Young farmer doesn’t let hard work deter him

    Lyndon Hartz isn’t like most twenty-somethings. Instead of being worried about the usual trappings, he’s focused on tomatoes, basil, sweet corn, edamame and green beans.
    Hartz, 26, makes it his business not just to grow pristine, chemical-free fruits and vegetables but to get up before dawn on market days to pick his produce so customers can buy fresh from the field. This Illinois farmer is banking on the fact that people still value the taste of sweet corn picked at 4:30 a.m. and sold a few hours later with dew still clinging to the silks.
When Hartz researched organic certification, he concluded the cost and paperwork involved is outside the grasp of small farmers.
    With that paperwork, “the government took support away from the small farmer. You have organic in Wal-Mart from large commercial farms,” he said. “If organic was supposed to be better for the environment, how come we’re trucking organic from California? That defeats the purpose of the small-farm movement.”
    He inherited his interest in agriculture from his grandfather and his mechanical inclination from his father.
    “I either build it or buy it used and make it work,” he said.
    By the third week of February, Hartz started working in his greenhouse. By April, he was out in his fields from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and when markets open, his days are longer still. He weeds by hand. Despite his extensive variety of produce, Hartz said green beans are still a staple crop. Last year he sold four to five bushels each Saturday.
    The commercialization of agriculture means size, shape and appearance are more valued than taste, tenderness and nutrition, he said.
    “A lot of people have never had anything except supermarket vegetables,” Hartz said. “We grew up with a garden and fresh vegetables. You just can’t go to supermarket produce after that.”

Clare Howard can be reached at choward@pjstar.com.