Newsletters: May - June 2008

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Local Spotlight
C & J’s Blueberries, Oh How DeVine

Natural Times-May/June 2008

By Cristin Burns

You may not think of organic farming as something people stumble into, but you’d be wrong. C & J’s Blueberry Vineyard is living proof. Jim and Carol-Ann DeWulf, owners of C & J’s, found themselves facing retirement as accidental farmers.

Their story begins in a small farm town in southern Illinois—Jim’s hometown. Although farming was not his family trade, as he grew up Jim picked up farming knowledge from his neighbors and friends. But Jim’s path led him far from Illinois and farming.

Instead, Jim enlisted in the Air Force as a non-commissioned officer. He spent 23 years as a missile maintenance technician working on Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles until he retired from the Air Force at the age of 42. After “retirement” Jim became a technical writer for big defense contractors, which eventually brought him to Florida. Jim and Carol-Ann built a home in Deltona, Florida believing that they would really retire and split their time between Deltona and traveling. That was until a listing in their insurance company’s newsletter caught Jim’s attention.

Jim and Carol-Ann had been considering purchasing a weekend home and this looked like it could be the perfect place. One visit and they fell in love, but with much more than a weekend getaway. The property, 16.5 acres in Suwannee County, included a house, barn, two acres of blueberries, grape vines and miscellaneous fruit trees. They made an offer in 2004 and their new lives as farmers began. Since then, Jim and Carol-Ann have been working hard to learn everything there is to know about sustainable agriculture.

Last year, Jim and Carol-Ann won scholarships to attend the Southern Sustainable Agricultural Working Group in Louisville, Kentucky. The intense workshop supplemented their Internet research, small farm seminars, and classes at the University of Florida’s North Florida Research and Education Center.

All their hard work has paid off. C & J’s Blueberry Vineyard sells their products at numerous farmers markets and stores like New Leaf Market. A new greenhouse has been built to grow herbs like Holy Basil, Chocolate Mint, Pineapple Sage and Salad Burnet, which they package in compostable containers.

C & J’s commitment to the environment goes much further than their containers. The farm is following the Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) program, in which the greenhouse will be certified in the fall. CNG differs from Certified Organic in that it is geared towards small farmers. Both follow the same USDA Organic Standards, but the CNG program requires significantly less paperwork. Inspections are performed by farmers, and the results are posted on the Internet. Additionally, farms are subject to random pesticide residue testing. Although C & J’s Blueberry Vineyard is not certified CNG yet, they follow all of the requirements and will become certified once their three-year transition period is complete.

Jim and Carol-Ann’s passion for small farming and commitment to providing quality products inspires hope that small farms may find their way back into the hearts and kitchens of America.