Tammy and Ben in front of their on-farm store
While he was working on his degree in agronomy and horticulture at UM Crookston, Ben Clayton started Clayton’s Produce. Eighteen years later, the business has grown from sweet corn to over a dozen fruits and vegetables. All grown on a farm near Pokegama Lake that was originally owned by Ben’s great-grandfather. His father still lives there and raises cattle. Ben and his wife Tammy have built a house on the property too. The day I arrive for a visit is pea-shelling day. A 1927 sheller is running as we talk, and fresh peas are filling up the on-site farm store. What’s left after shelling is fed to the neighbor’s sheep.
The 1927 pea shelling maching
Ben uses manure from his father’s cows to fertilize the corn, and crops are rotated every year so that all the acreage is regularly supplemented with manure. There are 33 acres planted in vegetables. All are started from seed in the farm shed, then transferred to the hoop house when the weather allows, then out into the fields……all 30,000 of them! Each crop is planted into raised bed plastic (plastic over a row of raised soil) and twenty-two thousand pounds of straw per acre are placed in between rows as mulch. Ben, Tammy, and their crew do all the weeding by hand, and all the harvesting by hand too. They irrigate from Pokegama Lake with a drip system, thank heaven as this year’s rains have been very few.
Ben also has 200 acres in soybeans and field corn, a more traditional commodity crop sold on the open market. But all the sweet corn and vegetables are sold directly to customers, either at the farm store on-site or at the farm stand at Glenn’s Army Navy in Grand Rapids. At the beginning, Ben sold from a truck, but eventually that couldn’t handle the volume. They like working with local businesses to sell their products and folks can find their frozen sweet corn and peas at S&S Meats in Grand Rapids year-round. The lines are long at the stand as folks who’ve tasted their sweet corn want more. Ben wants to “do things right” on the farm, he says. The only crop that is sprayed is corn, to prevent worms. None of the vegetables or fruits are sprayed.
Ben is a full-time farmer, but, as with most farm families, Tammy has an off-farm job as an accountant. She can take enough time off to staff the farmstand during the heaviest harvest season. Early in the year, strawberries are abundant at the on-site farm store just a few miles south of Grand Rapids on LaPlant Road. Now peas have been added. The larger farm stand in Grand Rapids opens about July 20 and they pick and transport truckloads to the stand each day. This is about as fresh as it gets.
I ask about “staffing” as I can see that the weeded rows of crops must take hundreds of hours of care. They have 5-6 helpers at peak season. But Tammy and Ben devote more than full time to this endeavor. It was all sweet corn at first, then came tomatoes, onions, potatoes, cabbage, green beans, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, squash, peas, kohlrabi, and strawberries entered there somewhere along the line.
strawberries on raised mound plastic
This is one of the most week-free, orderly farms that I’ve visited over the years of writing this column (this is the 93rd story!). As far as the eye can see, neat rows of beautiful, healthy crops stretch to the horizon. The plastic helps to prevent weeds and drip irrigation keeps the foliage clean and disease-free. Baskets of colorful flowers hang on each fencepost on the way into the farm from LaPlant Road. And Ben’s mother grows gladiolas, which are glorious as you enter. They can sell her glads at the stand in town, too. The farm also grows peppers for Steve’s Pepper Sauce in Grand Rapids.
Ben takes pride in offering fresh produce at reasonable prices. Someone (I assume Tammy) maintains a website (http://www.claytonsproduce.com/) as well as a Facebook page (with 4.7 thousand followers!) and an Instagram feed. Believe me, that takes lots of effort! Their motto is “Clayton’s Produce - because anything less just isn’t fresh!” I headed home with a carton of freshly shelled peas and nearly finished them before I got home—they were delicious. So check out the store on the farm at 31353 LaPlant Road, Grand Rapids, or the produce stand at Glenn’s Army Navy at 701 NW 4th St, Grand Rapids, open daily 9-6 beginning around July 20. Every dollar you spend on local food stays in our communities and multiplies. So why not buy local?