What's growin' on

Sweet corn, cherries and other local produce hitting farm markets this week. But increased demand and fuel costs might mean higher prices for you.

Lancaster New Era

Published: Jun 24, 2008
10:27 EST

Lancaster

By RYAN ROBINSON, Staff

Close your eyes and imagine butter melting over an ear of local sweet corn, or water running over a clump of sweet cherries just picked from a tree.

Now, go get some.

The two summer favorites and some other locally-grown produce are of high quality and the first bucketfuls and bunches of the season are hitting farm markets.

Just take a few extra bucks with you, because high demand and increasing costs to grow the crops are pushing up prices a bit.

Fuel to run tractors and irrigation systems, fertilizer, seed — even the plastic farmers put over the plants to get them off to an early start — have all gone up in price.

"Our costs have escalated tremendously," said Clark Stauffer, of Indian Run Farm Produce along Stevens Road in Ephrata. "A good-quality product will cost consumers more if they want the guy to stay in business."

Last year, Stauffer charged $4 per dozen for sweet corn. This year's price will likely be a little higher when it goes on sale early next week, he said.

Manager Phyllis Shenk said Cherry Hill Orchards Outlet along Route 741 in New Danville is charging a little more for its more than 30 varieties of sweet cherries this year.

Pick-your-own cherries have gone from $2 to $2.50 per pound if you buy less than 10 pounds. Ready-picked cherries are $4.50 per pound, same as last year.

Shenk said this year's cherries are well worth it.

"They are hanging full. It's a bumper crop," she said. "There are not many years like this."

The very first cherries were picked a week ago. Now, they are filling the orchard's 10,000 cherry trees, she said.

The mild winter meant trees were not severely injured, but the most important factor for the cherry crop was two weeks of good weather in late April.

"We got good pollination," Shenk said. "It wasn't cold, wet or rainy. The bees did their job."

Growers say the sweet corn has also done well.

"So far, it looks great," said Jim Schopf, of Schopf Brothers Farm Market, 3494 Marietta Ave. "We've had one of the best spring growing seasons, with good rains spaced out nicely."

Schopf said he will likely start selling the first corn of the season this Saturday, for $3.99 a dozen, the same as last year.

But he said if the market value dictates, the price could rise above $4 a dozen at some point.

Schopf Brothers also sells produce from a roadside stand at 1900 State Road in East Petersburg.

The first corn of the year at Funk's Farm Market and Garden Center in Millersville went on sale Monday.

Fred Funk is selling five ears for $2.99. He expects to have longer ears available for $4.99 a dozen for around the Fourth of July, and he expects that price to fall as supply increases.

Dennis Hess said he usually sells sweet corn from his Clay Road stand in Lititz for $4.50 a dozen, but that price could rise this year with the market.

Jim Erb started selling "Spring Snow" sweet corn at the Brook Lawn Farm Market along Route 501 in Manheim Township Monday, for 50 cents an ear. He said his "Frosty" corn will be ready to pick later this week.

How much he'll have to irrigate the corn will determine what the per-dozen price will be when more corn comes in, he said. If a good crop is combined with plenty of rainfall, the price will be similar to the last few years.

Steve Groff of Holtwood is also "hoping for rain."

Some farms in the county have gotten ample rainfall, he said, but storms have missed many others.

"Thunderstorms don't cut it," Groff said Monday. "We're dry."

He started irrigating his sweet corn and tomatoes last week, which costs him $250 or $300 a day.

Groff expects most produce to cost about 10 percent more this year due to higher demand and input costs.

"Demand for locally-grown (produce) is huge," he said.

Input costs could rise again next year; Groff said the price of seed will double because farmers in Idaho and Oregon who grow crops for their seed are instead growing field corn, soybeans and wheat because of those commodities' higher prices.

The Leola Produce Auction sold its first sweet corn Monday.

Manager Mike Snyder said 80 dozen ears sold for $3.75 a dozen. Today, the price rose above $4 and some sweet corn sold for as much as $5.80 a dozen.

He said the local tomato market is starting out really strong as some restaurants and grocery stores have canceled regular shipments from out-of-state sources due to the salmonella outbreak.

Monday's tomatoes sold for $40 to $50 for a 25-pound box. Other years, they would sell for about $30, Snyder said.

Farmer Jeff Stoltzfus, an adult agriculture instructor for the Eastern Lancaster County School District, said a hail storm two weeks ago in the New Holland area "hammered" the local sweet onion crop, punching holes in leaves that could cause rotting.

Tobacco, tomatoes and peppers weathered the storm much better, he said.

Stoltzfus doesn't believe farmers will get much more for their produce this year.

The high price of field corn will cause the price of beef to jump by the last quarter of the year, however, he warned. He said some farmers have chosen to not raise as many beef cows because they can make as much or more money by selling the corn instead of feeding it to livestock.


Staff writer Ryan Robinson can be reached at rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032.