Bringing in the harvest
Lifetime grower enjoys season's work, people

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

July 19, 2001 -- The morning sun quickly climbs high enough to shine its rays directly on Rosemary's back as she bends to pick vegetables. But growing vegetables is a real bright spot to her.

Rosemary Beaudin has been a vegetable grower all her life. The spring and summer harvests provide the income needed for the year's duration of personal needs, as well as the coming year's production expenses.

Living on her "mother's farm" in southern Hopkins County, where she grew up chopping cotton, feeding chickens, and picking peas, Beaudin has some vegetables in production there, but the real production is on a three-acre patch south of Yantis. Growing there are several varieties of peppers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, okra, and more.

Beaudin's day begins around sunrise with picking and boxing the vegetables, and then its off to the Farmers' Market Main Street location in Sulphur Springs. Husband Emanuel "Frenchy" Beaudin mans the market when his wife is in the field or on the road. Three days a week she takes her vegetables to the Farmers Market in Dallas to wholesale them.

While the picking is a lot of the work, and usually comes in the hottest time of the year, there is the field preparation, planting, watering, and fertilizing that takes up time in the vegetable patch.

Nature's enemies also come into play. Grasshoppers this year have been a real nuisance.

"They have eaten up a lot," Beaudin said. "Put I haven't put out any poison. ... I'd like to go organic. Grow some organic and some like I do now. I talked to a lady in Dallas who paid $4 for a small basket of radishes because they were organic."

While picking peppers, Beaudin ran her hand through the plant, heavy with the spicy vegetable, and noted another pest. "I wish I could see that worm that's eating these," she said. "Maybe a bird got the worm. But that's wishful thinking."

Beaudin doesn't grow corn or watermelons at her patch because of some wildlife pests. "The 'coons eat the corn, and the coyotes eat the young watermelons. So I don't even grow them any more. ... And I've already seen deer tracks across the field."

Her patch is dotted with sunflowers, not for the production of seed, but "they're pretty to look at; ... and they bring the bees early. If you don't have bees, then you don't get the pollination you need.

"But the other day, a bee stung me. It sure hurt," she said. "At the time I wished I chewed tobacco, because I would have chewed some and put it on it."

Beaudin has noticed this year, unlike most years, fire ants have not been a big problem. "But I don't mind that." She does miss a particular cricket that is good to loosen the soil. "It hasn't been around either."

As the summer sun gets higher in the sky, Beaudin's work in the fields gets more laborious. Covered in sweat, she walks between rows of vegetables, carrying a basket or bucket to hold the fresh-picked product. Her pace naturally slows as the container fills.

"It's a lot of work, but it's interesting," she said. "I meet a lot of people at the markets. ... Some (customers) though want you to practically give it away, but they don't realize the work it takes. ... And I have three trucks on the road, a tractor, taxes on my land, fuel, fertilizer, and seed."

After all the work in the spring, summer, and early fall, what does Beaudin do all winter? "Read and rest! And go to garage sales to get more books."

But the season rolls around again, as it has done for all of Beaudin's life, and it's back to work. "My husband says it is all my own fault," she said with a grin as she surveys the three-acre patch. "He says I shouldn't have planted so much."

But customers enjoy all the fresh, homegrown vegetables. "I get people that come from Lone Oak, Campbell, Emory ... to get my fresh vegetables."

On her wish list is a better location in Sulphur Springs to sell her harvests. "I own lots on Davis and Texas streets, but setting up there causes a traffic jam. I wish we could get some buildings or covered sheds in the (city) park because there is water and restrooms there."

Beaudin also wishes to correct a statement she read in a widely-published magazine. "The article told people that any vegetables in boxes that read 'California' or came in tomato boxes were not homegrown. That's not right. My daddy used tomato boxes all the time for all of our vegetables. We still use tomato boxes or other kinds of boxes to put all our vegetables in, ... and it's all homegrown!"