Inspiring generations of organic farmers

Jean Iverson stretches her legs out in front of her for maximum speed as she walks. She is in the barn to get her hat and then out in the field in an instant. She doesn't have time to waste. There are rows of tomatoes, broccoli and beans to pick in her 140-foot-by-80-foot garden and more down the road in another 50-by-20-foot plot.

When she's finished, she'll load them into a garden cart and walk them down to the corner to her Kelly Farm stand on Route 6A in Cummaquid. She's been bringing vegetables to the family stand since her parents were alive, except that she used to drive. Now it's a 10-minute walk.
Today, there's also weeding to be done, a new crop of beans to put in and dinner to pick for herself, before the sun sets. She does it all herself. Without complaint. Stooped, and not quite as tall as she used to be, Jean, 87, has become an inspiration to organic farmers far and wide through the organic garden club she started before most people thought about organic gardening. She was a pioneer in the field, and has been gardening on the Cape for almost three decades.

Jean has been mentor to many well-known area organic farmers, including Tim Friary of Barnstable, Jack Stacy of Dennisport and Gretel Norgeot of Checkerberry Farm in Orleans.
Friary, who recently took over the former Barnstable County Farm in Barnstable, calls her the anchor of organic farming on the Cape since 1980. “She's been in the forefront, helping people get established. She's a sweetie. If she was 20 years younger, I'd marry her myself.”

The daughter of dairy farmers Earl and Pearl Kelly of New York, Jean has been growing vegetables organically since she was a child. When she grew up, she became a nurse and married Roger Gott, a trumpet player who dreamed of having his own music store. The couple moved to the Cape in 1945 and five years later opened Gott's Music Store on Route 28 in South Yarmouth.

Her parents sold their farm in the '30s and moved to the Cape a year after Jean did, in 1946. “My father never liked dairy farming,” she confides. Instead, he bought 34 acres of farmland from Harry Ryder, which soon became known as the Kelly Farm, where he delighted in growing produce. “He didn't have to milk cows morning and night,” she says.

After husband Roger died in 1977, Jean went to work at the family farm stand and met her second husband, George Iverson. “He had a farm up the street and brought his extra vegetables to my mother. We had a lot in common.”

But according to Friary, who later bought the Iverson farm when George's health was failing, the couple didn't always share the same views. She farmed organically and he didn't, so they farmed their separate ways on his-and-her farms. Despite their deep attachment, Iverson moved to an assisted-living home in Duxbury, because of his health, five years ago. He didn't ask Jean to join him.

“He knew I wouldn't leave my farm,” she says. “I couldn't give this up. But I love him dearly. He's 90 now and not too well.” The couple see each other infrequently now because Jean, who has macular degeneration, can't drive and has to rely on rides.

A YEARLY RHYTHM

A simple white sign with a number on it identifies her homestead, across from the rolling green of Cummaquid Golf Club, land her family once farmed. When her widowed mother was in her 80s, a real-estate developer dropped by. He offered her $50,000 for the 34 acres. She accepted, leaving the one acre that Jean farms today.

“They put in another nine holes where there used to be corn,” says Jean, indignant still.

The soil at the Kelly Farm is the color of milk chocolate. And well it should be. Since 1981, Jean has added three yards of cow manure, green sand and rock phosphate to a section every fall. She also plants a cover crop in the fall, which someone turns over each spring. Otherwise, she does all the work herself, although she has given up her big tiller.

“I till the soil using a 5-horsepower tiller that can go between the rows. Weeds come back so quickly you have to rototill.” She also puts down drip irrigation and removes it when it's time to till again.

In season, her fields are laden with asparagus, leeks, strawberries, peas, soybeans, beans, raspberries, onions, Oriental eggplant, potatoes, regular eggplant, garlic, carrots, sweet potatoes and her favorite heirloom tomatoes: Rutgers, Celebrity, Brandywine, Sweet 100 and Juliet.

“I plant nine crops of beans 10 days apart. A home gardener can plant three to four bean crops, two weeks apart, in a 4-foot space. Last season, I picked 150 pints of raspberries. I enjoy it. It's not back-breaking. My husband made me a thick pad for kneeling.”

The only pest that dares cross her path is the potato beetle, which she hopes to dispense with by mulching deeply this fall.

In March, she starts her seeds by her wood-burning stove, then moves them to a sunny kitchen window when they germinate. She repeats the process until she has enough seedlings to fill her fields.

“I start with the hardiest crops first – broccoli, kale, onions – and hold the tender ones, like peppers and tomatoes. Then ambrosia melons. I plant carrots in July.” She plants her special heirloom sweet peppers and plum tomatoes from seeds brought to her from Italy. But away from other plants. “If you plant two kinds of peppers next to each other, the seeds won't be true,” she cautions.

FOOD ALL YEAR

Saving seeds is easy, according to her. “The vegetable has to be perfect and very ripe. For a tomato, pick a nice ripe one and let it sit until almost spoiled. Then cut it and take the seeds out, clean them and let dry on a paper towel. Peppers are easy, too.”

She picks tomatoes, green beans and squash in the late afternoon and the rest in the early morning. Then she brings the produce to her stand by 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday. It's usually sold out by 2 p.m.

Jean acknowledges she doesn't put everything on her stand. “I've been a vegetarian for 40 years. I have kale all winter. I had 30 plants in and cut the tender leaves off till they looked like a palm tree. It's my favorite. I have baked potato, sweet potato, winter squash. I'm great for greens. Collards, broccoli. I put lettuce and parsley in the cold frame. I'm almost self-sustaining. I eat soybeans with rice and other vegetables. They're good for you.”

Her doctor told her she was developing arthritis, but she doesn't have any pain. She walks two miles and does exercises every day to stay strong.

Her mind is as limber as her body. She worries about genetic engineering, people eating too much meat, and the trash created by plastic bags. But it isn't all bad news. She is thrilled that more people are interested in and care about organic farming. “It takes time. There's been a lot of publicity and articles written.”

It was 25 years ago that a little boy helping her at the stand came up with the idea of starting an organic farm club. She thought it was a great idea. Now, thanks to her energy and enthusiasm, it's an active group of more than 100 members called Cape Cod Organic Gardeners. “I'm everything in the club. I've got to pass it on,” she notes.

On Saturdays, she finds time to invite neighborhood children in to garden their own row.
“Young people have to have the spirit. I can't make much money farming, but it is so spiritual. I have to get my hands in the earth. I can't help but believe in God when I see these seeds germinate.”