May 16, 2007

Greenhouse Serves As Market’s Retail Center

The big new greenhouse that is Halter’s Market sits like a butterfly in Vincennes, Ind., gradually unfolding its wings as the warmth of the day increases.

Built of steel, aluminum and glass, the roof gradually opens as the temperature rises, following instructions from the computer that controls the ventilation system. Once the roof is fully open, the side walls begin to open as it grows warmer.

“We really like it,” said Jay Halter of the new 72- by 96-foot structure the family built three years ago. “The old one depended on fans for ventilation. In this one, hot air rises and moves out the top.”

The greenhouse is not for growing plants, however. That’s all done at the farm five miles away. This one is strictly for retail. Halter’s Market sells plants – lots of flowers – and produce.

Sandy Woodall, Jay’s sister, manages the retail operation. As she describes it, the Halter family began farming near Vincennes in 1837, but in 1970 they began to feel the pull of the retail produce business.

“We were growing some produce, and people were coming to the farm,” she said. “The demand for fresh produce was growing, and we picked fresh every morning.”

So they rented a lot in town and put a shed on it.

“It did well,” she said. “We just kept building. We sell nothing but No. 1 stuff. We pick fresh every morning, and that’s why customers keep coming back.”

While demand has kept the operation growing, the Halters have not bit on every lure thrown into the water.

While many marketers are attempting to stretch the marketing season, Halter’s Market is open from April 1 to Labor Day only. They work hard to catch the early end, but aren’t attracted at the other.

“The profitable season for flowers is over by August,” Jay said. “While there is a lot of demand for mums in the fall, everybody is selling them and there’s no money in them. The same for pumpkins. We quit raising them. They were getting harder to raise in our area because of disease, and profits were low. We’d rather close up, take a couple of weeks vacation, clean things up and get ready for planting in January.”

They start the marketing season with flowers and vegetable plants.

“Flowers are the big thing,” Sandy said. “We try to offer different things than what people can buy at Wal-Mart.”

That’s true for vegetable plants, too. This year, they offered 32 varieties of tomato plants and 28 varieties of peppers.

Some extra work put into flowers really pays off, Jay said.

“Some flowers grow faster than others,” he said. “We hand plant everything, so we can start them at different times and put them together.”

A lot of flowers are sold in hanging baskets or in hanging pouches, something that’s catching on.

The Halters work mainly with family labor. Sandy manages the retail operation. Her husband, Dave, recently retired and now works for the farm. Jay and his wife, Brenda, are the owners of the operation, having taken over from his parents, Lawrence and Shyla, who are still active in the business. Jay and Brenda’s sons, Bryan and Keith, are in the business as well.

The big glass and metal greenhouse in town is the fanciest one they have, but not the one that does the most work.

The 200-acre farm includes 15 plastic hoophouses and a high tunnel that cover a total of 51,000 square feet. Of the 15 hoops, only one is needed to grow vegetable plants, and 14 grow flowers. Most are 30- by 90-foot units that are heated as needed because flower planting begins in mid-January. One, devoted to ferns, is heated as needed all year.

The high tunnel is devoted to tomatoes, planted into the soil inside the tunnel, grown on plastic and staked. These were planted during the sunny days of mid-March this year – and heat was added during the Easter freezes in April that threatened the crop.

Flowers come to market first, followed by vegetable plants and tomatoes. Then 40 acres of field-grown produce kicks in – tomatoes, peppers, green beans, potatoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, summer squash, zucchini and, of course, sweet corn.

“Sweet corn is a major item, and we grow about 15 acres of it,” Jay said.

The Halters also grow about 20 acres of seedless watermelons that are sold wholesale.

The remainder of the farm is planted to corn and soybeans, harkening back to the days before their city neighbors began to demand fresh-picked produce.