Tom Stearns, High Mowing's owner and founder, is also the Farm Manager.
Tom Stearns, High Mowing’s owner and farm manager, has a lot on his mind this time of year. Seed farming sets itself apart from traditional vegetable production in several ways, but one of the most notably different aspects for Tom is planning: “A lot more planning is involved,” he says emphatically. “Planning for seed production has to be done years and years in advance” - a stark difference from most vegetable production models, which can get away with planning their crops season-to-season.  Come springtime, this extra planning effort means Tom and his team of Stephen Purdy, Molly Brandt and Charles Gill are tasked with putting long-term plans into action at the High Mowing seed production farm in Hyde Park, Vermont. As any farmer knows, time is critical in a growing season, and it can often feel like there isn’t enough of it. The seed production crew at High Mowing feels the pressures of time to the nth degree: “Because the crops require a longer season to produce mature seed, the timing of everything is tricky to balance,” says Stephen Purdy, who has worked on the High Mowing seed farm since 2012, and is now the Seed Production Lead. Charles Gill, who is starting his fifth season at High Mowing, says that space can create challenges, too. Because of the isolation distances required to maintain genetic purity in certain crops, the crop plans have to be spread out just so, and “it can take up lots of your time going from field to field on a tractor.”
Charles Gill is starting his fifth season as a member of the High Mowing farm team.
Even with the best possible plans in place for efficiency and success, the natural elements can play an unexpected and significant role in a seed crop’s success or failure. Concern about pests, diseases and pollination isolations are a constant for the farm team. The longer seed production season also heightens the risks associated with growing field crops. “Everything that could go wrong – be it diseases, pests, or anything else – has that much extra time to rear its head,” says Molly Brandt, who is starting her second season as a member of the High Mowing farm crew. Tom agrees that disease is perhaps the biggest challenge that he and the farm team face when producing seed: “Every vegetable farmer has disease issues that might affect their crop, but if a disease infects a seed, it can actually spread the disease farther than just an infected vegetable or plant. The lengths to which we go to have disease-free seed are huge.” This extra effort on the part of Tom, Molly, Stephen and Charles to produce top quality seed is critical to the success of the seed crops that High Mowing grows. They take care to monitor, mitigate, and maintain their seed crops at every stage in order to ensure that the seed is as healthy as it possibly can be when it goes to our Quality Control department.
The 2017 season is Molly Brandt's second as a member of the High Mowing farm team.
Despite the challenges that come with the territory of seed production, the farm crew is always quick to articulate the rewards of producing high quality organic seeds. “It feels great to be a part of the life cycle of the natural world,” says Molly. Plus, there are several crops that offer the benefit of being at the perfect eating stage when they are harvested for seed: “Melons are awesome to grow for seed because you get to eat them after the seed is extracted!” One of the luxuries of growing for seed, says Charles, is that “we don’t have to worry about the fruit being market-quality. We smash it all up to extract the seed anyway. It’s really satisfying to remove all the flesh and be left with a big barrelful of beautiful seeds to run your hands through.” His favorite crop to grow for seed? Winter squash: “It’s a big harvest that uses a powerful machine. You care for this huge patch of winter squash all summer, and then one day in the fall you go and collect them all and put them through the extractor. It's kind of cathartic after all the hard work of the season."
Stephen Purdy serves as Seed Production Lead at the High Mowing farm.
According to Stephen, "the great thing about growing for seed is that the results are exponential if you succeed. There's a very tangible satisfaction.” It’s hard to pick a favorite crop type, but when pressed, Stephen says the watermelon seed harvest is one of the best. “Every seed has a different feel to it, and the watermelon juices create a sort of exfoliating effect on your hands. The juice is all sugary, and the air smells sweet, just like a watermelon, when we extract the seed.” Plus, for Stephen, the watermelon and winter squash patches are some of the best places to be when the plants are flowering in the summer: “The fields are teeming with activity that time of year, because the cucurbit plants are insect pollinated, which means we’re helping out the pollinator community by growing all those plants for seed.”