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‘Love for the land’ drives family farmers |
CHARLESTON — Deep purple eggplants hang like showy pendant earrings down a long row of plants at Joseph Fields Farm on Johns Island, the only certified organic farm in the Charleston area.The certification, obtained in July, is a badge of honor for husband-and-wife owners Joseph and Helen Fields. “It’s an entailed process,” she says. “We started the transformation over five years ago.”Joseph Fields, 58, has been speaking the language of local produce all his life, though. It’s in the way he says “veg-uh-tables,” an extra-syllable pronunciation that’s a sure sign of being born and raised in the Lowcountry.Both his parents and grandparents were farmers, so a love of the land and growing things comes naturally to him. “I love to watch things grow, and talk to people,” he says simply. “You got to do farming because you love it.”Helen Fields, 57, is more of the public face of the farm, which operates year-round off River Road on Johns Island. She manages the booth at the six local farmers markets, where they set up weekly from spring into fall. The farm also sells to eight stores, including Whole Foods, Earth Fare and a few Piggly Wigglys.
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