Mock’s Greenhouse expands produce offerings
from The Morgan Messenger, May 20, 2009
by Kate Evans

Mock’s Greenhouse of Berkeley Springs is now producing other fresh produce grown through hydroponics and selling them to mostly regional wholesale markets.

Local farmer Paul Mock grows tomatoes, lettuce, watercress, basil and a new crop—strawberries— which he hopes to have available July through October.

Mock sells over 99% of his crops to wholesale markets within a 150-mile radius. One major buyer is Wegnan’s Whole Foods Grocery in Pittsburgh and northern Virginia.

His produce is also available at the Berkeley Springs Farmers Market and is used by a couple of local restaurants.

In hydroponics, plants are grown in a mineral nutrient solution. Mediums such as perlite, gravel, coconut fiber or mineral wool are used instead of soil for the roots.

30-foot tomato plants

At Mock’s Greenhouse, tomatoes reach about 30 feet high when the vines are trailed over to begin new growth. The water solution they are fed includes different fertilizers that imitate what nutrients they would get from the soil, said fulltime employee David Bishop.

The irrigation cycle is computerized. Plants are fed and watered with the solutions through a piping system for so many seconds at specific intervals. The intervals vary, depending on the weather conditions, how cloudy it is and the time of year, Bishop said.

They test the pH and how much fertilizer plants are getting with a handheld meter, he said. Some crops have a meter that adjusts the pH on its own.

Lettuce and watercress are grown year-round. Tomato seeds are sown in January and plants are grown until winter when they start the process all over again. With the greenhouses and heaters, their tomatoes have good growing conditions that give them a head start over field grown tomatoes, Bishop said.

Recent award

Mock received the Rural Innovation Award from the Forum for Rural Innovation at a March 11-13 conference for growing plants through hydroponics, for his marketing techniques and for food safety.

The award recognizes farming practices in a rural environment in Frederick and Fauquier counties in northern Virginia and Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties in the Eastern Panhandle.

Mock and his wife Raynette were the first Morgan County farmers to be honored by the forum and the only West Virginians chosen this year. The forum is a cooperative effort of the regional extension service offices, Mock said.

GAP-certified

Mock’s Greenhouse is certified as a Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) grower through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). That certification means Mock has a working plan to keep his greenhouses clean, handle his harvest and follow tracing guidelines in lieu of recalls, he said.

Mock’s Greenhouse gets inspected every year. Well water tests show no presence of E. coli bacteria, he said.

Marketing

Mock sells to brokers that distribute his produce. It’s a better arrangement because they have 100 trucks going to stores, restaurants and other locations around the Beltway, he said.

Mock notes that there are only 16,000 people in Morgan County, but there are three to four million people an hour and a half away, Mock said.

Mock said he is working a little with Berkeley County Schools and hopes to get his produce into Morgan County Schools.

Mock is his own secretary, treasurer and marketing person. He travels once a month to various regional sites to promote his products. He has been at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. and also at the World Bank.

Mock wants people to see he’s the farmer and “to put a face with a name.” He encourages people to buy local.

“It’s fresher and uses less resources to bring it to you,” Mock said.

Mock’s Greenhouse features 10 greenhouses on 33 acres. Mock started construction in 2005 and had his first products available in February, 2006. He employs one full-time person and four part-time people besides himself that work between 10 to 35 hours a week. Two more greenhouses will be constructed this summer.

Mock, who grew up on a Pennsylvania farm, has been in the agriculture business all of his life. He feels he’s finally in the right business — the food business.

“It’s a steady situation despite what other industries are fluctuating,” Mock said.

Experimentation

Watercress was last year’s experiment for Mock. He said he tried three kinds of watercress and almost gave up. The fourth variety was a success. Having space to experiment has been important, he said. This year he is trying arugula, a spicy green like watercress, as well as dandelion greens.

Mock has also been experimenting with several colored lettuces. He’s down to one or two varieties that show promise.

Mock is looking forward to seeing how the strawberries do. Rather than growing more of the same thing, he is concentrating on growing something different for the same buyers.

Despite the economy, there is no better time for farmers to expand, Mock said. They need a good business plan, know where they want to sell their products and do some homework, he said. Mock feels farmers need to diversify instead of growing just one crop.

Agri-tourism

In Pennsylvania, Mock was also in the agri-tourism business. Bus tours and school groups came to visit the pumpkin patch on his farm and he also had a haunted house. His farm was featured on national news.

Having tour groups visit his southern Morgan County farm is out because two-way traffic on his lane isn’t possible. Mock encouraged other farmers to consider agri-tourism.

Mock also does landscaping and has done gardening. He has always been an entrepreneur. Mock said he would try something else if what he was doing wasn’t working.

Mock said he does the same thing his grandfather did 100 years ago and his father did 50 years ago, but that he does new and different things too. Part of agriculture is doing new things, which is how crops like bi-colored corn and purple sweet peppers were created, he noted.

Good steward

Mock said he just wants to be a good steward of the planet, help others and be profitable. He is passionate about what he does. Mock, a third generation farmer, is passing along his interest in farming to a new generation.

His stepdaughter Kalee Sherrard, who is a Warm Springs Middle School student, and her classmate Wynonna Weigle took second place in their division at the March 17 regional science fair at Shepherd University. The pair did a hydroponics experiment for their project. They came up with the idea on their own, he said.

Mock said that the lifestyle is different, but noted, “There’s no better time to be a farmer.”