Organic Farmers Raking in on Growing Local Interest

By Larisa Brass, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.

Nov. 4–Organic farmer Jerry Baird doesn’t consider himself progressive as much as old-fashioned.

“Organic is just like grandma and grandpa used to do it,” said the 67-year-old Baird, whose 20-acre Grainger County farm has been producing vegetables, eggs, honey and cornmeal without the aid of chemical fertilizers or pesticides for 25 years.

A former drag racer, Baird’s entrepreneurial bent had him pitching papers and selling summer produce in LaFollette as a youngster. Now it brings him to Knoxville’s Market Square Farmers’ Market each Saturday to sell, depending on the season, heirloom tomatoes — flavorful, more-perishable varieties than what populate the grocery aisle — as well as okra, lettuce, corn, sweet potatoes, melons, cucumbers, beets, squash, Vidalia onions, Swiss chard and other homegrown delights.

He also produces his own hickory cane cornmeal, organic honey from his beehives, molasses and organically produced eggs. The market’s last day of the season is Nov. 12, and Baird will mark it by hauling his mill to the market to grind corn for customers on-site.

Baird bought Lakeview Farm, which sits on the border of Cherokee Lake, piece by piece, traveling between his Ohio home — where his family moved when he was younger — and his Tennessee dream. “I looked down the road; I planned 20 years ahead,” Baird said. “I thought, I’ve got to keep this as a farm.”

Experience working on weekends in Grainger County’s vast tomato farms led Baird to the conclusion that he wanted to do things the natural way.

“I saw all the chemicals that they use, and I said, ‘No way,’ ” he said.

He’s a master of reuse and recycle. He collects manure from his chickens and buys fish carcasses and worm castings — “I call it black gold,” he said — from neighbors and friends and grinds up corncobs to fertilize his field. He employs bug zappers, bats, purple martins, skunks and frogs to aid in the fight against hungry insects.

As for his chickens, “I don’t feed them nothing that don’t come off this farm,” he said.

Baird is ahead of the curve, or perhaps behind it, depending on your point of view.

Tennessee has a handful of certified organic operations and few in the eastern part of the state.

But as organic products have moved into the mainstream, local interest in the subject has grown. This year the University of Tennessee held two seminars for organic and prospective organic farmers, drawing large crowds each time.

Other workshops across the state all beat attendance expectations, said Dan Strasser, marketing specialist with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.

“I do see an increase in interest right now,” he said, caused by “the market demand for organic. And farmers see they have a niche market they can get into and meet a demand.” Baird said he’s enjoyed premiums for his organic produce. This year he got up to $40 per gallon for his blackberries, and he charges $2 per pound for tomatoes, compared to what he estimates is less than 50 cents per pound for wholesale, mainstream-market growers. “I’m laughing all the way to the bank,” he said. “Thing of it is about organic, (customers) know where the stuff is coming from. It’s better. Let the taste buds be the judge.”

Baird puts his time in during the spring, summer and fall months, working sunup to sundown with no employees, to raise his 5 acres of veggies and fruits and to grind cornmeal.

He says a number of his customers like to come out to his place and that he hopes to expand his business, eventually building a lodge to host guests right on the farm.

“Eventually, I want to turn this into a self-supporting organic nature farm,” Baird said.

Baird said all that work plus a great diet and a dose of vinegar twice a day have kept him healthy enough to tackle it again year after year.

“It isn’t a job, I always say, it’s a challenge,” Baird said. “It’s therapy.”

—–

To see more of The Knoxville News-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.knoxnews.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.