Papen Farms historically has grown approximately 2,000 acres of green beans, cabbage and sweet corn, with about half of that land dedicated to the latter.
However, in 2024, the company made the decision not to grow any spring cabbage.
“The No. 1 reason is labor, it’s been difficult to find people to cut it,” said Janet Meyer, who runs the administrative side of the Dover, DE-based company with her niece, Carol Traegler. “Plus, the market has been poor.”
Sweet corn, and green beans are both harvested by machines, so it doesn’t face the same challenges as cabbage does. Plus, H-2A workers help with both crops. That means that the beginning of the year is relatively quiet since things don’t really start to pick up until early summer.
“Not much has been going on yet,” Traegler said. “2023 was not the best; it was not as good as the year before. Times are getting tougher with the economy, so farmers are facing challenges.”
With the absence of cabbage, the farm will use some of its resources to increase both the sweet corn and green beans acreage and production.
Papen Farms is very excited about the upcoming string beans crop as it has a relatively new operation for packing them, which is now going into its third year.
“It’s going very well,” said Tony Kaczka, who manages the office and packinghouse. “The crops are looking good for the upcoming season. Everything is uniform and we’re up-to-date on planting. Prices will be whatever the market demand is at the time, and we don’t have any control of that.”
Both crops will be packaged this year in recyclable plastic boxes, which are more economical to work with than the wooden crates it has historically used. Those will remain available for customers that still prefer them.
Papen Farms has a salesman, Chris Cunningham out of Georgia, who helps the company sell both sweet corn and string beans, and he’s been with the company for more than a decade. Things appear to be solid for what’s ahead.
“When you’re in the farming business, you have to be optimistic and hope for the best,” Meyer said.
Working on the Eastern Shore is one of the reasons Papen Farms has been successful through the years, first starting operations in 1952.
