Introduction
I was excited when I learned through the Antioch College Co-op Program that there was a new sustainable farm co-op located in Champion, PA. It was started by an Antioch alum, John Burstein. He had purchased land and was working with a local farmer to be able to start-up a local produce stand. The farm included over 100 acres of land, two houses, and a barn. It has a few cattle and we purchased chicks after I arrived to have egg laying chickens. My job was going to be working part-time as an office assistant and working part-time on the farm as a farm hand. I have been putting in 40-60 hours a week.
Below are pictures of the chickens that were purchased.
The name of the operation is Ironwood Mountain Farm, LLC. Here is a link to the website: https://www.ironwoodmtnfarm.com/. The business’ mission statement is “To offer fresh, locally grown produce, fresh eggs, flowers, and landscaping materials to everybody from the home gardener to the professional landscaper.” The focus is on quality at an affordable price. Since I have arrived here, the farm has become one entity and the produce stand is run by the farmer as another entity, Larry Lint Produce, DBA.
I was excited for this opportunity because it would give me first hand experience that would be helpful towards my senior project. My project is focused on world hunger, the global food supply, and alternative farming techniques. I will be able to see how different types of soil affect plant growth and I will be able to test out compact farming techniques.
Early Projects
It was the last week of April when I first arrived in Champion, PA. For the climate in the area, it is still too cool to be able to plant, so I spent more time in the office setting up Quickbooks and organizing files. I was also in charge of placing seed and material orders and pricing. When I was able to, I worked on seeding plants. I personally seeded over 1,000 cells. Unfortunately, many of the seeds did not make it because the green house was not put in yet and it was too cold in the barn. Around this time we also put in about 40 blueberry bushes, which have not started showing blueberries.
Below is a picture of seeded trays, the blueberry plants when they were first planted, and how the blueberry plants look now. One key takeaway from the early project of seeding is that starting plants is very difficult and key be costly if you do not have a way to heat the plants in cooler climates, such as on a mountain. Another takeaway is that when raised bed farming and container farming a significant amount of time needs to be spent on weeding the beds otherwise plants may take longer to grow.
When it got warm enough out I was told that I could use the raised beds to test out compact gardening. There are seven raised beds. One had flowers, another had lettuce, another had micro greens and onions, another had strawberries, another had herbs, another had broccoli, another had cauliflower. The beds were filled with a mixture of compost and mulch that were made at the farm.
One fact I learned is that when gardening in raised beds, you may need to spend a significant amount of time weeding depending on the time of fill that you use. We used compost that was in a pile on the farm, so it must have had some grass seed in it from the previous season. You can see in the pictures below that a significant amount of weeds grew in the beds. I have been spending so much time on other projects it has been difficult finding time to weed.
Below are pictures of before and after planting the raised beds.
I am also going to test out growing melons in containers.
Greenhouse
One of the big projects on the farm when I arrived was installing the greenhouse which would be used to start plants earlier in the year and for selling produce and flowers out of. As of right now, the produce and plants are purchased from the local Amish community at auction.
The auctions are held twice a week at a small auction house that they own. These auctions have produce, flowers, vegetable plants, and hanging baskets that local businesses go to in order to purchase inventory. I have seen prices go as low as 10 cents per item and as high as $25 per item. I really enjoyed attending the auctions. It was exciting when you were able to get really good items at a low price such as 25 cents or 50 cents a piece because you know you can make a profit off of it.
One of the project I had was setting up a square account and I am in charge of pricing the items. When we can get items cheaply, we can sell them cheaply. Generally we mark the products up for twice what we paid on average. The first week we had to spend more on products which led to our prices being more expensive. The second auction we went to we paid half as much on inventory, so we were able to split the cost and lower our prices.
The goal is to be the cheapest option around even with having the highest quality products. There are at least two other produce, flower shops in the area which is why we want to be able to keep our prices low. Because of our low prices, we have been able to make our sales goals since opening. As of right now, the greenhouse is not completed, but is an ongoing project.
We are open for flower and plant sales now. An average day in the greenhouse consists of watering and maintaining the plants. The rest of the time is spent interacting with customers and running the retail portion. At the end of the day, I do the financial accounting on Square for the business.
Below are pictures of the greenhouse while it was being built and on a day when it was full of inventory.
Right now the business’ primary business is selling flowers, mulch, soil, and compost. Because the chickens are in their first year of growth, eggs are being purchased from the Amish. Once produce becomes available at auction for a reasonable price, the business will begin selling produce and once the farm starts producing produce, it will sell its’ own.
We have been working on planting in the field. We have planted tomatoes, beans, 3 types of potatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, tomatillos, corn, and green peppers. We hope to plant gourds, squash, more tomatoes and peppers. We have been planting under plastic to minimize the use of weed killer. The plastic helps keep the plants down.
Some projects in the field have included building trellises for the beans and installing an irrigation system to water the plants under the plastic.
Below are pictures of what have been planted.
Future Outlook for the Business
Sales are going well this year for being in the first year and with the local competition. I believe that this business can be successful. It can be discouraging for new business owners sometimes. Many people hope to see a quick return on their investment, but anybody who has gone to school for business, like myself, knows that it takes an average of 5-years to see a return on investment. Most business are not profitable in their first few years.
The biggest challenge is remaining optimistic for new business owners and having lower expectations in the first couple of years. So far in the first month the business is meeting financial goal, so there should be a positive outlook.
Reflection
I have enjoyed this co-op a lot. It was slow starting due to the weather, but once the weather broke, work picked up. Farming and gardening are very time consuming and with only one or two people it takes up a lot of hours in the week. I spent a lot of time organizing files, creating reports, setting up business accounting, and ordering materials in the beginning. I then spent more time working outside planting, and now I am spending the most time running the retail portion of the business. I try to get out and help to plant when I can.
This co-op has helped me gain office and business start-up experience which is great for my resume and will be beneficial in future projects I may have. I have also been able to reach some personal goals such as attending a hockey game while I was here and I have reached educational goals by increasing my knowledge on small-scale farming and container farming which can be used for my senior project currently titled, “World Hunger and the Global Food Supply”.
I would recommend this co-op or a similar co-op to other transfer students who already have a degree in business. For those who have no, or limited business experience, this co-op might not be suitable as the office work is a bit more advanced than just answering phones and filing paperwork. You also have to be an independent worker as the owners are not always present. You have to be able to handle a workweek over 40 hours as you are essentially doing three jobs at once.
I have been invited by one of the business partners to stay on over the summer because help is needed. I have accepted the offer and I am planning on staying until the Fall Term starts at Antioch. This is my one and only co-op at Antioch College otherwise I would love to do the same or similar co-op again.
Here is a website I am working on that has documented my time on the farm for my final project: https://sites.google.com/antiochcollege.edu/co-op390-latawnyaedick/home
This website has an introduction, reports, notes from webinars I have attended, and a photobook I have been working on for my final project. I hope to have a section on container gardening soon.
