Sherrods leave lasting farming legacy

PALMER — Colony Days is a fitting time to recall the early agriculturalists who came to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley in 1935. But, it would be more fitting if we remembered them whenever we eat local produce.

In fact, it may be Max Sherrod as much as anyone who is responsible for planting the early seeds of agriculture here.

Sherrod grew up on a farm in Paw Paw, Mich. and after graduating high school, attended nursing school in Battle Creek, Mich. He and his wife, Dorothy, (also a nurse) sailed on the North Star with their 3-year-old daughter, Janet, to Alaska with the Colonists to act as nurses to children with mumps and measles.

After helping to build the first Palmer hospital, Sherrod worked there as a nurse until 1938.

The Sherrods began farming in 1940, and, indirectly, Valley residents have been eating the Sherrods’ vegetables ever since. While Max was alive, his produce could be purchased at a farmers market he started on the side of the Glenn Highway.

Sherrod’s son-in-law, Wendel Lewis, also was a farmer, and now his grandson Brad Lewis carries on the tradition for a third generation. The Lewis family was honored in 2008 as the Alaska Farm Family of the Year.

Stamp of approval

Of even greater significance perhaps is Sherrod’s relationship with Ben VanderWeele. VanderWeele Farms is one of the main commercial providers of Alaska Grown carrots, potatoes and other vegetables to grocery stores around the state.

In 1967, however, when VanderWeele was just a 25-year-old man from the Netherlands, he and his wife Suus, decided to immigrate to Alaska.

VanderWeele attended agricultural college in the Netherlands, where farmland was hard to come by. A five-year sponsor was required in order for VanderWeele to immigrate, and Max and Dorothy, who had previously met them in their home country, agreed to help.

“We must have gotten the stamp of approval because the next thing I knew they were pleading our case, saying they wanted a young whippersnapper to help out at the farm,” VanderWeele said.

When the VanderWeeles arrived, Ben began working at the Sherrod farm in the day, while experimenting with his own lettuce crop in the evenings. The change in climate and soil type from the Netherlands to Alaska proved to be challenging for VanderWeele.

“I made my share of mistakes,” he said. “Max used to come running out to the fields, waving his arms and shouting, ‘What are you doing?’”

Eventually, VanderWeele left the Sherrods, taking his hands-on education with him and starting his own farm.

The VanderWeele family has three children who still work on the farm, too. But they don’t really work for VanderWeele, he said. “Work for me? They’re bossing me around every day!”

VanderWeele’s son-in-law Arthur Keyes is also a Valley farmer and runs Glacier Valley Farm and the South Anchorage and Eagle River farmers markets.

In addition to his farming legacy, Sherrod ushered in the era of giant vegetables in the Valley. In 1941, when Col. Otto Ohlson, manager of the Alaska Railroad, offered a $25 prize for the largest cabbage grown in the Valley, Sherrod won the competition with a 23-pound cabbage. From that time on, Sherrod competed fiercely in the annual giant cabbage contests against his Colonist rival, Raymond Rebarchek.

Sherrod was the first person in the world to grow a cabbage more than 50 pounds when he grew a cabbage in 1957 that tipped the scales at 61 pounds. Alaska Airlines honored Sherrod and featured him in its advertisements in 1975 after he grew a 72-pound cabbage.

He’s left an indelible legacy on the Alaska State Fair where the “Max Sherrod Junior Cabbage Grower’s Award” is in its 17th official year.

The world record for green cabbage is presently 127 pounds and is held by Steve Hubacek of Wasilla.

The Valley’s giant cabbage growers also have Sherrod to thank for discovering the O-S Cross, the standard cabbage variety used to grow many of the giants in the Mat-Su Valley.

Rachel Kenley Fry is a Division of Agriculture intern who writes for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman as part of her internship. She is 2009 Palmer High School graduate.