Tait Farm – Centre Hall, PA by Patty

After a restful Labor Day in State College, PA, we headed just down the road to Tait Farm, an organic vegetable farm that has a 160-member CSA and a farm store selling flowers, vegetables, and lots of “value added products” like jams and jellies that are made on site. Jam might not sound like a breakthrough in farm economics but when small sustainable farms take the next step into processing some of their products themselves it can make a huge difference in the economic viability of their operation. So I was excited to check this place out. Plus, who doesn’t love jams and jellies?

The owner of the farm, Kim Tait, walked the ST crew and our local hosts from the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture through their ten-acre vegetable operation where I was struck once again about the unique set of skills required to grow food, especially organically. Every place we stopped to look, they were trying out a new technique for controlling weeds without chemicals, keeping plants alive during a dry summer without wasting water, cutting down on the use of plastic, and just generally searching for ways to do things more sustainably and more efficiently. But it wasn’t all technical tips about plants – we also covered why people are afraid of okra, the little-known fact that deer love edamame, and some cooking tips for brussel sprouts. And we marveled at their new field of asparagus, a major investment for the future because of the years required before you can harvest it.

After we wandered back down the hill from the vegetable fields we had time to go check out Tait Farm’s value added operation – and more importantly, taste some of their products. The product that got Tait Farms started with processing is something called shrub, a drink commonly made in colonial-era America that involves cooking down fruit like raspberries or cherries into a syrup and then mixing it with vinegar and honey to preserve it. In the late 1980’s the Taits had seven acres of raspberries and nowhere to sell them. So when someone suggested they look up the old recipe for shrub, they gave it a try. They were eventually able to sell it to Colonial Williamsburg and their processing business was born. Now, not quite 20 years later, they have 13 employees, produce 40,000 units a year, and sell products in their own store and through mail order.

After a great morning at Tait Farm, some very refreshing samples of raspberry shrub, and a sugar buzz from sampling too much jam, we were on our way to the Boalsburg Farmers Market.

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