BEAVER CREEK — While some North Okaloosa County farmers generally reap their bounties from April to September or October, Susan Holley and her family have extended their vegetable-growing season upward of three months.
Through a U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service program, the Holleys’ Beaver Creek Farm erected a “seasonal high-tunnel” at the beginning of March and planted crops in it within a week of completion.
See photos of Beaver Creek Farm's growing tunnel>>
It is the first tunnel under production in the county.
“The structure will extend the growing season for them,” NRCS district conservationist Darryl Williams said. “It’s similar to a greenhouse, but it’s more of a shelter.”
Under the Holleys’ tenth-of-an-acre tunnel, tomatoes, banana peppers, bell peppers, okra, squash, zucchini and jalapenos grow, ripen and are harvested.
They then proceed — along with other crops from the farm’s two acres of vegetables — directly to local dinner tables, either from the family’s farm stand on Beaver Creek Road or at farmers’ markets in Crestview and Fort Walton Beach.
“We plan to use it well into the fall,” Holley said. “We’ll be planting winter crops in it.”
Williams said two other farms in North Okaloosa County have been awarded contracts for seasonal high-tunnels out of seven that applied to the nationwide Environmental Quality Incentive Program, known as EQIP.
The NRCS contributes between $7,300 and $8,800 toward the structures’ average $10,000 construction cost, depending on the farmer’s participation in other USDA programs, Williams said.
“It’s a way of helping small family farms and improving their income and helping bring fresh fruit and vegetables to our residents,” he said.
Holley said she and her family members, including her husband, Gary, sons Nathan, Michael and Bryan, and her in-laws — “This is a true family farm,” she said — appreciate the extra crops that the tunnel will yield.
“People can come here to our farm stand, or to the farmers’ market, and get locally grown vegetables instead of vegetables from foreign countries you get in the store,” she said.
Her customers notice the quality of her family’s produce, Holley said.
“There was a man at the farmers market looking at our tomatoes,” she said. “He said, ‘These are too perfect. These aren’t homegrown.’ That made me feel pretty good.”
DID YOU KNOW?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service contributes between $7,300 and $8,800 toward seasonal high-tunnels' average $10,000 construction cost, depending on the farmer’s participation in other USDA programs.
WANT TO GO?
The Holley family sells fresh produce from their Beaver Creek Farm from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at the Crestview Farmers Market in Spanish Trail Park, and from their farm stand at 7016 Beaver Creek Road, off State Road 4 west of Baker.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Tunnel to market: USDA program extends Baker farm's growing season (PHOTOS, VIDEO)