by Debbie Wechsler (2003)

Alvin & Shirley Harris
Harris Farms
7521 Sledge Road
Millington, Tennessee 38053
alvinlee3@aol.com

Years in commercial operation: 25
Total acreage: 24. Also owns a separate tract of 50 acres in timber
Acres in organic production: 22 Acres in non-organic production: None
Soil type: Clay loam
Climate zone: 7

Crops: Rabbiteye blueberries (4 acres), tomatoes (1/2 acre), sweet potatoes (1/2 acre), watermelons (3-4 acres), lots of field peas (purple hull, red ripper, black crowders, zipper peas), squash, cucumbers, melons, okra, beets, onions, and some corn.

Equipment: TuffBuilt tractor, two TroyBilt 8hp tillers, Ford 4610 with front end loader, box blade bush hog, Kuhn tractor-mounted tiller, three-bottom flat breaker plow, 6-ft. disk, one-row planter, two-row planter, Earthway seeder, commercial pea sheller.

On-farm facilities: 6 x 10 walk-in cooler; 30 x 50 metal building, with front 20 feet plus older farm stand as retail market area; 40 x 20 barn for storage.

Labor: Alvin Harris, full time; his wife, Shirley, is responsible for most of the marketing, with one farm-stand worker. 8-10 seasonal day laborers (school children and adults) pick blueberries, paid by volume. No housing provided.

Weeks/year in production: 52 Total weeks making sales: 16-18

Certification: Tennessee Land Stewardship Association through 2002; may go with QCS this year.

Markets: On-farm retail stand, 90% of sales, mid-June-October; farmers' market, 5%, 4-6 times a growing season, approximately 20 miles away; retail natural foods store, 5%, June-August, 20 miles away. Most customers are middle/upper middle class, coming from the Memphis area, 8-50 miles away.

Value-added products: Jams, jellies, preserves, and pickled beets. Adding handmade birdhouses this year.

Special expertise: Soil building; Growing blueberries in the South; Cover crops

Born and raised on a cotton/corn row-crop farm, Alvin Harris has been a farmer all his life, in and around a 20-year career in the military that took him to postings around the world. He began selling garden surplus here in 1974. He retired in 1978 and became a full-time farmer. He and his wife have bought their farm in stages from other family members, starting with three acres and adding additional adjoining small parcels.

The Harris farm is not farmed intensively. Beds are 6-8 feet wide, on 15-ft. centers, with one or two rows in a bed. Between the beds, peas and buckwheat are planted, and the beds are then moved over the next year. Crops have a 3-5 year rotation, except field peas, which come into the rotation more frequently. Alvin relies on crimson clover and hairy vetch for cover crops and stays away from grasses such as rye, which he finds too hard to control and to incorporate. A main source of soil fertility is leaf compost . During the fall, the city hauls leaves to the farm for free at 2-3 truckloads a day. Alvin piles them into beds (about 30 x 50 x 8), turns the piles once or twice a year, and spreads the compost on the fields after a year or two. Small quantities of leaves are used as mulch, but most crops are cultivated. Liquid seaweed is used for occasional foliar feeding. Crops are cultivated with his 6-ft. tractor-mounted tiller when possible or with a walk-behind tiller. Irrigation is with drip tape or gravity-flow surface irrigation; the farm is on three levels with a slight slope. The water source is a strong well.

Alvin makes a point of not pushing the season, and his market does not require that he have the earliest possible crop. This allows him raise his transplants in a cold frame rather than a heated greenhouse and reduces pest problems. He rarely treats for pests. Succession planting is one of his foremost strategies, and if there is a problem, he simply destroys that crop. One product he does use is a garlic barrier spray on cole crops.

The farm's blueberry crop provides about half the farm's income. Alvin has raised blackberries as well, but found they took too much time, had a limited market, and were more perishable. He likes to experiment with different vegetables, and has enjoyed holding field days at the farm for many years. Income from the farm is supplemental to Alvin's military pension. "I'm not into it for the money," he says, "but the farm does make money." His new woodworking venture of building birdhouses for sale is one he hopes to expand as he gradually cuts back on his farming. Looking towards retirement in about five years, he has begun converting the farm to hybrid black walnuts and pecans for nut production. It will take 5-8 years to finish setting the trees out, and they are also spaced far enough apart that he can still farm crops between them for a few more years. A second 50-acre farm that he owns is being planted to black walnut trees for timber, an investment he plans to pass on to his grandchildren.