Organic farming grows

More local farmers getting into business of chemical-free farming

By JIM KONKOLY

Staff Writer

COSHOCTON -- Last week, George McCoy finished his ninth summer producing more than 30 types of vegetables without herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

While organic farming remains a small segment of the county's agricultural production, McCoy thinks "the potential is unlimited."

Jodie Roberts shares that view. She apprenticed at McCoy's farm, and is now launching her own chemical-free farm on County Road 38.

Ron and Mary Meyer, in their second year of operating Strawberry Hill Farm on Township Road 167, also believe in chemical-free farming. They hope to gradually expand their small, part-time farm into a full-time operation.

McCoy, with the help of his wife Janet and daughter Margaret, operates Princeton Valley Farm on County Road 401 near Spring Mountain. He mainly markets his produce through a Consumer Supported Agriculture system.

CSA consumers buy a share of a farm's production at the beginning of the growing season. Then, every week from mid-May through mid-October, they receive portions of every crop harvested.

For McCoy's CSA members, that means getting an A-to-Z variety of fresh-picked vegetables, from acorn squash to zucchini, as well as herbs. His customers also can order free-range, grass-fed chickens, and whole-hog sausage and whole-beef hamburger processed in Berlin from animals raised on his farm.

"I started nine years ago with six families (CSA members)," McCoy said. "It's grown every year. Now, I have 100 families, and I have to turn people away."

McCoy doesn't label his produce, poultry or meat products as "organic" to avoid the voluminous paperwork needed for organic certification. But, he said, his foods are produced without chemicals and his CSA members, invited to tour the farm, know that.

"I know how it's being done, the customers know, and everybody's satisfied," he said.

Roberts and her husband Boyd moved back to Coshocton County last year from Florida. She is pursuing her long-time dream of farming and her conviction that "there's got to be a way that you can farm and make a living without using all the chemicals and pesticides."

She also will sell through a CSA.

McCoy said he wants to "slow down a little bit" and will transfer his Coshocton County CSA members to Roberts' operation.

The Meyers raise pastured poultry and grass-fed beef, have an orchard and grow vegetables.

"We are not certified as organic, but we use organic methods," Mary said.

Their interest in chemical-free farming was influenced by Ron's late father, Arthur Meyer, who was named Ohio's high school Biology Teacher of the Year in 1973 and in 1991 had his book, "Earthkeepers," published.

Ron said his father believed in "being very careful with what happens to the earth as a result of what we do. As a scientist, he thought it was important to know exactly what kind of effect chemicals would have in the long term, not just the short term."

Still, the commitment to organic farming is time intensive.

Roberts learned this summer what McCoy and the Meyers already knew: Farming without chemicals means a lot more work, from constantly cultivating to keep weeds down to hand-picking the crops.

They all say it's worthwhile.

"It's more labor intensive," Roberts said, yet she enjoys working in the fields.

"It's actually my tranquility time," she said. "It's very comforting and soothing. You're out there gardening on a big scale."