The weather conditions in White, SD, aren’t always ideal for growing produce, but David and Dawnna Berndt have been making it work on their 50-acre farm for the past 20 years.
“My husband was a farm kid who started growing potatoes,” said Dawnna. “When he was in grade school, he sold potatoes and eggs from home. After we were married, we wanted to do something together and with our kids.”
That “something” turned out to be vegetable farming. The Berndts started growing produce on three acres, and as the farm expanded, the family’s goal was to maintain an operation where their children could help and learn. Today, 50 acres in production keeps the family busy.
Large portions of acreage are planted in sweet corn, pumpkins, squash and melons, and most crops are rotated every three years. “The fields that are big enough to get a tractor into are rotated with corn and soybeans,” said Dawnna. “Other fields are rotated with other crops, and we use a cover crop on the pumpkin patch.”
The rye mix cover crop is planted in autumn, then rolled down in spring prior to planting. Dawnna said the vegetation from the cover crop helps prevent fine dirt from blowing around when young customers visit the pumpkin patch.
“There’s another family that grows pumpkins about halfway between us and the nearest town, so we have to do something different,” said Dawnna. “We don’t plant pumpkins until June 1 so our pumpkins are ready in October and will last through the season. We don’t have the most pumpkins in the area, but we do have the most variety.”
Each season, David plants about 50 pumpkin varieties, 30 of which are orange. With the help of an eight-row corn planter and careful recordkeeping, the Berndts can keep pumpkin varieties separate in the field. This helps customers searching for certain unique varieties.
Several years ago, the Berndts started decorating large round bales as pumpkins, and this year, Dawnna is considering placing bales painted in several different colors throughout the pumpkin field to help customers find various pumpkins. “Customers only go so far,” she said. “They drive all around the entire patch to get out there, but they might not see the unusual varieties.”
Rather than trying to deal with finicky early-season weather and the challenges of starting seedlings in a high tunnel, the Berndts select seed and rely on the services of two growers to start plants from seed. Crops are started in the ground in late April and early May. Early plantings include cold-tolerant crops such as potatoes, Brassicas and the first planting of sweet corn.
“Everything is planted in succession except potatoes, squash and pumpkins,” said Dawnna. “We have a spring planting of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, and a fall planting of the same. We also do that with tomatoes and peppers.” For crops such as sweet corn, the Berndts plant a successive crop as soon as the previously planted crop emerges.
David uses a bed builder to lay plastic and drip tape to create raised beds with drip irrigation ready to use. The farm’s irrigation source is either well water or the rural water supply.
For tomatoes, Dawnna and David select about 15 customer favorites based on what has sold well in previous years. “We sell a lot of cherry tomatoes,” said Dawnna. “We package them in containers and they go right out the door. If I put small tomatoes in a bowl or basket, they don’t sell as well, but if they’re already in a pint package, people buy them.” Dawnna believes this buying habit is due to customers’ familiarity with how cherry and other small tomatoes are sold in grocery stores.
While there are some crops the Berndts wouldn’t usually grow, Dawnna is willing to grant customer requests. One year a customer requested all the okra Dawnna could grow. “South Dakota isn’t known for okra,” said Dawnna. “People are interested in vegetables from the south that we don’t normally have here.”
Despite a large Hispanic population in the area that would normally appreciate the abundance of fresh produce, they were not regular customers of Berndt Family Produce. An interpreter who assisted Dawnna in obtaining some new employees told her they weren’t purchasing from her simply because they didn’t know and trust her. “Last year I had an employee who spoke Spanish fluently and he clicked with the customers,” said Dawnna. “They were so thrilled to see him because he could speak with them.”
Berndt Family Produce offers a unique CSA option that’s the result of watching customer trends. Dawnna noticed that CSA sales went up for three years, then came down for three years. When she learned some CSA customers weren’t always happy with what they were getting, Dawnna switched to a weight-based CSA share.
This method also helps Dawnna delegate labor more efficiently because there are no weekly boxes to pack. While a survey showed what customers wanted, Dawnna found it was taking too much time to box produce to suit various requests. “To keep prices the same as the year before, customers pick what they want,” said Dawnna. “They can choose from whatever is on the table, according to weight.”
The Berndts’ CSA offers three weekly options: half share (six pounds), small share (12 pounds) and large share (20 pounds). A versatile canning share allows customers to select three bushels of whatever they want to preserve – cucumbers, green beans, sweet corn, beets, carrots or tomatoes. A salsa share includes 40 pounds of tomatoes, peppers and onions, and a fall/winter share provides 12 pounds of produce each week from October through the end of December.
Berndt Family Produce is also available at stands throughout the area. The concept began with a vegetable stand in a nearby town that has since expanded to several manned and self-serve stands where customers can pick up fresh produce. Dawnna realized there’s a learning curve for those who haven’t purchased produce directly from a farmer, and she’s willing to take the time to answer questions about vegetable preparation and storage.
In the past, Berndt Family Produce hosted as many as 1,000 students each autumn. Dawnna said with cuts in school funding, she wanted to continue providing the best possible educational experience for students and strived to continue the tradition. When COVID hit, teachers who wanted to offer students a farm experience were still welcome to bring students and determine their own guidelines. Although Dawnna no longer hosts school tours, teachers can schedule farm visits and Dawnna will provide appropriate educational materials and support.
“Everything here is done so the customer benefits,” said Dawnna. “We try to have fun with the customers because they need a break too.”
Visit Berndt Family Produce online at berndtproduce.com.
