Blue Heron Farm Provides Organic Produce to Ithaca Community

By David Durrett – a current intern at GreenStar Food Co+op, David Durrett is a lifelong resident of Ithaca as well as a graduate of Ithaca College. He is a freelance reporter whose work has also appeared in Tompkins Weekly and The Ithaca Voice, among other publications. 

After switching owners in 2016, Blue Heron Farm continues a tradition of providing quality organic produce to GreenStar customers and Saturdays’ farmers market at Steam-boat landing.

From 2002 to 2016, Birgit and Erik Landowne operated the Kimberton CSA on 10 acres of rented land in southeast Pennsylvania. Wanting more space and a place to call their own, they purchased Blue Heron Farm.

Blue Heron Farm was founded in 1986 by Robyn Ostfeld and Lou Johns in Lodi, NY.  The farm is 112 acres, of which 30 acres are tillable farmland. The Landownes appreciate being able to work on a larger plot of land that is more conducive to crop rotation.

The Landownes have been farming together since 1995.  They first met as farming apprentices at the Temple-Wilton Community Farm, where they were introduced to the idea of community-supported agriculture and bio-dynamic vegetable production. They married in 2000 and besides having raised untold tons of produce together, they have also raised two children. Their daughter Maja works as a nurse and currently lives in Norway. Their son Elias is in his final year at Cornell majoring in sustainable agriculture.

Apart from Birgit and Erik, Blue Heron Farm employs four full-time workers, as well as some college students who help harvest crops in the summer. The number has stayed consistent since Birgit and Erik purchased the farm, but Erik added they would like to hire more people if their sales could increase to support additional staff. Blue Heron Farm produces organic potatoes, squash, garlic, lettuce, chard, kale, cabbage, onions, leeks and many other crops. The farm sells its produce at GreenStar Food Co+op, Park Slope Co-op in Brooklyn, Mainstreet Market in Trumansburg, and the Ithaca Farmers Market.

Birgit said it can be challenging to predict what customers want. For example, one type of produce might sell poorly for a few years, resulting in her and Erik planting less of it compared to other crops, only for demand to suddenly rise in another year. Alternatively, a popular crop may not sell as well, resulting in the Landownes being left with surplus produce.

“It’s sometimes a little bit of a gamble of what is selling good this year, it can vary,” Birgit said.

According to Erik, Blue Heron Farm has always sold to GreenStar. He said he is grateful that GreenStar exists, and is hopeful GreenStar can purchase more of Blue Heron Farm’s produce in the future as the co-op’s support contributes greatly to the farm’s overall earnings.

“It’s a big problem,” Erik said, “because our margins are very tiny, and if we spend money paying people to plant a seed and grow a crop and harvest it, we’ve basically spent the money and if we don’t sell it, that’s a loss for us. It’s important for us to sell what we’re growing.” Other unforeseen events can affect Blue Heron Farm’s profits, such as when the farm got 12 inches of rain in 2017. According to Erik, the heavy rain damaged the crops, resulting in Blue Heron Farm losing nearly all of its tomato, eggplant and onion crops, and significantly lowering the farm’s revenue.

Erik said selling to a store like GreenStar works better for Blue Heron Farm than a community supported agricultural model he and Brigit used while farming in Pennsylvania. Under that model, he and Birgit grew produce for a set number of members who picked up at the farm each week. He said that it is more efficient and sustainable for customers to buy Blue Heron Farm produce at GreenStar or the Ithaca Farmer’s Market, rather than pick it up at the farm itself, which is 26 miles from Ithaca.

“It wouldn’t make sense for a couple hundred people to drive out that far once a week,” Erik said. “It’s better they shop at GreenStar; one truck drives to GreenStar versus 400 cars driving out to Lodi.”

For more information, visit Blue Heron Farm’s website at https://www.blueheronproduce.com/.