Ohio’s Country Journal15MID-FEBRUARY 2006

CROPSBY MATT REESE

Based on everything from the casualsteakhouses to the formal bistros thatare in no short supply around the state,it seems that Ohioans have a healthyappetite for restaurant dining. Butwhile customers drive by fruitful fieldson their way to the favorite fine diningestablishment, Ohio’s farmers continueto struggle with profitable methods ofmarketing their crops to consumers.The simple solution to this problem, ofcourse, is for farmers to sell their cropsto restaurants. And, for Mike Laughlin,of Licking County, selling to localrestaurants has been profitable andsuccessful, but certainly not simple.

Though he didn’t grow up on afarm, Laughlin had always beenintrigued with food production due toexposure to agriculture through manyof his family members. To scratch thegrowing itch of his green thumb,Laughlin, his wife, Laura, and theirfamily started organically growingtomatoes, peppers and other producein their large backyard garden inClintonville, on the north side ofColumbus. As they honed their craft,they began selling their products atnearby markets, including WorthingtonFarmers Market.

“I just started gardening and thegarden grew. Then we started experi-menting with different ways to growvegetables,” Laughlin said. “We hadnever really thought about selling to arestaurant, but then we wereapproached by a chef interested in buying from us.”

As his business grew, Laughlinmoved his family to a farm north ofJohnstown 12 years ago to expand hisproduction area. Today, Laughlin’s

Northridge OrganicFarm produces anumber of vegetables,including eggplant,squash, potatoes, zuc-chini and peppers, buttheir specialty is heir-loom tomatoes mar-keted through stores,farmers marketsand restaurants.

“We have a rangeof about 200 oldtomato varieties. Wesave our seed and weplant around 45 vari-eties a year. We try togrow things that youwon’t find at yourcorner market,” hesaid. “We really liketomatoes and we’regood at growingthem. The heirloomsare harder to growthan other varietiesbecause they are ten-der and you can get alot of spoilage ifyou’re not careful.”

Flavorful and colorful black tomatovarieties are their most popular, butLaughlin sells about 2,000 to 2,500pounds of all types of tomatoes perweek through the growing season — byfar his biggest seller. The acre-and-a-half of certified organic tomatoes hegrows account for 35% to 40% of histotal business and an even higher per-centage of his sales to seven restaurantsin the Columbus area.

“The things you should sell to arestaurant are the things you’re reallygood at growing,” Laughlin said.

“Chefs only want to buy what you arethe best at. You have to be experiencedwith what you’re growing and comfort-able with producing consistent quality.If you’re selling at farm markets, it’sforgiving. If you run out, you just gohome early. But if that happens with arestaurant, you will no longer havethem as a customer.”

Laughlin maintains the quality ofhis tomatoes, and other crops, with athree-year crop rotation including abuckwheat cover crop, natural fertiliz-ers like manure and seaweed, plastic

and tillage for weed control, anddrip-tape irrigation. The plantsare started in a greenhouse inearly April and transplanted intothe fields at 4 or 5 weeks of agewith a riding plug planter.Laughlin uses pyrethrum and a35% hydrogen peroxide treatmentfor pests and fungicides as need-ed, and a trellis system for main-taining healthy plants.

With healthy plants, Laughlingets happy chefs, which hasallowed him to expand his salesto restaurants through the yearswith word-of-mouth. His reputa-tion helps him get the attentionof any new chefs he approaches.

“I haven’t run into any chefsthat aren’t excited about localfoods,” Laughlin said. “Therestaurants you approach don’tnecessarily have to be buyinglocally already. You just need tocall the chef and schedule anappointment, and then take somesamples to show what you have.

But every chef and every restaurant is alittle different — they’re open differenthours and they have a different focus.You really have to figure out the besttimes, the best ways to contact themand how to deliver to each individual.”

There are benefits to working withchefs, along with a number of challenges.

“Restaurants are fun because the chefsreally get excited about trying new things,”he said. “But you have to communicateand really follow through. If they want 100pounds of tomatoes on Tuesday, you’d bet-ter get them 100 pounds of tomatoes onTuesday, and they’d better be good quality.Chefs know that you’re dealing withnature, but you have to let them knowwhen and what is going to be available. I try to let them know at leasttwo weeks before we will have something.For the most part, as long as the quality isthere and you’re reliable, the chefs will behappy because they can’t get fresh qualitylike this anywhere else.”

After the first successful restaurantsale, growers must continue to provetheir dependability for consistent quali-ty products. Laughlin also tries to gothe extra mile by providing free “extra”crops for restaurant staff members to take home, and takes the time to go and eat dinner at the restaurantswhere his products are served. He alsorefuses to sell anything less than topquality to chefs.

“Toward the end of the season whenthe quality starts to drop off, we willstop selling to restaurants because wedon’t want their last crop of the year to be a bad experience,” he said.

Restaurants can be a good market for Ohio crops

This greenhouse will be full of young plants in a couple of months. After being started in the greenhouse, the plants will be transplanted outin the fields in May.

Along with his crops, Laughlin also raises lamb and seasonal turkey on his farm.continued on page 16

“I’d rather tell somebody, ‘I’m doneand I don’t have anymore,’ than selllower quality tomatoes. There’s a goodbit of PR work that has to go into selling to a restaurant.”

Chefs, as a group, can be a demandingmarket that requires constant attention.

“You have to constantly keep intouch with them and there is a lot morehomework with restaurants,” Laughlinsaid. “You have to be good at market-ing and building up a relationship. Wekeep the chefs up to date with what

we’re doing, and they inform theirstaffs so they can use it as a marketingtool with their restaurant. There is a lotof potential for turnover with chefs or arestaurant going out of business. Mostof the restaurants we sell to are ownedby the chef. If they are part of a chainowned somewhere else, there can be awhole new staff from one year to thenext and you have to start all over.”

Delivery in a timely matter is alsovery important in maintaining a goodworking relationship.

“Most restaurants don’t have a lot of

storage for produce, so we try to han-dle our deliveries three or four days aweek, taking a half-week supply at atime. We’ll load up and hit a half-dozenplaces at a time,” he said. “We also doemergency runs for them if they runout of something.”

Laughlin and his wife work full timein Columbus, so they leave early in themorning to make deliveries beforework after picking and loading the pre-vious night. The couple, their youngestdaughter and a few hired hands do allthe harvesting after normal work hours

during the growing season. Along withproduce, Northridge Organic Farmoffers lamb and turkey to some of theircustomers. The diverse business takes alot of extra time and effort for Laughlinand his family, but offers great benefits.

“This is something I really enjoy, it’saddictive and we get such positivefeedback from our customers. Thatmakes you feel good,” he said. “It is alot of work, but it has added to thequality of our lives. And, it’s a nicething to go to a restaurant and eatthings that you have grown.”

For more information about market-ing to restaurants see the Country Lifestory on page 42 and read more aboutLaughlin’s produce in the March issuethat will feature chef Thomas Smithfrom the Worthington Inn, who buysproducts from Laughlin and severalother farmers.

16 Crops • Ohio’s Country Journal • Mid-February 2006

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Organic tomatoes are the top crop for Laughlin’sNorthridge Organic Farm.

Mike Laughlin has gone from a suburban gardener to asuccessful Licking County producer selling directly tohis customers through restaurants, farm markets andretail stores in nearby Columbus. Laughlin is also currently serving as president for the Ohio EcologicalFood and Farm Association.

From page 15

At the Power Show, held in lateJanuary, we can generally expect sometype of calamitous weather in the form ofabundant snowfall, freezing rain or excep-tionally cold conditions. But this year, atleast one day of the event, temperaturesreached almost 60 degrees, and the suneven made an extended appearancebetween the normally thick January cloudcover. While stuck inside for most of theday at our Power Show booth, the occa-sional glimpse outside left me yearning forthe pleasures of life in the summer.

The warmer weather of the PowerShow, in combination with all the talkabout Ohio fresh food production at theOhio Fruit and Vegetable GrowersCongress held the previous week, reallyput me in the mood for dining on somefresh Ohio produce. In fact, any thoughtsof sunny skies and warm temperaturesare incomplete (in my estimation) with-out the inclusion of the delights associat-ed with the consumption of fresh fruitsand vegetables.

Strawberries, raspberries, fresh greens,tomatoes, snap peas, green beans andsquash fresh from the garden are prettyhard to beat. Unfortunately, those simplesummer treats are still months away, andall I can do is wait until winter and springhave passed. But I’m not alone in my wish-ful thinking. In a growing trend, more con-sumers are interested in buying foods thathave been produced locally.

“There’s a growing appreciation andinterest from the consumer for locallygrown materials,” said Matt Kleinhenz, aresearcher with the Ohio AgriculturalResearch and Development Center(OARDC) and a vegetable-crops specialistwith Ohio State University Extension.“People will seek out these local productsfor different reasons — they want moreselection, they want a sense of knowingwhere their food comes from, or they sim-ply prefer local foods. And that number ofpeople seems to be growing.”

An Ohio survey conducted in 2004 byOhio State’s Department of Human andCommunity Resource Development foundthat 59% of the nearly 2,000 respondentssaid they would be willing to pay at least10% more for foods grown locally. Whilethe customers willing to buy locally are outthere, they do not really have all that manyplaces through mainstream markets to getwhat they’re looking to buy.

“The mainstream food production anddistribution system, with its consolida-tion of food dollars into a shrinking num-ber of corporations, typically offers whatsells in largest volume,” Kleinhenz said.“While product units in grocery storesincrease, suppliers tend to decrease. Forexample, Arizona and California supply90% of the U.S. vegetables, such as lettuce, during the winter months.”

Because of the growing popularity of

locally produced food, many farmers areoffering consumers alternatives by takingadvantage of direct marketing opportu-nities that allow them to capture a largerportion of the consumer’s dollar for theproducts they sell. Mike Laughlin, fea-tured on pages 15 and 16, has found suc-cess by locally marketing directly to hiscustomers through farm markets, retailstores and restaurants.

“They’ve all got really good points,” hesaid. “This marketing mix is a nice place tobe. Farm markets are probably the mostfun because you get to really interact with

the people who will take your food hometo eat. But farm markets are very weatherdependant and they take a lot of time.”

Farm markets are also profitablebecause retail prices can be charged forLaughlin’s various produce. Laughlin candepend on his other wholesale marketingoutlets to compensate for the lack of con-sistency with farm markets.

“We can sell the biggest volume tostores for wholesale prices — we just dropit off and we get a check,” Laughlin said.“The stores are consistent and you knowexactly what they want on a weekly basis.

Restaurants are fun because the chefs getexcited about trying new things. The storesand restaurants are nice because they offera steady sales source.”

Each marketing method has its ownset of advantages and disadvantages,but Laughlin knows that they can com-pliment each other well. And, with morefarmers considering marketing theirproducts locally, there are more con-sumers who will discover the improvedtaste and quality of local foods, so theytoo can spend their winters yearning forthe delicious tastes of summer.

Ohio’s Country Journal • Mid-February 2006 • Crops 17

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18 Crops • Ohio’s Country Journal • Mid-February 2006

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Ohio’s 990,000 acres of soft winterwheat may suffer from unseasonablymild winter conditions once it breaksdormancy, especially if the season con-tinues to seesaw from snowy towarmer conditions during green-up.

Pierce Paul, an Ohio State Universityplant pathologist with the OhioAgricultural Research andDevelopment Center, said standingwater in fields, either from rains orfreezing and thawing of snow, couldimpact plant health.

“Standing water in fields is less of aproblem during winter because theplant is still dormant. There is little orno metabolic activity, so the need totake up nutrients is not much of anissue,” said Paul, who also holds anOhio State University Extensionappointment. “But once it starts warm-ing up and dormancy is broken, itbecomes an issue because the oxygensupply to the plant is greatly reduced.”

Standing water in fields duringgreen-up also favors root and stem rots,Paul said.

“As it starts warming up with moistfields and standing water, pathogenslike Pythium can cause stand diseaseproblems,” he said. “We’ll keep an eyeon this as the season progresses.”

Heaving could also be an issuewhen the wheat crop breaks dormancy.Heaving occurs when the soil goesthrough cycles of freezing and thawing,pushing the crowns and roots to thesoil surface. The result is water stressand eventual plant death.

“The deceptive thing that happenswith heaving is that fields can lookgood even after greening up, but thenthose plants that are heaved startregressing in growth. They turn yellowand die off,” Paul said.

Wheat normally begins to break dor-mancy anywhere from late February insouthern Ohio to mid March for north-ern varieties. Paul said the possibilityexists for plants to begin green-up

sooner than that if current weather conditions continue, especially ifwarmer temperatures occur during theday and night.

“The soil is cold and that is thegrowth governor for wheat at this timeof year. To break dormancy will take sev-eral days and nights of warm temps. Therisk is greater to the south than upnorth,” said Jim Beuerlein, OSUExtension wheat specialist in a recent

CORN newsletter. “Even if dormancydoes break, wheat is still a cool seasoncrop and can tolerate cold temperatures.History indicates that we rarely have sig-nificant damage from warm spells inwinter. Western Kentucky has a lot ofwheat used for double cropping and arefurther south than us, and they seem toget by fairly well.”

While the wheat will hopefully beable to handle the mild winter weather,

many farmers have been wonderinghow the conditions will influence theproper timing of nitrogen application.

“The usual answer is, if there was afall application, make the spring appli-cation anytime in April. If (there was)no fall application, make the springapplication between mid March andmid April,” Beuerlein said. “Generally,we don’t recommend two applicationsunless you lose part of the early one.”

Ohio’s Country Journal • Mid-February 2006 • Crops 19

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20 Crops • Ohio’s Country Journal • Mid-February 2006

BY MATT REESE

There has been a lot of talk and antici-pation around Ohio in recent years aboutbringing ethanol production back to thestate. Though Ohio has been among thenation’s leaders in ethanol use while pro-ducing no ethanol within its borders, tworecent events served as a signal that this isabout to change.

Within 10 days of each other, two ofthe state’s six proposed ethanol produc-tion projects had ceremonies commemo-rating their progress. On Jan. 20,ASAlliances Biofuels, LLC in FayetteCounty held Ohio’s first ethanol produc-tion facility groundbreaking event. The

planned facility in Bloomingburg will pro-duce 100 million gallons of ethanol and315,000 tons of dry distillers grain (DDG)annually. The facility, which will costapproximately $125 million to construct,will source corn from nearby CargillAgHorizons’ grain elevators. Nearly 60new full-time jobs will be created.

Then, on Jan. 31, Harrison Ethanol’snew ethanol biorefinery facility inHarrison County celebrated their ground-breaking. Once completed, this plant isexpected to create 107 jobs onsite and 60contract jobs, with a $7.2 million payroll.The company estimates that the plant willpump $85 million in annual cash flow to

the region with its ethanol, beef and dairyproduction. The DDG resulting from theethanol production will be used to feedthe cattle, and the manure will be used togenerate additional energy.

Both ceremonies indicate that 2006 and2007 will be eventful years for Ohio tomove toward ethanol production.

“We will likely see more groundbreak-ing ceremonies in the next year, and thetwo plants that have already brokenground should be producing ethanol bythe early part of 2007,” said DwayneSeikman, Ohio Corn Growers Association.“The six proposed projects — including thetwo that have broken ground — in thestate represent a potential 330 million gal-lons of ethanol production. Our goal is toget every gallon of fuel in the state to con-tain some biofuel.”

While the various ethanol projects inthe state move forward, Ohio’s industryleaders and lawmakers have been workingon legislation to make Ohio even moreethanol friendly. Some legislative accom-plishments for Ohio biofuels include:

• The Ohio Jobs Cabinet has enabledthe Ohio Departments of Developmentand Agriculture to work with agencies tostreamline processes for potential ethanolplants to deal with the state.

• In 2002, Senate Bill 144 was passed,creating the Ethanol Incentive Board andmaking ethanol plants eligible for Ohio AirQuality Development Authority financing.

• In 2005, Gov. Taft signed an executiveorder directing the Ohio Department ofTransportation to use at least 1 million gal-lons of bio-diesel fuel and 30,000 gallons of

ethanol per year, and to purchase only newcars that are able to run on both unleadedfuel and ethanol.

In addition, the passage of proposedOhio House Bill 245 would provide fund-ing for expanding and developing thestate’s infrastructure for handling and dis-tributing biofuels. With so much activityaround Ohio with biofuels, the stage isbeing set for big things to happen.

“One of our priorities for this year is toget a state mandated renewable fuels stan-dard,” Seikman said. “We can meet a RFSbecause we have 7 million acres of poten-tial oil fields growing in Ohio with ourcorn and soybeans.”

Gov. Bob Taft (fourth from the left) and Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Fred Dailey (third from right) par-ticipate with other state and local officials in the Harrison Ethanol, LLC ground dedication event in Harrison Countyon Jan. 30. The facility will use a high tech “closed loop” system, which will include a beef cattle feedlot and dairyfarm that produces manure, which will run through a methane digester and generate energy to run the plant. Inturn, the ethanol production process results in distillers grain, which will be fed to the cattle. Ultimately, this“energy farm” will harvest electricity, fuel and food, create more than 100 jobs, and provide a predicted $85 million each year for Ohio’s Appalachian region.

Ethanol making progress in Ohio

Ohio Department of Agriculture Director FredDailey (center) participated along with other stateand local officials, including Dwayne Seikman(left) and Mike Wagner (right) of the Ohio CornGrowers Association, in Ohio’s first ethanol pro-duction facility groundbreaking event on Jan. 20for ASAlliances Biofuels, LLC in Fayette County.

Most farmers don’t understand what animportant customer of soybean meal theanimal agriculture industry is. I produceboth livestock and soybeans and I knowthe benefit of soybean meal as a proteinsource for livestock. In fact, 94% of all soy-bean meal is used to feed livestock andpoultry. We need to keep animal agricul-ture as a viable business in this country.

Keith KempPreble County

Soybean farmer and livestock producer

Supporting Animal Agriculture in Ohio Supports You Animal agriculture consumes 94% of U.S. soybean mealAs both a soybean farmer and livestock producer, I realize the importanceanimal agriculture plays in the success of my farming operation andtherefore I support this important industry – you should too! In Ohio,supporting animal agriculture supports you. Did you know.

• Animal agriculture in Ohio uses 705,000 tons of soybean meal annually andemploys 47,000 people.

• Animal Agriculture alone pumps more than $8 billion into the Ohioeconomy each year.

• The Ohio Soybean Council and the soybean checkoff help fund the OhioLivestock Coalition to represent the interests of commodity and livestock producers throughout the state.

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Ohio’s Country Journal • Mid-February 2006 • Crops 21