Hydroponic harvest from DeLeon Springs goes to Farmer’s Market

By Mary Smithwick
BEACON COLUMNIST

posted Feb 10, 2009 - 1:47:36pm

It was in the afternoon of a mild winter’s day, Jan. 10, that Margaret “Peggi” Brown and Robert “Bob” Hughes were married. For this happy occasion, they chose the little church at the Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts in Barberville, and invited the Rev. Paul Walker to officiate at a traditional wedding service.

A small group of around 20 friends and family members were there to witness the ceremony. Among them were Peggi’s two grown daughters, Kristen and Jennifer, and Bob’s two grown sons, Jonathan and Geoffrey. Peggi’s mother, Bettina “Betsy” Maraldo, and Betsy’s husband, Peter, both from DeLeon Springs, were there. Joyce DeLoach played wedding music on her portable keyboard, and Mike Ferver took pictures. Following the ceremony, the group met at DeLand Artisan Inn for a dinner reception.

Peggi is from Orlando, but now has joined Bob to make their home in Lakeland, where Bob works for State Farm Insurance.

A long history led up to all these people being together on this day of joy. The bride, Peggi, and her mother, Betsy, had never seen each other till 12 years ago when Peggi concluded a search for her birth mother, her adoptive parents having died and left her with no family. Betsy had never had another child, so this reunion filled a void in both their lives.

And an interesting addendum about the new family is that Bob’s sons were instrumental in making him and Peggi known to each other. The ways of the world are strange indeed, and sometimes they work out astonishingly well.

The Crump family’s farm, Vo-LaSalle Farms — the name is short for Volusia County, Fla., and La Salle County, Ill. — was originally owned and operated by Sylvia Crump’s father, Chester Strawn, and has been in operation in DeLeon Springs since 1967. Then Sylvia and Bruce Crump took over until, in 1994, one of their sons, Steve, became president of the company.

For most of its history, the farm has been concentrating on producing citrus, though for a period about 20 years ago, the family was in the Christmas-tree business, an FFA project run by the Crump sons Steve and Roger as a way to make money for college.

Since 2008, Steve has added a garden on the farm and has been growing vegetables hydroponically. Every Saturday morning, Steve and his wife, Kelly, or his parents, Bruce and Sylvia, load up the weekly bounty and take it to the Farmer’s Market on Indiana Avenue in DeLand. There, people looking for the best and freshest produce come to buy the several kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, green peppers, spinach, eggs and citrus the Crumps bring for sale. The family members stay there till the stock is all (usually) or almost all (sometimes there is a little lettuce left over) gone.

The La Salle, Ill., part of the farm is still flourishing. Bruce and Sylvia go up there in the fall to oversee the harvest of corn and soybeans, but the whole family is content to spend most of their time in DeLeon Springs. Business is brisk at the farm at 601 Johnson Lake Road, where the bulk of the business is conducted.

But remember, everything on the farm is seasonal. The citrus harvest is from mid-November till May, and it’s too hot for hydroponics in the summer here. Winter, right now, is the time when there is plenty of everything.

During the week of Jan. 18-23, Hontoon Landing, west of DeLand, was invaded by hookers. Yes, 17 hookers from Nova Scotia, Canada, to Coral Gables assembled at the resort hotel across from Hontoon Island for the annual rug hook-in under the tutelage of Bettina “Betsy” Maraldo.

Betsy has taught hooking in Texas, Maryland, Florida and New England. Currently she teaches at the Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts in Barberville, with the first of five classes scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 14. She also teaches at home, and hosts a monthly working bee at the Settlement.

People who care a lot about other life-forms don’t necessarily think less of their fellow humans — they have just expanded their circle of love. Adrienne Baker of DeLeon Springs still mourns the loss of Rudy, the rooster who departed this life around eight years ago. Currently, in addition to taking care of her resident house cats, Miss Ivy Rose, Bubbles and Eddie Joe, Adrienne travels to DeLand almost daily to care for a couple of colonies of feral cats.

And then there is Wilber, the raccoon, who hung around outside, looking vainly for a handout. That is, he did till Adrienne saw him more clearly one day and abruptly changed his name to Wilma, who shows signs of recent motherhood. Now food and water are placed outdoors for her daily. Wilma’s lover, or father, or possibly mere acquaintance, has taken to coming around, too, but this is a nuisance that cannot be combated. Little mothers need to be helped.

— Mary writes of goings-on in DeLeon Springs, Glenwood and points north. Send her e-mail at msmithwick@cfl.rr.com, or call (386) 985-4707.

— msmithwick@cfl.rr.com

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