New-generation farmers sprouting

JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Family farmers have a tough row to hoe in this age of multi-billion-dollar corporations, international marketing campaigns and farms spanning 10,000-acre fields.

Many small-scale farmers wither in the face of such competition - a few, however, have found ways to survive. These farmers use innovative marketing techniques, grow specialty crops and offer unusual services.

Several of these farmers work fields and ranches in the Mat-Su. They grow exotic vegetables and hybrid flowers. They harvest honey and fresh berries. Others raise elk, buffalo, alpaca and other seemingly bizarre livestock and game birds.

Farming for more than money

"I see a lot of people selling eggs and oddball things like pigmy goats and cashmere goats and all sorts of game birds," said Karen Olson, executive director of the Alaska Farm Bureau, Mat-Su Chapter.

Olson raises free-range, grass-fed Scottish Highlander cows near Wasilla. Each fall, she sells a dozen or so whole cows to individual customers.

"People are doing this kind of thing on a smaller scale. They want to give their kids a taste of honest work or they just like it themselves," Olson said Wednesday, as she stood near one of her weather-worn barns on her parents' original homestead.

A few Valley farmers have managed to expand family farms into larger commercial operations that now compete with Outside corporations in the local grocery stores. These large 400- to 500-acre farms, however, account for only a precious few of the roughly 900 Alaskan farmers.

"The definition of farms is changing," said Larry DeVilbiss, state director of the Division of Agriculture. "We have a new generation of farmers now and they're selling stuff at farmers markets. Some are buying subdivision lots and turning them into small carrot fields or putting up fences to raise livestock."

DeVilbiss said people farm for a variety of reasons and economics is not always number one.

"Some families just want to home school their kids and grow food for their families," he said.

Others, like Palmer farmers River and Sarah Bean, combine a love for farming with a viable business. Long before his farming career, River was a schoolteacher and government employee. Seventeen years ago, he and his wife decided to switch gears and work the land.

In 1988, they founded Arctic Organic, a 5-acre farm that now grows enough food for 150 customers. The customers sign up for a share of the annual harvest and, throughout the year, the Beans divide crops equally to deliver fresh produce to each subscriber.

With approximately 70 different crops, including all the standard vegetables, the Beans give their customers an alternative to shopping at grocery stores.

"We only do retail, no wholesale," River said. "If we did wholesale we would have to be really large. Instead, we are really diversified. We sell apple trees and beans for pollination and we grow raspberries."

They also grow Asian greens, sweet corn, basil, peppers and other less-traditional crops.

Like many new-generation farmers, the Beans started off part time, making the bulk of their money through off-farm careers. According to Olson, more and more farmers nationwide follow that trend, making ends meet through some sort of non-farm income.

In 1997, River was able to quit his teaching job and switch to full-time farming.

Alaska Grown catching on

Local marketing campaigns such as Alaska Grown have helped the smaller operators. Bean is the president of Anchorage Farmers Market, a group of 20 to 25 farmers, mostly from the Mat-Su, who sell in Anchorage each Saturday throughout the summer.

DeVilbiss predicts these types of markets and smaller family farms will continue to increase. He said those operations work hand in hand with Alaska's commercial farmers.

"The guys in the farmers market increase the awareness of local products because they have one-on-one contact with people and educate them on local products," he said.

DeVilbiss predicted that many smaller farms would likely grow as the demand for Alaska-grown produce increases.

"I would expect 20 or 30 years from now that those farms would move up to a commercial scale," he said.

River Bean is not so sure.

"There seems to be a lot of interest in family-scale farms but good farmland is very expensive and it's hard to get into financially," he said, adding that it's not impossible. "As far as the future goes, we're not in danger. We always have a waiting list."

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.