Eating Local Produce
by Benjamin Sage

3-16-07

Locally grown produce is a wonderful asset to every community. From CSA's to Farmers Markets every meal is unique. Sage's Apples Farm is now in its 5th Generation here in Chardon, Ohio. All of our produce is sold through our farm market to local customers and family back in town for their favorite apple they can only buy at Sage's. We pride ourselves with providing only the best product to our customers. Our goal is to grow ourselves as much as we can to ensure proper harvest and cultural practices have been given to the producs we sell.

We are a conventional family farm, which means our families work on the farm along with some hired local labor to plant, maintain, and harvest our produce. We practice Integrated Pest Managment IPM for short, to control pests that pose a problem for the fruts and vegetables we raise. IPM is a standard of relying on specific pest life cycles to time specific sprays to maximize its effectivness. We don't want to spray any more than we have to; most spraying is done evenings when conditions are more favorable for spraying, but time is lost with our famliies.

We grow what we like to eat is the bottom line! We grow so many varieties to extend our season but also because we each like different ones. this is what makes us unique. When you visit us to buy local sweet corn we try to provide two or three types. When asked if one is better than the other we simply say, "you will have to try each to find out". We can't say which you will like the best but we can offer you a selection.

Varieties are specific to seasons as well. Buying local means you may not always be able to buy what you want. Certain apple varieties are very early in July and August but do not store well in our cooler. However, other vareites like Melrose and Fuji store extremly well and we often store them into the following Summber! This provides a sweet apple as an alternative to the rather tart early apples that ripen in July. Vegetables are the same except long storage is not possible for many. Sweet Corn varieties can differ by 2 weeks or more. A variety by the name of Temtation takes many fewer days to ripen than our later season corn. Some of this is contributed to the size of ear, Temptation has a rather small ear. We also plan many platings of our produce. We schedule around 12 Sweet Corn plantings and 15 Green Bean plantings through each season. Timing is everything and sometimes they overlap but many times they spread out to extend into the fall.

Eat Local and eat healthy! It is important to remember eating healthy is better than eating only local. Our bodies need fresh produce for nutrition the 5 a day program is great but i eat more and belive i should still be eating more. The bottom line is we grow fresh fruits and vegetables because we love eating them, and we want you to aswell.