Eagle Run Farm

reclaimed farm land

If you're driving out to Eagle Run Farm, located in the now small town of Timblin, PA, be sure to not take the same route I did.  We found ourselves winding through some intense back dirt roads, that luckily opened up to the expansive, picturesque farm that is Eagle Run Farm.
John Sherry, who is a retired Vice President of a concrete block company in Baltimore, MD, was born and raised on this very farm, and now he returns to turn it back into the farm it once was, and more!  With the help from his sister, Elva, who comes to the farm during the summer months from Arizona, they have turned their abandoned family farm into quite the vegetable growing production.  The whole farm is 48 acres (although currently only 3 are used for production), and some 50 years ago it was a working beef cattle farm where John's mother and sisters grew produce that they canned.  After John's mother passed away, the farm lay vacant for quite some time.  During that time, the once fields turned into brush, forests, and non-farmable land.  John, who you can tell is quite passionate about reclaiming the land into farmable fields, said he moved back to Puxsutawney after he retired to become an organic farmer.  He wants to reclaim farmland that was once useful, and rejuvenate it.  His goal is to turn this land back into a working farm, and then sell it to someone who wants and needs farm land in the area, most likely an amish family. He plans to retire for a second time, this time from farming, when he turns 70, as long as he and his sister enjoy what their doing!

Tomatoes

Potatoes

While heading down towards the transformed fields (once brush) we passed a row of fruit trees, some apple, peach, and pear.  John planted those trees in memory of his mother and his one sister who have passed.  He shows me the field of tomatoes, they grow six different varieties, and then we come upon his sister who is busy planting pumpkins.  Elva's passion, he tells me, is gourds.  She is involved with gourding where she dries the gourds and then plans to sell them, back in Arizona and online.  We cross a small creek, Eagle Run, the farm's namesake, and check out the areas that John has been busy reclaiming back into fields.  He has 2 types of potatoes planted and 13 different gourd varieties, 10 different eggplant varieties (specializing in some Asian eggplants that tend to be more narrow than plump).  Through the potato field he shows us a major problem with turning brush into fields. Clumps of roots and sticks lay in piles between the potatoes. After removing the brush on the top of the soil, he is confronted with roots winding underneath the soil that cause problems when it comes time to plant. We then see his rows upon rows of hot peppers (inferno, hungarian, hot wax, jalapeno, goliath jalapeno, and some), onions, string beans, lima beans, sugar snap peas, beets and radishes.  He speaks of his goal to be as organic as possible, but mentions that with some crops it's near impossible to get anything worthwhile without spraying for bugs (radishes, I feel we all have that problem!!) He doesn't like to spray because of his neighbors being so close and because of the danger of runoff into Eagle Run Creek. He will mow the weeds through the rows of crops rather than spray. You will find pickles, cucumbers, and summer squash growing on the farm too.

A lot of their plants John and his sister start and grow in their two small greenhouses, some they purchase, and others are grown for them in an Amish man's larger greenhouse.

John Sherry

As well as selling at the Indiana County Farmers' Market, John has a roadside farm stand based on the honor system and sells at the New Bethlehem Farmers' Market where John actually runs the SNAP/EBT machine for their market.  Thanks to his tablet, John also accepts Mastercard and Visa.

A new vendor for the 2014 Indiana County Farmers' Market season, we are excited to welcome John and Elva and feel lucky to have such passionate and hardworking farmers become a part of our market!