Creekside Farm

Farming is our livelihood, but there is a reward beyond that at the market: the community. It’s a reward to see the people grateful for our efforts. When you farm field crops — row crops — you don’t get that connection. It’s rewarding to be a part of feeding other people, growing families.

We’ve seen children come in, and they’re in a stroller, and now they’re married and coming back. We’ve seen a lot of young families, and now they’re retired. It’s just being a part of their families and part of the communities.

When the market in Goshen opened in 2000, we started going, and we’ve been there ever since. This is our twenty-second season. Our family was growing at the time, and it was just something more for the family to do, for the children to stay busy. We tried it to see how it would go, and here we are.

We’re just really grateful for the support of the community. Some come in twice a week. The market couldn’t be successful without them.

We sell pretty much everything. Our strong point is that people are glad to see the big variety of produce, but that’s always our weak point, as well, when it comes to our own time and efficiency.

I enjoy the gardening, I do, when the weeds are little, and you can still go out and make a big difference. It is just the challenge of getting things growing and planting, seeing the new growth and how it always changes.

We’re like our youngest daughter. We called her our glow plug. In a gas oven, it will start to glow before the gas comes on, and then it will burn. She was always the one who would say, “Oh, strawberries!” when she’d see the first one. She was the first one to pick those things, and then she would fizzle out. So the first tomato for us is exciting, but really it’s the changes of season.

You look forward to the next first thing.

– Vera Witmer, co-owner, Creekside Farm, with husband Dean