A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 5, 2003
REPORTERS TO THE
RESCUE
Or, How The News
Media Can Help
Your Marketing
In 1999, a newspaper story
gave our business a boost. It was
another drought year. By late
July it was so dry that the head
line in the Allentown Morning
Call read “Barren fields, broken
dreams.” Crop losses in Lehigh
County were already estimated at
75 percent. Stunted com in a
photo looked like pineapple.
“Farmers seeking emergency
assistance,” another headline
said. “Most counties in the region
face huge losses in com and other
crops because of drought.”
Consumers took the dire news
to heart. “Where have all the cus
tomers gone?” asked a Morning
Call headline on Aug. 18. “Farm
ers’ roadside stands are lined
with fruits and vegetables, but
shoppers are in short supply.”
The author was Food Editor
Diane Stoneback. My wife, Mela
nie, knew Diane from when Mel
anie was a reporter at the Call a
few years earlier. So I didn’t feel
too awkward calling Diane to
compliment her on her article
and to suggest another one.
“You know, Diane, there is
some good news in farming this
summer, despite the drought,” I
said. Then I explained our week
ly vegetable subscription service.
Customers pay in advance
months before the start of the
season for 20 weeks of veggies.
Cornell’s Small Farm Program
Sponsoring Quarterly Magazine
ITHACA, N.Y. Cornell’s
Small Farm Program has begun
preparation of the premier issue
of its new magazine, the Small
Farms Quarterly (SFQ) for distri
bution at Empire Farm Days.
According to Joanna Green of
the program’s staff: “SFQ is a
celebration of what farming is all
about. And farming is about a lot
of different things to a lot of dif
ferent people. Whether your in
terest is in specialized produc
tion, diversification, maximizing
profits, or family values wheth
er your viewpoint is one of a pro
ducer, a homemaker, a parent, a
Pre-Conditioned Calf
Sale Meeting Set
TOWANDA (Bradford Co.)
Middleburg Auction and Penn
State Extension are sponsoring a
meeting Monday, July 7 at 7 p.m.
to discuss the Livestock Market
ing Association Vaccinated and
Certified Calves (LMA-VACC)
pre-conditioned calf program.
The meeting will take place at
Penn State’s Bradford County
Extension Office in Towanda.
The pre-conditioned calf sale is
scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 8 at
1 p.m. at the Middleburg Auction
in Snyder County. It is open to
producers who agree to follow
the pre-conditioning protocol
Twilight Tomato Meeting Set
HOLTWOOD (Lancaster Co.)
A twilight meeting at Steve
Groffs Cedar Meadow Farm in
Holtwood is scheduled for
Wednesday, July 9 at 6 p.m.
I,;t*l * 111CiI JI Umf mil irmmmmmii*
George DeVault
That provides operating cash, so
that the farmers don’t have to go
to the bank for a loan. The farm
ers, in turn, keep planting a little
of a lot of different crops (141
different varieties of 40 different
vegetables that year), and drip ir
rigate everything. That provides
a steady supply of greens, root
crops, herbs, berries, cut flowers
and staples like carrots and to
matoes.
“And our customers are amaz
ing,” I told her. “When they
come out to the farm to pick up
their weekly bags, they ask, al
most with tears in their eyes, ‘Are
you guys OK in this weather? Do
you want to just keep the money,
forget about the veggies, and try
again next year?”’
Diane was intrigued. She had
heard about vegetable subscrip-
grandparent, or a young person
we think you’ll find inspira
tion, encouragement and valu
able information in this and fu
ture issues of Small Farm
Quarterly.”
The Quarterly is sponsored by
Cornell’s Small Farms Program
and PRO-DAIRY/CCE NWNY
Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops
Program.
For more information on the
program or the magazine, con
tact Joanna Green at Cornell’s
Small Farms Program, (607)
255-0946, or e-mail
jgl6@comell.edu.
with required vaccinations and
boosters, parasite control, and
weaning at least 30 days ahead of
the sale.
Pre-conditioned calves often
sell at a premium because of
lower rates of morbidity and
mortality after being placed in a
feedlot.
For more information on the
LMA-VACC pre-conditioning
program or the July 7 meeting,
call Dave Hartman, Penn State
extension agent at (570) 784-6660
or Bill Weist at the Middleburg
Auction at (570) 784-6660.
Visitors will have a chance to
see Groffs system of growing to
matoes under Haygrove tunnels.
For more information, call
877-HAYGROVE.
tion services before, and said she
meant to write about one some
time. What really caught her in
terest, I think, was the good news
angle of the story.
Early the the next week she
came out to the farm with a pho
tographer for a few hours. We
showed her all around the green
houses and fields, explained our
irrigation system and gave her
copies of our newsletter.
Then she asked if she could in
terview some of our customers.
Sure, why not? We gave her the
phone numbers of half a dozen
people from around the area.
Here is a sampling of what they
told Diane:
“Before we completely un
packed our first bag of produce,
we ate every one of the raw sugar
snap peas it contained,” said
Sharon Sanders, a veteran food
writer and cookbook author . “I
know how food should taste be
cause I grew up on a farm in west
central Pennsylvania . I’ve also
lived in Italy, where luscious veg
etables seem even more impor
tant than pasta.
“We’ve been amazed at the
great foods we’ve gotten from our
subscription in such a rotten
year. The sweet com was re
markably sweet and tender and
full of milk.
“We look forward to the week
ly newsletter and recipes from
How To Make And Keep
Good Media Relations
George DeVault
There is a very fine line be
tween a strictly commercial mes
sage and a public interest article.
Knowing and respecting
that line means the difference be
tween getting a lot of good, free
publicity or being told, “Buy an
ad, buddy!” Case in point is the
article “Jewels in the field” that
ran June 28 in the Allentown
Morning Call. “Despite extreme
weather, strawberries are still
good for picking. But not for
much longer,” warned the sub
head.
Notice the difference? Weather
for strawberries has been lousy
this spring, yet Lehigh County
strawberry growers still have lots
of ripe berries to be picked.
That’s the good news. Bad news
is the berries won’t be around
much longer. Either way, it’s
news.
Field Day
ROCKSPRING (Centre Co.)
Growers are always looking for
new ideas in the marketplace,
whether it is a different crop mix
or a way to draw the consumer to
the farm.
In order to expose central
Pennsylvania growers to some
new ideas, a field day is sched
uled at the Penn State Horticul
ture Research Farm at Rock
spring on July 23 at 5 p.m.
One new crop idea to look at is
a sweet Spanish onions. In addi
tion to production aspects of
onion production, the field day
will also look at several sweet
Spanish onion varieties.
Evaluation will also be done on
the variety Candy and how well
this performs as greenhouse
grown tray plants, field grown
bare root transplants, and sets.
There is a cooperative effort be
tween Penn State University,
Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers
Association, and the Pennsylva
nia Department of Agriculture in
creating a name brand onion for
Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Simply
Sweet® Onion is a branded onion.
licensed through the Pennsylva-
»mifon»rh»mrm»rriil*
the farm as much as the produce.
My husband says it makes him
appreciate what has gone into the
tomato he is eating. It’s a connec
tion we have to real people and a
real place something that’s not
often found today.”
“I had never seen a blooming
flower on sage, used garlic greens
or tried preparing edamame (edi
ble soybeans still in their ftizzy
pods) from scratch,” said Regina
Ragone, food editor of Rodale's
Prevention magazine. She had
also been test kitchen director for
Ladies Home Journal and food
editor for Weight Watchers mag
azine. Each Thursday, she
stopped at the farm to pick up
her vegetables before commuting
to her apartment in Brooklyn.
“I love going to the farm. See
ing George and Melanie at work
is like looking at a living Norman
Rockwell (painting). The day
they were packing heirloom to
matoes in all colors and sizes, the
tomatoes looked like jewels. See
ing food in that pristine condition
and where it is grown excites
me.”
“Sign up for succulence,” was
the headline on Diane’s story in
the Sept. 1 Morning Call. “Sub
scribe to good health with food
from the farm.”
That morning, our telephone
started ringing non-stop. People
from all over the Lehigh Valley
wanted to sign up for succulence.
Whenever you have something
unusual happening on your farm,
local newspaper and radio and
TV reporters want to hear about
it. The catch is they usually won’t
know about it unless you tell
them. That means picking up the
telephone or sending a quick e
mail message.
Who do you contact? Ask for
the farm reporter first. If no one
is assigned to the farm beat, try
the the food editor or a general
assignment reporter. Keep an eye
or an ear out for whoever does
the most and the best farm sto
ries.
Don’t forget the photo depart
ment. Newspaper and TV pho
tographers are always looking for
colorful feature photo opportuni
ties. Changing seasons on the
farm present limitless possibili
ties, from the birth of the first
or New Mar
nia Vegetable Growers Associa
tion. It has been marketed locally
as a branded onion in Washing
ton County, Harrisburg, and
Philadelphia retail stores. The
onion is produced in Pennsylva
nia under a set of production and
grading standards that result in a
very high quality, large, sweet,
non-pungent onion. It is market
ed in August and September,
during a period of low competi
tion from other branded sweet
onions grown in other states or
other countries. Several acres
were grown in southwestern
Pennsylvania and the demand
for these Pennsylvania onions
was greater than the supply.
Is the demand great enough
for additional growers? Can local
central Pennsylvania growers
meet this demand? Come on out
to the field day and see if there is
an opportunity for you.
High tunnels will be high
lighted after the sweet Spanish
onion trial. According to Penn
State’s Center for Plasticulture,
high tunnels encompass a crop
growing system that fits some
where between row covers and
greenhouses. High tunnels are
relatively inexpensive permitting
There was just one problem.
They couldn’t subscribe then. We
were sold out. The season was al
most over. We had only planted
enough for the people who signed
up last spring.
“But we’d be happy to add you
to our waiting list for next year,”
we told callers.
"Yes! Please put me on the
list,” everyone said.
We did. And early the next
year when our annual subscrip
tion flier went into the mail, the
people from the waiting list were
among the very first to send us
checks. They wanted to make
sure they didn’t miss out this
time around.
One thing more and more peo
ple want these days is farm-fresh
food. That’s why Diane’s story is
still generating sales for us, near
ly four years after it appeared in
print.
Editor’s Note: With his wife
and 25-year-old son, George
DeVault raises certified organ
ic vegetables near Emmaus. He
is a Food and Society Policy
Fellow with the Institute for
Agriculture and Trade Policy
in a program funded by the
Kellogg Foundation. The De-
Vaults’ articles on diversifica
tion, high-value crops, green
house growing, and cut flowers
are available on the Rodale In
stitute’s new Website,
www. newfarm. org.
spring lambs, a field of ripe
orange pumpkins, or a one-horse
open sleigh cutting through new
fallen snow.
For less timely items on daily
newspapers, contact the editor in
charge of the editorials. Letters to
the editor should be simple and
civil. Limit yourself to just three
concise paragraphs and your
chances of getting published will
improve tremendously. For long
er, more complex subjects consid
er an op/ed piece that usually
runs opposite the regular editori
als in dailies. Just be sure to
check out the newspaper’s guide
lines for style and length first.
Once reporters and editors get
to know you, chances are they
will call you the next time they
need a comment on the weather,
progress of crops, or government
farm policy.
eting Ideas
entry into crop production with
limited capital. This system is
particularly appealing to new
entry growers who utilize retail
marketing channels.
High tunnels are not conven
tional greenhouses. But like plas
tic-covered greenhouses, they are
generally quonset-shaped, con
structed of metal bows that are
attached to metal posts which
have been driven into the ground
about two feet deep. They are
covered with one layer of 6-mil
greenhouse-jpade polyethylene,
and are ventilated by manually
rolling up the sides each morning
and rolling them down in early
evening. There is no permanent
heating system although it is ad
visable to have a standby porta
ble propane unit to protect
against unexpected below-freez
ing temperatures. There are no
electrical connections. The only
external connection is a water
supply for trickle irrigation.
The tour will highlight some
crops that can be successfully
grown in this system. For addi
tional information and/or direc
tions, call Tom Butzler at (570)
726-0022. Refreshments will be
provided.