Oliver Keckler will sell produce at his Saturday farm stand all winter.
Outdoor temperatures have dropped, the growing season has waned and many farmers market vendors
People line up in the St. Luke's parking lot to buy Keckler's wares.
“In 2023, I only missed one day because the potatoes would have frozen on the table,” he said recently. “I’ve been there in snowstorms, sleet storms and everything. We’re farmers.”
He has the most products between May and Thanksgiving, but throughout the winter he will have acorn, spaghetti, honeynut, butternut and delicata squash; turnips; potatoes; sweet potatoes and beets. His greenhouses will yield fresh greens, including lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, kale and bok choy all winter. “I grow them in the ground, in actual dirt like in the field,” he explains, “with a cover, the greenhouse, on top. It heats up and it’s like they’re growing in South Carolina.”
Multiple Products
Keckler drives 109 miles from Orchard Country Produce, the 50-acre farm he manages with his father, Gregg, in Gardners, Pennsylvania. They raise about 25 acres of vegetables, 10 acres of peaches and nectarines and one acre of strawberries. Thanks to his 250 laying hens, he sells fresh eggs year-round.
He brings apples from Hollaughbaugh Brothers, in nearby Biglerville, Pennsylvania, and some beef products from another farm. Keckler’s hogs, up to 40 in some years, eat the excess produce and end up on dinner plates as pork chops, bacon, breakfast and grilling sausages and smoked kielbasa.
Loyal customer Suzanne Lepple emailed, “Our grandchildren love his kielbasa as does a friend in the Northern Neck who says it is as delicious as the kielbasa he ate as a child in Pennsylvania. I just wish our grandchildren loved his veggies as much as they do his meats. Our son and his family enjoy the grillers so we always keep some in the freezer for when we see them. We also buy Oliver’s lean shoulder bacon and his chickens are great on the grill. We often give Oliver's products as gifts.”
At times, Keckler offers homemade cider, honey, jams, shagbark hickory syrup, bread and butter pickles, apple butter and apple sauce.
Faithful Customers
Keckler had just turned 17 and gotten his drivers’ license in 2012 when he started selling in the St. Luke’s parking lot. By 2018, it was a year-round market. Why that spot? He had started community supported agriculture (CSA) in the Mount Vernon area and some of his fans persuaded church officials to allow staging the market in the parking lot, right next to Fort Hunt Road.
“I started with two tents and card tables,” Keckler chuckled, and now in the summer he has as many as 12 tents. His customer base has steadily grown and many people are regulars. The COVID-19 virus lockdown in 2020 had a silver lining. “People were scared to go to grocery stores and our market went crazy. People realized we were there,” he said.
From May through mid-November on Thursdays, he also sets up on Belle View Boulevard at the Belle View Condominiums, another high-visibility spot. “We love Belle View and Belle View loves us,” he touts.
The Rewards
Though many days are long and the work can be taxing, he loves farming. “Growing up, I always had a garden. I always enjoyed seeing things grow in the dirt,” he said.
“Going to a market is the reward of growing food. Selling and having customer appreciation is the reward of the week,” he contends.
He enjoys interacting with customers. “I try to get to know people, to know their names,” he says. The scene is so friendly that many customers knew when he got married and had children. “It’s like we’re all family,” he said.
His family is all in. He and his wife, Elisabeth, have two boys and two girls, from age one month to seven. Living on a farm and dealing with many people are “a good life for the children,” he believes. “They think we are giving away stuff,” he jokes. With his new double-cab truck that holds six, the whole family can go to the summer markets. “Last summer on Saturdays, we were all there,” he said. Keckler’s father sells at a Columbia, Maryland, market and Fairfax City during the growing season.
“We can’t wait until it is strawberry season again,” wrote
Lepple. No doubt others eagerly also await his raspberries, peaches, sweet corn, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchinis and more.
He will be at St. Luke’s on Dec. 7, 14 and 21 and in 2025, on January 4 and every Saturday thereafter, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
More information: www.orchardcountryproduce.com