‘Local’ interest and food-safety progress propel Wiers forward
‘Local’ interest and food-safety progress propel Wiers forward
Packingline food-safety upgrades at Wiers Farm Inc., located in Willard, OH, will provide “100 percent stainless steel lines” this year, according to Ben Wiers, a family owner. Stainless steel is ideal for such lines because it can be sanitized very thoroughly.
Wiers said his farm has had a food-safety program for 15 years. “One of our partners has direct oversight of our food-safety program and we have two other people who are full time on food safety. Our packinghouse water is monitored hourly.” Chlorine gas cleans irrigation water in the field. “We take all possible steps” to assure safe food. “And we’re third-party-audited.
“Our customer base demands that our food-safety levels be at the top of the industry. We are constantly looking for improvement,” he said.
Beyond the stainless steel packingline, there are other changes at Wiers Farm in 2014.
The family introduced a two-pound pickle bag last season and it will introduce a two-pound jalapeno pepper bag in 2014. Two-pound sweet onion and pepper bags are to be tested. The brand for all of its products is “Wiers Family Farm Dutch Maid.”
In another improvement for handling some vegetables, Wiers Farm has a new field-packing machine. As vegetables are hand-harvested, they are packed in the field to cut some steps out of the handling proces. This brings “less bouncing and not as many drops,” Wiers said.
The company owns two hydrocoolers. One cools pallets and the other cools single-layer boxes. Wiers top-ices sweet corn and other vegetable varieties. The farm’s icemaker produces 60 tons a day.
Wiers Farm grows 40 varieties of vegetables. Initial plantings will include green onions, parsley, radishes, lettuce and greens. Wiers grows transplants in its own greenhouses.
Radish harvest for Wiers is expected to commence around May 15-20. “Greens will kick in April 30 or the first of May. It will be roughly early June when we have supplies,” Wiers said.
Consumer interest in locally grown produce “absolutely” has been a boost to Ohio vegetable growers, Wiers said. Ohio consumers are, of course, predominant. But he said Ohio farms’ geographic proximity to East Coast populations also reduces the carbon footprint.
“This is definitely a benefit within the state,” he said.
Wiers Farm packs some produce with special Ohio labels.
“The future looks promising” for the Ohio produce business, and certainly for the Wiers family, he said.
