If he worked in any other business, Mike Phelan, 61, might concede that his salad days are well behind him. But almost 10 years ago, he and his brother, Tim, made a decision that extended their salad days well past their prime.
After college, the brothers worked at companies in the Des Moines area, but returned home to help their parents plant and harvest 800 acres of corn and soybeans near Berkley, Iowa. When their parents passed away, they continued to grow row crops near Beaver Creek in the unincorporated town of Berkley, population 23. But they added a new business to their Century Farm with the launch of Beaver Creek Produce in April, 2014.
"We had a big debate about whether to put Perry or Berkley in the address label on our products," Mike says. "I was told that nobody knew where Berkley was, and I said, "That's just it. They'll be curious, and they'll find out."
Unlike many others, I know how to find Berkley. When I married my husband, Stan, he was renting his uncle's farm just east of Beaver Creek, near Berkley. Over the years, I sometimes made the 40-mile round trip to take lunch to the field on a Saturday, or provide a ride back home if he left his equipment there overnight. I didn't know the Phelan brothers at that time, but I knew one of their sisters, who is married to our farm neighbor.
But I was surprised to learn that the Phelans had built a 12,500-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse in rural southwestern Boone County. Growing crops without soil, especially uncommon crops like lettuce and basil, was a novel concept in black dirt Iowa.
But the seeds for alternative crops may have been planted a generation ago in the depths of the farm crisis. I was writing for Successful Farming in December 1986 when my editor Rich Krumme organized an unconventional conference called ADAPT100, (short for Ag Diversification Adds Profit Today).
The aim of the conference was to encourage conventional crop and livestock farmers to expand their definition of farming to nontraditional crops and animals, and to create their own economic lifeline. More than 6,000 farmers from 42 states streamed into Des Moines to explore their alternatives for diversification. One hundred workshops featured a CliffsNotes on alternative enterprises, from alligators to zucchinis.
During the conference, our specialty crop experts repeatedly advised farmers, "Find your market first." Adapt 2 followed in 1987 in Kansas City. In those pre-Internet days, when most rural areas were far from urban centers, direct marketing in agriculture often was simply word-of-mouth. I'm not sure what percentage of those early businesses were successful. But in the early 1990s, I wrote about many farm bed & breakfast businesses, farmers' markets, and Christmas tree farms. The 1998 National Commission on Small Farms report encouraged farmers to pursue alternate markets and to lean into community supported agriculture. The trend gained traction in the 2000s.
Fast forward to 2014, and Mike and Tim Phelan found that the timing was ideal. "There was a locally grown food movement, and an interest in knowing where your food comes from," Mike says. "It seemed a natural fit."
Mike's transition from his fulltime job as a salesman for Kraft Foods in Des Moines also seemed natural. "I went from selling the dressing to selling the salad," he says. He and his family moved back to the family farm.
Their flagship product is Butterhead. "Everybody in Iowa in a certain generation grew up eating iceberg lettuce," he says. "It required a different mindset to try Butterhead. At one time, I thought about selling T-shirts with the message, 'Get Your Head out of the Ice Age.' "
"In the beginning we had to try to sell products that we weren't even producing yet," he says. But today, over 30 Hy-Vee stores sell Beaver Creek Produce, including Des Moines, Indianola, Perry, Ft. Dodge, Jefferson, Webster City, Humboldt, and Ames. They harvest Butterhead with the roots on, and packed in a transparent clamshell package, with the label, "Fresh from Berkley, Iowa." "It stays fresh in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks," Mike says. "Stores love it." They sell to the Filling Station in Ames, where the lettuce is used in wraps and sandwiches, and they deliver basil to the Hotel Pattee in Perry.
Step inside the greenhouse, and you'll see the pl ants look like they're sprouting from seamless gutters. Small, flexible tubes supply a steady, automated trickle of nutrients combined with water that washes over their roots. Everything is climate-controlled for temperature and humidity, including fans and sunshades in the ceiling. The produce includes a spring mix and Romaine lettuce, as well as potted herbs. It's packaged on site, and delivered to stores by Phelan and a part-time employee in two climate-controlled vans with the license plates, LETTUCE and BASIL.
Re-investing in the Community
The number of farmers' markets grew to 8,144 in 2013 from 1,755 in 1994. Farmers' markets are a lot of work, and so are subscription farms, and Pick Your owns. They require a different skill set than conventional agriculture: marketing, retailing, promotion, and customer service.
By 2015, the USDA's Economic Research Service found that in the local food sector, 39% of farmers were selling to intermediate markets, 34% direct to consumer, and 27% to retailers. The Phelans joined the Iowa Food Co-op-about 5 years ago. Other producers have formed partnerships to market their products at local restaurants, schools, and nursing homes.
Operations like Beaver Creek Produce (beavercreekproduce.com) add a richness and diversity to the rural landscape, and bring farm fresh food closer to us. Beyond this, they also create more value and earn profits that stay here to be reinvested in the local community.
Picket Fence Creamery, just off Highway 141, near Woodward, is another great local business. It pasteurizes and bottles its own milk on site. The on -farm store sells ice cream and many other locally sourced products; its ice cream also is marketed through Hy-Vee stores. (https://pickettfencecreamery.net)
I love Red Granite Farm (https://redgranitefarm.com) in northeastern Boone County. It has a great garden center, as well as three acres of garden crops and a 30' x 96' garden high tunnel. You can buy produce at the farm, order online, or visit them at the Ames Farmers Market. Its Abundance Share program, a monthly box of fruits and vegetables, already is sold out for 2023.
ChopLocal, formed in 2020, connects small Iowa meat producers (beef, pork, turkey, and chicken) with consumers online. The product is delivered to your door. https://choplocal.com
Covid-19 intensified the interest in local food sources. We live only a few miles from Rinehart's Family Farm, located on a 2-lane blacktop. For 25 years, they trucked their produce 60 miles one way to the Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market. When it shut down during the pandemic, they began converting their farm into a Saturday morning drive-through farmer's market. In addition to their asparagus, sweet corn, tomatoes, and other produce, and you'll find Beaver Creek Produce there, too. They also open their market to other local families who sell baked goods, honey, beef--and more. It's wildly popular! Check it out on Facebook!
In this era of mega food processors, and global distribution networks, farmers who expand conventional crop acres to grow more bushels generate only incremental income. In 2021, the farmers' share of the food dollar spent on food at home and away from home was pegged at 7.4%.
Not all farmers can launch a successful alternative ag enterprise. But when they do, the benefits to the local community spill over to create a stable and productive place to raise a family, support good schools, and achieve a quality of life that attracts and retains the next generation.
I’m delighted to be part of this group!
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Doug Burns:Â The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
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Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle:Â A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha:Â Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford:Â Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Beth Hoffman:Â In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney:Â View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer:Â Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard:Â Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Tar Macias:Â Hola Iowa, Iowa
Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton:Â My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger:Â Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politic Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis:Â Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts:Â Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk:Â Talking Good, Des Moines
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Cheryl- Thanks for this positive and upbeat article. We have several southwest Iowa neighbors raising lettuce this way, along with several shipping organic eggs to CA.
Cheryl— Very interesting and timely piece. And for great tasting grass-fed Iowa beef check out Writers Collaborative member Beth Hoffman’s offering. Here’s a link: https://www.iowa-farm.com/products-and-process