

With all these avenues to sell produce, Alstede needed a vehicle to communicate with customers regarding the activities on the farm and the latest crops available for PYO. The best way to do that, he determined, is through the farm's website: www.alstedefarms.com. In addition, customers can now follow the farm's activities on Facebook and Twitter.

Located in a very populated area of New Jersey that's about an hour from New York City, the farm has a strong customer base. To stay one step ahead and keep customers coming back, Alstede realized the importance of knowing what consumers want and presenting them with new ideas. By constantly networking, listening to customers, and attending trade shows, he is able to keep tabs on consumers' desires. As a result, the operation grows nearly 250 fresh market vegetable and fruit varieties.

Of those 250, some of them aren't what you'd typically see in a grocery store, says Alstede. "This area is a hotbed of locally produced food and people are looking for oddball things," he explains. "When our seed salesmen come calling, they tell us about the exciting things they are offering."

For example, the operation not only offers red beets, it also produces orange ones. "It's an opportunity to present the vegetable in a different way," says Alstede. In addition to offering orange beets, customers can find purple string beans along with traditional string beans, wax beans, and lima beans. It is a similar situation with tomatoes and peppers. "We are always experimenting," he adds. "Everything we do is consumer driven."

Give 'Em What They Want

"Consumer driven" defines the PYO operation at Alstede Farms. When PYO began in the '80s, Alstede says consumers picked their own vegetables and fruit as a way to save money and to use the produce for canning and freezing. By the late '80s, however, people learned that it was fun to pick pumpkins and PYO took off, he says.

Starting A CSA
Always looking for something new to try, Kurt Alstede of Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ, opted to start a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program this year. To make it a successful venture, he was shooting for 100 members.

Well, he more than doubled that number with 226 members in the CSA's first year of existence. Called Highlands Harvest Club, Alstede opted to start a CSA because he noticed that consumers were seeing the value of local food. "We have a huge variety of products, we are an established grower, and we had the marketing in place," he explains. "It was time for customers to connect to the farm the way a patient connects with the doctor."

Alstede not only supplies his 226 customers with nutritious produce every week for 27 weeks, he also produces a weekly newsletter for the CSA members, and he includes a packet of information with each package that contains nutritional information about the crops they are getting and recipes on how to prepare the food. "What is fun about this is that the customers are excited about the produce," he adds.

Alstede Farms began its PYO operation in the mid-1980s and by 2000, the farm had made a transition into offering PYO as an agritourism function rather than a harvesting function. Today, the PYO options at the farm are virtually endless and include a variety of vegetables and fruit.

The PYO operation segued into farm tours, which led to birthday parties. "Now we have a full-time person running the farm tours and summer farm camp. This all evolved out of the one request for a birthday party," Alstede says with a laugh. "We try to be perceptive enough to be open to new things."

Leading By Example

Alstede also was perceptive enough to know that his operation was part of something much bigger: New Jersey agriculture and the ag industry. Through his actions, he has shown leadership and a commitment to the industry as a whole.

For example, it was just a couple of years ago when the governor of New Jersey made the proposal to have the New Jersey Department of Agriculture eliminated from the state government. Not one to sit idly by, Alstede had a link on his website's home page that said "Click here to help save New Jersey agriculture." In fact, Alstede testified on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture at the state budget hearing. His website also contained a link for donations to save the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

Click here to see a video of Kurt Alstede discussing labor and technology.

Over the years, he has continued to give back to not only the community in which he lives and works but to the ag industry in general. Alstede has an extensive list of contributions that include serving on newly elected New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's transition team this year, a reappointment in 2009 by then Governor Jon Corzine as a public member of the New Jersey Highlands Council, and an appointment by former President George W. Bush to serve on the New Jersey State Committee of the Farm Service Agency from 2000 to 2006. Alstede also has been a member of the Chester Volunteer Fire Co. #1 since 1982.

In addition to serving on the New Jersey State Committee of the Farm Service Agency, some of Alstede's other agricultural activities include being a member of the New Jersey Farm Bureau, serving as director in 1988 and 1989, and holding the position of board president of the Morris County Board of Agriculture from 2003 to 2004.

His efforts did not go unrecognized. In 2008, he was presented with the New Jersey Grower of the Year Award. In 2005, he received the Tony Russo Marketing Award from the New Jersey Agricultural Society, and the Boy Scouts of America presented him with the Good Citizen Award in 1999.

The Latest Techniques

Alstede also realizes that he wouldn't be where he is today if it wasn't for the help of others. That is why he has often worked with Rutgers Cooperative Extension and ag agent Peter Nitzsche in several areas including multicropping, trickle irrigation, mulching, and variety trials.
According to American Vegetable Grower columnist Rick VanVranken, a Rutgers agricultural agent, Alstede also uses Rutgers Cooperative Extension integrated pest management scouting and management strategies and was recognized as the Cooperator of the Year in 1997. "Recognizing the importance of this service, Kurt was instrumental in securing funding through the New Jersey Highlands Council to maintain a scout position to serve the farming community in the highlands region of the state," said VanVranken.

In the end, Alstede says getting involved in the industry and setting himself apart from the competition have led to the success of his operation. He says his strong Christian faith and support from his father Hermann, wife Barbara, and three young children, Rebekah, Sarah, and Karl, have been critical components to taking his operation to the level it is at today. In addition, he says the willingness of the ag industry to openly share, his ability to invest in good people, and a willingness to change are the other ingredients to his success.
"As much as times have changed, the fundamentals of ag haven't changed over the years," concludes Alstede. "Growers are always ready and willing to help other growers."

The Call To Farm

From talking to Alstede, discussing things like worker protection standards and pick-your-own, you wouldn't know that he didn't grow up on a farm. Some have even said that not coming from a farming background may prove to be an insurmountable challenge. It may be for some, but not for this New Jersey grower. In fact, when he was a freshman in high school, he knew farming was his calling.

Alstede may not have grown up in a farming business, but he did grow up in a family business. His grandfather came to U.S. in 1921 from Germany and later opened up a Sunoco station. The station was in the Alstede family for 69 years and after his grandfather, the station was run by Kurt's father, Hermann. It was one of the oldest Sunocos in the country, he adds. What Alstede learned from the venture was a solid work ethic and customer service.

Upon finishing college at Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture in Doylestown, PA, in just three years, Alstede hit the ground running. The farmland he uses is permanently preserved through the New Jersey Farmland Preservation program and there are provisions in place to transition ownership of the land in the future, he adds. Right now about 45 acres, which includes two houses for employee housing and cropland, are permanently preserved.

Managing Employees

To handle farm preservation plus production, retail operations, and much more, it takes more than a few people to get the job done. And, as Alstede points out, there are a lot less farms in the area than even 30 years ago. As a result, there is considerably less interest from kids working on the farm.

"Most high-school-age kids don't want to work in production or harvesting," he says. "However, we have some very good kids working in our retail operation."

At Alstede Farms, about 100 people are employed during the prime season, which is July through November. Alstede uses some H-2A workers and he also employs students from a work-travel exchange program.

The farm has been using students using J-1 Exchange Visitor Visas, he says. They are college students from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria.

"What makes this work out so well is that they are on a different schedule than the college kids here and we get these students from July through November," he concludes. "They are looking to sharpen their English skills."

American Vegetable Grower magazine's Grower Achievement Award is proudly sponsored by Syngenta, in cooperation with United Fresh Produce Association.

A Message From The Sponsor

At Syngenta, we have made it our mission to help growers around the world increase their productivity and address the world's growing demand for food, feed, and fuel. At the heart of our business is a commitment to sustainable agriculture and improving quality of life.

We strive to be the leader in bringing innovative products and new technologies to the agriculture industry. And we are proud to partner with other industry leaders — growers and retailers — who have demonstrated their dedication to sustainability and good agricultural practices, exemplified high values, and contributed to community service. We are honored to sponsor the Grower Achievement Award in conjunction with American Vegetable Grower and would like to congratulate this year's award winner, Alstede Farms LLC.

Syngenta recognizes the vital role that growers like Alstede Farms play in the agricultural community, and we strive to support these growers by helping them grow more from less. We are committed to the future of the vegetable industry and work hard to research and develop innovative vegetable seeds and crop protection products. We support your business through the research and development of technology for pest control, plant breeding, produce quality, and pathology for a wide range of vegetable crops at key locations in Naples, FL, Woodland, CA, and Stanton, MN. We offer one-on-one support through our Farm Management Software, our Customer Center and farmassist.com. Our field technicians can also quickly identify potential problems and offer advice right where you are. In addition, many growers enjoy the flexibility and innovation of our Full Count plant program.

Not only do we strive to bring excellent products to market, but we strive to protect the environment, be good stewards of our resources, and give back to the community — just like Alstede Farms.

Thank you to everyone at Alstede Farms for your contribution to the vegetable industry and for the great example of stewardship that you set for all of us. Congratulations on your success!

Alstede Farms is the recipient of the 2010 Grower Achievement Award.