NEWS

Gardening a family affair at Witter

Mary Fox
Guest columnist

Family is the key word to describe Witter Produce.

John is the son of Emerson and Ruth Witter and the husband for 42 years of wife Becky, daughter of Alton and Jane Bower. They graduated from Colonel Crawford High School. He joined the Army, later taking employment at Pickwick Horse Farm on Remlinger Road for 15 years.

Walter Michael, the owner, was very caring for his employees. Learning one would be off work for a couple of months, he ordered a case of meat to be packaged and sent along with 3 tons of coal, delivered to the basement.

As a side note, Walt was bidding on a mare in Lexington, Kentucky, one day. The wife said: “We came here to sell, not buy.” Evidently, he wasn’t listening; he bought three semi loads of mares.

The Witters lived in the upstairs apartment at the main farm until a house became available on their present farm on Biddle Road.

John worked at the Windy Ridge Pheasant Farm afterward dealing with the tedious job of handling and feeding 9,000 baby chicks.

John and Becky were raised on a farm, so their 15 acres first became a home garden patch. She was working at General Electric, and co-workers bought their fresh produce. They sold from produce at their house and to the those at the Moose, Geyer’s Market, Neff’s, Julie’s, and Pizza Hut.

They were invited to sell wagon loads of pumpkins at the Colonel Crawford Fall Festival. The family came to their aid on this busy festival day. Those helpers included Jonathan, a research assistant at Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster; Jocelyn, an Ohio Health MedCentral lab technician; and Matthew, of McCartney Engineering; as well as their spouses and seven grandchildren.

They grew the plants from seeds starting inside two boxes with screens and lights with a thermostat. Next, John built a small greenhouse that he quickly outgrew, converted a chicken coop, added plastic for roof until it weathered so that light to grow couldn’t get through properly.

Then he built a real greenhouse. Becky retired in December 2011 and thought growing flowers would be a good business move. So a second greenhouse was added. They raised huge amounts of bedding plants and flowers.

The farmers market at the railroad station was Joe Graham’s idea. Beth Diesch invited them to sell there. The final move was to the current location in the parking lot of American Wire Technology. They participated in the Northside Market in Galion for five years and are excited about a new one in Crestline, south of McDonalds, at First United Methodist Church.

Readers interested in genealogy or sharing a story can write the Crawford County Genealogy Society, 931 Marion Road, Bucyrus, OH 44820, or email Mary Fox at Littlefoxfactory@columbus.rr.com.