For Red Lion man, farming becomes a 'way of life'

After pausing a minute to gaze at a patch of his farm washed away by a torrential downfall earlier this summer, Jonathan Darby went back to raking his soil into theoretically weatherproof mounds.

Darby, of Hellam Township, didn't grow up wanting to be a farmer. But he now works on two farms and manages one of them, spending nearly all his time in agriculture.

Born and raised in Red Lion, the 35-year-old traveled for several years before moving back to Pennsylvania and has worked as a massage therapist and in kayak sales, touring and instruction.

Six years ago, he started working at the Goldfinch Farm in Wrightsville.

This year, he switched to doing that job part time in order to join Horn Farm's

newly started Incubator Farms Project, which prepares aspiring farmers to buy and work their own land.

As of last month, he also acts as farm manager of Horn Farm.

'Way of life': Darby said farming as a career grew out of his lifelong activism and belief in locally sourced produce.

"We're at a point in time in our culture where I think we need to approach a more local way of life," he said. "A lot of the agriculture around here isn't directly growing food for the table, which is a need that really needs to be met."

One of three farmers in the project, he works a plot just smaller than two acres for up to 14 hours a day.

He named it Sterling Farm after his grandfather, who spent his life working on a farm in York County.

He routinely starts working around 5 a.m. and said he never leaves the farm for more 24 hours at a time.

"I don't think that there's been a day in the last month that I haven't been out here for some purpose," he said.

He grows everything from tomatoes to sweet peas to arugula, using a number of farming techniques including companion planting -- putting together plants that benefit each other -- and no-till raised beds, where soil is raked into horizontal ridges to deal with rainfall and minimize the amount of tilling necessary.

How it's used: He said about half his produce goes directly to individuals through the Community Supported Agriculture program, in which people pay to receive a share of a farm's crops throughout the season.

Those interested in getting involved for next year can search for local programs on www.localharvest.org/csa/ or email sterlingfarmproduce@gmail.com.

Some of his customers take advantage of an option he offers by which they work on the farm in exchange for some of the produce. Others, including his children, ages 6 and 9, volunteer their time for free.

The other half of his yield is sold to local markets. He and the other workers at Horn Farm plan to open a produce stand outside of the farm's corn barn on Wednesdays and Saturdays sometime in early August.

Although it is only his first year, he said the farm has already proved profitable.

Beyond his own plot, he has also been working at Horn Farm's mission -- to encourage agriculture moving local. As farm manager, he is in charge of overseeing operations at the farm and organizing educational outreach.

"I really want to push the educational side to things here," he said. "I would love to see everyone growing their own foods until it makes my job obsolete."

Mattress renewal taking shape but price hikes are a concern

Indicators are positive as the High Point Market opens for its spring edition. I've been hearing good reports about retail sales, which is always a helpful sign. For their part, bedding producers come to the Furniture Capital of the World loaded with new lines. And the bedding lineup here is expanding.

Perhaps, as the flowers burst into bloom in this season of rebirth, the mattress category will usher in its own season of renewal, a time of robust sales bursting forth across the country.

Or maybe not.

But before we get to causes for concern this year, we begin with the positive side of the ledger. Business was surprisingly robust at the bedding-rich Las Vegas Market earlier this year, a demonstration of positive retail moves and attitudes. That could also mean a nice lift for this High Point Market.

As we noted earlier, major bedding producers have a plethora of new lines: Sealy is showing its new flagship Posturepedic line, Simmons has new flagship Beautyrest lines, and Serta offers its new flagship Perfect Sleeper line and its iComfort gel memory foam line. Given the importance of the flagship lines and their broad distribution, retailers are sure to be drawn to them.

The International Home Furnishings Center continues to focus on the bedding segment and welcomes a Top 10 producer back to High Point this market: Comfort Solutions. The No. 6 producer has a big showroom in the IHFC, where it will show its "no sag" Extended Life line, an upgraded Sleep ID line, a revamped Laura Ashley line and a new two-sided bedding line.

Also new to the IHFC is the Specialty Sleep Assn., which showcases emerging new sleep technologies, and Vivon, which has a new partnership with Brookstone for a massage mattress.

Returning IHFC exhibitor Paramount introduces its "Sleep for Success!" line, keyed to its partnership with James Maas, the sleep expert who co-authored the book, "Sleep for Success!" Paramount also unveils a line developed in partnership with A. H. Beard, the Australian bedding power.

Those are just some of the product highlights. Space limits me from listing more.
The negative? Price increases. Bedding producers tell me raw materials prices are rising. That is a particularly unwelcome development at this point in the year. Retailers are never happy to hear about price increases and might resist them. That, in turn, would mean shorter margins for producers or a move to less expensive (translation: lower quality) materials. It might mean both.

How will all this play out in High Point? That's one of the story lines I will be following.

See you at market. Hope yours is a good one.