AG WEEK: Beals begin another year of growing fruits and vegetables

After raising pigs for 30 years, John Beal traded in the hogs for fruits and vegetables. Since the early 2000s, John, along with his wife, Sarah, and son Matthew, have grown fruits and vegetables at their farm just northwest of Monticello.

“I raised pigs from when I was 16 to 46, and then I’ve been doing vegetables from somewhere around then, on,” Beal said.

Today, Beal’s Farm features two smaller greenhouses and two larger ones.

“One of the small ones, we’ve already started growing,” Beal said. “But then we do grow things out in the field. That starts anywhere from the beginning to middle of April. We always start with onions and some of the colder crops, then when we get into May and June, we’re planting watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, more stuff outdoors.”

Beal said they pretty much cover the alphabet in what they grow.

“We got all the way from asparagus to zucchini,” Beal laughed. “We do watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beets, lettuce, some sweet corn, but we’re always growing something.”

Beal said they have scaled back the outputs a little after Matthew started a new job in Cedar Rapids.

“We don’t do quite as much, I’m maybe thinking about getting somebody to help me this year,” Beal said. “My wife helps with the farmers markets, but we still do a bit more than most do in their backyard.”

Beal said every season is different and some crops do better than others each year, but they always sell their produce at area farmers markets.

“I went ahead and paid for a spot for the big downtown market in Cedar Rapids,” Beal said. “We’d done that for quite a few years and then hadn’t done it for the last three or four years, but I went ahead and went back to getting a spot.

Beal said in past years, he and his wife attended farmers markets almost every day of the week. Today, they do the Beaver Park market on Wednesdays and then a market on Saturday and Sunday.

Last year, Beal’s farm featured 400 watermelon plants, 250 outside tomato plants, beets, lettuce and much more.

“It varies,” Beal commented. “Sometimes there’s more money in some of the little stuff than there is in the big stuff, but some of that takes quite a bit more labor. So, I’ll probably think about getting someone to help me this summer.”

Outside of the farmers markets, Beal said they occasionally donate to local food banks. At the end of last season, Beal donated 1,700-pounds of squash to HACAP.

On top of all the fruits and vegetables, Beal said he grows flowers baskets that are perfect for Mother’s Day and birthday gifts.