16
Feature
The County Times
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Sweet Fruit Comes
By Guy Leonard Staff Writer
There are advances in everything. Farming is no exception. But one aspect of agriculture will never change; hard, often back breaking, work. Jonathan Trossbach of the Ridge Trossbach’s is the latest generation of his family to till the land and reap its increase and he picks the family’s locally famous peaches in the summer along with the hired help. The work has to begin in the early morning hours, else the heat and humidity will make the labor even harder. Having recently taken over the day-to-day operations of their large produce farming business from his father, Junior Trossbach, Jonathan wants to continue the family tradition but knows it gets harder each year. Though their produce is sold around the county and their peaches highly prized local delicacies, it’s difficult to maintain the level of labor required to keep going. Jonathan said finding labor to pick vegetables, and especially their peaches, is their biggest problem. “It’s getting harder and harder to find people to do the work,” Jonathan told The County Times.
It was harder in general to get anyone to take an interest in farming at all. “It’s a lot easier to get a job on the [Patuxent River NAS] base and you make more money,” Jonathan said. “The ones I’ve got working for me are mainly kids.” Junior, 66, who has been involved in the family farm business since he was 14, even encouraged his son to take up another line of work; he said he knew that as time went on it might be better for his son to have a different life. In his day, Junior was able to partake of one of the oldest professions in St. Mary’s before moving into the family farming business. “When I first got married I oystered,” Junior said. Jonathan, too, tried his hand at other things before realizing farming was too much in his blood to change course. “I did concrete for a while, but farming, it has a nice feeling to it,” Jonathan said as he tended to a batch of freshly picked tomatoes headed to market. Jonathan said he wants to carry on the family legacy as long as he can. “Now I’m just trying to live up to the expectations,” he said as he helped his father load a truck bound for one of several produce markets around St. Mary’s. “At
the end of the day you can look back with pride at what you’ve done. “I’m just trying to keep the quality up.” And there lies the battle, against the elements themselves. “It’s a challenge,” Jonathan said. “You’re fighting everything out there.” That means ravenous insects, animals that want to devour plants almost as soon as they are in the ground and a host of diseases that threaten to kill crops. And then there is the weather, which can’t be controlled. This threatens all produce, he said, but the peaches for which the family business is most famous are particularly at risk. “If they bloom too early and there’s a freeze you could lose them all,” Jonathan said. “[The peaches] that’s what people come looking for the most. “That’s where we get our name.” It usually takes three years for peach trees to bear proper fruit, Jonathan said, and they can last for about 15 years. The family has long depended on a bevy of fresh produce to make the business profitable, from tomatoes to corn. “You don’t put all your apples in one basket,” Junior said knowingly. But fresh locally grown produce has become vogue, with more people hearkening to the call to buy local and support growers. “People want to see where their food comes from,” Jonathan said, “That’s helped us out a bit.” Donna Sasscer, agriculture and seafood coordinator for the county’s economic development department, said the Trossbachs had been instrumental in helping to keep agriculture relevant in St. Mary’s. Junior was one of the founding members of the Home Grown Farm Market just south of the Navy base, she said, where he continues to help manage it. He was also a founding supporter of the farmers market in California that currently sells produce at the BAE Building parking lot along Route 235. He and his family’s work helped introduce the consumer to their local farmer, Sasscer said. “It’s been good for the farmers and the community,” said Sasscer, who praised Jonathan for finding new ways to diversify crops and extend growing seasons with new kinds of greenhouses. “To see the business grow and continue and look to expand and diversify into other crops is exciting,” Sasscer said. After decades of farming produce and depending on local markets the Trossbach’s may not be wealthy, Jonathan said, but they do make a good living. Most of their assets are in the land they farm each day. “We make a profit,” Jonathan said. “I’m raising three kids and they haven’t gone hungry.” They have learned to live with the risks of farming, with most of a year’s paycheck bound up in whether crops succeed or fail, and take them in stride. “Everything’s a risk when you’re a famer,” Jonathan said. “You’re really nothing more than a glorified gambler is what you are. “We’re very tight on what we’re making, you just get by but that’s all that matters.” Through all the hard work, which starts for Jonathan before the sun comes up and often ends just a few