In 1970, Terry Baker planted a few acres of land he inherited near Norman Park, GA, with a little cabbage and some Southern vegetables. He worked the plot himself with a lone Massey-Ferguson tractor and harrow. The whole family pitched in to help where they could.

Now, sons Joe and Richard farm 3,000 acres and last year shipped more than 1.3 million boxes of premium mixed greens and other items.

And this fall, Baker Farms is introducing its own value-added label at retail, processed at a sparkling new state-of-the-art facility that packages Baker Farms-grown product 12 months of the year.

That’s quite a climb from a one-tractor farm. But some things don’t change.

Joe and Richard Baker have the same dedication to the land they work and live on that their father did. They still believe in controlling a crop from greenhouse seed production to store shelf. And they still put health and safety above all else.

The Bakers are particularly proud of Primus GFS Superior ratings for all its fields and facilities with an aggregate score above 98.

“It’s at the forefront of it for sure,” Joe Baker said. “You don’t want your family eating anything that could be dangerous in any way. You want to make sure there’s a process in place to make sure that our products are not only safe, but are also the grade we expect. Our HACCP and food-safety program came not only from best practices, but also out of a concern for overall health. We wouldn’t feed our families anything but the highest quality product here and we’re able to do that.”

The Bakers have ridden the wave of ever-growing consumer demand for premium greens. But the crop that created their success was almost an afterthought.

Joe Baker, who joined his father as a partner in 1989, said, “We didn’t even have a packinghouse at the time. We would cut the cabbage and take it to the Moultrie farmers market. We got into growing eggplant, started adding things in a very small way. Then we really stepped out on a limb, put up a 40-by-50 shed and started packing our own product.”

Still, “Southern mixed veg was what we made a living on, greens were not our main crop,” Baker said. “In the early ‘90s I started three or four acres of mustard, turnips, different varieties that I actually grew myself. I can remember when I first started I said, ‘There’s no possible way to make a living doing that.’“

“Then the South Florida revolution occurred and everybody started coming up here growing Southern veg,” added Tommy Collinsworth, sales and marketing director. “People were laying plastic everywhere you looked.”

“So, we decided we would focus on the greens, all the wet items, roots, cilantro, beets,” Joe Baker said. “It seemed we just sort of had a niche that worked out in our favor and every year we’d have more and more and more and we’d add another item.”

Success has led to the brand-new facility that just came online in September with multiple processing lines and the capacity to produce 130 tons of ice on the premises daily to ensure quality, freshness and safety.

It has also led Baker Farms to introduce its own value-added label at retail. While the company still welcomes all comers from retail, wholesale and foodservice for bulk or private-label packing, “we’re moving heavily into the processing side of it,” Collinsworth said. “We feel like that’s where the market’s trending. There’s a demand for it and retailers’ options have been limited. We’re going to give these customers another choice at a level of quality they may not have had 12-month access to previously.”

Baker Farms will control its own crops, grown primarily in Georgia with supplemental operations in Florida and northward in mid-summer with some items.

“We can grow kale and collards in Georgia year-round,” Baker said. “We think that’s going to be a huge plus. It’s important too that people understand we go from beginning to end. We have our own greenhouses that supply our seed and we are in control literally until it gets to that housewife and she puts it on the table.”