Toting a banner that reads “Organic: A better way to grow,” Susan Ryan attends an agricultural convention in Dover annually where the self-proclaimed “niche farmer” mingles with other, more traditional farmers.
Coastal Point • JONATHAN STARKEY:
Susan Ryan stands outside the organic garden at Good Earth Market.
Interestingly, those traditionalists, who use pesticides and other chemicals to rid the soil of pests and weeds that would threaten their crops, seem to be the target of the banner. It can be a bit of an awkward situation. But as pointed out Tuesday by Ryan, her family’s niche success is nothing for traditional farmers, or their profit margins, to fret over.
“First of all, there’s only two organic farms in the state, so we’re no threat,” said Ryan, owner of Good Earth Market and Farm, a certified organic operation on Route 26 in Clarksville. “We’re just a small niche. Some people are going to like us; some are not.”
In fact, according to a humble Ryan, whose market is filled with home-grown organic produce alongside everything organic, from lotions to soy sauce, other farmers constantly approach her, diplomatically, with questions about her product.
Ryan expects that will be the case when she shares space with others this summer as the sole organic seller at the Bethany Beach Farmers’ Market. The inaugural effort will run from 8 a.m. to noon for eight straight Sundays, beginning July 1, in the Mercantile Peninsula Bank parking lot at Garfield Parkway and Atlantic Avenue in Bethany Beach.
The Ryans plan to sell organic produce this summer including cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, squash, baby watermelons, peppers, peas and Good Earth’s signature snappy jack’s pepper relish. Ryan said they also plan to sell potted herb plants and fresh-cut herbs and flowers, which they expect to be extremely successful.
“I’m really excited,” Ryan said of participating this summer. “I couldn’t let that pass me by. That’s our market. And it’s close to home.”
The Ryans’ farm has been certified for four years as organic, meaning they use no herbicides and pesticides that she says “deplete” the soil. Organic produce grows naturally among weeds and all other life that sprouts from the soil — even traditional produce items like the ones listed above and, yes, even strawberries.
Ryan said that her family’s passion for gardening morphed into this organic craze, despite the fact that neither she nor husband Dave have farming roots so prevalent in the area among the farming traditionalists. In fact, some of the farmers that will share space with the Ryans at the farmers’ market — and who have been profiled in the Coastal Point recently — have farming roots hat stretch back five to eight generations locally.
But even in an area that does not boast large, increasingly popular, organic-focused supermarket chains, or even many smaller organic operations, Ryan said Tuesday that the organic market has taken hold and certainly found a niche among visitors and locals alike in the area.
“The philosophy is sustainability,” Ryan said. “Organic farming is all about the soil and not depleting the soil. You get more of the good stuff and less of what you don’t want — pesticide and herbicide residues.”
That philosophy has certainly brought the Ryans business at their market on Route 26 in Clarksville, whose backdrop is the family’s home. It has also immersed them as, frankly, an unlikely member in a still-fledgling historic industry here — agriculture — despite that perhaps undiplomatic banner.
“We just wanted to be unique,” Ryan said. “It makes a lot of sense.”