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Monroe County sits in the southeast corner of Michigan, about halfway between Detroit and Toledo, Ohio. The area has its fair share of vegetable farms, so I decided to pay a visit there June 17.
I toured Ruhlig Farms with Dan Pavuk, the Extension vegetable educator for southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio (see the video below). I also visited Parran’s Greenhouse and Farm Markets and talked to owner Mike Parran.
Parran, 45, started growing and selling vegetables at an early age. He grew tired of the wholesale market years ago and decided to focus on direct sales of vegetables, flowers and bedding plants to local customers. With his wife, Darlene, and kids Brandon and Brittney, he runs two markets, one in Ida and one in the city of Monroe.
They also sell produce at farmers’ markets around Monroe and Toledo, but the thought of quitting that has crossed Parran’s mind. It leads to long days, and his body can’t hold up the way it used to, he said. The two stores do better, anyway.
Along with greenhouse flowers, the family grows 65 acres of sweet corn, pumpkins, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and other crops in the Ida area. They try to add to their variety every year, to keep customers coming back. They also have u-pick sales at the Ida location.
The weather is always the biggest challenge, Parran said. He’d like to have an inch of rain every 10 days, but it’s been pretty dry lately.
Parran hires foreign workers (usually three) through the H-2A program. It’s not cheap, but it keeps things legal. Unfortunately, his paperwork got backed up this year. He needed workers by March 1 but didn’t get them until late April.
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