A Season in the Life of Jirak Family Produce

by Peggy Bair

Any given day out in Cummings, KS, Mark and Theresa Jirak will be getting dirty. The Jirak Family Produce farm is never short on chores as it produces slicing tomatoes, grape tomatoes, green beans, eggplant, sweet corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, yellow straight neck squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, peppers, winter squash and honey. When people throw around the phrase, “We’re all in this together” – well, for the Jiraks, that’s always been the case.

The 100 acre family farm that starts with bare soil in the spring, bears forth the produce that appears at several local farmers markets, including St. Joseph, Leavenworth and Atchison, KS. It’s all done with combination of love and precision as delicate starter plants are stuffed gingerly into their beds in the spring and will become hefty watermelons and cantaloupes by July. Tender pepper and tomato plants in April will be laden with colorful and fat, ample harvest in mid-summer. Sweet corn will rise and be plucked – to be sent on its way to a plate and a butter knife.

This is a family that knows physical workouts – because the work here is hard. It’s farm hard, meaning walking in or sitting in fields under an unrelenting sun, heat and dripping sweat. The bags of harvest are heavy. Time is always of the essence.

The weather can be merciless. The late freezes in the spring of 2020 cost some farmers some or all of their crops. Some friends of the Jiraks lost their entire crop of peaches this year. Despite their friends’ efforts, the weather was just too freezing for too long. Mark said that the most difficult part of farming is the weather.

“It seems to always drive our decisions and ability to work. It effects produce quality and quantity,” Mark said. “This year is better than last year. We are getting things planted on time. However, lately, it has been cold and slowed things down,” Mark said, speaking of the situation in Spring, 2020.

But for other crops, that were put in later, the timing was good, the weather overall in 2020 was mild and cooperative. The crop yields were strong and, despite a nervous start – markets were mostly favorable. The uncertain start at the Farmers Markets due to the COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings no doubt hurt and caused concern among those whose yearly livelihood is tied to the six-to-eight months of market selling. But there was a surprising flip side: less crowded open air farmers markets held a new appeal over going to crowded indoor grocery stores. “Food supply chain” became a new catchphrase as restaurants temporarily closed and eating at home became not just a trend, but a necessity.

As grocery shopping became complex to navigate, people in the Midwest became keen on other options. They began to look at the sourcing of their foods while farmers began to look for solutions to directly sell to the consumer – a perfect meeting point. A Facebook page called Shop Kansas Farms gained an instant following. Farmers Markets suddenly had a whole knew audience – a group of food consumers who were waking up to the rich bounties in their own Midwest surroundings. Welcome to Kansas, where everything you want just might be in your own backyard.

Although there was some initial uncertainty with Farmers Markets opening, the markets figured a way to get back into a new groove. For farmers like the Jiraks, whose livelihoods depend on these markets, there were real concerns at first.

“We’re concerned if the customers will come,” said Mark Jirak back in May before the markets were allowed to open. “COVID-19 is likely to change the sanitation and handling of markets this year.”

It did change things.

The fields were planted, the crops set in the high tunnels. But the markets changed. The Jirak sell in three farmers markets. But they also sell to schools and food service.

“Due to delayed openings and virtual classrooms, our business with schools is down dramatically,” said Mark.  “Also, the food service customer we have, Bon Appetite, that runs office cafeterias have been impacted with employees working at home.   Therefore our business has been impacted dramatically with this segment,” he said.

“The bright spot is the farmers markets with sales up significantly at all locations.    Customers are coming out and buying much more from us than last year or historically – to the point where they have made up most of the lost business at schools and food service,” Mark said.  “Only two species have fallen behind in sales due to schools lowered demand: watermelons and snacking peppers.”

The Jiraks are both from long time farm families. Mark and Theresa grew up in Marion County, KS on family farms. Mark has a degree in Horticulture/Fruit and Vegetable Production Speciality. He is one of 12 siblings and had originally raised vegetables with his brothers. Theresa received her RN degree from the University of Kansas. The couple has been married 34 years and they have six children. They bought the farm in Cummings three years ago and built a house there. They also farm on 12 acres south of Doniphan.

Mark said the couple has lived all over the U.S. but they moved to the Atchison area 17 years ago after living and working in Granger, IA. Mark has worked 35 years for Syngenta and legacy companies in agriculture. He has several informative youtube videos about farming.

The farm is a work of love for the entire family. “Theresa has home-schooled the kids most of the way,” Mark said. “The children earn their college funds from working on the farm.”

Putting in a crop of cantaloupes and watermelons in the spring takes a coordinated joint effort with experienced hands and a sense of rhythm. “The kids all have experience and know how and what to do. They seemed to all fall into their roles easily,” Mark said.

This level of organization has taken a lot of practice and adjustments over the years, though.

“You should have seen us back when we first started,” laughed Kalynn, the Jiraks’ oldest daughter. “[Planting] was a day-long process! And now we’ve got it down to it’s just an afternoon.”

“It’s been fun to see it unfold the way it has. We [the kids] grew up doing this in the summer. Our parents have always been really good about encouraging us in that way,” said Kalynn. “Especially with manual labor. There’s nothing like it. I work in an office now. It’s not my weekend job that I’m doing produce [anymore],” she said. “It’s funny how I crave that. I will come out and work on the weekends and have them save different tasks for me, just because I miss getting my hands dirty,” Kalynn said.

With the plantings in, the acres of melons lapped up the good weather of the 2020 summer. In the midst of all the work, a pleasant break took place for the Jirak family in July when their daughter Kalynn’s wedding took place on the Benedictine campus. The florist for the wedding took great pains to gather wagons of flora from throughout the local natural landscape and incorporate it into all of the floral arrangements for the weddings. It was a fitting homage to the Jirak Family Farm.

In addition to native plants from around the property, the reception table settings also included other produce grown on the farm and the dinner included fresh produce offerings from the family fields.

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“There’s so much beauty here!” she said. “I think every space across the country has its own beauty. You just need to look closer to tell a story that is unique and special to that space, whether it’s Kansas City, whether it’s Los Angeles, whether it’s Oklahoma, whether it’s Connecticut – everyplace has its own story to tell. And I think we captured that. I really like to tell stories through my designs, incorporating the story of the farm into the wedding.”

Kalynn said it was important to her to integrate the family’s farm life into her wedding day. “It’s bringing us together as a family. It’s just beautiful that this is something that brought us all together and brought us so much joy and peace during all of this (pandemic). I’m just so blessed we can get married this weekend – and on top of that have all of these layers that make it so personal to us.”

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When the family arrives at the Farmers Market, their tables lined with the day’s bounty, they are met with welcome smiles appreciation from customers who value the quality of their products fresh off the vines and out of the fields. With all its challenges, 2020 still turned out to be a year of some blessings for Kansas farm families, their loyal customers – and the new customers who have discovered them.

This season-long series of images is presented by HeartKC in hopes that this story will to bring buyers a more in-depth look at the efforts that go into bringing fresh, fragrant produce to local markets. Special thanks to the entire Jirak family for allowing us to tell their story. Please feel free to share the link to the story. This story has been updated from its original version – adding updated seasonal sales information on the Jirak Family Produce business from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Words and photographs are protected by copyright ©2020 HeartKC Peggy Bair