Hot News

8.15.2007

By TAMARA SCULLY
AFP Correspondent

Hampton TownshiP — Flower Creek Farm is a dream come true.
It is the fulfillment of something spiritual for small farmer Barbara Antanies.
It is, to her, a miracle.
“My dream was to always live on a farm,” Antanies said from her Sussex County property.
But until just two years ago, this urban girl never did. Born in Union City and ultimately raising four children on less than a quarter-acre lot in Hasbrouck Heights, Antanies longed for nature — for a connection to the land and to grow food.
“People would stop and take pictures,” she said of her small yard, which she had converted to a garden full of fresh vegetables and flowers.
Yet even that was not enough for her.
She would continually visit pick-your-own farms throughout New Jersey, in order to spend as much of her time on a farm as possible.
“For as long as I can remember, I always went to U-Pick farms.”
Antanies even went out and harvested crops at these farms when the bounty of her own garden plot was abundant.
Despite having to freeze or can excess produce from her own garden — or give it away — she continued to visit pick-your-own farms.
Her trips home to the city were heartbreaking, she said, as she did not want to leave the farms and the woodlands.
While it may seem unusual for a city girl to be so drawn to country living, Antanies recalled one special person who served as a role model in fostering this desire.
Visiting her aunt in then-bucolic Lake Hiawatha, she found a local “eccentric” who walked around barefoot, grew her own foods, chopped her own wood and was the model of self-sufficiency.
Antanies aspired to this lifestyle.
Ultimately, the time was right for Antanies to seek out her own space in the country.
Using all of their resources, the family was able to find a converted barn with enough acres to begin to farm commercially on a small scale.
As Antanies’ husband began to renovate the home, she began to transform the old barnyard, which had never been plowed or used for field crops.
Antanies and a friend pulled overgrown weeds from over half-acre-plus of land, turned it using a pitch fork and incorporated the piles of very old manure from the barn into the fields.
Her neighbors, both of whom are farmers, saw this effort and stopped to lend a hand, plowing and tilling the rest of the land she needed for planting.
Six months later, Antanies set her first seeds into the ground, and soon she was in business, harvesting her own all-natural produce for her roadside stand.
Antanies also has several dozen laying hens and provides farm-fresh eggs to her customers.
Her self-serve stand attracts regular visitors, but not enough volume to move more than a fraction of the food she produces.
Antanies expected that her location on a heavily-traveled county road would result in more foot traffic. So far, it is one of the biggest issues she has faced.
To compensate, she has taken a booth at the Olde Lafayette Village Farmers’ Market on Sundays, yet she still has an excess of vegetables.
“I could do a heck of a lot more business,” she stated.
Despite offering fresh-picked produce grown naturally without any chemicals, advertising her stand with roadside signs and offering an attractive, shady nook where customers are welcomed to sit a spell, Antanies is disappointed that the food she is growing isn’t feeding her neighbors.
Other issues which Antanies faces include the lack of affordable help and difficulty assessing the price at which she should sell her product.
Relying on the pricing of nearby farms growing all natural vegetables, she has been able to charge what she feels is a fair price for her food.
But she isn’t making any profit yet. She also can’t find help at the $8-per-hour rate — well more than minimum wage — which she can pay.
She expected that area teenagers would like the opportunity to help her tend to the farm plot, but her ads remain unanswered.
“The hardest part is getting help,” Antanies said “I honestly thought that I could help to support the household” with the income from her full-time small farm venture.
Her income thus far has not been enough to make a contribution to the household expenses.
“No way can I make a profit,” she said, unless she can attract a steadier and larger customer base.
Antanies, however, will not give up. She is certain that this is her life path.
That seems evident based on the dedication it took for her to make it this far, and the care she puts into tending her plants.
Antanies will not sell any produce that is older than 48 hours from harvest.
She also won’t pick lettuce or other delicate crops in the heat, but will go out and pick them if a customer wants them.
This way, they retain optimum freshness.
Her heirloom vegetables, which aren’t cosmetically uniform, but taste exceptional, are not attracting customers.
She believes that consumer education is needed to reconnect people with their food.
“I can grow the best vegetables in the world. If no one knows about it, what good will it do me?”, Antanies said.
Despite the setbacks, Antanies has future plans which include a permanent farm stand and an extensive herb garden.
She plans to offer value-added products, preserving her vegetables and perhaps offering baked goods.
She just completed the food handlers certification and hopes to utilize the Sussex County Technical School cooperative kitchen (Editor’s Note: See above story).
Antanies is counting on a strong local ”Buy Local” campaign to help raise consumer awareness and drive more customers to her farm stand.
For now, Antanies will continue to harvest her produce, pull her weeds and prune her raspberries.
She will attempt to reach more customers interested in her all-natural vegetables and farm-fresh eggs.
She recently increased the number of hens to keep up with the demand for eggs, which is strong.
Antanies said that fulfilling her small farm dream was a “leap of faith.” She realizes that she is still leaping, but knows that some things are worth the fight.
Flower Creek Farm is located at 39 Halsey Road, Hampton. Stand is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. through 6:30 p.m., and Antanies has a Sunday stand at the Olde Lafayette Village Farmers’ Market on Route 15 in Lafayette Township. She can be reached by phoning 201-543-9216.