Fanwit. Saturday, Afst 6,1983
Can’t compete with big business
BY DONNA McCONAUGHEY
PUNXSUTAWNEY A poultry
farmer turned produce farmer?
Located in Western Pennsylvania
where they worry about frost as
early as August 25 and as late as
Memorial Day?
Despite these unusual conditions
(or perhaps because of the
challenge they present), Elbel’s
Produce Farm has developed over
the years into a successful family
farm operation.
Dorothy and Glenn Elbel were
poultry farmers for 24 years and
had built their business up to 22,000
layers. They retailed most of their
eggs to local supermarkets and
packaged and sold all of their eggs
Glenn Elbel looks over some of his crops. He is standing in a cam jupe field. A nev . . . . .... .. .. .
planted strawberry field is on the left and sweet corn fields are found on the right. Newly sweet berries. These are planted on a very steep hillside that
renovated strawberry fields can be seen in the background, all planted on hillsides. nno u or many other crops.
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Poultry farm family beats the odds and
under their own farm name.
Why did they quit the poultry
business when they were doing so
well?
“We couldn’t compete with big
business. We were only a family
farm,” says Glenn. A local com
pany (from whom the Elbel’s
bought their feed) came to town
and offered their retail customers
eggs at a lower price. “We tried to
compete with them for three
years,” says Glenn. “Finally we
gave up.”
There was also a fire on the farm
which destroyed one of , the two
chicken housing facilities Elbel
owned near the same time. That
was the final blow that forced the
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decision to leave the poultry
business behind.
However, Glenn was not about to
give up farming. A few years
earlier Dorothy decided she
“wouldn’t mind having a few
strawberries around.” Glenn’s
brother bad a small patch a few
miles away and was able to market
all of the strawberries his family
didn’t use.
The “few strawberries” they
started with were 200 plants for
Glenn and Dorothy and 200 plants
for their oldest daughter Margie
who decided they would be a good
first 4-H project. Eventually Dad
bought the young 4-H’ers share and
the spark of a new fanning venture
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was started. Every "'year the
Elbel’s doubled the number of
plans until they reached the
current 20 acres of strawberries.
Their strawberries are marketed
entirely as “pick-your-own”.
Elbel’s Produce Farm is one of
very few such operations in
Western Pennsylvania. There are
several people who market extra
produce from their gardens, but
Glenn and Dorothy’s entire farm
income comes from the produce
they raise.
Customer satisfaction certainly
is evidenced in the fact that they
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have customers who drive more
than 100 miles every - year for
“pick-your-own” strawberries.
The nearest total produce farm the
Elbel’s are aware of is in Clarion
county.
The Elbel family can not make
their entire living from
strawberries and as a result have
become more and more diversified
over the years. They currently
raise 26 different products ranging
from several types of berries to
eggplant. (This does not take into
account the various varieties of a
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available.)
Dorothy says, “It’s
we have everything I
carrots, and beets
Dorothy didn’t reall;
many different kind;
they offer until a re]
her to name them all.
Sweet corn was ak
earliest items for sale
farm. The first field
small one and corn wa
the farm in a small
they also marketed c
from the poultry ope
presently plant 25 ac
com.
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