Market

beautyhealthfitness Bringing from A Visit to Quaker Valley Orchards By Pattie Cinelli inn and Fredi Schulteis have been making their living as farmers for eight years. I first met Fredi at the Freshfarm Market on H St., NE five years ago. Shopping Saturday mornings at the Freshfarm Market has become a ritual I look forward to every week. I love the taste of freshly picked produce and the fragrance of newly cut flowers. I also feel great buying fruits, vegetables, breads and dairy products from the farmers who actually grow the products or bake using locally grown materials. Over the past five years I gravitated to one particular farmer – Fredi Shulteis. My addiction to apples naturally pulled me to her stand which is overflowing with a multitude of varieties. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed her popcorn, peaches, homemade dog treats for my pooch Marcello, strawberry jam, berries, asparagus, watermelon and scrumptious pies. I also shared with Fredi each Saturday the progress of her third pregnancy and birth of her son JC, now 19 months old. I felt as if I knew her, yet I really had no idea, as a woman who was born and raised outside of Manhattan, what it meant to live and work on a farm. So, I took an overnight trip to Fredi’s farm to find out. When I turned into the drive of the Shulteis’ Farm Market to farm in Biglersville, PA, about two hours from D.C. at noon on a sunny, warm Friday, I was overwhelmed by the majesty of the house. It didn’t look like any farmhouse I remembered, the big red brick home sprawling atop a rolling hill. Planted fields with rows of produce and orchards surrounded the house. Fredi and Winn have put all but 20 acres of the 220-acre farm under the Farmland Preservation Trust ensuring that the surrounding vistas remain intact. Her huge black Newfoundland dog Ebony, who is the caretaker of the farm, greeted me. Several of her beautiful auburn chickens, which roam freely around the grounds, expressed curiosity at the new arrival. When I walked inside, several dozen small and large apple and cherry pies sat on her kitchen counters cooling (Fredi’s kitchen is certified for commercial baking).The aroma was intoxicating. The first order of business was a tour of the house and some warm apple pie with ice cream. Fredi and her husband Winn own Quaker Valley Orchards and Guest House, located in the heart of the Adams County fruit belt. The farm has been in the Schulteis family for over 40 years. James and Mae Schulteis purchased the farm in 1963. They grew mainly fruit, specializing in peaches and about 30 varieties of apples. In those The fields of Quaker Valley Orchards W days farming was profitable. Winn’s parents could sell their fruit to a cannery and make a decent living. Winn grew up on the farm and loved farming. Even when he was not living there he cultivated his own garden. He thought he knew what it took to be a farmer. So when his parents wanted to retire to North Carolina, Winn and Fredi took over Quaker Valley Orchards and its operations. Fredi and Winn had been married for about two years and had started their family. Fredi, who graduated from Penn State, was working as a physical therapy assistant and Winn at a company that manufactured crop sprayers. Winn’s parents gave them a month to take over the farm. “We put a “For Sale” sign up in front of our house in the morning and sold it by the afternoon,” she said. The transition from employees to farm owners seemed to be going smoothly; then reality set in. “We were selling 70,000 bushels of our apples to a processing plant, but it just wasn’t paying the bills,” said Fredi. “We were trying to figure out how to keep our farm afloat.” One of Winn’s friends, most of whom are farmers, told them about the possibility of selling directly to the public. In 2003, they changed the focus of their business and began selling at a farmer’s market in Mt. Pleasant. “It’s a lot of work, but we love Winn, Fredi and JC Schulteis on the porch of their house with H Street Farmer’s Market organizer Bernie Prince. 124 ★ HillRag | July 2008 Fredi makes dozens of fresh fruit pies in her commercial grade kitchen. farming,” said Fredi. Winn came into the house as we were finishing up our pie to give a tour of the farm so I could see where and how the food I’d been eating for the past five years was grown. Apple trees with little nubs of fruit on them were everywhere. I saw how asparagus was grown, and sampled the asparagus and strawberries, which were both surprisingly sweet. There were peach trees, rows of prickly black raspberry bushes, blackberries, blueberries, cherry trees, corn and potatoes. Fredi pointed out down the hill at the other side of the pond a patch where she said my watermelons were growing. Many of the fruits and vegetables would not be ready until later in the summer. In the distance up the side of a hill of the farm we watched a family of deer playing among the trees. Winn said he plays the radio to keep them out of the produce. I declined an offer to visit up close the bee box from which the Shulteis’ harvest the honeycomb and the liquid honey they sell at the market. Winn explained to me how, instead of spraying pesticides over the crops to keep them insect free, he hangs a small tab of chemical on a tree limb that causes a disruption in insects’ ability to mate. While the farm is not “organic” the fruits have little, if any, pesticides on them. Friday afternoons are a busy time at the farm. We bunched asparagus that the men (they have four full time employees) picked that morning. After picking up her girls from school and sending them off on a sleep-over with their aunt, we loaded two trucks, not only with produce, but also with tents, signs, boxes, accounting supplies, bags, jars of jam, apple butter and applesauce (which Fredi makes herself ), and gallons and half gallons of apple cider. I asked what their typical work week was like. “We usually wake up between 6 and 6:30am. Monday we planted melons,” said Winn. “I also mowed the grass. On Tuesday I tended to the fields.” Wednesdays they leave for market at 11:30am and don’t return to the farm until 9pm. Then it’s back to the fields on Thursday and Friday. On weekends it’s into the city for the markets. After a dinner of pasta with Fredi’s home made tomato sauce (which she sells at the market) we congregated with friends at the pond where Ebony took one of her evening swims to cool off. We then collected eggs from the hen house. The hens were friendly and allowed me to pet them. We fed them and the rabbits (her daughters Samantha and Bethany’s pets). I had the whole newly renovated three-bedroom guesthouse to myself. Winn and Fredi assured me that even though they don’t have cable TV, they did get the network channels. I didn’t care. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. The next morning Fredi awakened me at 5am. On market days (Saturdays and Sundays) their wake up call is 4:30 a.m. The perishables have to be loaded, then it’s a twohour drive into the city. Winn took off for the Silver Spring Freshfarm market, and we headed with JC to the Mt. Pleasant market where we unloaded the truck and helped her assistant set up, then drove to H Street. Summer is the busiest time at the farm. Winn told me he loves boating and has a 25footer but hasn’t used it in two years. “I just haven’t had time.” During the drive into the city I asked Fredi if she had any regrets about giving up her professional career to farm. “If I was working full time we wouldn’t have had JC,” she said. “I get to have lunch with Winn everyday and pick up my girls from school. We both work hard, but we have a good life.” Quaker Valley Orchards are at Mt Pleasant Farmer’s Market at Lamont Plaza, the H Street NE and Silver Spring Freshfarm Markets on Saturdays from 9a.m.-Noon. They are at the Rose Park and Foggy Bottom Markets in NW D.C. on Wednesdays from 3p.m.-7p.m. Farm market WIC vouchers accepted at all markets. For more information on Quaker Valley Orchards or to reserve the guesthouse log onto: www.quakervalleyorchards.com. or call: 717-677-7351. ★ Keep Your Teeth Healthy for Life NEW PATIENT OFFER • A Personal Consultation • A Professional Cleaning* *unless gum disease is present $79 • A complete Exam, including necessary X-Rays Call now for an appointment Khoi Q. Tran, D.M.D. 700 7th St. SW Washington, DC 20024 (202) 554-4000 capitalcommunitynews.com ★ 125