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Agriculture Secretary Visits Local Farm — Wolff tours Maysie's Farm Conservation Center in West Vincent
By Chris Crane
Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
July 26, 2005
WEST VINCENT - State Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff on Monday toured Maysie's Farm Conservation Center, a small, nonprofit farming cooperative that produces numerous fruits and vegetables on seven acres of land along St. Andrews Road.
Wolff listened eagerly as founder Sam Cantrell described how a concept he uses makes small-scale farming practical.
"I am here today because this is a kind of farm that works well in a suburbanizing area with a large population," Wolff said. "Sam is producing crops that are more for the market, and the market is driving what he is selling. So it is really more of a marketing strategy."
Cantrell refers to his farming concept as "community supported agriculture" because he grows his produce locally and then sells it to local families who contract for a share of his crops each year. Maysie's Farm produces fresh vegetables such as eggplant, tomatoes, onions, squash and cauliflower, among 50 others.
"I am promoting my farm as an example of how to keep food production in Chester County," Cantrell said. "The future is small, diversified, direct marketed and ecological responsible farms.
"It used to be that you needed 400 or 500 acres to support one family, but now you can support one family with five, 10 or 15 acres."
Cantrell runs his nonprofit operation on his family's farm, which his parents bought in 1951 and is where he grew up.
The farm also serves as an educational tool for teams of interns who harvest the crops. It aims to improve public understanding of conservation and ecological programs by building a community around local food production for local use through its Eagleview Farmer's Market, its school lunch program, its school and youth program and teacher education seminars.
"We have also piloted programs for children such as 'From Seed to Salad' and other things," said Louise Smith, vice president of Maysie's Farm.
Wolff also praised community-supported agriculture because it gives people a sense of where the food is coming from.
"A good number of people respect getting fresh, wholesome products and putting a face with a product," he said. "A lot of people don't realize where their food comes from."
Cantrell said getting new people interested in farming is the biggest problem for agriculture.
"There are a lot of small 5-, 10- or 15-acre pieces of land around, but no one to farm them," he said. "Not many people are getting involved with farming. Immigrant farmers may be a target, but we need to (get) help training people."
He noted that most new farmers aren't the children of farmers. They tend to be from a variety of non-farming backgrounds and include a lot of middle-aged people and women.
"A lot of the people who I have here working as interns tend to leave and don't get into agriculture," Cantrell said.
Wolff also sought to promote the state Department of Agriculture's "Pennsylvania Preferred" program, a program that encourages people to buy locally-grown food by branding it with a state seal of approval.
"It's a good program," Cantrell said. "But I am even more local than that, so it really doesn't apply to me."
Cantrell's shareholders say they frequent Maysie's Farm for reasons that go beyond the money they would save by not shopping in a grocery store during the spring through fall growing season.
"You get freshness that you can't get in a supermarket, because they go through a lot of steps before you get it," said Amanda Bealer of North Coventry, who learned about the farm from her husband's uncle. "You cannot over-compliment the way something that has just been picked tastes when you get it home."