Field Day Highlights From Two Ohio Farms [Slideshow]

By Lauren María Alexander|July 2, 2014

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The White House Fruit Farm market is open seven days a week, all year round and features an assortment of the farm's produce as well as other assorted deli meats, cheeses, bread, etc.
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The White House Fruit Farm attracts visitors from across the state and regularly hosts school tours, festivals, and other agritainment events.
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A sign at the entrance showcases what's local and in season to shoppers.
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The inside of the White House Fruit farm market, which is well known for their famous blueberry donuts.
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Strawberries and rhubarb are currently in season at the farm and sold at their farm market.
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Kerry Scott from Mas Labor, specialists in H2 labor.
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The exhibitors tent featured the latest equipment, packing, chemical, and seed services.
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Attendees board the wagon to begin the tour through White House Fruit Farm's orchards and fields.
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Rows of Evercrisp apples in White House Fruit Farm's orchard.
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To scare off deer, workers strung empty beer cans across the orchard rows hoping that the noise would frighten them away.
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Attendees made stops at various points in the orchard to learn about the farm history and production practices.
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Dr. Gary Gao, small fruit specialist and associate professor from The Ohio State University College of Food Agricultural and Environmental Sciences was present at the White House Fruit Farm tour, and provided details on some of the blueberry varieties the farm was experimenting with including Blue Crop, Blue Ray, Duke, and Draper.
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In addition to their fruit crops, White House Fruit Farm also grow asparagus, sweet corn, candy onions, tomatoes, peppers, beets, eggplant, pickles, and cucumbers
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White House Fruit Farm relies heavily on foreign labor, and in her discussion, Pifer stressed the importance of developing an improved guest worker program.
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More rows of plants as seen from the wagon driving through White House Fruit Farm's field.
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Debbie Pifer, part owner of White House Fruit Farm discusses the unique challenges she faces as a grower/farm marketer/agritainment operator at the farm.
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Attendees gathered for lunch around noon and listened to brief updates from OPGMA members.
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McMaster Farms is a third-generation farm spanning 1,800 acres specializing in sweet corn and pumpkins, with additional acreage in green beans, tomatoes, onions, watermelons, and cantaloupes.
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A McMaster Farms' employee explains how the corn counter and bagger works to the audience.
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on counting line

Workers at McMaster farms place the corn on the belt in preparation for counting.
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The ears of corn are laid onto the processing belt before being fed through the McMaster's corn counter.
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Carrie McMaster describes their traceability program that allows them to print barcoded stickers to label their bags and boxes of sweet corn for shipment.

American Vegetable Grower magazine traveled to the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association (OPGMA) Summer Tour & Field Day on June 25, and had the opportunity to visit two major growing operations: White House Fruit Farm in Canfield, OH, and McMaster Farms in Columbiana, OH.

The tours brought together more than 250 growers and marketers, and offered a glimpse of both operations’ fields and facilities which included a visit to the White House Fruit Farm’s farm market, apple orchards, strawberry fields, and a visit to McMaster Farms’ sweet corn packing and sorting facility.

First off, the tour made its way to White House Fruit Farm where attendees learned that in addition to the apples, strawberries, and rhubarb the farm is most known for, they also grow asparagus, sweet corn, candy onions, tomatoes, peppers, beets, eggplant, pickles and cucumbers. All of the farm’s produce is retailed through their farm market, which is open seven days a week. The market is White House Fruit Farm’s primary revenue generator, but they also host tours, events, festivals, and other agritainment activities that have made them a staple in the area.

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As Debbie Pifer, owner at White House Fruit Farm explained it, the farm needed something to set it apart from others in the state, and agritainment and retail were it.

“A lot of people that come here don’t even know we grow crops,” Pifer said. “They come for the donuts, meat, and cheese in the winter, and those are the things that carry us — it’s the only reason we’re in business.”

However, between July and October of every year, produce is king, and it’s all sold on location at the farm market.

As far as the challenges Pifer says she faces running such a multi-faceted operation, she mentions regulatory issues such as labor and water as two primary concerns. “We have a large staff, and we have to manage healthcare for all of our employees,” Pifer said. Smaller day-to-day responsibilities, such as figuring out how to expand the parking lot for the growing number of visitors, are what make business challenging, yet rewarding, she explained.

After a lunch where OPGMA members gave attendees a brief update on the recent approval of the Ohio Produce Marketing Agreement by the Ohio Department of Agriculture in addition to other association news, the group headed over to McMaster Farms. McMaster Farms is a third generation wholesale and retail farm that specializes in more than 400 acres of sweet corn and pumpkin, as well as green beans, tomatoes, onions, watermelon, and cantaloupes. The farm’s sweet corn is stored in the operation’s hydro-cooler before being shipped out to locations as far away as South Carolina.

While there, attendees got to see the operations corn counter and bagger, which counts and bags every ear of corn. To see the counter in action, take a look at the video below:

The McMasters also shared information on their traceability software, Land.DB from Ag Connections, which allows them to create bar-coded stickers on site to trace their bags and boxes of sweet corn.