FarmShare's Superstar Farmers in Today's PD

Northeast Ohio's 'superstar farmers' honored by Local Food Cleveland

Published: Wednesday, February 09, 2011, 7:06 AM  
By Debbi Snook, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Peter McDermott, head of the networking group Local Food Cleveland, didn't need the plunging graph behind him to explain the importance of new farmers.

From 1910 to now, his census figures showed, people who grow our food dropped from 32 percent of the population to 2 percent.

"We should hold farmers in as high regard as we do celebrity chefs," he told a crowd of more than 200 at Monday's monthly meeting at Great Lakes Brewing Co., the second annual "superstar farmers" night. "We're here to honor the heroes of the local food economy."

Not all of the handful of honorees were "new." Larry Luschek of Infinite Garden Farm in Litchfield in Medina County started organic farming in 1988. His business is still growing, with sales through an Oberlin food co-op, the subscription-basedFarmShare Ohio and the Countryside Conservancy market in Peninsula.

Luschek retired from pipe fitting in 2004, but the benefits were not enough to live on. Farm sales make up the slack, but only after years of investment.

"Start small," he told the crowd. He urged those attending to look for grants and go to farming workshops.

Phil and Mindy Bartholomae took to farming from environmental consulting when they purchased a 23-acre farm in Homeworth in Columbiana County. In January, greens grown under new hoop houses at their Breezy Hill Farm gave them their highest single farmers-market sales day.

"We want people to see what can be achieved," said Mindy. They benefit from owning the mineral rights on their farm, which provides them with free natural gas.

Most of the speakers had one foot on the farm and one off.  Chuck Murray of Wakeman owns an advertising agency.

Farming gives them myriad benefits. Tod Mogren, a grass-fed-beef farmer from Millgate Farm in Jefferson in Ashtabula County, talked about the obesity of a friend and the steps he's been able to take to see him eat -- and understand -- healthy food.

Shawn Belt, who heads Green Corps for the Cleveland Botanical Garden, talked about the growth of the high school urban farming program to 80 students in six gardens each year.

And Alan Halko, who has one of the newer revitalized farms in the Cuyahoga Valley, said he recently quit his full-time job to work Spring Hill Farm in Brecksville. It's a risk, he said, but he wants the farm to succeed until he dies -- "like in 'The Godfather' " -- by keeling over in the tomato patch.