Ploughshare Farm: Organic foods at their best

March 17, 9:16 PMOrganic Food ExaminerNatalie Rotunda

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After graduating from St. John’s University in Central Minnesota, Gary Brever took his degree in psychology and headed west to manage a Catholic Worker farm in Washington State. On it, they grew their own food to feed the homeless. “Growing up, being a farmer wasn’t on my radar screen,” Gary says. Nevertheless, the work experience provided the basis for his future life back in Minnesota. He learned that it was possible to raise a family on a farm by following the community supported agriculture (CSA) model he managed in Washington State. In 2002, Gary brought Jenn back home to Minnesota where both their young family and their CSA thrive on 160 acres of farmland in Alexandria.

Gary, what’s happening at Ploughshare Farm these days?
Right now, I’m finishing last deliveries of frozen winter shares. We’re one of the only CSAs who do that. We have a kitchen we’re planning on getting certified. It has stainless steel sinks and it will be inspectable. We have a chef who blanches our vegetables, then freezes and seals the one-pound packages. That’s one of the ways we’re extending our season and making food available in the winter months. Most everything we grow, from eggplants and potatoes, the gamut, we offer in vacuum-sealed packages. Every month I take a box filled with 30-some packages to shareholders. It’s so nice for consumers to just open up a package, and there it is. In the winter to have broccoli that tastes sweet is just remarkable. I’m upfront with folks because it’s $600 a share. Everything is still done by hand. It’s labor intensive. It’s putting food aside for the winter. We can use the technology of today to continue that and enjoy good organic vegetables in the winter.

How do the vegetables taste?
You can taste the difference in our greens. They retain the texture and the quality.

How much of your summer crop goes into the winter shares?
We don’t put aside too much of the summer crop. It comes out of our extra, below 5%. We do tons of fresh produce each year, and this would be approximately 3,000 lbs. We only do 30 winter shares.

How long have you been packaging winter shares?
A few years back we worked with Camp Hill Village and they did the processing there. This is our first year of doing it here. Right now, it’s totally legal for us to do it. If we’re not adding anything, we don’t have to be certified. But our goal is to get certified because there are other products we want to do, like salsas and pestos. I’m not able to sell these frozen packages to a restaurant, and there are several chefs in the Twin Cities who would love to have them! Like the dandelion greens—they’re wonderful to sauté with mushrooms.

You’re coming into a new season. How is that looking?
I’m excited about the business aspect. On the aspect of labor, it gets harder and harder physically to gear up. One of my goals is to have a manager position in the field.

I’m excited this year because we have nine interns. Usually, we have three or four. These are college-age kids, and half of them are girls. There is more interest by younger people, especially with the economy thing happening.

Do they live at Ploughshare Farm?
They get room and some of the board, and they get basically a little over minimum wage. For me, they bring a different aspect compared to high school folks because they’re here for the bigger picture. We have more dedication by our interns than we find with part-time folks. One or two of the interns have previous experience.

What kind of crops will you plant?
We’re planting pretty much the same thing as other years. We may try different varieties of tomatoes, and I might add a little more diversity in the spring so the boxes are fuller with variety. We’re still doing 40 different types of crops, with tons in total harvest.

How many members do you typically have?
Last year, we had 275 members, and we had 18 weeks of deliveries and probably an average of 18 lbs. of vegetables each week. Just for our regular season CSA members, it takes about 90,000 lbs. Then we have a storage share in the fall and each delivery is around 75 lbs. They get three deliveries, one in October, November and December and they have the option of purchasing a storage share.

This year, 300 members is the limit. I judge that by what I have set up for irrigation and labor. In three or four years, we have land that has been fallowed that we may use to increase our field size, as long as we have equipment, and that takes more capital. For the amount of equipment we have right now and the fields we have in cultivation, we’re at a good limit.

Do you see growth in the organic industry?
There has not been any other time before now when it has been so mainstream. People will see CSAs as being a very real economic value, so it’s a good deal to get good organic food. If you average it out for the year, for our Metro members, it’s only $30 a week, a good value. I have not felt the economic downturn.

What still needs to happen to make more people aware of organics’ value to them?
Our farm policies. That’s the bottom line and what needs to happen, on many different levels. The amount of subsidies our government still gives to grow corn in particular is atrocious for a crop that takes so much of the soil and creates so many health consequences [yes, he is referring to high-fructose corn syrup] for our society. If our policies would support those actions and behaviors that we want to occur in this world. Like our neighbor’s farm. They get hundreds of thousands in subsidies and we get nothing. What do they do but pollute the ground and pollute the air, and the subsidies system has created devastation on rural communities on all these different levels. Yet, our government continues to put out money for these farms to continue.

At my farm, we try to be cutting edge and creative in our marketing and we can definitely say we’re successful, but it’s very difficult to do it. And one thing that could change---our institutions, hospitals, schools, could all buy local and support local farms. Every school, every prison, every hospital has purchasing power so they could buy local.