By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

WILLIAMSBURG, Ind. — Making the scale groan at 640 pounds, a lopsided pumpkin was the clear star at the Wayne County Produce Auction on Sept. 16. Since it was also the mainly-Amish auction’s “Buyers’ Appreciation & Pumpkin Day,” the monster squash had plenty of company in the form of everything from a couple of other, paler specimens almost as large as it was, down to tiny ornamental pumpkins that fit in one hand.

One observer inspecting Big Orange patted it knowledgeably and predicted, “One guy said he’d give $300 for it, but it’ll probably bring about $500.” He was proven correct, though auction board of directors Chair Jonas Esh said last year, one about that size brought over $600.

The lower price probably wouldn’t surprise Edward “Chris” Heinzman II, whose family has a farm market in Fishers, Ind. He said they’ve paid as little as 10-15 cents apiece for watermelon from northern Indiana, when in normal years the fruit would bring 10 times that.
“There’s supposed to be a bumper crop of pumpkins (too) this year,” he said, examining a bin of white pumpkins before auction time.

Heinzman, like many other buyers, was on hand to check out all sorts of produce and flowers to take back to his own market or sell elsewhere – he said he deals with approximately 30 retailers. He grows, buys and sells pumpkins, watermelons and tomatoes part-time; he also has a landscaping business.

“I used to want to farm like crazy, but the money just wasn’t there,” he said, adding the family still has 200 acres of the 136-year-old family farm in Noblesville.

In addition to selecting from the hundreds of pumpkins stacked up for auction, Heinzman also scouts for peaches, apples and the like. He goes to the Wayne County auction in Williamsburg twice a week (produce sells three days a week from late April-October, and hay, twice monthly November-April).

He sees more people getting into growing produce, particularly Amish farmers of northern Indiana who have lost factory jobs in the recession. He explained it’s difficult for non-Amish farmers to compete, because Amish children help work the farm, providing inexpensive labor.

“It’s pretty nice stuff that they grow,” he said of the food auctioned here. As a buyer, he also appreciates that “they tend to get you in and out of here pretty quick.”

Eagle-eyed readers may remember a Farm World feature on this auction in 2007, shortly after it began. At the time it was owned by six local farmers and chaired by a five-man board headed by Esh; while the board is still in place, auction manager Samuel Miller Jr. said the auction is now owned through a partnership “and the bank,” he quipped.

“It’s grown like you can’t believe,” Esh said, reflecting on the last two years. At the Sept. 16 auction there were 75 growers contributing; he said the volume sold was about one-quarter more than the season’s biggest auction so far, and not quite double a “regular” auction day.

What did double was the auction’s gross sales, from 2007 to $1 million last year. Esh doesn’t believe that figure will increase similarly in 2009, but he said as an example of growth, the regular Friday auction on Sept. 11 garnered almost as much in sales as the 2008 Pumpkin Day auction.

“It’s more or less a fun thing,” he said of Pumpkin Day, a tradition he brought to Indiana from Pennsylvania’s auctions.

Roast chicken was served, along with ice cream and other homemade food, as old acquaintances and families chatted in social clumps around the outdoor auction. Young Amish men at the controls of forklifts quickly moved heavy pallets of produce with Indycar precision and cornering.

The auction considers produce grown within 125 miles of Williamsburg to be “local” and markets it as such. Two to three times a week Kim Brown hauls sweet white and bicolor corn from Phillipsburg, Ohio, about 40 miles away, northwest of Dayton.
She brings about 200 dozen ears each trip, which is the majority of the corn her family grows.

“They have a really nice setup here,” she said. “People are always really friendly.” She also appreciates the placement of produce, evenly distributed instead of some sellers being prominently displayed over others.

Working at the family business, A. Brown & Sons Nursery, Brown sometimes purchases cantaloupes or the like to take back. “But not too much,” she explained. “We don’t really have a place to sell.”

She’s been bringing corn for two years and it is the only auction she works through, partly because it’s the closest. She said she first heard about the Wayne County auction through a nursery customer.

The auction keeps 10 percent of gross sales for its commission, and charges extra to buyers unable to attend or send their own buyer, to arrange for filling orders and loading onto a truck.
In addition to those who grow part-time or on the side, Esh said the auction gives local farmers the opportunity to make a living. “It’s not as easy to get a job” now, he pointed out, adding even small, noncommercial growers – Amish and otherwise – can earn some money.

The auction report, times and to leave a voicemail for personnel is available at 765-886-5498. To get in contact with Heinzman about wholesale pumpkins, call 317-695-4087; to contact the Browns’ nursery in Ohio, call 937-884-5826.

Published on Oct. 7, 2009