Jeff, Bettie & Will Thomas — Farmers’ Market Vendors Putting Personality Behind the Produce By Kathleen McFadden Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of profiles of vendors at the Watauga County Farmers’ Market, local folks who grow and sell local food, as well as plants and heritage crafts. The Farmers’ Market operates every Saturday morning from 7:00 a.m. until noon. In the northwest corner of Ashe County — at an elevation of 3,300 feet — some of the tastiest spinach available anywhere is coming in right this minute at Creeksong Farm, and the bounty will be on display next Saturday morning when the three members of the Thomas Family — Jeff, Bettie and son Will — bring their crop to the Watauga County Farmers’ Market. Will, Bettie and Jeff Thomas bring eco-friendly produce from their Ashe County farm to the market every Saturday morning and on Wednesday mornings as well during the month of July. Photo by Kathleen McFadden They won’t just have spinach, of course, but leafy greens are among the earliest crops to come in locally and it will be a few more weeks before the other vegetables are ready for picking and selling. But you can count on Jeff to have some of the earliest local squash. Over the past 25 years, he’s figured out how to do it. Jeff farms full time, and his production season runs from May 1 through November 1, although he’s busy starting plants from seed long before they go into one of the family’s seven fields in May. The Thomases have 4 acres of their 65-acre farm under cultivation in vegetables, herbs and flowers, with the fields are separated by wide strips of growing hay (5 acres in all), a technique that not only helps prevent erosion, but also provides a habitat for beneficial insects. He has to start his own plants, Jeff explained, to get exactly what they want. “We go for taste,” he said. “We cook everything to check the taste before we sell it.” With all the stuff currently growing in their fields, the Thomases will easily keep their stall stocked throughout the summer. Upcoming events include the debut of tomatoes, beans, eight varieties of squash, snow peas, carrots, corn, four varieties of potatoes, cucumbers, sugar snaps, beets, onions, five kinds of peppers, watermelon, cantaloupes and herbs, including basil, rosemary, parsley, oregano and dill. Current stars at the stall are the lettuce varieties, spinach and a salad mix of various greens including chard and beet tops. The Thomases thoroughly wash their produce — including the leafy greens — before it shows up on their tables at the Farmers’ Market. Timing his planting to ensure a consistent yield during the 26 weeks of the Farmers’ Market is as much art and science. “That’s the trick — to have a good Saturday every Saturday.” Jeff said he figured it out by trial and error and keeping records. “I used to start stuff in February,” he said, “but the stuff started in March would come in at the same time.” To keep the growing going, Jeff puts out 800 lettuce plants every two weeks. One of his fields is a creekside half-acre that is cool enough to permit lettuce production through the summer. The Thomases also grow flowers for sale — sunflowers, snapdragons and a variety of strawflowers for fresh arrangements and for drying. The family has been very successful with flower sales, Jeff said. At the annual Valle Fair in Valle Crucis — an event they’ve worked for the past 20-plus years — it’s not an unusual day when 100 bunches of dried strawflowers to move from the Thomas displays to customers’ hands. Once the other vegetables and the flowers start coming in, the family has to add picking to the weekly schedule. Jeff points out that vegetable plants such as peas and squash will bear for five to six weeks through several pickings. After that, they develop powdery mildew and that’s when he just lets them go rather than treat them so they will keep producing. “I set a goal for the amount of money I want to make out of a planting,” he said, “and once I get that, I’m satisfied.” Production at CreekSong Farm is not certified organic, although Jeff uses organic farming methods. He was certified for six years in the early 1980s,he explained, but dropped out when the process was standardized at the federal level and taken away from state control. Jeff cited the cost and the paperwork as the two primary factors that keep him out of the certification loop, combined with the requirement that fields lie 50 feet from roads. That requirement would virtually eliminate one of Jeff’s biggest production fields, the one adjacent to the creek. He also pointed out that he has a well-established client base. “If you’re starting out as a new farmer,” he said, “certification would help you to market your produce, but I doubt that I’ll ever be certified again.” Nevertheless, “I do the exact same thing I did when I was certified,” Jeff explained. He does not use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. He handpicks potato beetles off his plants and controls leaf miners by picking bad leaves off plants a couple of times a week and feeding the leaves to his chickens. He and Will practice weed control the old-fashioned way — with hoes. A half-acre field takes them about four hours to clean. Jeff pointed out that he does not used certified organic potting soil for starting his plants, explaining that it’s about triple the price of noncertified, and he does not use 100 percent organic certified seed. Otherwise, though, his local food is organic in every way but the government stamp. “We can’t say we’re organic,” he said, “so we’re looking for another word to describe our products. We’re thinking of ‘eco-friendly.’” That eco-friendly focus has opened other product doors. Bettie, who has been studying herbs since the early 1990s, markets her personal line of herbal salves and tinctures both at the Farmers’ Market and via the New River Arts & Crafts Web site (www.newrivercrafts.com). She is also focusing on fiber arts — spinning and weaving — and looking at marketing possibilities for fiber-related products. Be sure to check the basket of yarn at the Thomas table next Saturday. In addition, Jeff and Will are extending the farm operations into selected winter activities — low-grade logging, firewood and locust fencing sales, Christmas greenery sales among them — and the two are planning to populate the hill across the street from their home with seven cows. The long-range plan, Jeff explained, is to move into the production of clean beef. Jeff acknowledged that times are tough for anyone who is interested in farming as a career. When he purchased his farm, Jeff said, land was $500 an acre. Lately it has been selling for $3,000, although he pointed to a nearby tract currently listed for $6,000 an acre. “A young person can’t afford land,” he said, “and I’m afraid in another 10 years we won’t have any young people.”