By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

WEST ALEXANDRIA, Ohio — Morning Sun Farm is a certified organic family farm offering a variety of products for sale by direct marketing. Owner Dale Filbrun said that having products of the highest quality is his goal. This time of year the emphasis is on Thanksgiving turkeys, broad-breasted white and heritage breeds.
About 500 turkeys currently roam the farm. They are confined to a small pen at night because of coyotes, but in the morning they eagerly flock around Filbrun as he leads them to the open field.
Some of the meat from those turkeys will go into ground turkey and turkey sausages, but the majority will be sold fresh for Thanksgiving. Most are white, but there are some bronze-colored turkeys mixed in.

“We raise a super good-tasting, broad-breasted, white turkey,” Filbrun said. “The methods we use, everything we raise on the farm, my goal is the highest quality, not cheap. Since we direct market we can put the price on it that we need. I could raise a cheap organic turkey if I chose to, but I don’t choose to do that.”
The heritage breeds are pricier to buy and to raise because it takes longer, Filbrun said. They cost more to process because it’s harder to get the pin feathers out.

Yet, he thinks if he advertised and educated people more about those turkeys sales would increase.

“They definitely have a better flavor,” Filbrun said. “Most people are satisfied with the white turkeys, but for people who want something a notch higher ... they are more expensive.”
But Morning Sun is about more than just turkeys. The farming operation consists of Dale, his wife Evelyn, their children and a neighbor. Son Daren manages the crops, Evelyn, daughters Stacy, and sometimes Kari take care of the egg business –  they have 5000 laying hens – Kenton, Debra and Seth are working elsewhere or going to school, but all help out on the farm occasionally. A neighbor, Nathan Back, manages the livestock.

In the 1980s, the Filbruns had a dairy – Dale worked with his father and brother. They began to steer away from the use of chemicals as they became aware that they were harmful to the soil. The spring of 1992 was wet – too wet to apply the 28 percent nitrogen Filbrun – who was now farming on his own – had planned to use. He decided to start the procedure for organic certification – it takes three years with no chemical use. The farm has been certified organic ever since.

The Filbruns visit five farmers’ markets every week. They sell to grocery stores, health food stores and restaurants. The main product at the markets is meat – poultry and pigs raised on their farm, Holstein beef from an organic dairy farm, and grass-fed lamb from a neighbor.

“We have a lot of good customers that depend on us,” he said.
They also sell fresh ground flour including spelt, plus straw and hay. They grind their own organic animal feeds. Yet, they are at the mercy of the weather; one dry year they ran out of feed for their livestock and had to buy it.

“The price was astronomically high at that time,” Filbrun said. “It gave us a challenge, and we’re still trying to pull through it.”
But Filbrun does not complain.

“I grew up farming and I’m glad that I did,” he said. “It is a blessing to be able to do that. Being home with family, that’s important; farming the way that I do, that was my choice to go organic and I’m really glad I did. It can be very challenging, but I enjoy it. I enjoy having a good product that customers appreciate.”
Morning Sun Farm is at 3993 St. Rt. 503 S, West Alexandria. Phone 937-787-4885. It is included on the Local Harvest website at www.localharvest.org