A Family organic tradition

By Patty Rice Groth

pattyricegroth@gmail.com

Good stew­ards of the land, edu­ca­tors in their com­mu­nity, inno­va­tors of tech­nol­ogy. These phrases only begin to describe Dale and Toni Nor­wood who own and oper­ate Spring­wood Val­ley Farm in rural Galion, Ohio. On just over seven acres of slightly rolling land, the Nor­woods grow organically-nurtured pro­duce, chil­dren, and inno­v­a­tive ideas.

Toni and Dale Nor­wood are seen here show­ing off okra grow­ing at Spring­wood Val­ley Farm near Galion, Ohio. Toni encour­ages pick­ing the pods ear­lier — smaller than expected — and prepar­ing them with­out fry­ing them. Find instruc­tions online at theproducelady.org/2010/07/fresh-roasted-okra-a-southern-specialty.

Daugh­ters Elec­tra and Ser­ena are home-schooled and par­tic­i­pate in many of the couple’s out­door activ­i­ties. Two won­der­ful chil­dren grow­ing up in the home of their grand­fa­ther and great-uncles built for fam­ily patri­arch Van Nor­wood in the early 1970s. Dan and Bar­bara Nor­wood had already built a home for them­selves and their fam­ily in Crest­line when Van and the for­mer Flo­rence Maglott pur­chased the prop­erty on Nazor Road on the north­east side of Galion. With help from his sib­lings and oth­ers, a nice two-bedroom brick home was erected on a rise not far off the road.

Inno­v­a­tive ideas include exper­i­ments with the soil as well as the con­tin­u­ing pur­suit of Dale’s degree in elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing from DeVry Uni­ver­sity. In a work­shop and music stu­dio build­ing behind the house, Dale is devel­op­ing pro­pri­etary bio­med­ical user recog­ni­tion devices and software.

Van and Flo­rence were gar­den­ers, using the land to grow pro­duce for their own and fam­ily use. Dale says he grew up eat­ing organ­i­cally, before it was a pop­u­lar move­ment. They give credit for some of their early organic gar­den­ing beliefs to local grow­ers Lynn and Ken Chapin. Active in cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams for offi­cial sta­tus of organic farm­ing, the Chap­ins are knowl­edge­able grow­ers who passed on to the Nor­woods their expe­ri­ence and suc­cess as organic farmers.

“It’s all about mak­ing soil,” says Toni. You have to feed the soil to grow a healthy plant, which in turn will give hearty pro­duce at its full nutri­tional capa­bil­ity. A large plot of ground at Spring­wood Val­ley Farm is ded­i­cated to com­post­ing, cre­at­ing reju­ve­nated soils for the fields and greenhouses/tunnels.

Before they moved onto the farm in 2001, Toni and Dale enjoyed a small veg­etable gar­den from which they shared naturally-raised pro­duce with their neigh­bors. Anx­ious to begin life as full-time farm­ers, even before mov­ing into the home on Nazor Road, the cou­ple was work­ing on the farm. “Full-time” has not been achieved yet, but that goal remains.

Dale believes he has dis­cov­ered the best direc­tion in which to plant his rows to take best advan­tage of nat­ural water drainage on the prop­erty. It is part of being a “good stew­ard of the land,” tak­ing advan­tage of nat­ural irri­ga­tion while con­trol­ling erosion.

In every cul­ture around the world, peo­ple gather around food. Fam­i­lies need to know and teach chil­dren where their food comes from, say the Nor­woods. When one knows their food came from a local farm, han­dled by a per­son you can know, so many wor­ries which can accom­pany large com­mer­cial oper­a­tions are eliminated.

“Peo­ple are so far away from their food,” say the Nor­woods of pro­duce brought in from around the coun­try to local gro­cery stores. “Organic” foods which must be trucked to Ohio from Cal­i­for­nia and Florida are defeat­ing the pur­pose of organic farm­ing. The pro­duce has to be picked before it has fully matured in order to sur­vive the trip, nat­ural resources are burned up get­ting it here, and nutri­tional value is lost in the interim.

Eat­ing locally can cre­ate a kind of “safe zone.” Area farm­ers mar­kets are an impor­tant way to cre­ate a safe zone, and the Nor­woods demon­strate their com­mit­ment to the con­cept by man­ag­ing the North Side Farm­ers Mar­ket on Ohio 598 on the north side of Galion in Craw­ford County. The mar­ket is reg­is­tered with the Ohio Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture (ODA) and ven­dors wel­come inspec­tors when they visit the mar­ket. Near­ing the end of its sec­ond year, ven­dors at North Side Farm­ers Mar­ket con­tinue to learn how to work within ODA reg­u­la­tions. What can often be an adver­sar­ial rela­tion­ship between pro­duc­ers and ODA has devel­oped into one of mutual sup­port of the ven­ture in Galion.

“All com­mu­ni­ties could be served by a farm­ers mar­ket,” says Toni.

That leads to what they see as their role as “edu­ca­tors in their com­mu­nity.” Help­ing folks grow for them­selves is an impor­tant part of a farm­ers mar­ket, say the Norwoods.

Teach­ing some­one how to suc­cess­fully grow their own pro­duce using organic meth­ods helps every­one. Back­yard gar­dens help cre­ate food secu­rity for fam­i­lies. Tak­ing one’s excess pro­duce to a local farm­ers mar­ket builds food secu­rity, a safe zone, for one’s neigh­bors. What they would like to see here in Craw­ford County is a com­mu­nity gath­ered around healthy grow­ing and eating.

Is it pos­si­ble for Galion to become a self-sufficient agri­cul­tural com­mu­nity? Is that pos­si­ble while stay­ing within the ODA’s rules and regulations?

Yes, it is, say the Nor­woods, espe­cially with the wide­spread pres­ence of the can­ning indus­try in Ohio. There are three non­profit com­pa­nies which will help a small pro­ducer develop a small busi­ness plan, iden­tify appro­pri­ate facil­i­ties, and such. Ohio is home to a num­ber of busi­nesses which will pre­pare your pro­duce your way and label it with your name. Larger local pro­duc­ers could find the fruits — and veg­gies — of their labors on the shelves of local gro­cers with a lit­tle afford­able pro­fes­sional help. In either case, a good place to start is with the Ohio Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture at (614) 728‑6201.

Spring­wood Val­ley Farm is at 1242 Nazor Road, Galion. The Nor­woods can be reached by phone at (419) 462‑0483 or via e-mail at springwood@columbus.rr.com.

Patty Rice Groth is an Inquirer cor­re­spon­dent. She can reached by e-mail at pattyricegroth@gmail.com or call (419) 468‑1117.

Posted by Rob Treynor on Nov 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.