Stuckwish Family Farms

Stuckwish Family Farms Committed to Quality, Safe Produce

When you are the fourth generation of a family farm, involvement starts at a young age. Ryan Stuckwish of Stuckwish Family Farms in Vallonia, Indiana, recalls his first “paycheck” came in quarters when he was six. “I grew up packing watermelons, and our operation has expanded a great deal over the years,” Ryan says. This farm with the sandy soil of Southern Indiana is ideal for growing a wide variety of vegetables from watermelon and cantaloupe to tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, green beans, pumpkins and squash.

Ryan, who taught high school for 20 years, realized he needed to pick a path, and that path was the farm with his father, Lonn, to continue the family legacy. Lonn shares that the operation has always relied on family members. “It was pretty much the family in the early days, Ryan and his siblings were very involved,” he says. The operation has now expanded to include a farm market and flower greenhouse. “If you would have asked me ten years ago if we would be growing flowers, I may have laughed at you,” Ryan says, noting that the farm market is now his baby and he really enjoys it. “It was something new and different to do and being in the greenhouse surrounded by flowers in the early spring is the best place to be.” His wife, Erin, who is a nurse practitioner by day helps in the greenhouse after work and the couple enjoys this special place.

The market has flowers ready in the beginning in April through June and offers mums and pumpkins in the fall. “We kick off the year with a Mother’s Day craft show when everyone comes in excited about flowers, it gets bigger and bigger every year,” Ryan says.

The next generation is active in farm operations, with Ryan’s son Brandon (23), being passionate about coming back to the farm. Son Cruz is 12 and while active in baseball and racing quads still chips in, and stepdaughter Hadley (9) is in love with the flowers and would work at the market every day if she could. Nephew Jackson has become a big part of the operation as well over the last few years.

Their team’s hard work turns into a bountiful choice of flowers and produce for their customers. The process starts in February with planting seeds in the greenhouse, getting an early start on tomatoes and peppers. “By mid-March, the plants are moved to be planted in the ground under our high tunnels,” Ryan explains. “We have five acres covered to protect the plants and that allows us to reach an early market, starting harvest earlier.”

A major route to market for Stuckwish Family Farms is selling wholesale, which has evolved over the years. Lonn explains that in the early days, people who had smaller markets and roadside stands were their primary customers, using the Stuckwish produce to supplement their crops. Today, the farm continues providing these local customers with produce while also selling to major retailers like Kroger and Wal-Mart. For example, the farm will ship as many as 175 semi loads of watermelons a year. Ninety percent of those watermelons are seedless watermelons, and Lonn’ father, Neal Stuckwish, actually grew the first commercial seedless melons in Indiana back in the 1960s.

“Until maybe 15 years ago, watermelons were shipped loose,” Ryan recalls, remembering the work of stacking a semi by hand. Now, the tasty melons are shipped in bulk bins, each containing 36 to 60 watermelons. “There can be 56 bins in a truck,” Ryan says to illustrate the volume.

Yet every melon matters, and thanks to the stickers, the family hears from customers near and far, stretching from Canada to Florida. “For example, we’ll get an email from someone in Delaware saying what a delicious melon it was,” Ryan says. “We’ve heard from little kids sending a note about a yummy melon, it reminds us how our produce reaches families all over.”

The family has not forgotten their roots, staying committed to supplying smaller retailers. “I tell our local customers they are our bread and butter,” Ryan says.” While they may need just a few boxes of tomatoes every other day or a pallet of something for their roadside stand, we want to keep them stocked. Our crops come in earlier so they can start with ours,” Ryan says.

Retailers big and small make food safety a priority for the produce that reaches a family’s dinner table. Lonn cites the many food safety programs that have evolved over the years, and Ryan points out that the family was on the leading edge of learning. “Early on we worked with Georgia vegetable growers to train with them and build connections,” Ryan says. He explains they can trace the produce through stickers and a labeling system.

“When we put a product on a truck, each load has a tag that can connect it back to the field it was harvested from, and we know the day it was picked and packed,” Ryan says. “We can follow each melon back to know exactly when it was sprayed and other details. Everything is very much linked on the farm today.”

The family owns around 800 acres of land and rent another 175 to help with crop rotation which is an important strategy to produce the best crops. “We keep good rotations in place, for example there is a four to five year rotation on the melons,” Ryan explains. They also rotate crops under their high tunnels to help control weed and pest pressure and are experimenting with bio fungicides.

A lifetime in the farming business provides perspective. “As I get older, I look back on the ways the farm has evolved, and all the weather events and challenges we have overcome,” Ryan says. “As I work with my kids here, I think the biggest thing is to keep learning and know it isn’t easy and farming won’t happen exactly as you want.” He concludes, “You must have your head on straight and have good people around you, learning from the family. It is an adventure every year!”